Athletic Director Announcement

[USFMikeB]

I don't know if I'd go that far, but I definitely think we could have done better...

[Papa_Bull]

There is something to be said for a guy who is already battle tested and doesn't need on the job training. He has been through the realignment wars with USF leaving conferences to join another, and St Louis will also be leaving C-USA. So, he is pretty much already up to speed.

[Papa_Bull]

Brett has the story already:

Woolard To Be Named USF's New AD

By BRETT McMURPHY bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com

Published: May 11, 2004

TAMPA - Saint Louis athletic director Doug Woolard will be named South Florida's athletic director Wednesday, The Tampa Tribune has learned.

Woolard will be introduced at an 11:30 a.m. Wednesday news conference by USF President Judy Genshaft.

Woolard, 54, and Virginia associate athletic director Jon Oliver, 40, were the finalists recommended to Genshaft by the school's 12-member search committee on Thursday.

``I have withdrawn my name from consideration,'' Oliver said Tuesday.

During Woolard's interview with USF's search committee last week, Woolard said USF presented a unique opportunity.

``You have an opportunity now that very few universities have ever had,'' Woolard said. ``Between 2004 and 2010 this university has a chance to do some things it's never done, and athletics has a chance to help that.''

This was the fourth AD job Woolard pursued in the past four years. In 2000, he sought the Washington State position. In 2001, he was one of four finalists at Kansas and last July was among five finalists at UNLV.

Woolard was attracted to USF because of the Bulls' move to the Big East.

``There's no question in my mind, I know this institution will be competitive in the Big East in a very short amount of time,'' Woolard said last week. ``The financial piece will fall in place if you have a plan. [increasing the budget] is not going to happen overnight.

``It's just not about money, saying, `We need $10 million, let's get our budget up to where everyone else is tomorrow.' It's about making the right choices.''

After meeting with the search committee he told The Tribune his plans for growing USF`s budget to compete in the Big East.

``We have to review all those pieces that are part of an athletic budget,'' Woolard said. ``That's being sound internally. Have to be fiscally sound on the expenditure side. There are revenue opportunities within those areas. We need to build a vision this community can embrace and help to have this community be able to invest in the future of student-athletes.''

USF vice president Michael Rierson said last week he was impressed by Woolard's track record.

``Doug Woolard brought a sense of experience,'' Rierson said. ``An `I've been there and have the ability to take you there' perspective.

``He had a calm and mature energy. He also brought forward a sense of national experience. Doug had a sense he knew where he wanted to take us in basketball, football and in all sports. He had a community commitment that came across quite clearly.''

Added search committee chairman Hinks Shimberg: ``Doug Woolard is a proven commodity as athletic director at Saint Louis for 9 1/2 years.''

Despite Woolard's experience, Oliver was the overwhelming choice of USF's head coaches. In a Tribune poll of USF's 13 head coaches last week, Oliver was the choice of seven of the nine coaches, while Woolard was endorsed by one coach who responded to the poll.

Woolard came to Saint Louis in 1994 from Washington State.

At Saint Louis, Woolard was Conference USA's representative on several NCAA committees. To help comply with Title IX regulations, Saint Louis added women's soccer in 1996.

Under Woolard, Saint Louis led C-USA in student-athlete graduation rate (78 percent) and cumulative GPA (3.28). The school also won C-USA's institutional academic excellence award in each of the league's first eight seasons.

The Billikens' men's basketball team has ranked among the top 30 nationally in average attendance for the past eight years and the men's soccer team is annually among the nation's top 10 in average attendance, including 2001 when it averaged a national- best 2,870 fans.

Woolard also helped transition Saint Louis' move from the Great Midwest to C-USA and the Atlantic 10.

As an associate AD at Washington State (1989-94), Woolard was WSU's lead representative in external operations helping generate an increase in donor contributions and a 900 percent rise in corporate support.

Woolard is a graduate of Southern Illinois, where he played one season of basketball as a freshman.

Michigan State associate AD Mark Hollis and former Air Force AD Randy Spetman also were interviewed by the search committee as possible replacements for Lee Roy Selmon, who resigned Feb. 26 to become president of the newly created USF Foundation Partnership for Athletics.

Woolard and his wife Cherrie have two children - Chris and Amy.

``I had the opportunity to visit with a lot of people and I was impressed with the quality of the people,'' Woolard said Thursday. ``I'm impressed with the excitement about the university in general.''

[Omniscientbull]

I think he's a pretty good fit.  St Louis and Tampa are quite a bit a like in that they each have 3 or more professional sporting teams, have colleges that aren't the historical state insitutions (UF, FSU, Univ of Missouri), mid size sprawaling cities, etc.

Woolard had done a great job at SLU.  He sits on numerous NCAA committees/task forces, has transistioned his program from one conference to another, has very good olympic sports and has had SLU's basketball attendance in the top 30 for several years (grated they had some decent teams but they were not usually top 20 type of teams).

[Guest BasketBull.]

I'm a loyal Bull and I fully support our university's decisions ---but I don't have to be happy about it.

Welcome onboard AD Woolard.

[Papa_Bull]

From the St Louis message board on the anouncement:

Congrats to Doug. Many people on this board don't like him but I always thought he did a decent job.

I hope that the whoever we hire to replace him does 2 things. Complete the Arena project and keep Brad happy.

http://www.billikens.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.pl?az=show_thread&om=2408&forum=DCForumID3&omm=1&viewmode=threaded

[Guest BasketBull.]

This is like when you are a little kid wanting cool shoes for the start of school, maybe a pair of Air Nikes...

And then something happens on the way to the store: the car pulls into Payless.

Words are exchanged and you end up with new shoes and they are okay, but they ain't Nikes ---they are Kangaroos.

[USFMikeB]

I'm a loyal Bull and I fully support our university's decisions ---but I don't have to be happy about it.

Welcome onboard AD Woolard.

I fully agree, and like the shoe analogy!

[BullDoug]

This is like when you are a little kid wanting cool shoes for the start of school, maybe a pair of Air Nikes...

And then something happens on the way to the store: the car pulls into Payless.

Words are exchanged and you end up with new shoes and they are okay, but they ain't Nikes ---they are Kangaroos.

Wow!  Dead on balls analogy.  I was thiniking it was like winning Daytona or the ole Indie 500 but the trophy girl giving the big boobie smash hug (BBSH) and the big lip smack-a-roonie turns out to be your cousin.  On a side note, I have always had trouble keeping eye contact during the BBSHs.

Analogy III:  Kid thinks he's getting a 2 day weekend at Walt Disney but 'cuz of money it ends up being a 2 day camping trip in a pup tent.  Not quite the same.

Analogy IV:  Going out to buy your first sports car and the wife tells you she's pregs on the way to the dealer.  You come home with a minivan.  Its still new but...ouch!

Humor aside.  Woolard will do an adequate job for sure.  He's weathered and time tested.  He'll do fine.  He's not that rocket ship ride to the moon us diehards are looking for though.

[bullwark]

****, stuck with ProKeds!