Critical Condition: Demanding Life-Support for Athletic Directors

Ed. Note: This article is presented as a part of our Voices of the Industry series which is published the first week of each month. These articles are written by senior athletic department personnel and intended to shine a light on issues throughout the college athletics industry. If you are interested in writing for this series, drop us a line and we will be happy to help your voice be heard.

 

By Kelly Mehrtens

Perhaps a bit dramatic for a title; however, criticism of leadership in intercollegiate athletics has dramatically changed over the last decade.  Gone are the simple days of “he or she doesn’t know what they’re doing.” We are now living in an extremely complex era where most everyone else knows how it should be done and how to do it better.

Rightfully so, we spend a lot of time talking about the time demands and welfare of student-athletes.  I believe athletic directors across the country take pride in creating a culture where student-athlete success is a priority on their campuses and in life after intercollegiate athletics.  With that said, where is the conversation regarding the demands of athletic directors?  Where is the environment that is created to sustain their leadership success?  Have we become a society of outspoken “life-critics” but not outspoken “life-support?”

Yes . . . yes, I have heard all of the comments like, “that’s what happens when you make the big bucks,” or “you need to have thicker skin,” or even, “it’s not personal, it’s just business.” Regardless of the amount of money one makes or how substantial their epidermis, these critical rantings appear to be quite personal. Athletic directors, while they may be lauded for the academic success of their student-athletes, the fiscal sustainability model they have created or the change agents they were asked to become, more frequently than not are subjected to harsh criticism unlike any other position in higher education. Whether it’s a billboard dedicated to the requested fate of the athletic director, the airplane banner over the home football game or the “Fire[fill in the blank].com” website that gets created upon their hiring, “life-critics” are boisterous and ready to be heard.

Unfortunately athletic directors are all too often criticized and judged in ways that may drive great leaders out of the business. Where are their voices of “life-support?”  When was the last time you told an athletic director to keep up the great work or asked how you can help? How do we highlight their significant accomplishments and better tell the story of “A Day In The Life of An Athletic Director?”

No, I’m not absolving athletic directors who are ineffective leaders, poor communicators or those that operate in a vacuum and forget the true meaning of serving student-athletes, coaches and staff. Conversely, I am applauding all of the courageous women and men who stand tall and lead in this profession while enduring enormous amounts criticism.



While the ever increasing popularity of social media offers even more challenging conditions for athletic directors to navigate expectations and engagement, always stay plugged into your “life-support” of family, close friends and University colleagues.  I encourage each of you to stay strong, know you’re not in the fight alone and never forget that you are truly making a difference in the lives of students.

And remember the great words of President Teddy Roosevelt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

 

Kelly Mehrtens currently serves as the Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Operating Officer at Maryland and has over two decades of administrative experience in intercollegiate athletics. She earned an accounting degree from the University of Alabama and her masters in Higher Education from the University of Illinois. Although a former track and field student-athlete, she enjoys spending any free time playing tennis and golf.