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COSIDA PRESENTATION

March 29, 2011

SHELLY POE: Today's topic is Navigating a Coaching Change From the Communication Perspective, something that we all have or will have experience with in athletics communications. We have some people that are real veterans with it.
One member of our panel is Jennifer Rodrigues. She is a native of New Orleans. She graduated from Louisiana Lafayette and has been at Memphis for 14 years. She has had well over 10 to a dozen coaching changes over her career but also replaced both her men's football and basketball coaches in the last two seasons so she'll have interesting perspectives to give us on that.
Also with us is Chris Atwood, sports information director at Elms College in Massachusetts. Last year when he was hired, he was hired along with four new head coaches and another administrator all during the same time. Since then they've had two more new head coaching hires. So he gets a lot of transition there. He's going to talk about some things that may be pertinent to people at smaller schools on the Division III level. He's a graduate of Springfield College and has a Masters degree from Marshall University.
A very distinguished member of our panel is Dr. Roy Pickerill. Every one of his 13 sports has made a coaching change during that time. He's been SID for 24 years at Kentucky Wesleyan. He has won just about every award that CoSIDA hands out. He was the first president of the Division II Sports Information Directors Association and just last week finished his 17th season as media coordinator of the NCAA Division II Elite 8 Men's Basketball Championship.
The leader of our panel today, I really appreciate him putting this together for us and giving us his thoughts, Randy Burnside, who is assistant athletic director for media relations at Marshall University. He has been through six coaching transitions in football, men's basketball and women's basketball, and in all sports about 15 total coaching transitions. I know he has dealt with a lot of different situations within the coaching transitions and he's going to give us a few anecdotes and things he's learned about that.
Thank you, Randy.
RANDY BURNSIDE: Thank you, Shelly.
As Shelly mentioned, I've been through more than my fair share of coaching transitions. When I was approached about sharing some tips, I was a little hesitant for several reasons. In the end, I felt like this would be a good opportunity for me to share a little bit about what I've learned with others about our profession. Maybe something I say here today will go a long way in helping someone with some situations they may be faced with.
I don't believe there's a more important aspect to our job than our ability to build relationships. I think as communicators it's vital we build great relationships with a wide range of groups, that includes not only our student-athletes and coaches and media, but folks on campus and so forth.
With that said, I think when you look at the situations that can come about because of a coaching change, it kind of puts you in a bad situation at times because that relationship that you have with a head coach and the SID in a lot of ways, in my opinion, is a real important link in the change overall. It's not always the easiest one to build.
It's been my experience that every coaching transition is unique, but I think there's some basic principles as SIDs that we can follow to try to help us through those.
As Shelly mentioned I've been through several situations here at Marshall, whether it's been a retirement, firings, coaches leaving for other opportunities. I think first and foremost, whenever you go through a transition you have to understand the situation and all the dynamics that are in play from all sides. It's not all about you; it's about all those groups interacting. Through it all you have to understand that your loyalty lies with your school. I know when we build those relationships with our coaches, we can become pretty close with them. That's good. We need to have strong relationships with coaches. But at the end of the day we have to do what's best for our institution.
Whenever you have a coaching change, more than likely one of the three things that happened. Your program has done well and your coach has moved on to another opportunity or your program has not been successful and your coach has been left go or the third major reason would be retirement.
When you look at some of those switches that can occur at your universities, it can strain previous relationships you've developed and then you have a new relationship that you have to build and work your way through.
I think one of the things as a young SID that you tend to lack is putting yourself in the shoes of that new coach and what's going through their minds as that transition is occurring. It's a hectic time for them, they're being pulled in a lot of different directions. They have certain stresses affecting them. That can impact your relationship early on with a coach surrounding their hiring.
For example, you could have a young coach coming in who has never been a head coach before. I can't tell you how many times I've heard from our new coaches, I had no idea everything that went into this job, or, I didn't understand all of the responsibilities I had with radio and television, or, I didn't understand I would be out there fundraising as much as I am for the university, other impacts the job has on them. They're being pulled in every which direction as well.
