Utah Lacrosse Press Conference Transcript

Utah Athletic Director Dr. Chris Hill Opening Statement:

Welcome everybody. This is probably not the biggest surprise press conference that I've ever had because I think the word has been out for quite awhile that we're very interested in this. But I think one of the most important things to understand is that this is our first ever transition of a club team to a varsity sport. Because of that big move, it's an opportunity and a necessity for the University to take the appropriate steps because it is the University and the community that supports athletics. The President put together a committee of representatives around the community and also the state for our committee. I need to read them off, and they've all worked so hard. Our chair was Harriet Hopf, she's the senior special assistant to the office for faculty. Kyle Brennan, he's my deputy athletics director, Phil Clinger on our board of trustees, Sandy Hughes, she's in budget and analysis from the Park Building, Howard Lehman who's our athletic advisory council chair, Xan Johnson from the faculty senate, Laura Snow from the President's office and development, and Barb Snyder who is here over student affairs and has been a tremendous support for me all the time in this process. I would be remiss if I didn't say that Kyle Brennan did the yeomen's work of putting this all together both in putting the financial gift together and also making sure that we've had as smooth a transition as possible.

One of the things that we have to do and choose to do and want to do as a University is provide as many opportunities as we can for students. I need to make sure that the lacrosse men who play in this program, I can make you a guarantee when you're 50 years old, you're going to run into somebody and they're going to say 'tell me about yourself.' This is what you're going to say if you have a family, you're going to say 'I'm married, have children, I was born here, here's my job, and I played lacrosse at the University of Utah.' I can promise you. Those of us who have had that special privilege, that's something that you'll remember forever. It's an experience that's unique. You'll be part of 450 athletes on a 32,000 campus. Barb [Snyder] is the one who is in charge of making all these wonderful students at our campus and also involved in the club sports. If you think about that opportunity, I'm pretty happy today to say for generations we're going to have people who are going to end a sentence describing themselves that they played men's lacrosse at the University of Utah. Our vision as an athletic department and a University is to be innovative leaders. I think this gives us a chance to do that. This will give us 20 sports, which puts us right in the middle of the Pac-12 in terms of number of sports. It will help with our academics and we feel quite clearly it will engage the community. They just added lacrosse in the Utah High School Activities Association. Adding a sport today is a very difficult thing. It happens and there needs to be a lot of steps along the way that this committee has done and worked with in terms of interest and community. Also, you don't do a sport today without an endowment to help get that going. That is the model around the country for adding new sports. We are so gracious and appreciative of the donations that we have received. I know people in the community, because I'll be knocking on your door, will continue to help us more and more on making this program an A+. I really appreciate that. It's an opportunity for us to have success. We're very fortunate that Brian Holman is here with the great experience that he's had and the type of person he is and the type of program that he will run. We'll be starting in 2018-19. It's my pleasure to turn the time over to Brian, the new head coach at the University of Utah starting in September, 2018.

Utah Head Lacrosse Coach Brian Holman Opening Statement:

Thank you Dr. Hill, I appreciate it very much. It's an absolute honor to be sitting up here in front of everybody. You're just going to have to bear with me a little bit, this is a long time in the making. It's funny, I always talk to the team about stories or jokes, I always try to bring some things into light, and as they know and as my assistants know, I'm not very technologically advanced. This phone is really a telephone for me. I do like to text. But one thing I do like to do on this thing is take pictures. It's funny, the other day I was scrolling back through the photos I had, and I came across the first pictures I took when I visited the University of Utah the first time. And ironically enough, the date on those pictures was June 18 of last summer. So almost one year to the day was the first day I set foot on this unbelievably gorgeous campus and really felt that this could become something extremely special. So I'm honored to sit here in front of all of you and Dr. Hill, I thank you so much for all of your hard work and your support during this process. I'm going to start thanking people, and you're just going to have to bear with me a little bit. It starts with the good Lord leading us here and my family and myself, and guiding us through this process. It goes on to my beautiful wife Laurie of 30 years. I tell the boys that all the time, I'm so proud of that. More proud of that than anything that I've done in my life by far. And my awesome kids. Matthew came home from Baltimore last night to be here and Sydney just graduated from the University of North Carolina, a superstar in her own right on the lacrosse field. Probably the toughest kid that I know, having played through two ACL tears and never missed a beat, never redshirted, and then obviously my other son Marcus, my middle son, who I'm blessed to be able to have as part of our staff, which is really an honor, and that again is something that's beyond belief to be able to do something like this with one of your children is unbelievable. So thank you all for allowing me to be here, thank you all for allowing me to chase dreams. Usually it works the other way around. My family encourages me and pushes me to chase my dreams and I hope that I do the same with them. I want to thank my staff. I mentioned Marcus, Will Manny is here, Adam Ghitelman had to leave, he's actually headed out to recruit and he has a game tomorrow with the MLL [Major League Lacrosse]. These three guys are here for a reason. It's not because they're three of the best lacrosse players in the country. It's not because they're three captains of their MLL teams. There's only nine teams in the league and we have three captains on our staff. They were chosen to be here because they have the energy and the commitment and the passion and the love and the drive and the spirit to coach young men. I'm obviously most familiar with Marcus, having raised him, but that's not why he's here. He's here because of those reasons. I truly believe that we have one of the best if not the best staffs, and I think our players would agree wholeheartedly, in the country. Does that mean we're going to win? No. It means we're going to work hard. We're going to have the parts of the puzzle that we believe will help us compete at the highest levels. Thank you guys for making this journey. A leap of faith. It was truly a leap of faith, to extend yourselves to come out here, and what you've done in this community so far is beyond belief, and that will continue to grow, so I appreciate you guys and thank you for being here. I want to go to President Pershing and the Board of Trustees, Dr. Hopf and Barb and your committee and Kyle and the committee and Dr. Hill, again, thank you for allowing this to happen, and bringing our family and our staff into this unbelievable University. And I say that, I'm fortunate to have a year to work here and I don't really work here. It's really been awesome. It's been great to meet the people and get a feel for this school, and as I felt it from the day I came out here, the potential for the University of Utah to do something special in the sport of lacrosse is as high as any place in the country right now and we will do our best, our darn best, as a staff and as a program to uphold the standards that Utah has set and hopefully we'll raise the bar a little bit higher. I appreciate all of your support and I'm very grateful to be in front of everyone today. I want to move on to the founder and the founders. Without the support of the community - we have well over 100 donors right now in the founders club and I think that's climbing on a regular basis. This was interesting because it's almost like putting a team together and playing a game and having groups prepare. You have the administrative piece and then we have the community piece then we have the staff and the players and over the course of the year, all of those pieces continued to focus on the end goal, on what was right and how are we going to accomplish this mission together. And I think that power really was the major influence on bringing all of this together and to fruition. Everyone in the community had a role. Every single person from the little kids back there wearing their Utes hat and their Utes lacrosse stuff, I love it. Thank you guys for being here. We're going to have more of that when Denver and Carolina roll into town, you guys will be able to see the highest level of lacrosse besides the MLL in the country and I can't wait to see all those young kids in the stands. Really appreciating what this sport will do for us. So the founders club, without it, it would have never happened. Never happened. I want to thank the team this past year. Put some smiles on your faces boys, we had a blast, alright! It was the craziest, wackiest thing that I might have ever been a part of, and it taught me so much. I appreciate everything that you guys did, the effort that you put forth. I think you had a huge, huge difference in this process. The way you handled yourself on the field, the effort that you put in day in and day out was more than you guys bargained for, and we're going to continue to build off of that. We've only scratched the surface. We've literally just scratched the surface, so be prepared. I've warned you guys coming back in the fall, I love those smiles now, but you probably won't be smiling about September 6. So I appreciate the effort, I appreciate the honesty, I appreciate the loyalty and the trust that you guys showed our staff, again, to ingratiate us into this community and making us feel at home, and the support staff, I know that Coach [Parker] Teagle's here, and [trainer] Megan [Pales] is here, you guys were fantastic. Tim Haslam - gosh, how many hats do you have Tim? Like, 55? Again, not to keep going on, I could go on forever, and I don't want to miss people that were very close to making this work. All the pieces came together, I think we're all blessed to be able to pull this off. Ultimately, I just want to thank the lacrosse community in general. I don't think the people in this room realize how important this move is to our sport and the growth and for all these young kids westward that technically don't have a home. I've heard a thousand times out on the recruiting trail and out talking to parents, 'gosh, we hope this happens. We pray this happens. This will give us another opportunity to play lacrosse at the highest levels without having to go back east and you make it a lot easier on a lot of people and we hope that comes to fruition.' But the lacrosse community in general has been extremely supportive. The texts and emails that we've gotten all across the board from almost everybody involved. And that's what makes our sport special. That's what makes our sport unique. It is a community sport. It's a sport about trust and spirit. It has a spirit inside of it that lives on, past and what Dr. Hill said earlier, when you go on and say you're a Utah lacrosse player, when you meet a person that says they're a Marquette lacrosse player or a Michigan lacrosse player, all of a sudden there's a connection. And that connection happens instantaneously. And that is one of the beauties and probably one of the strongest parts and one of the reasons we love our sport so much. So all those things combined, led us to this point. I'll shut up now, but I appreciate everybody so much and just thank you for being here and thank you for this wonderful opportunity Chris Hill.

How big of a jump is this going from club to the NCAA and do you anticipate it will take a few years to be competitive at that level?

Holman: It's a big jump. The reality is that you're going through three to four layers of competition to reach the highest level. I recognize that, our staff recognizes that. I think that the advantage that we have is that we're all very familiar with that level, and we know what it takes to compete there. Do I anticipate some time to get us up? Yes, that's reality. We'll see. But we're going to do everything it takes to get there as fast as we possibly can.

Forgive me one second. Two people I'm remiss in forgetting, Kyle Brennan and Manny Hendrix. Without your faith and support and just holding me together at times, this would have never happened. So I greatly appreciate all that you did for me during this time, so thank for that.

I understand that [Pac-12 Commissioner] Larry Scott endorsed the idea for you to add this sport. Obviously you will be the only team in the Pac-12 and you're kind of on an island with Denver and Air Force. Do you anticipate a few more teams will join and the Pac-12 will have a conference for you to play in?

