Welcome home
By JP Pelzman
From the outside, having your predecessor as still in the organization in a powerful capacity might seem to cast a long and somewhat intimidating shadow.
But relatively new Seton Hall athletic director Bryan Felt does not see it that way, even though predecessor Pat Lyons has been moved upstairs to the position of executive vice president for operations of the entire university.
“I certainly have plenty of experience with Pat and I know Pat well and have great respect for him,” Felt said in an interview with PirateCrew.com. “We have a great friendship. He’s not only a great mentor but he’s also a great leader and supervisor in the sense that he is very hands off. … He’s letting me do my own thing."
“He wants you to have that opportunity,” Felt added. “but at the same time he’s always there and he is a tremendous resource."
He also noted that the athletic department under Lyons had a “tremendous culture. I’m taking over a very good culture here.”
Felt understands the situation and believes it would have been the same for anybody who followed the highly successful tenure of Lyons, who became Seton Hall’s AD in March 2011.
“Anybody that came in,” Felt said, “would have known the previous AD was still on campus. He’s only a couple of blocks away” from the Richie Regan Recreation and Athletics Center.
Lyons is “pretty darned busy, by the way,” Felt said of his fellow administrator, who now has a lot more under his jurisdiction than he previously did. “He’s got plenty to do. As it is, we’ve transitioned nicely. I look at it as an incredible positive to have such a resource on campus.”
A campus that Felt himself knows very, very well. His most recent job before coming back to Seton Hall was a two-year stint as athletic director at Saint Peter’s University. But before that, Felt was the executive director of the Pirate Blue Athletic Fund from 2004-17. And even before that, Felt earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at The Hall.
Cliched as it may sound, this is a person who bleeds Pirate Blue.
“This is obviously a place that means a tremendous amount to me and my family,” Felt added, noting that as an adult, “most of my growth as a person has been on this campus, or in some way affected by something that involved Seton Hall. It’s been such a big influence on my life. It’s an amazing feeling to be back, and not only to be back but to be in a position that I’ve always had great interest in and honor for.”
Felt’s track toward this position included becoming an associate athletics director in 2011 and a senior associate athletics director in 2015. That preceded his taking over the Saint Peter’s athletic department in September 2017.
“I’m really kind of fortunate the way it worked out,” Felt said of his time at St Peter's. “It was amazing what I got to be a part of in two years. I learned a lot.”
The toughest thing during his tenure there occurred in July 2018, when the school dropped women’s bowling and men’s and women’s tennis for financial reasons.
“That was very difficult, telling the student-athletes,” Felt recalled.
He also said, “We were trying to change everything that we were doing from A to Z. … We were trying to build fund-raising from the ground up, you talk about a learning experience in two years, I don’t know if I could have had a better one.”
Another thing he got to do in Jersey City that should serve Felt well in South Orange was “having to replace coaches on an interim basis and hire new coaches. It really taught me a lot about what it means to bring the right people into your organization, having that right coach who can not only fit in with what you have but take you where you want to go.”
And although Felt is gone from SPU, he believes the Peacocks have that kind of coach in fellow SHU alum Shaheen Holloway, who was Kevin Willard’s lead assistant with the Pirates before Felt hired him in to replace yet another former Pirates’ assistant John Dunne. Dunne left Saint Peter’s to become the Marist coach.
Holloway’s Peacock team nearly upset eventual champion Iona in the quarterfinals of the MAAC tournament.
Despite their prior relationship, Felt scrutinized Holloway as much as any other candidate as he sought the right coach for the Peacocks’ men’s basketball team.
“At the end of the day, Shaheen was really that person for me,” Felt said. “He’s going to do great things. … Even in his first year, I already saw the beginning pieces to success. I know he’s going to put it together, he’s first-rate in everything he does.”
Felt added that he hopes to find time in his schedule to catch a few of Holloway’s games at the Yanitelli Center in Jersey City.
