STLCC changes structure of athletics, suspends women’s volleyball for entire season
By: SPENCER GLEASON
Editor in Chief
After three years under the consolidated athletic programs at STLCC, changes have been made to the athletic organizational structure.
Since the consolidation in July 2011, when the independent STLCC campus formed from separate athletic departments into one district wide department, athletics had been ran by two part time athletic directors, Johnna Kinney and Sharon Marquardt, who reported to STLCC-Meramec President and Director of District Wide Athletics, Pam McIntyre.
STLCC has done away with two part time athletic directors and is in the process of hiring a full time athletic director. Once someone is hired for the full time position, STLCC will begin the process looking for the assistant. The search process was made public on July 15.
“I do think we need a fulltime athletic director. It’s rather difficult when we have two athletic directors trying to [do everything],” Marquardt said. “It’s just really hard to oversee everything that’s going on, on three different campuses. This may be a little more conducive to that.”
Following the announcement, Kinney resigned from STLCC athletics on Aug. 1. Since then, Marquardt has assumed all responsibilities as a part time athletic director until the full time position is filled. Marquardt still reports to McIntyre, but the full time athletic director will report to the District Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs William Woodward.
Woodward was approved for the position during the August Board of Trustees meeting. Marquardt said she has put her candidacy in for the full time position.
“There was a commitment when the program started in its consolidated format three years ago, to spend some time — three years later — looking at ‘Is this working the way we want it to work?’ ‘Are there some things that could be done differently,’ McIntyre said. “[We had conversations] about what was working and what was not working. We provided the chancellor with somewhat of some feedback of some of the things that seemed to be working well. But here are some things that might work differently.”
In addition, the full time athletic director will not be able to coach any teams. Both Marquardt and Kinney coached during the 2013-14 season. Kinney also coached in 2011 and 2012.
“When a meeting of the coaches takes place, it’s a meeting of the coaches with the Director of Athletics and assistant director. Not a meeting of the coaches and then two of them are administrators, too,” McIntyre said. “It is a clearer definition of expectations and roles and equity, in terms of how things are handled. If you can do that, you can separate the coaching role from the administrative role.”
With a full time athletic director, McIntyre said that fundraising for athletic teams could be a possibility in the future. STLCC athletics has not been allowed to do any fundraising since the consolidation. The majority of athletic funds come from student activities fees.
“With two part time people, doing what they were doing, if they ran fundraising programs then they wouldn’t be able to do some of the things that they currently do to be able to make the operation work. Right now, athletics doesn’t need to do fundraising,” McIntyre said.
“Having a full time person allows that person to have a more holistic view of an athletic program and where they want it to go in the future. If the desire was to do fundraising, then you have somebody who has more time to think about what that would look like and how you go about doing that.”
Although McIntyre said fundraising might happen in the future, other changes “remain to be seen.”
“[When] you bring on somebody full time and they begin to look at a more holistic picture of an athletic program,” McIntyre said, “they’re obviously going to have some thought about that and how they might think about how things might lead toward a healthier, more holistic program. It would obviously be discussed.”
Volleyball Season Hits a Net
Kinney gave her resignation on Aug. 1 — the first day of practices for fall sports. Kinney took a job with a running company that sets up 3K and 5K runs, according to Marquardt.
Marquardt said that the date was too close to the season to hire a new coach. Because of that, the 2014-15 volleyball season has been suspended.
“We didn’t feel that it was going to be fair to the girls to just throw somebody in that position that doesn’t have the required experience to fill the team and take the team out for games,” Marquardt said. “For the best interest for the program, we just decided to suspend it for the season. There is a plan in motion to move women’s volleyball to Meramec for the 2015-16 season.”
Volleyball had been played at STLCC-Florissant Valley since the consolidation. Following what proved to be Kinney’s last season coaching women’s volleyball for STLCC, the Lady Archers went 0-30. It was first team in STLCC Archer and Meramec athletic history to go winless.
The suspension of the 2014-15 women’s volleyball team is the first suspension of a STLCC athletic season, since the mid 2000s, when the STLCC-Florissant Valley women’s soccer team was suspended for not fielding a roster.
McIntyre said Kinney had only recruited four girls for the 2014-15 season. She said recruiting had always been difficult, during the Lady Archers’ time at STLCC-Florissant Valley.
“Most of the time, you’re trying to recruit from the select teams,” McIntyre said. “And if they live down in this area, they’ve been playing down in this area. We’re at least going to try and see whether or not we’ll have a better shot at recruiting women to play in volleyball if we’re playing at Meramec.”
McIntyre said that STLCC would still honor the scholarships for the four girls who had signed letters of intent. McIntyre said to her knowledge, all four girls stayed at STLCC.
“We still honor the scholarship if they were offered a scholarship,” McIntyre said. “If they wanted to be released because they wanted to go somewhere else and play volleyball we would release them, so that they could go.”
Marquardt said the budgeted money already allocated for the women’s volleyball team will be divided equally among the remaining six STLCC Archer teams. The operating budget for each team will raise an additional $2,416 from $14,500. The travel budget will increase from $20,000 to $23,333.
“We have decided that we are going to split it amongst the six teams for a one year increase,” Marquardt said. They have all been told how much of an increase they are going to get and they are going to be able to utilize that for just one year.”
