University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heel Monthly: Baddour on the Years to Come
June 23, 2003 | General
June 23, 2003
As the days get longer and hotter, another year of athletics at the University of North Carolina comes to an end. Planning for 2003-04 has already begun, and Tar Heel Monthly sat down with athletic director Dick Baddour to find out what he has planned for next year and what he's particularly focused on as he enters his seventh year at the helm of the Carolina athletic department.
THM: Before we look ahead, let's look back. How would you assess this past year for Carolina athletics?
Dick Baddour: Overall, we had a good year. We particularly had a good year academically. We had a number of student-athletes receive University, ACC and national academic awards, which is really exciting for our student-athletes. We had a good year financially. We don't have all the numbers in, but the way they look now we are going to successfully complete our fifth consecutive year of operating in the black.
We've had a solid year competitively. We've certainly had better years in terms of ACC championships and national championships, but it's really been exciting to watch some of our teams improve. We've had some teams that have been rebuilding; for example, you can see a great future for football. Men's Basketball showed tremendous improvement this year. Women's basketball, track and field and swimming remain strong. Men's lacrosse is improving, as is baseball. We have some areas where we have won national championships in the past, such as women's soccer, and we didn't do that this year, but if you look at the strength of that program and others, you feel great about it.
Our staff is very solid. We have a good mixture of experienced people along with some newer folks, both in the coaching and administrative ranks. I feel great about where we are and where our future is. I am very pleased with the student-athletes who have been recruited to enroll here next fall, both in terms of their academic credentials and athletic ability.
THM: What are your tasks in the next month or two as far as preparing for next year?
DB: We'll be finishing our evaluation of the last budget year and putting the final touches on the budget for next year. The budget is not simply putting numbers together, but setting a course of action for the next year and even for years after that. We have many more needs than we have resources to meet those needs, so we are establishing priorities and finding creative ways for people to be more successful. During this time, we also go through a complete evaluation of what we do and how we do it. And of course we are always working on scheduling games.
THM: When you talk about scheduling, how involved are you with that across the department?
DB: Most of the Olympic sport coaches are working on their schedules in coordination with Beth Miller. Those coaches will take the dominant role while following some policies and practices that we have laid out in terms of missed practice time and financial obligations.
Men's basketball and football work in a variety of ways. I'm involved with both. Coach Williams has a hands-on approach to basketball, so while the opportunities tend to either come through our office or through Larry Gallo or from television, Coach Williams will make the final decisions as to whom we play. Football is planned far in advance, sometimes as much as ten years ahead of time, so it's more long-term planning. We are trying to continue to strengthen our schedule. For that process, I meet with Coach Bunting, we identify schools we're interested in playing, and then Larry Gallo or I contact those schools. And, of course, schools contact us, as well.
THM: How would you assess the health of the sports most recently added to the athletic department?
DB: Our newest ones would be women's lacrosse and rowing. Women's lacrosse was in the Final Four last year. While they had somewhat of a rebuilding year this year, I know with Coach Slingluff-Levy we'll be nationally competitive year in and year out. We're under new leadership with Coach Haney with the rowing program. They're working with very few scholarships, but we're looking to see some improvement in the rowing program. It's about where we thought it would be but we hope it will enjoy more competitive success. Academically, they have done an outstanding job and the students are having a wonderful experience.
THM: One of the first changes fans will notice in the new athletic year is the video board at Kenan Stadium. How will that impact both the fan base and the athletic department?
DB: I've gotten several phone calls, including several from faculty, who experienced the video board at Commencment. They were talking about how well it fits into Kenan Stadium and how good it looks. The indications right now are that our first home football game will be a night game, so we will showcase that board at night and it will be fabulous. We had a showing for the athletic department in May. It was a sunny day, but the clarity was fabulous.
We are really excited about that video board and the things we can do with it. We've been talking for three months now about how we're going to bring the team out onto the field using the board and how we will use it to engage the crowd. We also want to use it to highlight our sport programs, our student-athletes, and use it as an informational base for people in Kenan who will know what's happening in other events across the country and statistics on the game they are watching. We are spending a lot of time getting ready for using the board.
THM: One of the things that has really exploded lately is the marketing of college sports. Would you like for UNC to get more involved with that aspect of things, such as marketing to non-alumni, in the future?
DB: Anything interests me that creates excitement about Carolina athletics. We will identify alums and previous ticket-holders, and we will also try to reach out to those who are new to North Carolina or new to our community. We hope they will identify with the University of North Carolina. Certainly, that has been our history. There are thousands of people who have donated to the University and come to our events who are not Carolina graduates.
THM: What particular ideas or challenges in the years to come are you most excited about?
DB: There are a couple of initiatives I'm very excited about that I will focus on next year and in the coming years. One is a leadership initiative that occurred to me as a result of a meeting with our student-athlete council. We were talking about behavioral matters and what motivates people. It occurred to me at that time that we were accustomed to Carolina having strong leaders. At times when a team was absent strong leadership, it affected the team off the field as well as on the field. We shouldn't take that chance.
We should systematically develop a way that leadership is treasured and developed and will pay dividends athletically, but will also pay dividends as young people graduate from here and go out into their communities. We want the University of North Carolina to become a place where when you think of athletics, you immediately think of leadership development. We think we can do that through our faculty as well as the great teams we have, which are a laboratory for leadership development.
The second thing we'll be working very hard on is financial stability. We want to grow our scholarship endowment program as well as our sports endowment program. Our ability to maintain the 28 sports and keep them financially sound rests in this campaign.
THM: Coach Smith always talked about his love for basketball renewing at the start of practice each fall. When does that rejuvenation happen for you-when does your "practice start," in a sense?
DB: My year runs together more and more without a break. We still have golf, baseball, and track competing in late May. In fact, track doesn't finish until June 14 this year. Football reports in the first week of August. So my year probably ends in mid-June, and then practice starts for me a week before football reports. That's when we put our game face on. An 'army' is about to walk in the door and you have to be ready for them.
THM: Do you have any goals you want to accomplish in terms of facilities for next year?
DB: We need to finish raising the money for the softball project. The memorabilia room for basketball absolutely must be designed. We have got to get that completed and have it be first rate; it is not first rate right now. Through the generosity of some outstanding people, we can make that happen. Longer range, we need to do some work in Boshamer Stadium and Carmichael Auditorium. I don't see that next year but I hope that's soon in the future and I'm excited about being involved in the solution for those venues.