One example for me that comes to mind is our winningest football coach of all time retired. That's a pretty tough act to follow, the next coach coming in. When we made the hire, we brought in a first-time head coach who was an alum of our university who had been at some great programs, a very good football coach, a great person. But he's coming in here, and you've got to be aware of the fine line that you have when you have a coach that's still around. Coach Prewitt retired, was still in our community. That can sometimes cast a shadow over the new guy. You have to try to balance that relationship and your friendship with him along with doing everything you can to help your new coach be successful.
I think you can still build those relationships and keep them as long as you keep everything in perspective and realize that you're committed to your school.
Secondly, I think you've got to communicate early on regardless of the situation that your school is in. I think as soon as you can, whenever a change happens, you want to get in front of the new coach and basically give them the lay of the land. Every media market is different, every institution is different. I think for the most part the SID knows your school just about better than anyone else on campus. You're more than likely to have been there and to have all kinds of great insight that your coach could really use prior to their introductions.
Those first meetings that your coach has with different groups, whether it's the media or alumni, can go a long way in their relationship building with those groups and really make you valuable to that head coach, make them realize your value and your worth by getting in front of them and showing them that you're there to help them.
I think you should use that initial time to demonstrate to them everything you bring to the table as a communicator. I think that once they see that and you listen to them and allow them to express their concerns and give them an opportunity to lay out their expectations, you can do the same in a constructive manner. Just tell them what you think your expectations are from your office's standpoint as far as going along helping them build their program and also let them know what your media's expectations are and what the community's expectations are.
In a lot of these situations, a coach might be coming from School A where the environment is totally different than that at your school. Anything that you can add to your coach's mindset going in can be really helpful.
I think you've got to understand that your coach is going to have some preconceived notions about the job and probably some preconceived notions about you, and you're going to have those same things about them. They're going to talk to their peers, SIDs that they know about you. I think it's just human nature for all of us to do the same thing before we meet a coach, and that's something that you've got to keep in mind when you make that first impression.
Through all this what I've learned is it's really good to have a strong athletic director who understands this and involves the SID early on and helps you through the transition by getting you in front of the new coach and helping build the relationship from the get-go. But I do know in some cases that doesn't always happen. I've heard the stories that some people have had about how they feel shunned some way, they've been pushed aside at the hiring at the beginning because someone from the university side or the athletic director or the president has really swooped in to make it a big hire.
You've got to understand that they want as much involvement as possible in those situations with the euphoria of hiring a new coach. There might be a little bit of a situation where you're reluctantly put in the background for a little bit. As soon as you can, I think it's important for you to involve yourself and get if front and don't be discouraged if that is the situation, but try to get in there and get as much face time as possible so that coach understands that you're working hard for them and for your school and that you're valuable.
Through this time, you've got to understand where your coach is coming from, whether there's a veteran. This may be something where they've been accustomed to or not. One example I have from a hiring experience that in hindsight I think we could have done a better job with, we brought in a head coach who had felt like he was burned at a previous job by the media, didn't do probably the due diligence as a young SID that I would do now, and really working with him on communicating better with our media. Because our market is different than the market he came from. People in this part of the country really want to get their hands on everything they can involved with our institution. The media here kind of expect relationships that are good, solid relationships and the trust that comes with them.
There was some reluctance on his part to open up. In retrospect, we should have worked with him more on that. It started him off on a bad foot in a lot of ways. That probably hampered him over his time here because he was never able to quite recover from that.
I think it's important that you get off on the right foot and let your new coaches understand the environment they're moving into, and so forth.
Another thing that I hear a lot coming from new coaches, and I hear a lot of SIDs complain about this, is Coach A was at Ohio State or Michigan, and now he's here, and we don't have those types of resources but he doesn't understand that.
Well, he or she is used to where they've been, whether it's as an assistant or head coach before. But I think there are a lot of ways when you sit down and lay out those expectations for each other with the head coach that you can interject some reality into the conversation and let them know you're going to work hard to help them and do everything you can. But maybe there's a more cost-effective way to achieve the goal that they have with whatever resource they were talking about, whether it's a website situation where you're going from a place where they may have had an Army of 10 people to now a small shop. There are other avenues that you can show the coach that you can do the same job with and be effective in your own market.
