One-on-one with the new Athletic Director

GCSU has a new Athletics Director, Jud Damon. Damon is entering his twelfth year as a collegiate athletics director, and he has an extensive and diverse background in collegiate and professional athletics.

Damon’s collegiate sports background began when he played for the University of Pennsylvania’s baseball team as an undergraduate. There, his team won three Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League titles, the equivalent of winning the Ivy League Championship. After Penn, Damon played semi-professional baseball, and served as the player-manager of a semi-pro team.

He stayed in the professional ranks following his time as a player. Damon served as the Assistant General Manager for farm teams in major league organizations, including the Montreal Expos and the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, Damon missed coaching, and went back to school to serve as a graduate assistant at the University of Massachusetts, working as a pitching coach while earning a Master’s Degree in sports management.

Damon went on to become the Head Coach and Athletics Director for Trinity International University in Miami, Fla. There, he oversaw the Athletics Department for TIU while coaching the baseball team to a Division I National Christian Collegiate Championship in 1998. After TIU, he took the same position at the Savannah College of Art and Design. At SCAD, Damon diversified his experience, overseeing athletics such as rowing, equestrian, archery, fencing and sailing.

With coaching in his background, Damon understands the importance of head coaches to college athletics.

“Just like coaches want the best players, we want the best coaches,” he said. “When we have openings, we want to recruit good coaches so we can be nationally competitive. Head coaches must be outstanding.”

Damon can also relate to coaches as a result of his experience.
“I know what makes coaches tick. It’s good to be able to understand where they’re coming from,” he said. “My goal is for GCSU to field nationally competitive teams, and I’m here to help coaches get what they need to be nationally competitive.”

Damon has established standards for adding a new team at GCSU.

“It has to be determined that it would benefit the school. If we start a sport, we’re going to do it right,” he said. “We want to recruit great coaches and great players so we can hit the ground running and be competitive. Right now, I have to assess the situation here before we start making moves.”

Damon understands what it takes to be successful in collegiate athletics.

“I believe in building strong programs, instead of winning teams,” he said. “Strong programs produce winning teams through good recruiting and coaching. Every day, I ask myself ‘How can we get better today?’”

With his background, Damon brings much experience and knowledge to the GCSU Athletic Department, making Bobcat sports fans eagerly await the upcoming year.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 5 2008. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry