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Makin It Happen Love Story ASU Athletic Director Lisa Love not only enjoys the high-risk, high-reward aspect of her job - she thrives on it, and the Sun Devils are reaping the benefits. How many people can honestly claim they "adore" what they do for a living? We know one. "I listened to a survey the other day on a radio station and they were asking who in the United States has the highest degree of job satisfaction," Arizona State Athletic Director Lisa Love told POST. "They talked to a few career people and CEOs, people you would think would be high on the list. You know what the highest on the list was? Firemen. Because they're helping people, and they're part of a team every day." |
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The survey is particularly relevant, because for strikingly similar reasons, Lisa says she absolutely adores what she does. Arizona State's collective athletic prowess is well chronicled, and Love, day in and day out, gets to be located right at the heart of it all (her office is in the Carson Student-Athlete center, which also houses the coaches' offices, training rooms and weight rooms). "I get to see the student-athletes every day just in casual passing." Which affords her that fireman-like job satisfaction, knowing that every day, while working closely with everyone from coaches to student-athletes to the president of the university, all of whom share the common goal of keeping ASU's athletic and academic success in their crosshairs, her mission is to serve the interests of people she truly cares about. Not only that, but she gets to do it as part of a team, and there's a lot to be said for being able to share your success. "Without question," she says. As one of only six women who are currently ADs at Division I football-playing institutions across America, Love, as few people can say, is exactly where she envisioned herself being way back when she was still a grad student. "I look back on it, and when I was 24 years old I can recall thinking that it would be nice to be a Director of Athletics at a big football-playing institution." So after a decorated volleyball career as a player at Texas Tech, where she earned all-region honors, Lisa spent 17 seasons amassing over 400 wins as head women's volleyball coach at Texas Arlington, where she was named National Coach of the Year in 1988, and USC, where she led the Trojans to nine NCAA Tournament berths and eight top-15 finishes in the national rankings. Then, she says, she simply "had to make a career choice, to be perfectly honest." She opted for the administrative route, eventually becoming USC's Senior Associate Athletic Director before, in April of 2005, making a deal with the Devils. So what, you might wonder, does being the Athletic Director at a place like ASU actually entail? "Well, the position doesn't at all lend itself to being anonymous," was how Love described the visibility of her role. "There are a lot of constituencies that I serve as Director as Athletics. There are [donors], media, coaches, athletes, the president of the university, to name a few. That's one of the biggest challenges is being able to effectively serve each of those populations. I'll tell you that there are no two days that are alike in this job. A lot of things make it very vibrant, very exciting, very enriching, and very, very demanding." How demanding? Well, in addition to the daily duties - community relations, endless communication requirements, and just about anything else you can think of - there are the headaches that, no matter how well you plan, are always a possibility. Consider Indiana University and the sticky predicament it found itself in with head basketball coach Kelvin Sampson just a few months back. The Hoosiers were considered a national championship contender and on their way to a Big 10 title when Sampson was dinged for recruiting violations. Suddenly, a once-promising season was circling the drain, and it wasn't just Sampson's job that was in jeopardy; the AD who stuck his neck out by hiring Sampson was sweating as well. Sampson was ultimately relieved of his duties, and almost immediately the team sunk into a tailspin, eventually flaming out with a quiet first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament. Many felt that had Sampson stayed, the story, at least on the court, would have ended differently. And remember, while rules violations are obviously frowned upon, and can ultimately damage the reputation of the entire university, losing isn't exactly acceptable. At the end of the day, this is big, big business, and it's all predicated on winning. So we'll put it to you - what would you have done? Would you have hired Sampson, who has brought winning to every program he has guided, in the first place, considering that with his history of NCAA rules violations, things could potentially end up, well, the way they did for Indiana? Or would you go another route, and bring in a more politically correct candidate with little to offer as a proven winner? That's how Lisa Love earns her money, with an entire university, actually an entire state, watching, and waiting on high-profile decisions like that. Sure, that's an extreme example that certainly doesn't fall into the category of "daily routine," but it is a reality of Love's world. High pressure, high reward. She accepts the scrutiny and expectations that come with the territory mainly because, well, she doesn't mind any of it, and also because even if she did, the rest of her job is plenty cool enough to make up for it. "The reason that I'm in this is that the student-athletes are the center of the universe, if you will. College is about 18-year-olds, marching bands, alums. Every day I am surrounded by 18- to 20-year-olds, and it kind of keeps you young." And while we're on the topic of young, with the amount of money that's actually at stake for a university when these teams take the field, it can be easy to forget that the kids in the spotlight are, in fact, kids - impressionable amateurs who still need guidance. It's a delicate balance, and one that Love employs a simple approach to handling. "We believe very much that we are as much of an educational entity at ASU as any other division of the university. In fact, with a smile on our face, we call ourselves the sweaty liberal arts program. We teach leadership, focus, effort, how to be a teammate, all the things that we think bode well for citizenship and for being a successful person in society." Which is why Love refers to the leaders of ASU's respective teams not as coaches, but as master teachers. "We have surrounded ourselves with a long list of extraordinarily successful teachers. We talk a lot about our three-legged stool, with the pillars of our operation being our dedication to successful scholarship, which means our athletes graduating; dedication to competing with a high degree of integrity, which means working vigilantly to follow the rules; and a dedication to competitiveness, which means winning. And all of the employees understand that at the center of our world is education." That philosophy is working wonders so far. Love has been renowned for the strides ASU has taken under her leadership, and when you add to her professional success the fact that she has developed a deep affection for living in Arizona, don't expect ASU to be looking for an AD anytime soon. "People told me when I first moved here that there's a certain comfort. [The state] has grown so fast that it has not outgrown its friendliness, and I have found the people here to be very friendly. I've enjoyed very much my move to Arizona. I know it's a bustling area, but I like the eye contact and the casual conversations in the grocery store. It is a very comfortable place to be new." Especially if you're the outdoorsy type, which Love has always been. "In this metropolitan area, you still have an opportunity to look up and see the stars. The state is beautiful. This business of being able to get in your car and in two hours be at the rim of the Grand Canyon, it's intoxicating. Phoenix is one the most fabulous metropolitan hiking areas because of all the trails, being able to get out and see the desert in bloom. I enjoy that very much." One other thing she enjoys is the movie Hoosiers, which, after you hear her reasons why, makes a lot of sense. "I like the master coach, the team, the lessons that they learn, what they did for their community and the accomplishment at the end." With all the success she's enjoyed, you had to know she had a blueprint. |
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