Like Felt in his second tour of duty at Seton Hall, Seton Hall president Dr. Joseph Nyre came to South Orange from a MAAC college, Iona. In fact, that’s how Felt first met Nyre, interacting with him at conference meetings of presidents and athletic directors.
“His understanding of the importance and the role of athletics in a university is phenomenal,” Felt said. “Dr. Nyre has been great to work with.”
As has Willard, whom Felt has known since Willard came to the university in March 2010.
“We all know Kevin came into a situation that was not particularly easy,” Felt said. “Kevin is a tremendous coach, he’s got a tremendous basketball mind. Certainly the pedigree is there. He grew up around this game, he grew up around a head coach (Ralph Willard).”
Felt added, “I love seeing how dedicated his players are to him and to this program and Seton Hall because he really is able to instill that (dedication) in these young men. I love the trajectory we’re on and I’m excited to see what we do next.”
Seton Hall is striving for its fifth consecutive NCAA tourney appearance. The return of Big East Preseason Player of the Year Myles Powell, plus most of the players on last year’s roster, has resulted in the most October buzz around the program since 2000.
Willard was courted heavily by Virginia Tech last spring, but Lyons managed to retain him by giving him a significant increase in salary. Will The Hall be in a position to do so again if another terrific season results in more suitors for Willard?
“It’s the reality of this business,” Felt said. “I get it. But I think Kevin’s incredibly happy here. We’ve been incredibly happy with Kevin (and) we continue to show we’re invested. Kevin knows how invested we are to be successful and that’s important. If he has a great year and something happens, we’ll take it as it comes.”
That literal investment includes the upcoming renovation of Walsh Gymnasium, which Felt said will begin in April or May 2020. Felt said the renovation will include new chair-back seating to replace the bleacher seating, along with a new court floor, new baskets, a new scoreboard and video boards on the sides of the stage.
And yes, the stage will remain.
The next project on the planning board is for a basketball practice facility.
“We are entrenched in the planning phases of that right now,” Felt said, “and exploring all of our options. We already have early architectural renderings and things like that.”
He noted that Willard is involved in the planning and said of the facility, “that is something we’re actively pursuing to be the next big project. We have no finite (cost) number hammered out. We have a pretty good handle on where the numbers will shake out but we don’t have a hard number.”
Seton Hall again didn’t hold a Midnight Madness event this autumn. When asked about it, Felt indicated he is exploring perhaps having the event in the future in conjunction with the student activities department.
“We will try to explore how we can kind of jointly look at these opportunities,” he said. “It’s a very large investment. We (the athletic department) would need to do it in conjunction with the school and it’s something we're going to take a look at.”
As for currently scheduled events, Felt said that on Oct. 19, University Day, there will be an open basketball practice. He also said there will be a Christmas party for season-ticket holders in December.
One of many highlights in a tough non-conference schedule is the annual meeting with Rutgers, this time on the road on Dec. 14. Felt was asked why other SHU teams don’t play their natural rival.
“We let our coaches handle the scheduling” for their teams, Felt said, but added, “there is certainly no reason why we wouldn’t” play Rutgers.
Felt then was asked about the recent law passed in California allowing student-athletes to profit from their likenesses, names and images, something that is counter to long-held NCAA rules.
“I’m watching it like every AD in the country is watching it,” he said, “as intensely as possible. College athletics has changed. The world has changed and we’re all trying to adapt.”
He added, “This is obviously something we’re all going to have to try to figure out. We’re all going to have to adapt because this is the movement.”
Felt indicated he hopes a “happy medium” eventually can be found, adding, “I’d be the first to tell you I don’t know exactly what the answer is yet, but I’m certainly spending a lot of time following it. We’re going to have to find a way to make something work.”
Just like the Hall made something work with creating a new position for an indispensable Pat Lyons and replacing him with a quality hire in Bryan Felt.
https://setonhall.rivals.com
COMMENTS?