I think as long as you communicate, keep those lines of communication open early you can build that trust, and it really starts to make a really, really good impression on them. As time goes on, they'll know you're on their side, that you work hard, that you're valuable, and that relationship gets a lot better.
But finally I think that the other thing that we need to do is not to hesitate to show initiative early on. Do your job as an SID and just show your worth. Sports information people a lot of times, I think young SIDs more so than most, kind of shy away if it comes to something where they think there might be confrontation. I think that's a big mistake early on.
As strategic communicators I think it's very important that you get in there and you just get over any perceived lack of respect and speak your mind sometimes. Don't be intimidated. You have to build trust, and it starts with communication, like I said before.
Nine times out of ten it's been my experience that the coach is going to appreciate you for speaking up and giving them advice, whether they take it or not early on. Over time they're going to be more likely to trust you because you were willing to talk and put that forward early on.
That's basically a round-up of some of my thoughts. I'd be happy to take questions later and talk about more situations like that.
I'll go ahead and pass it on to Jennifer and let her share a bit.
JENNIFER RODRIGUES: I think Randy made a lot of great points. Really I kind of jotted a lot of the same things he had spoken about, about building the communications.
I think one of the things to always remember is every situation is going to be different based on whether you have an assistant coach that's moving up to be the head coach or you have a person coming in that's never been a head coach before. So every situation's going to be slightly different, so you do have to kind of navigate that based on what your scenario is that you're coming into.
Some of the things that I have found is, like Randy said, to be honest and upfront. Don't be afraid to give the feedback. Let the coach make the decision on whether or not they want to take your feedback. But being open and honest is the better way to do it.
I know I had several occasions where you have to make sure you're keeping the what we did before, what we've always done in the past, to a minimum. Some coaches coming in that may be brand-new coaches, they want to make their mark, they don't want to necessarily do everything that's been done before. It's very important to try to kind of get their ideas on the front end, which also may mean talking to some of the schools that they've worked at in the past just to get a feel for maybe what they have done at other schools.
It's not necessarily going to be able to translate to your place, but at least talking to the SID, maybe getting an upfront, honest opinion about what they typically have had in situations, say, at a FanFest or spring football game, how they have normally handled the media.
If it's a coordinator that maybe has sat with the TV crews in the past, they maybe a little bit more familiar with dealing with certain aspects of the media, but maybe an assistant coach at a different type of program, a program that didn't have that type of media background is not really going to have a really good understanding of the media concepts. You just need to sit down and work those out.
On the other side of it, if a coach comes in, maybe wants to change some of the policies that you've had in the past or the way things have gone, the SID is going to be kind of the middleman. You're going to hear from the coach's side of they don't want to do certain things or they want to do it a different way. Then you're going to have your media telling you, You have to go talk to this person and have these changes made, you can't do this. You have to be respectful of both sides. Sometimes that can be hard to navigate. But trying to get feedback from both sides and trying to meet in the middle.
CHRIS ATWOOD: I'd like to touch on a couple of points that both Randy and Jennifer brought up. The first one is I think first-year head coaches, when I came in in August of 2009, I came in with four new coaches at the same time. What I found is that communication is the foundation for success in any of these situations. Three of those coaches were first-time head coaches. I've just found that creating checklists, going over in-season, post-season protocols all very necessary in terms of getting everybody on the same page.
Also as a young SID, like Randy said, at first I was very reluctant to establish a full line of communication and fully take charge of the situation because I was still trying to get my own feet wet and find my own comfort zone. Looking back, I would have done things a little bit differently, get more involved, like I said, establish that line of communication at a much earlier time.
But now in my second year, I have also been through two coaching changes this year, have been much more involved setting ground rules and going over those protocols and procedures. I found that has been very successful in helping get these new coaches started.
I think in a small Division III department, you're going to have a lot of coaches that might be wearing several different hats. We have a coach who is a baseball coach, intermural coordinator. We have another coach who is going to be doing field hockey and taking over outside rental. Anything you can provide to help these coaches get settled, give them a lay of the land, it's going to be beneficial for them to be successful in their own job.
