Spring 2013 - Oglethorpe University

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WOMEN’S LACROSSE JOINS
THE STORMY PETRELS LINE-UP
Oglethorpe women’s lacrosse played its
inaugural game on February 20 against
LaGrange. The historic night also marked
the first official NCAA event on the new
Oglethorpe track and field.
Taking the
Stormy Petrels
to the Top
of Their GAME
By Debbie Aiken ’12
Two things are clear about Becky Hall,
Oglethorpe’s new athletic director: she is
passionate about taking the Stormy Petrels
to the next level, and she has a penchant
for acronyms.
A graduate of Urbana University, where
she was a star softball player, Becky joined
the Oglethorpe community in May 2012.
She spent the past 15 years systematically
working her way up the ranks in the athletic
department at Wittenberg University in
Springfield, OH, where she most recently
was the assistant athletics director.
Becky brings a hands-on, no-nonsense approach to her role, and she
doesn’t bother with fancy titles. “Some people call me Coach Hall or
Director Hall, but I’m really fine with just Becky,” she said. Becky can
be found at almost every athletic game, “usually announcing or selling
admission—I’m not above getting dirty.” She’s also jumped right into
making some changes in the athletic department, aiming for some lofty
goals.
“Oglethorpe is a great academic school,” said Becky. “It pushes students
outside of their comfort zone and makes them think more globally. That
is what I want our athletic department to do—to push our student athletes
out of their comfort zone and up to the next level.” To do this, Becky wants
coaches “to shoot for the stars. Within the next six or seven years,” she
said,” I want our teams to finish in the top three in the Southern Athletic
Association.”
Her plan for accomplishing this starts with one of her trusty acronyms.
“CODE,” Becky explained, “stands for communication, organization,
documentation and evaluation.” She is adamant about having frequent
communication with the 14 coaches she supervises—via email, text
message or face-to-face—however she can reach them. Becky wants to
know what all the coaches have planned for their teams, so that all teams
can share their ideas and resources. “In the past each team has done its
own thing,” she said, and she wants to change that.
Organization comes into play with some changes Becky has made to
the functionality of the athletic department to ensure everyone is working
together toward the same goals. “We are running a little differently,”
she said, “and it’s not just what I’m doing; it’s what we are all doing.”
One of the first things Becky organized was the creation of athletic study
tables, where four hours of studying each week is mandatory for students
struggling academically. No electronic devices are allowed during study
time, including laptops or cell phones.
“A few students have accused me of not living in this century,” Becky
admitted, but she wants her students to be focused on improving their
ability to “read, retain and reproduce” the material they are learning in
class. An unexpected benefit of these study hours is that even non-athlete
students are using the time to study. “It’s actually been quite rewarding for
both student athletes and the general student body because it’s quiet in the
dorms and it’s a good time to get some studying done,” she commented.
Documentation is important for tracking progress and determining which
strategies and tactics work and which don’t, to maximize effectiveness in
meeting goals. Yet perhaps most intriguing is CODE’s last component. Not
only will all coaches receive employee evaluations this year, but “student
athletes are evaluating their head coaches, something that’s never been
done before. That way we can see if we are providing the service and
experiences that benefit students most,” Becky said. At the same time, she
doesn’t take the coaches’ dedication for granted. “It’s a thankless, 24/7
job,” Becky said. “I try to start every coaches meeting by thanking them
for their hard work.”
Another acronym pops up when Becky explains the types of experiences
she wants to provide to student athletes. She calls it her GAME plan—
global, academic, mentoring and engagement. “Well, actually it’s
‘GAMES’, because I added an ‘S,’ for sportsmanship,” she said with a
smile. It starts with the global experiences that Becky hopes the athletes
will have. “Our teams are either going out of the country to compete, or
they are going to different parts of the country that they may have never
been to before,” she remarked.
Academic success is another important component essential for student
athletes’ overall success. “We want athletes to outperform the general
student population in the classroom,” Becky said. She supports this goal
by providing opportunities for current students and alumni to mentor
freshman athletes to help them become acclimated to the often rigorous
schedule student athletes must keep. Becky also wants to include a
component of community service engagement in her athletes’ experiences.
She explained that “it’s about getting all of our teams to rally behind a
couple of big service events as well as projects that they each do on their
own throughout the year.”
A new Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) helps to plan many
events throughout the year that are fun and make a difference in the
community. SAAC organized sports clinics for school-aged girls on
National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and will collaborate with the
Special Olympics to host an event next year. The SAAC also organizes
“black-outs” at home games to encourage attendees to support the Petrels
by wearing black. Many student athletes are looking forward to the first
annual athletic awards ceremony, which will bring together all of OU’s
sports teams to recognize the outstanding achievements of students.
Becky is full of enthusiasm for all of the projects under way in the athletics
department. “There is a lot of possibility here for us to go above and
beyond and to be better and actually be great, and that is what I would
like to see happen in my time here,” she said. She said that her own
mentor gave her good advice: “If you can leave something better than
you found it—that is a sign of success. So that’s my mantra. If the athletic
department is better 10 years from now, then I will consider my time here
a success.”
(left) Becky Hall,
holds the National
Championship
trophy won by the
2012 Oglethorpe’s
Men’s Golf team.
Pictured with Matt
Rebitch ’12 and
Jordan Hall ‘12.
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