As I conclude my 13th year as PAC commissioner and 18th year working in the conference, looking back I’m reminded that some of the most fulfilling and uplifting moments in our lives and careers are usually unplanned. As we conclude NCAA Division III Week this weekend, my hope for all our PAC student-athletes is to be open to and experience similar detours in their professional and personal lives, as the “road less traveled” truly does make all the difference.
While attending college at nearby Robert Morris, I originally was looking at a career in corporate communications – only to see a detour into the sports world via an extra class elective in sports information systems that ended with an unexpected interview for a PR internship with the Cleveland Cavaliers. That internship appeared to be directing me to a full-time PR position working in minor league basketball, only to see an out-of-left-field phone call send me instead into the college athletics world, working first as a sports information intern and later as Assistant SID at NCAA Division I Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). It was a tremendous position for a young sports administrator, especially when I got to serve as one of two media coordinators at the 1994 NCAA Division I Women’s Final Four in Richmond.
The path to my current position was possible only through a similar shift of fate. A random conversation between my future wife and one of her girlfriends 25 years ago made me aware of a full-time position at Westminster College – and with it, a chance to return home to my native Western Pennsylvania. After interviewing and being offered the position as the first full-time SID in Westminster history, I’ll never forget the reaction when I told one of my former Robert Morris professors about the planned move.
He told me, quite bluntly: “You’re moving in the wrong direction.”
I understood what he meant. He believed that my accepting a position at a non-Division I school was a career mistake, that if I kept working hard and was patient I could move up the D-I ranks or possibly back into the NBA. In one way, he wasn’t wrong – a successful career working in Division I would certainly have resulted in much great financial rewards while working in higher-profile locations and positions.
However, there was much more at work in that decision beyond simple career considerations. I had enjoyed D-I life – maybe a little too much. Instinctively, I knew that I was not living a healthy lifestyle and that a change was needed. I also had become very much aware of good people around me being treated very badly, through no fault of their own, in a very cut-throat competitive environment. Add in my personal desire to be closer to my family, and the path for me was clear.
Flash forward a few years – after stints in the NAIA and Division II, Westminster joined the PAC and NCAA Division III in 2000. The next year, I followed my friend Joe Klimchak, who was then SID at Grove City (you know him as “Bucco Joe,” hosting between-inning contests and promotions on the PNC Park big screen at Pittsburgh Pirate games) as Information Director for the PAC on a part-time basis in addition to my Westminster SID duties.
The PAC only had six full members at the time, resulting in no automatic NCAA playoff bids for conference championship teams, and thus was not generally considered one of the elite D-III conferences in the nation. Also, the governance of the conference was very limited – the Presidents council chair, which rotated annually, also served as the de facto commissioner. Just about the time the Presidents chair began to get a handle on things, it was time to pass the gavel to a new president, who usually had neither the time nor the administrative support to handle the conference’s needs. Over the next few years, I began handling more and more conference business – especially since the NCAA was sending many things they used to handle down to be handled at the conference level – simply because there was no one else to do it.
Those early PAC years resulted in a steep learning curve for me. However, at that same time period, I was joined around the league by several other young sports information professionals who also saw the potential for the league – SIDs like Scott McGuinness at W&J, Brian Rose at Bethany, Kevin Fenstermacher at Thiel and Ryan Briggs at Grove City all began their careers around this time. McGuinness and Rose would go on to become ADs at their institutions, while Fenstermacher later joined the PAC office as assistant commissioner and Briggs remains the universally respected Dean of PAC SIDs to this day. The Waynesburg SID that first year was faculty member Richard Krause, who now chairs the Communications Department there, and he later trained up a new generation of SIDs including Justin Zackal (SID at Waynesburg and Westminster), Matt Kifer (currently at California (Pa.)) and current Waynesburg SID Bobby Fox. We all cut our teeth together, learning the business, helping each other, overcoming our mistakes, and working to improve the PAC in any way we could.
The key turning point for the conference came in 2005. The PAC Presidents Council made a decision to actively and strategically solicit membership to grow and strengthen the league. The addition of Thomas More gave the conference seven members, giving us an automatic bid for most NCAA team championships. The addition of Saint Vincent and Geneva from the NAIA and Chatham from a conference which was disbanding brought us to 10 member schools in 2007. As part of that evolution, in 2006 the Presidents Council asked me to convert my part-time conference position and become the first full-time conference executive in league history.