Sort of as another point, too, sort of a very specific point, but one I want to touch on, we had a new coach who was in his first season last year, was unhappy about his team's performance on the field, and being upset demanded we provide him with tape at halftime because we were taping the contest anyway. I told him we could provide him game film after the conclusion of the game and if he had any further issues we could discuss them after the game. Again, this was a situation where he expected we could do this, but we could not. Getting that line of communication open early would have been more beneficial. However, I think in a situation like that, to remain calm and handle it unemotionally is essential. You don't want to be intimidated.
SHELLY POE: As several of you have said, it's time to reiterate here, the resources we have available and how can we best put them to work for you.
CHRIS ATWOOD: Those were a lot of the stuff that Randy and Jennifer had brought up, were points that I've gone through as well. I just wanted to give those few examples that you might see at a smaller school.
SHELLY POE: Roy, any thoughts?
ROY PICKERILL: The one thing I've done that's been very successful, whether we have a news conference or not to announce a new coach, I physically take our new coaches to all the media outlets, make arrangements especially the day we're making an announcement. I try to get some time with the media to physically take a new coach down after I've had my session with him, explain to them all these policies, procedures, how we do things. But then I take them down to, let's say, the paper, the radio station, TV station, have them meet these people one-on-one physically for the first time before really news conferences come out.
They kind of give, Well, here is our policies and procedures, and here is how you can help us, and how can we help you. That's one of the best things that I learned from some veterans many years ago, that physically taking the coach down to the media outlets is one of the best things you can do in building relationships with your media and with the coach, too. It also helps to expand the coverage of a sport, whether it's a cross-country meet, whether it's volleyball, whatever it may be. The best thing that I can offer, outside of what we've already heard today, is physically take these people down there.
Hey, if you can't do it on the day that they're hired, maybe within a day or two afterwards if you set up these appointments with these media so they know who they're dealing with, understand what's going on today because the media's coverage of certain sports is different, and to find out what challenges the media has now, like newspaper cutbacks, same thing with radio or television. This is the best thing we all can do to help build a relationship and understand both sides of the coin.
SHELLY POE: A question we have is: What are some ideas when you have an assistant coach that is promoted into the head coaching role? Perhaps the old coach has taken another job. Perhaps the assistant wants to do things a little differently but yet not disrespect the person that mentored them. How can you help them set up their own identity?
ROY PICKERILL: Basically it's like bringing in a brand-new coach, trying to meet with them, find out what they would like to do different. But, once again, physically taking them down to the media, having them meet the media on a one-on-one basis. They may know them as an assistant.
Again, really sit down with them. I treat my assistants that are promoted just like I would a new head coach. I don't assume anything that he knows this policy, that policy, this procedure, that procedure. Just treat everybody the same, that they're brand-new and here is the way we're going to do it.
SHELLY POE: Any other thoughts from anybody on that topic?
RANDY BURNSIDE: I agree with Roy on that. You treat them the same, as someone coming from the outside. When you have a young coach who has been an assistant, they may not see everything that a head coach goes through. Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes they're a little blown away by the responsibilities that might come with the head job to a degree. I think that gives the SID a great opportunity to further develop your relationship with the new head coach that was an assistant by helping navigate some of the issues that they're going to have and different responsibilities.
Hopefully an assistant has already developed some relationships with your media, you would hope, depending on the time they've been there. Again, there may be some things that he wants to do differently or she wants to do differently to put their imprint on the program. I think the best thing you can do is talk about it and let them know how that would impact the media and their ability to do their job, if it affects them, or how it would impact the coverage that your department gives that program on its website or through social media and so forth.
Again, I think communication's key with anything like that.
SHELLY POE: We had a question sent in that people have noticed that sometimes when a coach is let go, they offer a statement or comment from the coach, the past coach may hold a press briefing, and sometimes they don't. Are there any rules of thumb as to when you offer statements or information from the coach that has been let go or when you don't, or is that just kind of a situation?
RANDY BURNSIDE: My personal experience with it, I would say it depends on how amicable the divorce is, to be honest with you. If the coach is leaving under a bad situation, it may not be in the best interest to do that. On the other hand, it might be something where the coach on the way out has asked a favor to do that just so they can avoid phone calls or media inquiries later.
