Setting priorities with the athletic director

When it comes to how Portland State athletics did in the 2008–09 season, Athletic Director Torre Chisholm is mostly pleased.

“It was a year of a lot of good and some bad,” he said. “Competitively, we had a very successful year. I’d say it obviously also had its challenges dealing with the [Academic Progress Report] issues and the very difficult discussions and decisions related to the wrestling program.”

The year saw the Vikings win Big Sky Tournament Championships for men’s basketball and volleyball, and a Pacific Coast Softball Conference title for softball.

Along with on-the-field highlights, Portland State athletics made strides off the field as well.

Chisholm cited “significant strides” in the student-athlete support service program. By the end of the summer, the academic services area will have tripled the support staff.

The program just completed a 14-month, campus-wide task force aimed at improving student-athlete graduation rates as well.

“We think there are some things, from small little details like adding wireless service in various areas of the Stott Center, to more significant details, including focus on fifth-year scholarship aid for student-athletes who have exhausted eligibility,” Chisholm said.

“We’re trying to implement a wide range of those things, including a new life skills program for student-athletes that we think will create an environment where we’re providing the necessary support.”

Coaches are also focusing more on pursuing athletic recruits who are a good fit for Portland State academically.

“At the end of the day, it’s the student-athletes who have to go to class, write the papers and study for the tests, and there is only so much of that that we can control.”

As for things he wishes had gone differently this year, Chisholm said that the APR issues and difficulties retaining coaches and staff are the areas of top concern.

“We’ve amazingly been able to hire excellent replacements, but at the same time it’s hard and it wears on a program with the turnover that we continue to have,” Chisholm said of retaining head coaches.

With that, he hopes to continue to grow the school’s tradition as well as seek out coaches who truly want to be at Portland State, rather than just a head coach.

“We’ve moved to the point where we’ve actually established a level of program that is not all driven by the coach—we’ve established ourselves as having support systems and an athletic program that can produce success, even in the face of head coaching transitions,” Chisholm said.

Due to the current economic situation, an area that has not seen much advancement is the Stott Center renovation. Chisholm said the department has established a need, but they are still in discussion.

When it comes to funding the renovation, “First and foremost, it’s going to be through fundraising. If we do it, it’s a campus-wide commitment and it has to be something that is not just athletics off on its own doing this project. Everybody would have a role in the process,” Chisholm said.

“We have all the other aspects of the program—quality coaches, support for the program—all the things that we need. Really the only significant missing piece is a facility comparable to other Division I programs.”

This year, attendance increased for all sports except for football. Chisholm and the athletic department are still working on ways to increase those levels.

“Is any of it to my satisfaction? Absolutely not. To be honest, I won’t be satisfied until the Stott is packed for every men’s and women’s basketball game, and have pretty good crowds for volleyball, and I won’t be satisfied with football until we’re averaging 14,000–15,000 fans per game. So we still have a lot of work to go there, but the trends look promising,” Chisholm said.

The athletics department’s strategies for increasing attendance include marketing differently to varying demographics. The plan for attracting students is to use nontraditional media methods, including Twitter and Facebook, and continuing the text-messaging program from this year.

Along with the time frame of the Stott Center renovation up in the air due to financial issues, there are other athletic areas being hit with a budget crunch.

Chisholm is already predicting scholarship and fundraising issues and admits there will be a budget reduction next year, but the department is waiting to see what happens at the state level before making significant changes.

“I commend our staff for really embracing that this has to be done. We’re going to get through it, and we’re going to work together,” Chisholm said.

“We’re playing an extra home football game this year, which reduces our travel expense. On top of that, we have two other trips that are bus trips, so we only get on a plane three times this year for football, which is a really significant decrease in travel expense,” Chisholm said.

The main issue will be how to accomplish all of these goals for 2009–10 while also tightening the financial belt.