Seton Hall Athletic Director Pat Lyons
What' are the most immediate renovations on the horizon for athletics? Any specific plans for Walsh Gymnasium or Owen T. Carroll Field?
-We’ve done a massive overhaul of all of our facilities here. Every team is in a new facility in some capacity. We’ve covered a lot. Moving forward we’re trying to undertake renovating the stands at Owen T. Carroll Field as well as trying to do something to modernize Walsh Gymnasium. Right now we’ve done a lot of feasibility studies, had some design firms in as well. These projects will be two of the biggest we’ve done for our facilities. It will take a little time to get there because we’re talking about a lot money to complete the undertakings.
We don’t want take away the historic feel of Walsh, but we really need to modernize it. The seating is original and the scoreboard needs updating. Definitely more creature comforts for our fans.
This summer, on a smaller scale we’re in the process of renovating the indoor batting cages for both baseball and softball.
What are Pirate Blue and the school doing to bring in more donors and more money? What is the importance of those donations with regard to athletics?
-I don’t think we’re doing anything differently other than trying to bring in as much money as we can. Pirate Blue is basically a similar setup as the fundraising office of the university. We’re always trying to do best practices when it comes to those things. Adding new events, talking to new people and always trying to engage the young alumni.
Money that’s raised goes directly into the athlete's experience. Having said all that we’re still not where we nee to be with Pirate Blue. While we’ve reached new highs we need need to continue to increase that number. That’s a process. Historically the school has had a lower alumni giving rate than other schools and I’m happy to report that number has increased.
We’ve really done a lot of outreach with the younger alums, especially with the athletes so that when they leave they know what Pirate Blue is and what we do. Our student athletes are leaving and having a phenomenal experience. It’s probably what we’re most proud of.
What does it mean for SHU athletics to lose Dr. Esteban as president as well as gain Dr. Mary Meehan?
-Gabe was absolutely fantastic for both Seton Hall and the athletic department. From the moment I met Gabe I knew he knew how important athletics was to Seton Hall. Because he embraced that it really allowed us to get our vision in place an execute it.
Having said that, having Dr. Meehan on board seems like we won’t miss a beat at all. She seems like a wonderful and supportive person of athletics. I’m excited to work with her as she seems to believe that athletics is a strategic initiative for the University. That’s all you can really ask for and I’ve been fortunate that Gabe and Dr. Meehan both share that vision.
What effect does the recent Forbes article naming SHU one of America’s Best Value Colleges mean with regard to athletics?
-You always want great PR and great press and what’s better than if you come to Seton Hall it’s a great value? Most of our athletes are on scholarships or at least partial ones and have that benefit, but to be listed among the best schools in terms of value is fantastic and the company you want to be in.
Can you share any information from the recently concluded Big East Athletic Director meetings?
-At those meetings we spend a lot of time on everything. It’s not just basketball we’re talking about, but all Olympic sports and conference operations. We talk about the Garden, the Big East Tournament and all that stuff.
The meetings were great. I’ve said it before that Fox is an absolute partner with the conference and were in attendance throughout the meetings. We spent a lot of time with Fox talking about growing the ratings which reached a new high last year.
All in all the meetings were exceptional. The league is in a great position right now and we’re ecstatic for the future.
Are there any plans for a Midnight Madness event for the coming season?
-We look at every year separately and try to figure if we want to do it or not. A lot of people weigh in on that including the team. Do we want to do it? Is there a good time to do it because we want to make sure it works with the school as well. That’s why we’ve done it in some years and not others.
This year we’re looking at it again. We just had a meeting about it last week and we’re continuing to look at it moving forward. If we can do it and make it an event, we’ll certainly look to do it again, but I can’t give an answer about this year right now.
What are the current plans for possibly opening the upper tier of the Rock this year?
-Opening the Rock last year for the Villanova game was obviously great. We will continue to look at the option of opening the top level when we feel it makes sense. We don't look at it strictly from a financial standpoint, which certainly is always a positive, but also from the standpoint of demand, not taking away from the home court advantage, etc. It would be great if all our games had that demand, and the ultimate goal is that, but until that happens we will continue to look at it on a case by case basis.
SHU used to have a basketball TV show with Coach Willard. Are there any plans to do that again? If not, why?
-As I see it coach's shows were great 10 to 20 years ago because that was the only way to hear about your program. Now the distribution of content is so great that it doesn’t make sense. First of all we’d be delivering content once a week, which would be crazy. Right now we can deliver the content quickly, add to it, and do what we want to it. That’s why you see less and less coaches shows. It’s sort of the archaic way. Between social media and the like I just don’t see the use of it moving forward.
Seton Hall’s soccer programs have struggled recently, but have had tremendous success in the past. What is being done to upgrade men’s and women’s soccer?
-Our expectations for soccer are the same as any program. We want to go into each year knowing we can compete for a Big East Championship. While it hasn’t happened recently we want to get there. One thing that’s happening in soccer is these kids are committing as high school freshmen or sophomores. I don’t think that’s in the students’ or schools’ best interest. Because of that it takes soccer a little longer to build.
Both golf programs have seen successful recently, particularly the women’s program. What did recently departed women’s coach Sara Doell mean to the program and how is the search to replace her going?
-I’m still having nightmares over the fact that he men’s team lost by one shot in the Big East Tournament. Anyone who plays golf knows what one shot can mean. The men’s team played over three days and lost one shot out of nine hundred.
Sara did an incredible job here. She built the program, won three championships in the last four years. She did a phenomenal job, but I’m excited about the future. When Pat Hobbs started the program he started it right and gave it the support it needed. I’m excited that we can continue to do that. We got a great pool of applicants and are hoping to make an announcement shortly.
Why doesn’t SHU host more playoff sporting events in the Big East?
-We would host a championship if it made sense for us. The issue for us is we have one field that we could use, in Owen T. Carroll Field, and the baseball playing ground is the only field on campus. For us to host an event we’d be shutting down the facility for 3,4,5 days and that hinders some of our other teams who use the grounds for practice and conditioning purposes. That’s difficult for me. If some teams had a stand-alone facility for them to use it might be easier.
Same thing with Walsh. We’ve looked at hosting and have gone back and forth. To be able to shut a facility down for 3 or 4 days would really do a disservice to our teams. Everybody uses Owen T. Carroll Field and Walsh Gym. I’m not overly confidant that we’ll host moving forward.
With women’s basketball the BIG EAST has done host sites so far but may be looking for a permanent site. If that doesn’t happen and they continue with home sites, I could see women’s basketball being the championship that we’d try to host. We’d have to look at it to make sure it’s not a disservice to our athletes.
Any last comments you’d like to make to the Pirate faithful?
-I’d just want to say how appreciative we are of everyone’s support and generosity. I began here 6 years ago and started what I believe is a plan for success at Seton Hall, rooted in the people and infrastructure that we needed. People believed in that and stood by us. We’ve experienced success, but we want more. We want sustained success.
I echo everyone at Seton Hall in stating how appreciative we are of your support and we’ll continue to need that support moving forward to help us continue to accomplish our goals.