I just think it depends on the situation whether or not you do that.
We've done that both ways in my tenure here at Marshall. I think it just depends on the situation, whether it's appropriate or not.
SHELLY POE: Anybody else have any thoughts on that?
ROY PICKERILL: I totally agree that it is a unique situation. Every situation is different. You just got to use your common sense whether it's appropriate or not.
SHELLY POE: We have another question here. It's come to someone's attention that Tennessee athletic director retweeted positive coverage of a new men's basketball coach. Is it common for an AD to do this and is this something you think we're going to see more of from athletic departments and communication staffs?
RANDY BURNSIDE: I don't know how common it is, but I think it's definitely going to be something we see more of here in the future. I know personally my athletic director would not be using social media to that degree. But I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. If the director of athletics wants to communicate to constituency groups that way, again, he's making a hire and, of course, he's going to want to put the best face on it as he can and promote it.
I think in the future, that's just the way people are going to communicate. It's the way we're communicating now. More power to him if he wants to do that.
SHELLY POE: Maybe Jennifer could address this. Do you think we're in a situation where our administrators and people are expecting more of an event or buzz from a hiring situation as opposed to just making a hire and here is the information?
JENNIFER RODRIGUES: I think maybe this depends on the sport as well. If you're talking about one of your major programs, sure, sometimes it probably does turn into more than an event. Again, the situations can be different. If all the information is leaked out in advance, you know, is it more of a press conference to get that coach in front of everybody versus this dog and pony show of look who we've hired, all that.
I think, again, we're all heading towards the social media side of things whether or not or administrators are doing that as well. We would be sending it out on our own Facebook and Twitter accounts. As long as it's positive feedback, obviously you want to get as much bang for your buck, so.
SHELLY POE: Chris, is that something you all have used, social media, in that perspective?
CHRIS ATWOOD: Yes, we've used the social media outlets, particularly Facebook, for stuff like that, and received very positive feedback.
I think it's just a way to continue to get a positive spin out there and promote your programs.
SHELLY POE: We have another question. Jennifer mentioned reaching out to perhaps the SID, place where a new coach is coming from. Do you feel it is good on the other end, if you have a coach going somewhere, that it's appropriate to call the SID and introduce the coach, maybe their habits?
JENNIFER RODRIGUES: I think if it's handled correctly. If you're just calling to say, Oh, gosh, watch out for this guy (laughter). That may be helpful in a certain aspect, but you also don't want to taint that person in advance of them having the opportunity to meet that coach themselves.
But, sure, I think SIDs are pretty much an honest breed anyway in that when you're calling or contacting the other SID to get a head shot even. A lot of times I get feedback, He was a great guy, I miss him, stuff like that. I think it's good to have that open feedback. But I think probably you'd probably see more of the SID calling the previous school saying, How should I react with this particular person?
SHELLY POE: Or how have you handled things, what is your protocol?
CHRIS ATWOOD: On that last point on Jennifer's answer, I think with the new hiring, I think SIDs definitely do communicate, and probably should, some of these coaches may travel around the area, the region that you're in quite often. So I think there's going to be a certain level of (indiscernible).
It's been my experience if we're bringing in a new coach from somewhere, the SID nine times out of ten has contacted me to say, Hey, look, this guy is great. Here is how you're going to work with him, that type of thing. I haven't really experienced the coach leaving, but I would definitely tend to do the same should I encounter that situation.
So I just think to reiterate Jennifer's point, it's sort of something that does happen and probably should.
SHELLY POE: Here is a question. Coaching vacancy, current assistants are seeking the job. How are you advising them to deal with the media?
RANDY BURNSIDE: That's a great question, Shelly.
Basically it's been my experience here, and I've been through a couple of unique situations, one of which we had a staff where the head coach was let go prior to a tough game. All the assistants coached the Bowl game without the head coach. That made for a very unique Bowl experience, to say the least.
But with that said, I thought everyone was really professional in the way that they handled themselves. We actually won the Bowl game, surprisingly, with all of the off-the-field distractions that came with it.
