Pack coaches, administrators pleased with decision to go with Yow as AD

North Carolina State University

Pack coaches, administrators pleased with decision to go with Yow as AD

By Ken Medlin

Jun 25, 2010

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Debbie Yow’s first public appearance as athletic director at N.C. State was filled with enthusiasm.

"What an unbelievable press conference,” said Elliott Avent, the head Wolfpack baseball coach. “It wasn’t scripted, it wasn’t off a teleprompter, it was straight Debbie Yow. You could just tell that’s the way she’s lived her life – the confidence she portrayed.”

In her 16 years at Maryland, Yow’s Terrapins won 20 national championships, including 11 in the past five years. That wealth of experience in the ACC weighed heavily on the minds of those charged with choosing former AD Lee Fowler's successor.

“She knows what we need to do to be successful, sport by sport, team by team, coach by coach," David Horning, a member of the selection committee and the university's senior associate athletic director of men's sports, said after Friday’s press conference. “To have somebody with that background and that experience coming in here, we’re pretty serious, and we’re going to get to work.”

“She has really high standards from a program standpoint,” ACC commissioner John Swofford added. “She’s very disciplined in her approach to running a program - she’s tough minded.”

Yow says her goal is to build top-25 programs across the board at State, but only as a springboard to top-10 status.

As athletic director for the Pack, Yow will earn a base salary of $350,000 per year and oversee 23 teams.

“She’s been in this thing for a long time,” said N.C. State head men’s basketball coach Sidney Lowe. “There are no games you can play. She doesn’t play any games and that’s good.”

“She knows what she wants,” Kellie Harper, the school's women’s basketball coach, added. “She’s going to be a real go-getter, and I think her energy level and her excitement and her enthusiasm to get it done here is going to excel and propel us forward.”

Her last name is synonymous with Wolfpack athletics, and now Debbie Yow starts a new chapter for her family at N.C. State.

Web Editor: Ryan Craig

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RE: Pack coaches, administrators pleased with decision to go with Yow as AD

Maybe the search committee dug up her original bio from Maryland where she listed a distance education PHD from Louisiana Baptist University. She called herself "Dr. " Yow based on that "degree." Turns out LBU is not accredited by any accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Government. She eventually dropped this info from her bio but continues to use the "Dr." based on her subsequent honorary doctorates. Perhaps the search committee vetted her properly and decided that it was not wise to hire someone who misrepresented her educational credentials.

You Wolfpackers get ready. She is wicked as the day is long and is going to chew you up and spit you out, especially the old guard. Her paranoia is palpable and she will get rid of everybody and bring in her minions. She will be stealth but it will happen. She is already starting on Bobby Purcell, he just does not know it. It is now The Debbie Yow Athletic Department, no longer NC State Athletics. You ain't seen nothing yet. It took about 16 minutes for everybody in MD to want her gone but the administration never had the guts to send her down the road. We have your Chancellor to thank for ridding us of her. I almost feel sorry for you but we are so happy here in College Park we are too busy thanking you for our good fortune.

She will raid any and every fundraising organization you have to help pay her bills. The university gave her so many outs just to give the impression of balancing the budget and she still had to push the debt forward. Whoever gets the MD athletic directorÃ¢ï¿½ï¿½s job is going to be in for a major shock. So, she is going to charm you and sweet talk you and tell the coaches and administrators and Wolfpack clubbers that she is there for y'all the whole time knowing full well that she is going to cut all of you off at the knees and you are not going to even know what the heck hit you.

Get ready and never say you were not warned.

RE: Pack coaches, administrators pleased with decision to go with Yow as AD

"Seems strange someone was hired, not on the search committee's list."

That does seem odd. Does that mean that the committee considered her, but rejected her? It's hard to believe that neither the search committee nor a national search firm hired for the purpose would have overlooked such an obvious candidate as this.

Of course, I say all that not having a clue who was, in fact, on the search committee's list. Was that ever made public? If it was, it would be considered bad form, because you might "out" some people whose current employers don't know they were looking at other jobs.

RE: Pack coaches, administrators pleased with decision to go with Yow as AD

Seems strange someone was hired, not on the search committee's list. The highlights of her speech about expectations are no different than any other AD at any other school, so really, should anyone get excited about that? At the end of the day, the coaches are still recruiting against UNC and Duke in their back yard. I think the other guy, was well prepared to do the job based on the time he's been second in command. Everyone starts somewhere and he didn't even get a shot. Was she hired because of her last name or because she was truly the best person for the job? I have no idea, but the name makes you think. Good luck to her though.

RE: Pack coaches, administrators pleased with decision to go with Yow as AD

I am glad that some of the guns came forth for her. 16 years of experience is powerful.

RE: Pack coaches, administrators pleased with decision to go with Yow as AD

Maybe there's a third group, those of us that didn't care WHO we hired, as long as they were a top candidate. And I think that group of fans is probably happy, but anxious to find out if we hired a good one.

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