By JP Pelzman
From the outside, having your predecessor as still in the organization in a powerful capacity might seem to cast a long and somewhat intimidating shadow.
But relatively new Seton Hall athletic director Bryan Felt does not see it that way, even though predecessor Pat Lyons has been moved upstairs to the position of executive vice president for operations of the entire university.
“I certainly have plenty of experience with Pat and I know Pat well and have great respect for him,” Felt said in an interview with PirateCrew.com. “We have a great friendship. He’s not only a great mentor but he’s also a great leader and supervisor in the sense that he is very hands off. … He’s letting me do my own thing."
“He wants you to have that opportunity,” Felt added. “but at the same time he’s always there and he is a tremendous resource."
He also noted that the athletic department under Lyons had a “tremendous culture. I’m taking over a very good culture here.”
Felt understands the situation and believes it would have been the same for anybody who followed the highly successful tenure of Lyons, who became Seton Hall’s AD in March 2011.
“Anybody that came in,” Felt said, “would have known the previous AD was still on campus. He’s only a couple of blocks away” from the Richie Regan Recreation and Athletics Center.
Lyons is “pretty darned busy, by the way,” Felt said of his fellow administrator, who now has a lot more under his jurisdiction than he previously did. “He’s got plenty to do. As it is, we’ve transitioned nicely. I look at it as an incredible positive to have such a resource on campus.”
A campus that Felt himself knows very, very well. His most recent job before coming back to Seton Hall was a two-year stint as athletic director at Saint Peter’s University. But before that, Felt was the executive director of the Pirate Blue Athletic Fund from 2004-17. And even before that, Felt earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at The Hall.
Cliched as it may sound, this is a person who bleeds Pirate Blue.
“This is obviously a place that means a tremendous amount to me and my family,” Felt added, noting that as an adult, “most of my growth as a person has been on this campus, or in some way affected by something that involved Seton Hall. It’s been such a big influence on my life. It’s an amazing feeling to be back, and not only to be back but to be in a position that I’ve always had great interest in and honor for.”
Felt’s track toward this position included becoming an associate athletics director in 2011 and a senior associate athletics director in 2015. That preceded his taking over the Saint Peter’s athletic department in September 2017.
“I’m really kind of fortunate the way it worked out,” Felt said of his time at St Peter's. “It was amazing what I got to be a part of in two years. I learned a lot.”
The toughest thing during his tenure there occurred in July 2018, when the school dropped women’s bowling and men’s and women’s tennis for financial reasons.
“That was very difficult, telling the student-athletes,” Felt recalled.
He also said, “We were trying to change everything that we were doing from A to Z. … We were trying to build fund-raising from the ground up, you talk about a learning experience in two years, I don’t know if I could have had a better one.”
Another thing he got to do in Jersey City that should serve Felt well in South Orange was “having to replace coaches on an interim basis and hire new coaches. It really taught me a lot about what it means to bring the right people into your organization, having that right coach who can not only fit in with what you have but take you where you want to go.”
And although Felt is gone from SPU, he believes the Peacocks have that kind of coach in fellow SHU alum Shaheen Holloway, who was Kevin Willard’s lead assistant with the Pirates before Felt hired him in to replace yet another former Pirates’ assistant John Dunne. Dunne left Saint Peter’s to become the Marist coach.
Holloway’s Peacock team nearly upset eventual champion Iona in the quarterfinals of the MAAC tournament.
Despite their prior relationship, Felt scrutinized Holloway as much as any other candidate as he sought the right coach for the Peacocks’ men’s basketball team.
“At the end of the day, Shaheen was really that person for me,” Felt said. “He’s going to do great things. … Even in his first year, I already saw the beginning pieces to success. I know he’s going to put it together, he’s first-rate in everything he does.”
Felt added that he hopes to find time in his schedule to catch a few of Holloway’s games at the Yanitelli Center in Jersey City.
