The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1113082
MAY 2019 ■ 29 BY MATT CARTER AND JACEY ZEMBAL D ebbie Yow's successful nine- year tenure as director of athlet- ics at NC State has come to an end. Army AD Boo Corrigan, her replacement, began on the job April 30. In the Learfield IMG Directors' Cup, a yearly competition that measures colleges' success across all athletics, NC State was No. 89 the year before Yow arrived. It fin- ished a program-best No. 15 in the 2017-18 school year. During Yow's time, she started the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame, spear- headed a $35 million renovation of historic Reynolds Coliseum, oversaw the construc- tion of the Close-King Indoor Practice Facil- ity for football, and negotiated lucrative con- tracts with adidas and Learfield Sports for apparel and multimedia rights, respectively. She has also hired a roster of coaches that have collectively made NC State na- tionally relevant in many sports where it was middle of the pack or bottom-feeders in the ACC before. Yow met with The Wolfpacker for an ex- tensive interview in April to reflect back on her time as the head of NC State athletics. Here are highlights from that conversation: What did you identify as the challenges facing NC State athletics when you first got hired? "The culture would be one way to say it, and the other would be the sadness here, even here in this building, W-B [Weisiger- Brown Athletic Facility]. A sense of being forlorn, just unsure of our capabilities and pretty sure bad things would happen. "It was just starting down that long road to help change that. Not that I can obviously change it by myself, but help change that." What did you do to change the culture? "It's all about who you hire, and whether or not they do a really good job for NC State. We had several people in senior management that were retiring and were terrific people. David Horning is one that I see still at the gym. He was great for one year for me, and then he left. I had Sherard Clinkscales and Chris Kingston, who were both terrific for us. "The mainstays ended up being the two deputy ADs — Michael Lipitz, the dep- uty AD for internal operations, and Chris Boyer, the deputy AD for external opera- tions. Most of the staff falls under one of them. The coaches are spread among seven supervisors to be sure the coaches get the attention that they need. "The senior management and [senior associate athletics director for communica- tions] Fred Demarest are on a group called 'The Cabinet.' We meet every two weeks and talk about all kinds of things and is- sues. It works for us." Did it take a while for the athletics depart- ment to buy in? "There was no overt effort to not buy in. It was more of a 'I'm not sure I believe you that we can rebuild.' You have to remember it isn't like we were never talented or suc- cessful. It had just been a while, especially across the board. "There was no subversion of what we were trying to do. It was just a 'I think I've heard this before. I don't think or I don't know if we can do that.'" Where have you seen NC State grow the most? "The culture has certainly changed. We have a coaches' meeting every month dur- ing the school year. If you are recruiting, then go recruit. If you are here, we want you at the meeting. "There are usually 60-70 people in atten- dance. The head coaches are the only ones that sit at the main table. They tease and congratulate each other for finishing well at the NCAA Championships, winning the ACC or beating a big rival. It's everything to me to see that. "There was a recent survey done of the 15 schools in the UNC system. They anon- ymously measured employee work engage- ment and satisfaction at every campus for every unit. "Initially, I was not a fan of this, but then we got the results. On the campus at NC State, out of all the units, athletics tied for No. 1 in employee engagement and sat- isfaction. Now I like the survey. They are going to do it every other year. They won't do it in Boo's first year, but they'll do it his second year." You have a track record at NC State of hiring excellent coaches … "If you have the right coaches in place, you are going to win, but it might take time. For example, we beat Duke in men's tennis. Our record up to that point against Duke was 2-74. I know head coach Kyle Spencer well, because we hired him twice. We hired him at Maryland, and they dis- continued the program. We eventually found him at SMU and brought him to State. He's an Olympian, and he's fantastic. "We have this mantra where we say, 'Re- sources have to match expectations.' There is that step, and that has never ended. Ev- ery day, money is a topic. There just isn't enough to meet all the needs and wants. I want to be sure the needs are covered. Af- ter that, it gives you pleasure to give them what they want, when possible. "You also have to remember football and men's basketball pay the bills. They come first, and they get more of what they want, sooner than some others. It's a pragmatic approach. It takes so much less to meet the needs and wants of an Olympic sport than it does football or men's basketball. We've been able to do that as well. "We have to be smart with our money. If we waste money, it makes me sick, because there isn't enough of it. The fact that the ACC Network is coming on board now is helpful, but it's not going to change our situation for a while. "We need to get down the road with the ACC Network before there is enough rev- Transforming Wolfpack sporTs Debbie Yow Reflects On Her Reign As NC State's Director Of Athletics