But what I would recommend to an assistant, because you're going to build relationships with your assistant coaches just as you do with your head coaches, depending on the situation, it may be different at different schools, but I'd just be frank and honest with them. Honesty always works best in that kind of situation.
In all likelihood, in our particular situation at that time, none of those guys were going to get that job. There were a few of them that shared with me and we talked. It's nothing about them not being good enough or right for the job. Maybe down the road they will be. It just wasn't the right time to politic for the job publicly for people in that situation.
I think some of those guys took my advice on that and are better for it.
To go back a little bit to the other question before about talking to SID and the go-between there, you don't want to burn any bridges at all. Maybe I've been lucky, but I keep up relationships with most of our former coaches. I think they're good, professional relationships. You never know when your paths are going to cross again, and how valuable that can be to you in your career and in their careers.
This business is filled with a lot of crazy quirks that can happen. At the end of the day it's all about the relationship building and who you know, how you got there. I think as long as you keep up that positive relationship with folks and be upbeat and positive, that good things will happen.
As far as assistants politicking for jobs, I would stay out of it for the most part, but just advise them on the lay of the land.
SHELLY POE: Before anybody else chimes in, can I also add in, too. You have the current staff member perhaps trying for the job. How are we going to advise our student-athletes about sharing their feelings, because they're certainly going to be asked by the media.
RANDY BURNSIDE: You know, you see that a lot, where kids are put in a bad spot. I've told our kids through those situations just to stay focused on their sport. If you're asked about it, say that you have a lot of respect for the coach that's coaching you or that did coach you and you wish him the best, and that you have all the confidence in our administration to hire the right guy or gal moving forward.
SHELLY POE: Good advice.
RANDY BURNSIDE: That's easier said than done, though (laughter).
SHELLY POE: Anybody else have any thoughts on that?
I guess we will start to wrap it up here. I just want to check and see if anyone has any closing thoughts from the panel of something maybe we haven't covered or something they wanted to reiterate? Start with Randy.
RANDY BURNSIDE: Shelly, one thing that I want to put out there, as well. When you're dealing with one of these changes, take full advantage of the honeymoon period. Your coach is going to have a honeymoon period in the job. In a lot of ways you're going to have a honeymoon period with that coach.
Make yourself visible, be around, let him know that you're a valuable resource, and good things will happen from that.
SHELLY POE: Chris, any thoughts?
CHRIS ATWOOD: I just want to thank everybody else for being here and offering such great insight. If there's one thing I wanted to reiterate, especially coming from a small Division III department, it's that communication is essential. Make yourself available to these new coaches, let them know what you can offer, like Randy said, always have that open-door policy and you'll be successful.
SHELLY POE: I think that's excellent.
Roy, any last thoughts from you?
ROY PICKERILL: I tell you what, this has been very informative for myself. I've picked up some new ideas. But, once again, I do want to suggest that, please, when you do get a new coach, physically take them down to the media and have them meet them one-on-one. That's a good opportunity for them to understand what's going on down at their media outlet, what their policy, procedures, some of the positive, some of the negative things that are going on. That's the big point of my emphasis.
SHELLY POE: Face-to-face, I don't think you can ever underestimate that.
ROY PICKERILL: Not in this day of email and everything else. We've lost our touch with physically meeting people in person.
SHELLY POE: Jennifer, any last thoughts from you?
JENNIFER RODRIGUES: Everybody pretty much summed it up. It's very important to get that communication being and making sure that you're visible to that coach. Try to help guide them. Be sympathetic to what they're dealing with, as well. Offer even an air just to listen to what they're going through and try to help them along as well.
As I said, sometimes you're dealing with a brand-new head coach who may be young and not be real sure of what they're doing. You need to get them with the media. Probably it's our job to get them out in the community as well. When you have athletic directors who are anxious to be selling tickets and season tickets, all that stuff, too, you can't forget about the community that's out there and wants the coach to be visible, as well.
SHELLY POE: I have one last question that maybe somebody would like to take a shot at. They're curious to hear opinions about using your institutional media, your website, your Facebook, your Twitter to break the hire and/or have the first interview with your new coaches. How do you feel about that and do you think that's a trend that we're headed towards?