Hill: I don't want to put pressure on my other fellow AD's - we're in a bunker together against the world. One thing I wanted to say before, some people have asked the same question, and I thought this morning, how would Coach Whittingham feel if he had the entire Western part of the country to recruit, and nobody else close. That would be pretty cool.

Holman: Thank you [laughter]. I agree!

Hill: That makes it a little nicer. In some ways, that's why we wanted to be a leader, and in a way, we think there are other schools on the edge of wanting to do that. I know Larry [Scott] is very supportive of lacrosse. So we're hoping that happens, because everything we do we want to make sure that we're an innovator in the Pac-12 and they need six teams to do that. So without putting pressure on others, I know it's a high, high interest sport in the west, which puts us in a really good position. Larry is actually one of the people who met with the committee and talked a little bit about it. They had meetings all the time it seemed, and so I hope that answers your question.

What will be the initial scholarship offering for lacrosse? How will that ramp up?

Hill: We're starting off with a basic program. There's 12.6 scholarships allowed. We'll probably start around eight and start to move up through the program. That's what we plan now. In a program like this you want to make sure you grab the best opportunity, so the limit by NCAA standards is 12.6. We may not start at that, but at the same time when you run into the greatest guy in the world, well, why don't we just go to nine scholarships because this is going to be the person that comes to the promised land. I've had those before - we've just got to do this and it will be the answer of all time.

What do you think this program can bring to a DI school?

Holman: Many things. Number one is the educational piece, because that's the first step in the process, is qualifying our guys academically. Are they the type of student-athlete that we want to be here? I think we'll bring a high level of academics. Our GPA minimum on our team as an average will be a 3.0 and above. We're going to strive and we'll achieve that. I think that's number one. I think we'll bring a large sense of community. I think some of that showed up in a couple of our club games last year. We put a lot of people in the stands and I think that's only going to grow. Part of our responsibility goes back to the community. That's a huge part. Our players being involved with the youth leagues and our coaches going out and giving free clinics, and encouraging and engaging that community and those kids to want to be a Ute and be part of our family. I think that's going to be a fun part of the process. And I think we'll bring recognition to the University. Our plans are to compete at the highest levels, and to compete against the best of the best and have what we believe are the makings of one of the top programs, if not the best program, in the country. Along with all that comes some level of recognition, right? I think that's one of the reasons why we're excited. It's not what the University did for us it's what we're going to end up in turn doing for the University in the long run, so I think it's a great partnership.

Some other MCLA (Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association) have made this jump - Michigan comes to mind. Curious about what you hope you can accomplish in your first five years?

Holman: It's isn't easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it, right? But I think that's part of the challenge. That excites our staff, is what level can we do it? I do believe our experience at that level will pay dividends. No discredit to Michigan, but there is a big difference in coaching club lacrosse your whole life vs. coaching Division I lacrosse your whole life and then moving down. I think it's a lot harder to work your way up that ladder. I think what I'm hoping, what I believe, is our experience competing at the highest levels - North Carolina and Johns Hopkins for myself, North Carolina for my son, University of Massachusetts for Will, University of Virginia national championships for Adam - like I said earlier, I think we know what it takes to play in that arena, but time will tell. We'll take it one day at a time and try to build the strongest group of young men that we can and that's the process. Because it is a process.

Can you give us some insight as to what you hope might transpire for this team in terms of a lacrosse facility?

Hill: The team uses right now a lot of facilities on campus. Campus recreation has opportunities as we all know. You have to make that all part of the puzzle. We have a women's soccer stadium right now that will be used. The soccer team plays in the fall, their games, and lacrosse in the spring. Lacrosse can also practice more on an artificial surface than a soccer team can, so they'll use the McCarthy Field. The University has a master plan. Go around this campus, there is a lot of building going on, but all of that will blend in. The University has been very supportive of understanding that athletics needs the appropriate facilities to run a Division I program. Right now we have some things in place and those will be what it will be for the next few years, but as the University unfolds more and more about a master plan, there may be opportunities for us to grow as the whole thing grows, but I'll work out just fine that way for our initial program.

When can the program begin offering scholarships?

Hill: They can't have a scholarship until 2018-19.
Holman: National Letters of Intent gets signed in the fall.

What kind of research did the University do and why lacrosse?

Dr. Hopf: We started off being asked to look at adding a new sport in general, and lacrosse was a sport that we had an opportunity to add. Then we spoke to pretty much everyone you could - [athletics Chief Financial Officer] Steve Smith, Larry Scott, Brian Holman, donors, [Senior Women's Administrator] Nona Richardson about Title IX, we looked at financial stability, we talked to [Vice President] Fred Esplin about what a donor agreement would look like. We pretty much talked to everyone we could, and I would say when we started the process, we could mostly see a lot of problems that we weren't sure this was a good idea. And as we talked to everybody we kept getting more 'this is a great idea' column answers, and the 'this is a bad idea' column answers went away. I think we did a very thorough job of talking to anyone who could be talked to.

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Utah Lacrosse Press Conference Transcript

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