IU Southeast began the school year with a new athletic director.
Joe Glover was recently promoted from the Athletics Department’s interim director. He had served as the interim director since August 2010.
“I’m excited to be given the chance to keep helping the students grow academically and athletically,” Glover said.
The search for a new athletic director is a long process, which starts by appointing a search and screen committee to facilitate the search.
“The charge of the committee is to screen applications to ensure they meet the minimum qualifications, conduct phone interviews and check references on campus interviews,” Ruth Garvey-Nix, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, said.
Garvey-Nix said 92 people applied for the position. Out of those people, 28 were referred by Human Resources to the committee.
The candidates were then narrowed from 28 to seven.
Garvey-Nix said she was impressed with Glover’s communication, leadership and organizational skills displayed during his yearlong term as interim director.
“I’m thrilled that we were able to hire someone of Joe’s caliber to lead the Athletics Department,” Garvey-Nix said. “We are so fortunate to fill this position with such a capable person who is ready to lead our athletics program forward.”
To start out the school year, Glover said he would like to see more involvement with faculty and students throughout the campus.
“The goal this year is to be more visible,” Glover said.
To increase the visibility, a new marketing campaign will include one large banner on the back wall of the Activities Building.
Some of the other changes this year include new exercise equipment, the continuation of the fitness series — which are both funded by Student Activity Fees — T-shirts to promote the new marketing campaign and a new division I volleyball net for the varsity team. The fitness series contains 13 weeks of classes at different venues taught by instructors from the YMCA. These classes include zumba, core and yoga.
Glover said many people partnered up to make these free classes possible.
“The Athletics Department, Campus Life, the vice chancellor of Student Affairs and Residence Life all joined together to fund this project,” Glover said.
Glover said there will be a new full-time administrative assistant and an assistant athletic director.
In addition to the new positions, there is a new Red Edition dance team coach, assistant volleyball coach and a sports information specialist.
“For the most part, all of our staff has stayed the same,” Glover said. “It’s tough to build a program when you have coaches changing, we have a good group.”
Glover said there were a lot of great athletes that graduated in May, but he said he is hopeful of the new recruits, especially for men’s basketball.
Glover said coaches scout throughout the country for new athletes to join the Grenadiers.
The one thing that draws in new students is the built-in scholarships.
“Reciprocity is a big deal, it’s a built-in scholarship for a lot of students,” Glover said.
Keegan Clark, a division I transfer from Wright State University, will be joining the Grenadiers for the upcoming basketball season.
“We are hoping he is another Jazzmar; he should be fun to watch,” Glover said.
“The one thing I look forward to the most is seeing the payoff of all the work we do in the off season and getting back to the start of things,” Glover said.
By JOLIE STONE
Sports Editor
stonejl@umail.iu.edu
