Friday Features: CBU AD looks to build on first year from the ground up
By Maurice Patton
With his late June arrival as athletics director at
Christian Brothers University,
Brian Summers marked the beginning of a new era at the Memphis school.
Summers stepped into the role that became open with the September 2013 passing of Joe Nadicksbernd, a former two-sport standout at CBU who served as a coach and/or administrator for nearly 40 years prior to his death at 64. Nadicksbernd was a 2010 inductee into the CBU Athletic Hall of Fame.
“Unfortunately, I never had a chance to meet Joe,” said Summers, who had served as an associate AD and in athletic media relations at Lewis University near Chicago for 13 years prior to his move to Memphis. “I didn’t know him professionally prior to being here. But I feel a responsibility to build on the foundation that’s been put in place.
“I inherited a wonderful staff of people – some great coaches who unfortunately have been under-resourced and just need some additional resources to be able to showcase their talents as coaches. The second piece is, he’d done a really good job of developing scholarship endowment over the years … to help the student-athlete experience and really make it better for our students.
“Those things were put in place before I got here. I certainly feel an obligation to make sure we keep that culture and keep building on it moving forward.”
Over the last 12 months, the 37-year-old Summers has seen both the CBU men’s and women’s soccer teams earn NCAA Division II tournament berths – marking the first time they’ve both advanced in the same school year, with the men making their third postseason appearance and the women their fourth.
Also, the Buccaneers hijacked some citywide attention with a preseason win over perennial NCAA Division I tournament contender Memphis, and senior guard Trey Casey was named the Capital One Academic All-America player of the year for Division II, as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Despite the successes of his first year, Summers isn’t as concerned with collecting more trophies as he is with creating a winning environment by addressing the athletic department’s support system.
“I knew there were going to be challenges we’d have to tackle and come up with some creative ways to identify some resources – certainly internally to campus but also to start beating the streets and start engaging alumni and some local corporate partners, to help us provide a first-class student-athlete experience,” he said.
“Wins and losses, in large part, will come as we add additional resources, as we enhance the facilities we have.”
Among the initiatives Summers has implemented or will implement are that all CBU teams will travel via charter buses beginning next season, a change from the 15-passenger vans that many of the Buccaneer teams have utilized, and an addition of eight athletic scholarships over each of the next four years.
“As the coaches get more scholarships, they can recruit to their teams more talented student-athletes – people that are capable of competing at the top of the Gulf South Conference, which quite frankly, if not the best, is one of the best Division II conferences in the country,” he said. “The nice thing about that is, if you’re able to compete at the top of our conference, you’re able to compete for regional and national championships. Those are things we aspire to.
“Systematically, what we have to put in place is an infrastructure that allows our student-athletes to want to be here and be engaged and really be productive alumni and people that love their experience at CBU and love being a part of building where we’re getting to.”
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11/14/2014 - Revival of a Rivalry.
11/21/2014 - VSU's Margaret Stauffer Finds Strength in Team, Family.
11/28/2014 - Union Off and Running.
12/05/2014 - UWA Coach Ray Stanfield Pushes Cross Country Teams to Top.
12/12/2014 - CBU Men's Basketball Making Noise.
12/19/2014 - Dickey Says UWG Football 'Right on Schedule'.
12/26/2014 - Youngsters Lead UWF Women.
1/02/2015 - UAH's Owens Rebounds From Car Crash With New Appreciation for Life, Basketball.
1/09/2015 - Freshmen Building Base for Lee Women's Success.
1/16/2015 - UWA's Chad Toocheck Overcame Addiction Lows to Reach Highs on Field.
1/23/2015 - Basketball Court at Delta State Named For a 'Legend'.
1/30/2015 - Shorter Basketball Coaches Celebrate Milestones Victories.
2/06/2015 - Union Outfielder Unfazed by Physical Challenges.
2/13/2015 - VSU's Courtney Albritton Rewriting Record Books.
2/20/2015 - Campbell Leaves 'Mark' as Union Women's Hoops Coach.
2/27/2015 - UNA's Spehr Leads From 'Down Under'.
3/06/2015 - Title Hopes For DSU Boosted By Triple Threat.
3/13/2015 - UAH Coach Les Stuedeman Lifts Chargers to Softball Greatness.
3/20/2015 - "Snow" Start Sidelines CBU Early.
3/27/2015 - Shorter's Ayana Walker Runs Her Way Into History.
4/03/2015 - Impairment Doesn't Slow West Florida Swimmer.
4/10/2015 - Early Lessons Boost UWG's Tyler Gunnin.
4/17/2015 - Delta State Football Hopes (Spring) Practice Makes Perfect.
4/24/2015 - 'High Energy' Fernando Gonzalez Helps Pitch UWA to the Top.
5/01/2015 - Union Trio Makes Runners' Pilgrimage to Boston.
5/08/2015 - UNA's Kyle Conkle Uses Social Media to Reach Huge Audience.