Like Felt in his second tour of duty at Seton Hall, Seton Hall president Dr. Joseph Nyre came to South Orange from a MAAC college, Iona. In fact, that’s how Felt first met Nyre, interacting with him at conference meetings of presidents and athletic directors.
“His understanding of the importance and the role of athletics in a university is phenomenal,” Felt said. “Dr. Nyre has been great to work with.”
As has Willard, whom Felt has known since Willard came to the university in March 2010.
“We all know Kevin came into a situation that was not particularly easy,” Felt said. “Kevin is a tremendous coach, he’s got a tremendous basketball mind. Certainly the pedigree is there. He grew up around this game, he grew up around a head coach (Ralph Willard).”
Felt added, “I love seeing how dedicated his players are to him and to this program and Seton Hall because he really is able to instill that (dedication) in these young men. I love the trajectory we’re on and I’m excited to see what we do next.”
Seton Hall is striving for its fifth consecutive NCAA tourney appearance. The return of Big East Preseason Player of the Year Myles Powell, plus most of the players on last year’s roster, has resulted in the most October buzz around the program since 2000.
Willard was courted heavily by Virginia Tech last spring, but Lyons managed to retain him by giving him a significant increase in salary. Will The Hall be in a position to do so again if another terrific season results in more suitors for Willard?
“It’s the reality of this business,” Felt said. “I get it. But I think Kevin’s incredibly happy here. We’ve been incredibly happy with Kevin (and) we continue to show we’re invested. Kevin knows how invested we are to be successful and that’s important. If he has a great year and something happens, we’ll take it as it comes.”
That literal investment includes the upcoming renovation of Walsh Gymnasium, which Felt said will begin in April or May 2020. Felt said the renovation will include new chair-back seating to replace the bleacher seating, along with a new court floor, new baskets, a new scoreboard and video boards on the sides of the stage.
And yes, the stage will remain.
The next project on the planning board is for a basketball practice facility.
“We are entrenched in the planning phases of that right now,” Felt said, “and exploring all of our options. We already have early architectural renderings and things like that.”
He noted that Willard is involved in the planning and said of the facility, “that is something we’re actively pursuing to be the next big project. We have no finite (cost) number hammered out. We have a pretty good handle on where the numbers will shake out but we don’t have a hard number.”
Seton Hall again didn’t hold a Midnight Madness event this autumn. When asked about it, Felt indicated he is exploring perhaps having the event in the future in conjunction with the student activities department.
“We will try to explore how we can kind of jointly look at these opportunities,” he said. “It’s a very large investment. We (the athletic department) would need to do it in conjunction with the school and it’s something we're going to take a look at.”
As for currently scheduled events, Felt said that on Oct. 19, University Day, there will be an open basketball practice. He also said there will be a Christmas party for season-ticket holders in December.
One of many highlights in a tough non-conference schedule is the annual meeting with Rutgers, this time on the road on Dec. 14. Felt was asked why other SHU teams don’t play their natural rival.
“We let our coaches handle the scheduling” for their teams, Felt said, but added, “there is certainly no reason why we wouldn’t” play Rutgers.
Felt then was asked about the recent law passed in California allowing student-athletes to profit from their likenesses, names and images, something that is counter to long-held NCAA rules.
“I’m watching it like every AD in the country is watching it,” he said, “as intensely as possible. College athletics has changed. The world has changed and we’re all trying to adapt.”
He added, “This is obviously something we’re all going to have to try to figure out. We’re all going to have to adapt because this is the movement.”
Felt indicated he hopes a “happy medium” eventually can be found, adding, “I’d be the first to tell you I don’t know exactly what the answer is yet, but I’m certainly spending a lot of time following it. We’re going to have to find a way to make something work.”
Just like the Hall made something work with creating a new position for an indispensable Pat Lyons and replacing him with a quality hire in Bryan Felt.
https://setonhall.rivals.com
COMMENTS?
