The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1113082
30 ■ THE WOLFPACKER enue where the athletics director can relax and take a deep breath." What was your approach on making hires? "A number of them were cold calls. An example is our wrestling coach, Pat Popolizio, who was at some place called Binghamton. "I said, 'Look at the top 25 teams in the nation for somebody that doesn't belong.' Binghamton was No. 5 in the nation. … And I said, 'Call the guy. I want to know who he is even if I can't pronounce his last name. Just call him and get a read on the situation. Is he a Binghamton graduate?' "When they finally got up with Pat, he said, 'Who are you?' That's how we do it sometimes. It's the way we found the head of compliance, Carrie Doyle. When I was an AD at Maryland I used to talk to her on the phone — she was in charge of reinstate- ment of student-athletes and then she was a major infractions officer. "I said, 'Go find this woman named Car- rie Doyle, I have no idea where she is. She did not go with the NCAA when they moved from Kansas City to Indianapolis.' "And they found her at New Hampshire. She was head of compliance. We had never met, and she was, I think, my first hire in senior management. We brought her in for an interview, and I explained the vision for what we wanted to do. … It fit her, fit how she thinks about compliance, which is so mean- ingful to her. She's been here ever since. "When I came home to NC State we basically had 1.5 compliance officers, and I knew that was not nearly enough. They were also off the main hallway. If you wanted to talk about something that was sensitive, would you really just walk down the main hallway into the compliance of- fice? Everybody could see you coming! "We created this suite in the backside of the building for them. There are six people down there now, including the administra- tive assistant." Why have you emphasized the Directors' Cup standings? "We want all ships to rise. We would be a miserable athletic program if two of our teams out of 23 were highly successful and the other 21 were not. That is not a formula for success over the long haul, or for a pro- ductive work environment." What's something about NC State that you've learned that maybe you didn't know back when you were at Maryland? "I underestimated, initially, the raw emo- tion and feelings the fan base has of being treated unfairly. The longer I was here the more I understood it, and I think that was one of the reasons I was particularly inter- ested in defending NC State. "There's always two sides of a story, and sometimes only one side gets told. There's the Karl Hess episode, when two of our basketball icons, Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta, were kicked out of a game for no reason. I did give both of them a Wolfpack Unlimited award. "Once I understood how our fans felt, I saw it as my duty to defend NC State. I tried to do that. I was not close enough to it as Kay's sister and Susan's sister to really judge that effectively. I think that would be one thing." Why do you relate so well to NC State fans? "I really like them a lot. I think they've gotten a bad rap as an unreasonable fan base. What they are is passionate. I would rather have that any day than a fan base that is disengaged and really not committed, and only shows up when you win big. "If you write me something or you text me something or you call me and are curs- ing left and right, I'm not going to respond to you. If you are fairly reasonable and I can tell you are just in pain because we lost a game, whatever that game is, I am going to respond to you and try and give you hope. "Sometimes people just want to know what we are doing. They want to know what I'm thinking, what I am getting ready to do. Even if they disagree with it, it's a matter of respect to share with them. They deserve that and have earned that as far as I am concerned. I can't share everything, but what I can share is where we are headed and at least how we are trying to get there." What has it been like to take on the role of fighting for NC State whenever something pops up that isn't in the Wolfpack's favor? "I consider it to be part of my job. My role is not to be the most popular AD or person in the ACC. I certainly like the idea of that, but I don't like it to the point where I would sacrifice defending our program when I believe we've been wronged. "I don't yell at people or curse at people or call them names. I do defend us when I think we deserve it. Conversely, there are times where I don't defend us. I'll give an example: We wore jerseys with 'State' Over the last four years under Yow, NC State has posted its four best finishes in the Learfield IMG Directors' Cup, a national competition that ranks every college athletics department. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN Year Ranking 2009-10* 89 2010-11 67 2011-12 37 2012-13 34 2013-14 41 2014-15 27 2015-16 32 2016-17 29 2017-18 15^ 2018-19 11 (as of April 25) NC State Directors' Cup Finishes Under Debbie Yow * Year before Yow arrived ^ Best finish in program history