Issue link: https://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/504636
24 We knew we couldn't do it all in year one, so year two I think one of the top issues is going to be time demands. A little bit more difficult to solve, and I'll tell you why. I was a student-athlete, even though it was a long time ago. I speak with a lot of our student-athletes, and this is a tough one to manage, because most of our student-athletes are wired in such a way they live, eat and breathe their sport. And when they get done, you've heard stories, we're in the basketball arena, you've heard stories about Aaron White being in the gym and getting locked in his freshman year and not being able to get out. It's because when he's not studying and when he's not in class and he's done eating, he comes back here and shoots and works on his game. Same with women's basketball, same with wrestling, same with all of our sports. Football. It doesn't matter which sport you talk about. So that's one side of the coin. How do you manage that with the student-athlete who really might want a break in the summer or during a break period for that sport and yet, they feel like even though it's not mandatory, the coach expects them to be there. And so the only way I can see to solve this is for each sport, pick times where we physically lock the doors of the facility and we say during this two-week period and then another month period or during different periods you are not allowed as a student-athlete to come into our facility. Now, some student-athletes will still go somewhere else to get that time in, but I don't see any other way to manage it. And what we're doing is spending time talking to our student-athletes, what do you want? is past week we had a meeting with our ISAAC group, which is the leadership group of all of our sports and student-athletes, and we're asking them, how do you think we should solve time demands? So we'll see where it all ends up, but that is an important thing. ey're spending so much time training for their sport. We want to make sure they have a great college experience academically and socially as well. HTM: Let's go back to the three-legged stool and the opportunity to watch a program emerge. I'm speaking specifically about what Bond Shymansky is doing with our volleyball program. Talk a little bit about that. GARY BARTA: ere again, you know, every time we make a change in coaching, I mentioned the hardest thing to do is make the change. On the flip side of that, one of the most exciting things we can do is bring a new leader onto our campus. It's one of the most important things I do, and so collectively we look for all the traits we think is going to make a coach successful. We've seen it in Fran. We talked a little bit earlier about Rick Heller and what he's doing in baseball. With Bond, another thing that had happened he had done it at two other institutions. Combine that with the fact that he grew up in Iowa City. What a great combination, to bring somebody home, but not just anybody, somebody who had great success at Georgia Tech, had had great success at Marquette. And quickly and maybe even faster than I would have managed he had the most wins in the Big Ten Conference since 2008. And we still have a long way to go. e volleyball in the Big Ten is — it's the top. It's the best in America. And so incremental success will be challenging, but he just brought in a new setter, one of the Top 30 setters in the country when she was recruited. Barta on the facilities available to the UI's 650 student-athletes… We now have — when you take Kinnick Stadium and that renovation that was completed in '06 — you take the operations center, the indoor facility and the outdoor fields… I agree, we have one of the best football complexes in America. at on top of a great swimming and diving natatorium, a new golf practice facility. We just created a new gymnastics facility. Our rowing facility is superior. e list goes on and on.