Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Five Questions With … Associate Athletics Director Mike Harrity Mike Harrity joined the Notre Dame athletic department last December to head its student development and community outreach branch. Harrity, who formerly held a similar role at the University of Kansas, oversees a wide variety of programs such as the school’s youth camps and its career planning efforts for varsity athletes. He also recently published a book titled Coaching Wisdom for which he interviewed 13 of the country’s most prominent living coaches and several of their former players. Blue & Gold Illustrated: What is your regular day-to-day work like in your position? Harrity: “I have a chance to work really close with the student-athletes from all of our teams in serving them with really a holistic approach to their development as a student-athlete here at Notre Dame. “Within that, there are many components. We focus on everything from the personal development piece … the career development piece for success beyond graduation and also there’s a service component.” Blue & Gold Illustrated: The community outreach side appears to be a big focus. How has that been in your first year on the job? Harrity: “I’m continuously amazed at just the spirit of service across this campus. Our student-athletes actually set a new department record for volunteer hours served. The amount of hours they served in the 2011‑12 academic year would equal 347 straight 24-hour days of service.” Blue & Gold Illustrated: How did you get started in this line of work a decade ago? Harrity: “Growing up with a mom who worked at the factory and a dad who worked at the post office, they always told me find something you’re really passionate about. My background is in journalism and I happened to write a story about a young man …who played football at Kansas and became ineligible then worked his way back to a B average. “Through the process of that I met his academic counselor, and those 10 minutes I spent with her — I thought ‘I want what she has.’ ” Blue & Gold Illustrated: You spoke with a lot of great coaches — John Wooden, Lou Holtz, Tony Dungy, etc. — for your book. How did you set all those interviews up? Harrity: “I was amazed at just how generous all the coaches and former players have been with sharing their experience and wisdom and time. Many of them have become close friends. “What I found is that no one said no. That’s pretty phenomenal.” Blue & Gold Illustrated: What are the main pearls of wisdom that you picked up from these coaches while writing the book? Harrity: “There are two things. No. 1 goes back to the incredible generosity they all showed me. … No. 2 is the overwhelming theme, the common approach among all those coaches, is they truly cared about who they were leading. I think that stands beyond just sport.” — Dan Murphy Manti Te’o Epitomizes CLASS Named the Walter Camp National Defensive Player Of The Week for his 12 tackles, two passes broken up and one fumble recovery in the 20‑3 victory at then-No. 10 Michigan State on Sept. 15, Notre Dame senior All-American linebacker Manti Te’o days later became one of 30 Football Bowl Subdivision student-athletes to be selected as a finalist for the 2012 Senior CLASS Award in collegiate football. The award honors student-athletes who excel in “The Four C’s” — community, classroom, character and competition. In 2011, Te’o was named a second-team Academic All-American (3.296 cumulative grade-point average) and was selected the football team’s recipient of the Rockne Student-Athlete of the Year award. He is on pace to graduate this December from Notre Dame in design, earning his degree in three and a half years. An Eagle Scout while growing up, Te’o served as a volunteer at the South Bend Center for the Homeless during summer vacation (while also helping prepare a Thanksgiving meal there in 2011) and interacted with local youths through Irish Experience League by playing games, reading books and being a positive role model in the lives of South Bend kids. He is also active in his local church. He has finalized plans to return home to Hawai’i during Notre Dame’s bye week (Sept. 29) to mourn the loss of his grandmother and girlfriend, both of whom died the week of the Michigan State game. To honor Te’o and his spirit, the Notre Dame student body planned to wear 7,500 Hawaiian leis for the Sept. 22 Michigan game. Head coach Brian Kelly said the outpouring of love toward and rallying around Te’o is not a surprise. “He knows the names of the walk-ons,” Kelly said of what sets apart Te’o. “He doesn’t call them, ‘Hey, 32, 57’ … I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m not saying that all the great players don’t know the names of the other players, but he takes special attention to even know the names of guys that don’t play prominent roles. That’s pretty unique.”