Q&A WITH MIKE CUSACK
Apr 1, 2007 8:51:24 GMT -5
Post by Raider Country on Apr 1, 2007 8:51:24 GMT -5
WSU athletic director wants to build on school's success
By Marc Katz
Staff Writer
Sunday, April 01, 2007
FAIRBORN — Wright State Athletic Director Mike Cusack grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and moved to Levittown, Long Island, when he was 13.
A graduate of Long Island University, with a master's degree from Queens College and a Ph.D. from New York University, Cusack coached basketball and baseball nine years at Queens before moving on to Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., where he stayed four years.
Q Not many athletic directors stay 25 years at one school. How did you do it?
A I left Queens College because they wiped out 30 of the 50 people in our department. When Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford for the presidency, New York City was going into default. I hadn't finished my doctorate yet. If I had my doctorate, I might have been coaching 25 years there. So then I got an opportunity to go to Mercyhurst. After four years, this job happened. I had only one-year contracts, but in those years, I thought I might be leaving and if I had a contract, I couldn't have done it.
There were a few times I would have left here, or considered leaving. What happened was, the job kept changing. There was never a time you just put your feet up on the desk and said, 'Well, it's all done.'
Q What kind of changes?
A When I came here, in 1982, we were still in the P.E. Building and we were Division II. Five years later, we go Division I. Three years later, we open the Nutter Center. A few years after that, we went into the Mid-Continent Conference. Then we went to the Horizon League. So the job kept changing. In a sense, I got to do the different things that keep people excited and maybe keep people from moving around.
Q Will WSU ever have football?
A I don't think in the foreseeable future. There are gender-equity issues, there's infrastructure issues. Right now, we have about 250 athletes. If we brought in football, we're going to have about a 50 percent increase in our athletes.
And there are other little things. If you've got football, you need bigger equipment, and you need more of it. A power rack. You need five of them. Your training room has to be bigger. Your training staff has to be bigger.
I think there was a sense football would be there just because we're in Ohio. But I think we've gone in a whole bunch of different directions academically, athletically.
Q What about ice hockey?
A We have a facility. It's right here. It's expensive, but not as expensive as football. And in hockey, you could play Ohio State. You could play Michigan. It's never going to happen in football.
Q What's next for WSU athletics?
A I'd like to build a big indoor practice facility — indoor soccer, baseball, softball. I'd like to do a track, put turf on the baseball field. In no particular order. Do something with stands for the softball field.
A natatorium would be nice, but that's such a big project, about $20 million to $30 million.
Q What do you miss most about New York?
A Ocean withdrawal. It took a lot to get used to not smelling the salt air and not going to the beach almost every day. For a long time, that was different. But the lifestyle both in Erie and here was so good — both in terms of how easy it was to get around, the value for your money, the people and all — it wasn't a problem.
Q What do you like and dislike about the NCAA?
A They generate revenue very well. They run tournaments very well. I think too much gets spin. Trying to say on the one side we're trying to do all this academic stuff and on the other signing $6 billion contracts. We try to be this academic, collegial piece and on the other side it's a big business that only a small part of that organization can be a part of.
It concerns me: Are we worrying about the right thing? Are we just trying to show statistics, or are we trying to be part of the education progress?
Q Why don't you take more credit for hiring Brad Brownell?
A Everybody who is here I've hired and a lot of people who are not here I hired. I would have to say I made some mistakes. I don't think we've ever hired a bad person or a terrible coach. We've made some hires that didn't fit. If people are going to say he did this good or that good, they also have to say, he didn't do this one so good.
I think at our level, sometimes it's harder to make a good hire. You don't have the field to work with. At Kentucky (in basketball), you almost have the (entire) coaching field to work with. How hard is it? You have to almost try to make a mistake. For us, we sort of have to find a diamond in the rough. Well, we were lucky. Brad wasn't a diamond in the rough. He was a diamond, and we knew that. We were in the right place at the right time. What he was able to do was show what we thought we could be.
Q How long do you think you'll stay in this job?
A The only time I think of it is when people ask me, and the reason they ask me is because I've been doing it a long time. I love the competition part. I love the part we're involved with student-athletes. What a place to come to every day, a college campus. Our products are a bunch of young men and women getting an education and playing sports.
www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/college/wsu/2007/04/01/ddn040107cusack.html
By Marc Katz
Staff Writer
Sunday, April 01, 2007
FAIRBORN — Wright State Athletic Director Mike Cusack grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and moved to Levittown, Long Island, when he was 13.
A graduate of Long Island University, with a master's degree from Queens College and a Ph.D. from New York University, Cusack coached basketball and baseball nine years at Queens before moving on to Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., where he stayed four years.
Q Not many athletic directors stay 25 years at one school. How did you do it?
A I left Queens College because they wiped out 30 of the 50 people in our department. When Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford for the presidency, New York City was going into default. I hadn't finished my doctorate yet. If I had my doctorate, I might have been coaching 25 years there. So then I got an opportunity to go to Mercyhurst. After four years, this job happened. I had only one-year contracts, but in those years, I thought I might be leaving and if I had a contract, I couldn't have done it.
There were a few times I would have left here, or considered leaving. What happened was, the job kept changing. There was never a time you just put your feet up on the desk and said, 'Well, it's all done.'
Q What kind of changes?
A When I came here, in 1982, we were still in the P.E. Building and we were Division II. Five years later, we go Division I. Three years later, we open the Nutter Center. A few years after that, we went into the Mid-Continent Conference. Then we went to the Horizon League. So the job kept changing. In a sense, I got to do the different things that keep people excited and maybe keep people from moving around.
Q Will WSU ever have football?
A I don't think in the foreseeable future. There are gender-equity issues, there's infrastructure issues. Right now, we have about 250 athletes. If we brought in football, we're going to have about a 50 percent increase in our athletes.
And there are other little things. If you've got football, you need bigger equipment, and you need more of it. A power rack. You need five of them. Your training room has to be bigger. Your training staff has to be bigger.
I think there was a sense football would be there just because we're in Ohio. But I think we've gone in a whole bunch of different directions academically, athletically.
Q What about ice hockey?
A We have a facility. It's right here. It's expensive, but not as expensive as football. And in hockey, you could play Ohio State. You could play Michigan. It's never going to happen in football.
Q What's next for WSU athletics?
A I'd like to build a big indoor practice facility — indoor soccer, baseball, softball. I'd like to do a track, put turf on the baseball field. In no particular order. Do something with stands for the softball field.
A natatorium would be nice, but that's such a big project, about $20 million to $30 million.
Q What do you miss most about New York?
A Ocean withdrawal. It took a lot to get used to not smelling the salt air and not going to the beach almost every day. For a long time, that was different. But the lifestyle both in Erie and here was so good — both in terms of how easy it was to get around, the value for your money, the people and all — it wasn't a problem.
Q What do you like and dislike about the NCAA?
A They generate revenue very well. They run tournaments very well. I think too much gets spin. Trying to say on the one side we're trying to do all this academic stuff and on the other signing $6 billion contracts. We try to be this academic, collegial piece and on the other side it's a big business that only a small part of that organization can be a part of.
It concerns me: Are we worrying about the right thing? Are we just trying to show statistics, or are we trying to be part of the education progress?
Q Why don't you take more credit for hiring Brad Brownell?
A Everybody who is here I've hired and a lot of people who are not here I hired. I would have to say I made some mistakes. I don't think we've ever hired a bad person or a terrible coach. We've made some hires that didn't fit. If people are going to say he did this good or that good, they also have to say, he didn't do this one so good.
I think at our level, sometimes it's harder to make a good hire. You don't have the field to work with. At Kentucky (in basketball), you almost have the (entire) coaching field to work with. How hard is it? You have to almost try to make a mistake. For us, we sort of have to find a diamond in the rough. Well, we were lucky. Brad wasn't a diamond in the rough. He was a diamond, and we knew that. We were in the right place at the right time. What he was able to do was show what we thought we could be.
Q How long do you think you'll stay in this job?
A The only time I think of it is when people ask me, and the reason they ask me is because I've been doing it a long time. I love the competition part. I love the part we're involved with student-athletes. What a place to come to every day, a college campus. Our products are a bunch of young men and women getting an education and playing sports.
www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/college/wsu/2007/04/01/ddn040107cusack.html
