Get Started

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

Arthur Ashe

Status quo isn’t good enough…and I’m fine with that. As an Athletic Director my goal was to never reach my full potential personally or as a department. I encouraged our staff to dream, to have a vision for the future of our programs and I often asked, “how can we get better?” 

In college athletic departments we face lots of challenges that inhibit our growth and productivity. Small staffs, inadequate resources, fear of failure, and time limitations are 4 of the most prominent obstacles. The other big obstacles are procrastination and ownership. We all tend to put things off and to feel like “that’s someone else’s responsibility.” The success of your department is everyone’s responsibility and the time to focus your efforts on improvement is now…Get Started!

Start Where You Are

To accomplish anything in life it’s important to have a plan. I’m a proponent of documenting and building plans of action…something I had no idea about when I became an AD. Plans, however, are only as good as the action that follows. To give you an example; Denney Crabaugh was the Hall of Fame baseball coach at OCU and he met with me early in my tenure as AD to discuss his facility needs on campus. During the meeting he handed me a document that he had created that listed lights, new bleachers, a new entryway, and various other amenities that were critical to his programs success. I knew that Denney had created this plan nearly a decade earlier, so I asked him “what have you accomplished thus far?” Denney, looked at me and said, “we were kind of just waiting for the day that a donor showed up with a million dollars to fund the project.”

A plan without action is like lining up for the race but not running. You’re never going to get to the finish line if you don’t get moving. From that initial meeting, Denney and I created and acted on the steps necessary to complete every component of the plan that he had outlined. We literally accomplished every facility enhancement that he had dreamed of…then we created a new plan, new dreams, and new action steps to achieve them.

Use What You Have

One of the reasons that I started BOSCA is because I couldn’t relate to my peers at the Division I level. They had huge staffs to do the work and countless alums (with resources) to fund their efforts. Working at a smaller college is just different and unique. In my early days the only other administrative staff members in the OCU athletic department were an administrative assistant and part-time SID. We had not developed any external revenue programs and generated around $40,000 per year in gifts. At a time when our greatest need was additional resources, something many current day athletic departments can relate to, we had literally no revenue streams. I had a staff that was unanimous in their position that they needed more resources, but no one was working to develop them.  As a result, I spent much of my time the first few years in my position training coaches how to cultivate relationships and ask for contributions. We were fortunate to have good facilities but didn’t have any sponsors so immediately we developed partnership programs that provided funds to support our efforts. We developed an annual golf tournament and other fundraising events that earned meager funds in the beginning but grew into dependable sources of substantial support for our department. The key for our success in growing annual revenue from $40,000 to $800,000 was to quit worrying about what we didn’t have and start making the most of what we did have! To accomplish this, we had to get everyone rowing together in the same direction.

Virtually any athletic department could follow the same plan. Every department has a built-in set of supporters who are all prospects. Alumni, community members, corporations, parents, etc are all prospects to support our efforts. Most every campus has facilities that are well positioned to highlight sponsors, host camps and other events that generate revenue. Create a plan and use what you have.

Do What You Can

Whenever I talked to my dad about big projects that I was facing he would ask me “how do you eat an elephant…one bite at a time.” His point was that you can’t just jump from the starting line to the finish…you have to take the steps in between first and have the patience and perseverance to complete the job! Sometimes we are so daunted by the volume of work that lays before us that we just don’t know where to start. I often dealt with staff that were so concerned with the challenges of accomplishing a goal that they couldn’t get started trying to achieve it. My constant reminder was “don’t be so worried about the hurdles that you can’t see the finish line.”

My good friend Matt Donovan from the University of Indianapolis likes to remind people that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Matt is one of the most successful small college fundraisers in the country, but he’ll be the first to tell you that his success at UIndy had humble beginnings. When Matt started in his position UIndy had less than 50 donors to their department…over the years he built that to more than 2,000!  You don’t make gains like that overnight. Matt’s success is the result of years of consistent effort, goal setting, planning, and action. Year after year the goals and possibilities grew and the achievements which once seemed impossible became realistic and obtainable…and then they created new goals!

Only you can determine what the realistic goals and opportunities for your department are. Be consistent in working toward accomplishing those goals and then set new goals. You’ll find that your persistent efforts will be rewarded, and your goals will continue to grow. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step…GET STARTED.