The membership additions set the stage for over a decade of outstanding conference growth and development, as the PAC has evolved into one of the most respected Division III conferences in the nation. Those early years saw the league operate on a shoestring, as PAC interns Ben Brownlee (now a full-time staff member at the NCAA) from Bethany and Jeff DeBaldo from Waynesburg helped us establish a league office in Wexford from a standing start. The league also received two NCAA D-III Ethnic Minority & Women’s Internship grants in those years, resulting in the hiring of three individuals who have each gone on to make their own mark in college athletics: Jenn Dubow (current commissioner of the D-III Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), Monique Bowman (current director of social media for D-I Ohio State University athletics), and Shannon O’Brien (current Associate Executive Director of the D-III North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC)).
In 2012, the continued growth of the league resulted in several changes, as the Presidents Council changed my title from Executive Director to Commissioner and the PAC hired Fenstermacher as Assistant Commissioner, the league’s second full-time employee and positions we hold to this day.
In 2014, we welcomed our first affiliate members as former members Carnegie Mellon and Case Western Reserve rejoined the PAC as football affiliates. The 2014-15 academic year saw a year-long, league-wide celebration of the 60th anniversary of the conference’s founding in 1955. After a four-year joint project with the Heartland Conference (HCAC) to get the sport of lacrosse off the ground in our region via the Ohio River Lacrosse Conferences (ORLC), the PAC brought the sport in-house and will grant its first-ever championship automatic bids in the sport this spring. As part of bringing men’s & women’s lacrosse in-house, the PAC welcomed another new affiliate in Franciscan University in Steubenville in 2018-19.
Looking back, I knew that the PAC was an “unvarnished gem” when I started working in the league nearly two decades ago, but the successes and development of our conference has exceeded even my most optimistic vision. Multiple NCAA Division III national championships, both by teams and individuals, coupled with record numbers of student-athletes on the PAC Academic Honor Roll are testimony to our continuing growth and success.
The PAC in 2018-19 is extremely blessed in so many areas, but in particular during NCAA Division III Week, I want to give specific thanks for the following:
*The PAC Presidents Council, who despite many executive transitions over the past five years, has never wavered in its vision or leadership responsibilities, while continuing to uphold the founding principles of athletic integration into the overall education experience.
*The PAC Athletic Administrators Council (AAC), who have oversight over all operational issues and regularly put aside their institutional goals & objectives to make decisions they believe to be in the best interests of the conference as a whole.
*The PAC Faculty Athletic Representatives Association (FARA), a wonderful group of campus faculty members who serve as our liaisons to the academy. These individuals work to ensure academic integrity while assisting with the inevitable conflicts and logistical issues with our athletic teams.
*The PAC Senior Woman Administrators Council (SWAC), comprised of the top-ranking female athletic administrator on each campus, working to ensure gender equality, diversity & inclusion and Title IX compliance throughout the conference.
*Our many athletic support staffers, from athletic trainers to SIDs to compliance officers to officiating supervisors to equipment managers to administrative support staff. Every person in the PAC, regardless of their title or role, is instrumental in helping our teams, schools and conference reach our goals and objectives.
*Our tireless coaches, who are truly on the front lines in working with our students. They work and compete just as hard as any Division I coach, yet for a fraction of the salary of their counterparts and with far fewer resources. Yet most of them, even when offered opportunities at other levels, have chosen to stay in Division III because of the impact they can have in the lives of students on a daily basis.
*Last, but certainly not least, our incredible student-athletes, who prove annually that academic and athletic excellence are not mutually exclusive. You are time management experts, balancing your academic requirements with practices and games, while still finding time to contribute in areas such as community service and in other campus organizations and activities. You do all this without the benefit of athletic scholarships, simply because of your love for your sport and of competing. You are truly the heart of what we do.
A final thought…
You should know that I was raised in PAC country, just a few miles north of Thiel College. Growing up, I played midget football on the field that is currently Alumni Stadium, and also took swim lessons as a kid in the old Thiel swimming pool, which was located under the current Tomcat wrestling practice room.
I tell you this to let you know that the PAC is home to me, just as it is for so many of you. I believe in this conference, in our mission as a member of NCAA Division III, and especially in our ability to touch and improve the lives of thousands of student-athletes annually. The PAC is filled with people like me, who have dedicated their professional lives to helping those currently going down the path we have already traveled. It is personal for us, just as it is for all of you.
Yes, for me, it truly was the path less traveled that brought me home again to NCAA Division III and the PAC, and that path truly has made all the difference. For each of our student-athletes, especially those about to graduate, I wish you a similar path filled with unexpected but rewarding twists and turns.
I also hope that wherever that personal path takes you, near or far, you will look back on these four years in the PAC as positive ones, filled with experiences and adventures that helped you mature and develop – physically, mentally and spiritually - into the leaders you are becoming. Thank you so much for being a part of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference and NCAA Division III! |
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