JENNIFER RODRIGUES: I see that as something we're headed towards. I don't know that I would be comfortable doing that when you're trying to especially build the relationships with your beat writers and other local TVs. It also depends on the market that you're dealing with, I think. If you're in Memphis, we have four TV stations, we have a major local newspaper and countless radio shows, all that stuff. I just think that maybe you might actually hurt some of your media relations by trying to be that media outlet for your own website and everything.
RANDY BURNSIDE: Shelly, I agree with Jennifer on that in a lot of ways. I think a lot of folks are moving in that direction. The direct communication with your fan base through the Internet and your social media. But I worry about the relationship we have with the traditional media outlets. I think you also have to take into account your situation and your location.
Some of our institutions, you may be located in a city with a lot of professional sports teams or other universities you're competing with for time in that media market. When you do something like that, which to me is basically competing directly with those media outlets, they may decide to go another route in filling their pages and so forth.
I think that's a very dangerous slope you have to be aware of before you decide to go out and basically declare war on your local media. That's something that I don't think I'm willing to do here. We value our relationships with the three or four TV stations that we deal with and the three daily papers that cover us regularly because they do have other options. When the folks come down to Huntington for a football practice from the Charleston newspapers, for example, they do have a choice. They could go to Morgantown, Columbus or Lexington. We want those pages to have Marshall in it so we're going to do everything we can to help them.
I don't think it's a bad thing to have more information out there on your university as opposed to less just because you're trying to break the stories and become the media.
JENNIFER RODRIGUES: I think that's probably another topic for a call in the future. The relations become the media outlet. There are times when we sit here and we think about we have videos we want to put up, we want to make sure we're doing it on our time. I think that's the balance we're all trying to find, is when we are media relations and trying to be the go-between between the university and the media, and all of a sudden we become the media outlet.
SHELLY POE: When meeting your new coach for the first time, should you stick typically to just media needs and information or is it okay to go into other aspects of the program? Since SIDs typically travel, know a lot about the program, how far should you go in some of those initial meetings giving information or offering advice?
ROY PICKERILL: The main thing, you just want to cover their hiring first and then you later on tackle the other questions or policies later because your focus should be totally on the coach's hiring for the job and giving them the opportunities, the expectations of dealing with the media as they're being hired. The travel policies, those will come later. But the concentration should be on getting that coach publicity, letting that coach meet the media and understanding what they need and let them understand what he would like to see or she would like to see.
RANDY BURNSIDE: I agree with Roy on that. I think your initial meeting hopefully occurs before your introduction, whether it's a press conference or what you have going on.
In my experiences, what I've done is basically prepare the coach for what to expect that day and maybe that week. We're going to have a press conference at 3:00, coach. Here are the people you're going to meet. We have a couple people in the media, which it's a columnist or local media that does your coach's show that we'd like for you to sit down with beforehand and brief them on that sort of thing, get them through the day.
Basically what you say there that goes a long way, Here is my card, cell phone, home phone, call me anytime 24 hours a day, I'm here for you to help. If your wife or family needs some suggestions on this or that, my wife is more than happy to help or find what school you want to put your kids in, things like that early on can really go a long way in building that relationship.
Then you get into all of the other stuff later on. Tell them then, Coach, once things settle down a little bit I want to get in to talk to you about things, I have some ideas, I know you have some ideas, I want to make sure we're all on the same page moving forward so we can do what's best for your program. I think that really goes a long way in the initial meetings when you approach it like that.
SHELLY POE: I think it is helpful. Our expertise is in communications and media strategy. To really hit hard on that at the beginning is a most important component.
I think that about wraps us up on time. Appreciate everybody joining us today. Appreciate everybody's patience. We had a few technical issues, but I think we've gotten a lot of great information out of this.
I want to thank our panelists again not just for taking their time to put this together but for providing their expertise and some of their experiences to help all of us the next time we have a coaching change.
Watch for updates. We'll have some more continuing education calls in April and on into May and June. Thanks very much for joining us. Have a good afternoon.

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