Five questions for MSSU athletics director Jared Bruggeman

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June 18, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Thu Jun 18, 2009, 12:06 AM CDT

1. What attracted you to the job?

Jared Bruggeman answers: “What really attracted me to the job is I’ve been at a Division II school (North Dakota), was a Division II athlete. I like the Division II mentality. I’ve worked at both Division II and Division I. I like the MIAA. It’s a great league. We’re Midwestern people ... we lived in Iowa. You read about the campus, you read about Sallie (Beard) and all the years of experience, all the things they’ve done here. You read about the new president coming in and there are facilities coming up. All the things seemed really right, so I threw my name in the hat, not knowing what to expect.”

2. What is your first priority as athletics director at Missouri Southern?

Bruggeman: “The first thing, I have to get to know the staff, get to know the people in the community, get to know the people on campus. Then I’m going to be looking at what are we doing, what do we need to do in the future. Do we have to change things to get to where we want to be. That will be starting from Day 1, and a year from now I’m sure we’ll be talking about some of the same things, what are we trying to do and how are we going to get there. But the first step is getting to know all the people, getting to know all the players, getting to know who’s involved in the decisions and getting to know who has great ideas.”

3. What are your early thoughts about the athletics department here?

Bruggeman: “I think it’s great. There are certainly some facility issues (for baseball and football), but the basketball arena, what more could you ask for. The indoor track, volleyball having its separate facility gives them a freedom to do some things they want to do. I think the department is in really good shape, and Sallie deserves a lot of credit for that. It wasn’t like that at Northern Arizona where they were over budget by $2 million. Things are in good shape here. It’s just a matter of what can we do to enhance it.”

4. In these difficult economic times, how do you stretch the budget?

Bruggeman: “There are a lot of things you can do, and it’s not just being thrifty. There are a lot of internal things you can do, and it’s not cutting back. Things you are doing, do it more efficiently. We want to look at the Lionbackers Club and see what we doing there. Are there things we can do to enhance that program, get more people involved. What can we do to make it even bigger and better. There are a lot of things out there that can be explored. I have a pretty extensive list of things I’ve tried at both North Dakota and Northern Arizona. Some worked, and some didn’t. It didn’t work because it just didn’t fit the mold of that school or that community, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work somewhere else.”

5. Do you have any concerns coming from Division I to Division II?

Bruggeman: “There are less revenue streams available in Division II than Division I as far as at the national level. (Division I) gets money from the NCAA based on the CBS contract. We get basketball revenues, and there are more academic support revenues from the NCAA. You have more coming in on a stable basis, but, quite honestly, the issues are the same. I don’t think there is going to be any issues at all with the transition.”

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