Rollo, your posts are interesting. The indignant comment about the barbers chair sounds like sarcasm. If it's not sarcasm, that tells me a lot.
Trusting you are interested in learning facts about the athletic department, I encourage you to contact Ryan Ivey telling him you have some questions that you would like to sit down with him to discuss. I guarantee that he would love to do that. However, if you are one of those that will just look him in the face and call him a liar, like some have, don't do it. Ryan is one of the most ethical people I have ever met. For example, he insisted on self reporting transgressions of previous administrations knowing full well the ramifications would be harsh, and if we didn't self report, chances are it never would be discovered by the NCAA. He was very clear, and supported by the university administration, that SFA athletics was going to do things the moral and ethical way.
Hopefully, you aren't one of those that would like to talk to Ryan, but say that "it just wouldn't look good." I will never understand that level of thinking. That certainly is not how organizations get better. And, if you support any faculty member that publicly castigates a student simply because he or she is an athlete, then don't waste Ryan's time. An adult that does that to a kid should not be teaching at any place at any level. They clearly have lost their way.
Finally Rollo, I'm sure you have seen the Elevate SFA video. Very well done, I think. Watch the part done by Avery Brittingham. Then watch it again. And, again. That is what the SFA athletic department is about. There are many, many stories of kids that would not be at SFA, and making appropriate progress to a degree, if not for athletics. Learn about what goes on in athletics that has nothing to do with winning games, but everything to do with helping them to become successful adults. Get to know the kids. Many are first generation, with single or no parents, growing up dirt poor. Athletics is the door to their way to a better life for them and their family.
Trusting you are interested in learning facts about the athletic department, I encourage you to contact Ryan Ivey telling him you have some questions that you would like to sit down with him to discuss. I guarantee that he would love to do that. However, if you are one of those that will just look him in the face and call him a liar, like some have, don't do it. Ryan is one of the most ethical people I have ever met. For example, he insisted on self reporting transgressions of previous administrations knowing full well the ramifications would be harsh, and if we didn't self report, chances are it never would be discovered by the NCAA. He was very clear, and supported by the university administration, that SFA athletics was going to do things the moral and ethical way.
Hopefully, you aren't one of those that would like to talk to Ryan, but say that "it just wouldn't look good." I will never understand that level of thinking. That certainly is not how organizations get better. And, if you support any faculty member that publicly castigates a student simply because he or she is an athlete, then don't waste Ryan's time. An adult that does that to a kid should not be teaching at any place at any level. They clearly have lost their way.
Finally Rollo, I'm sure you have seen the Elevate SFA video. Very well done, I think. Watch the part done by Avery Brittingham. Then watch it again. And, again. That is what the SFA athletic department is about. There are many, many stories of kids that would not be at SFA, and making appropriate progress to a degree, if not for athletics. Learn about what goes on in athletics that has nothing to do with winning games, but everything to do with helping them to become successful adults. Get to know the kids. Many are first generation, with single or no parents, growing up dirt poor. Athletics is the door to their way to a better life for them and their family.
