WCCO: 1-On-1 Interview With New ‘U’ Athletic Director Beth Goetz

[BleedGopher]

per WCCO:

McCoy: What should people know about you? Boosters, fans and just the general public. What do you want people to know about you?

Goetz: I think the most important thing is that I’m passionate about our student athletes, our coaches and our community, and committed to making sure that our focus remains with those groups. And that we’re going to aggressively pursue our goals and win Big Ten championships and go after our fundraising project and finish up the Athletes Village.

McCoy: What do you consider your biggest strengths?

Goetz: I think people. You know, I think I can bring to the table great relationships, collaborative. I think I’m a big thinker and I think all those skills … help, because probably the biggest strength is your team, and we have a great team. Again, athletes, coaches and staff. And so when you get to pull in all those folks and use their expertise, then you know you’re going to be OK.

McCoy: Will you ask to be considered to be the permanent athletic director?

Goetz: You know, right now that’s the farthest thing from my mind or anybody’s mind. It’s just, you want to focus on what you’re doing today and make sure you do it to the best of your ability.

McCoy: As you take over this department, what is your number-one priority?

Goetz: Always to serve and support our student-athletes and our coaches. And beyond that, the next agenda item is again, we’re going to aggressively pursue the completion of this fundraising campaign and are committed to moving forward with the Athletes Village.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/08/12/1-on-1-interview-with-new-u-athletic-director-beth-goetz/

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

KSTP: One-On-One Chat with Gophers Interim Athletic Director Beth Goetz

KSTP Sports' Chris Long had a one-on-one conversation with Beth Goetz on campus Wednesday afternoon. Click the video box on this page to see both parts of their interview as they aired on 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

Among the topics were Goetz' point of view as things surrounding Teague's resignation developed, and her stance on gender equity at within Gopher Athletics.

Goetz is a native of metropolitan St. Louis and a former Division I college soccer player at Clemson. She came to Minnesota from Butler University in Indianapolis where she spent nearly five years serving as the school's associate athletic director.

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s3877834.shtml

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

per the AP:

Beth Goetz was quiet as usual while her parents, Les and Ann, drove their daughter to a band concert in seventh grade. And it wasn't until Beth started her flute solo in the middle of the show that they realized their little girl was a featured part of the show.

"That's just kind of her demeanor," Ann Goetz said. "We hear about her accomplishments from other people, but she doesn't really tell us about it."

So they weren't surprised nearly three decades later that when Beth was thrust into a leadership role at Minnesota after athletic director Norwood Teague was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal, they found out about it second-hand.

Teague resigned, and the Golden Gophers have turned to the understated 41-year-old former college soccer standout who has never led an athletic department. Her steady hand is needed to settle a reeling program and take the wheel on a massive facilities project.

"When opportunity knocks, you say yes," said Goetz, who was deputy athletic director under Teague. "That's what we tell our student-athletes. Prepare yourself and when somebody asks, you say yes."

http://www.foxsports.com/north/stor...rs-athletics-amid-department-s-turmoil-081215

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

AP: Understated, level-headed, Goetz running reeling U athletic department

There is no time to wallow.

Football coach Jerry Kill is pushing for a groundbreaking this fall on a $190 million athletes' village that includes new practice facilities for the football and basketball team, and they still have a long way to go on the fundraising end.

"Our team, though they may not have done something like this before, there's nobody else I want to go to battle with," Goetz said. "They're all going to step up. We're ready."

After getting the interim tag, Goetz called Lori Flanagan, the athletic director at UMSL who had experience with the interim tag at St. Louis University, for advice and started to plow ahead.

"What you're trying to do is just stabilize everyone," Flanagan said. "Because when your AD leaves, everyone is in flux, whether they realize it or not. It's now open game for everyone. So Beth, that's what she's going to do. She's going to stabilize."

Even in her first few days crisscrossing the campus, Goetz recognized the jitters in coaches and staff members who read the salacious headlines.

"I think you're naive to say everybody is going to be fine through a transition because people are going to think, 'How might that impact me today or down the road?'" Goetz said. "But I think that what you do is communicate as much as you can. You're as transparent as possible and reassure everybody we're going to move forward."

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/...z_running_reeling_U_athletic_department081415

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

STrib: Goetz receives 56 percent pay raise to be interim Minnesota athletic director

University of Minnesota interim athletic director Beth Goetz is getting a pay raise that would figure out to $95,000 per year for taking on her new role.

Goetz, who previously served as the deputy athletic director and senior woman administrator before taking over for Norwood Teague, will continue to be paid her current annual base salary of $170,800, bumping the total to $265,800 -- a 56 percent raise.

Her new contract states the interim athletic director role will be her's through the end of the calendar year, or until the university is “able to complete a national search and a new leader is in place.”

It also states that in the event a new athletic director doesn’t keep Goetz on staff, that the university will provide her with three months of salary past the end of the notice period.

“During this interim period, you will maintain your current responsibilities as Deputy Athletics Director,” a letter from university president Eric Kaler stated. “But I expect that you will need to delegate some of those responsibilities to the Athletics staff as appropriate so that you can focus more on your time on the Interim Athletics Director role. During this interim period, you will retain your current job classification, but will use the working title of Interim Athletics Director.”

http://www.startribune.com/goetz-re...nterim-minnesota-athletic-director/321891251/

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

STrib Q&A:

Q: Do you have a sense of how the major ongoing athletics fundraising project will progress through this?

A: I’ve had a chance to talk with several of our donors, and the feedback that we’ve received is, again, that they’re certainly disappointed in the situation but their commitment has always been to us. So we feel like we’re going to be able to move forward.

Q: There’s a perception of what a person who is a fundraiser is. How would you define your role in that capacity?

A: From a personality standpoint, you may really have a picture of what it is, but at the end of the day I really do think it’s about relationships. It’s partly about the relationship between the person cultivating the gift and the donor, but it’s also facilitating the relationship between the donor and what they’re passionate about. So what avenues you use to get there might be different, but I think you keep the focus on the right things — what’s important to them, how do their values align with the mission in a certain project. Helping facilitate that is really fun and rewarding.

http://www.startribune.com/sunday-q-a-beth-goetz-gophers-interim-ad/321963761/

Go Gophers!!

 

[ruppertflywheel]

She seems very capable, and at age 41 has the energy and passion to get things done. I would also promote Dan O'Brian. We don't need some 65 year old who has no tread left on his tire.