We have a new AD in Tim Leonard. What does he need to know about Tiger Athletics? He says he wants to listen and learn so here is our chance to share the dirty on what we want from Athletics.

He needs to go out in the community (Towson and NCAA) and repair all the damage that Mike Waddell caused. He also needs to go out and embrace the hundreds (maybe thousands) of alumni that have turned their back on the program due to the choices and actions of MW.

My advice to Tim would be to keep the momentum moving forward with TU Athletics. Winning 7 championships last year was a major push forward for the program and was the first time since I was a student in the early 80s we have all of our major sports winning. We have some great coaches and also have some great facilities, the CAA Basketball Tournaments for women and men here in our area, plus the men's basketball team has rehabilitated the bad academics from the years of Coach Kennedy. Build on the positives.

I like that Tim is going to take his time and go out and listen to a lot of people before making changes. The one area where we need to start making some noise is in fundraising. My contact on the search committee told me that this was the #1 thing that they were looking at when searching for the new AD. Getting people in Baltimore to give money to Towson is the driver for future success and for the ability to stay in division 1. The trouble is that alumni and the community have never given big to Towson as a whole, or to Athletics. That is not anything new but if this success is going to be long term we all need to call the Tiger Club and give generously to support the program.

To me there are several programs that are in need of change. The Track & Field Program is not very competitive nor are the Girls Soccer, Softball, Golf or Tennis programs. These coaches need to step up their performance or move on. Out of these the track program seems the most out of whack as they have had the same coaches for a long time and the results are always middle of the pack or worse in the CAA. All of the coaches are also men, which seems odd since our team is all women.

Tim is a big time money guy and will set Towson up better than they ever have been before. He will bring in a new money raising team and will show results. Just watch.

Tim had other offers, he waited for a program that was a good fit for him

Agree about building on the positives. Some of the alums needed to be flushed out because they were partially responsible for the 16 years of nothingness.

I have been gone from Towson a long time having set my roots here in Texas but I can say that until recently I could not have given less of a damn about Tiger Athletics. Winning like football has done the last few years and like basketball and lacrosse are starting to again makes me excited. I agree with 123 about purging the crowd that was content to lose. I live in Dallas and have gotten to meet Leonard at some business functions here in the Metroplex and feel he will do my school proud.

Get rid of Safe and their TSA like behavior towards tailgaters.

(08-11-2013 03:35 PM)LoneStar Wrote:  Get rid of Safe and their TSA like behavior towards tailgaters.

I've never really had to deal with them as an alum. As a student, we didn't have tailgating. This is more of a school problem than a Athletic issue since they don't really have control. Somebody does have to police the area and my biggest problem is not tailgating before or after the game, it's during it.

(08-11-2013 07:13 PM)math123 Wrote:  

(08-11-2013 03:35 PM)LoneStar Wrote:  Get rid of Safe and their TSA like behavior towards tailgaters.

I've never really had to deal with them as an alum. As a student, we didn't have tailgating. This is more of a school problem than a Athletic issue since they don't really have control. Somebody does have to police the area and my biggest problem is not tailgating before or after the game, it's during it.

Matt,

It sure does feel like policing, it's a far cry from how they do it in Baton Rouge, College Station or other schools down south. I was with about 75 or so Alums in Baton Rouge and I don't recall them having anything like the safe group and the police just went about their business and let people enjoy themselves. It seems the group that Towson hires goes out of their way to make their presence known and quite frankly less of an enjoyable experience, maybe things changed since I moved south but Maryland at one point was a free state. As for tailgating during the game, I believe if you paid $20 for parking you should be allowed to do what you want and especially if it's a blowout game like St Francis where it's not really competitive. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to go back to your vehicle with a 28 point lead and the reserves are in the game for the last 15 minutes.

I could go into the situation that happened on the court after the last basketball game but I won't.

The President just made Leonard's job easier. I hear she has forced Mike Waddell's lackey, Mike Harris out. He was told a few weeks back that he must be gone when the new AD arrives. Glad to see that she is doing all the dirty work before Leonard gets started. Let him have a clean start without any of the old problems.

RGTiger, don't mean to call you out but it seems like almost every one of your posts is attacking someone personally or complaining about how things are so bad around here. Why are you so bitter? Lighten up and enjoy the fact that Towson Athletics has never been better across the board. Life does not have to be so angry as you come off.

Thanks 82 - Good point. I will put the happy face on and stay positive!

Hey TigerNation82, you are calling out RGTiger for a personal attack and you did the same thing. Maybe even worse. You said that the track, golf, soccer, and tennis coaches need to step up or move on. Why are you attacking these guys. They all have great graduation rates and compete at or above the level they are funded. Nothing good will come from attacking each other of coaches on this board. GO TIGERS!

None of the Towson teams are funded at the top of the CAA but still there were 7 CAA championships this past season. That comes from great coaching and solid athletes which came from solid recruiting. Matt alluded to it earlier but I will repeat, some of these coaches need to be on the hot seat as they are not producing results. Are you saying that coaches should only compete at the level they are funded? That if you are not funded at the top of the CAA that you should not be expected to win? If that was the case then it really does not matter who the coaches are because your expectations are lower than low and all you expect is a direct line to what was put in. To me the value of a coach or a staff member is what they bring to the table over and above what they get paid or have to work with. Creativity, vision, ability to get blood out of a turnip. That is the biggest part of the problem, too many people around here want to just get by with being average or "good enough". We need to leave that mindset behind.

The Women's Track & Field Program at Towson does not perform in line with its scholarship funding. They are routinely at the bottom of the CAA and have had the same tired leadership for the last 20 years. Baltimore is filled with track talent but the Towson program does not recruit it well. Track has a great facility, has a nice new team room that Tiger Club dollars help provide, yet they were no where at the CAA meet this past year which we hosted at Unitas Stadium. There is no part of this team that stands out, be it distance, jumps, sprints, or throws. William & Mary always has strong cross country teams and as a result those same kids score in the spring during the outdoor season. William & Mary has less invested in their track program than Towson does but they get better results because they have better coaches. Outside of the year that Ashley Adams went loco this team has been bad and this coaching staff has not done anything to build on the success. When I have spoken to Coach Ericker about the program he makes excuse after excuse and blames the lack of consistency of the current women's team on the fact that the men's team at Towson got cut. I just had this conversation with him a few weeks ago at the O's game and coaches event at OPACY.

Golf is a low numbers sport that should be good at Towson annually because of the area we live in and because of the facilities that my club at Eagle's Nest has put behind them. The men's golf program at Towson has been inconsistent at best, outright bad in some years. The program has been in a steady state of decline since winning the 2010 CAA Championship and like track, the coach has done little to build on the success that he had. I spoke to the coach at Towson CC last spring and he told me how good they were going to be only to see that team finish in next to last come CAAs. This was very disappointing. The women's golf program has struggled since beginning a few years back but should also be better than it is. They are starting from scratch so I cut them a little more slack.

Tennis is a sport that Towson should be great in as this is a big tennis community. There is talent around Baltimore. Why this team is not better probably centers around the lack of a quality indoor facility on campus.

Women's Soccer is the only soccer team left on campus, so this should help put a spotlight on this team. According to what I have been told this team has a solid number of scholarships but this coaching staff has not produced results on the field. Maybe this is the year? This coach has been very friendly when I have had the chance to speak with him and I hope that he has a big year.