Since returning to his alma mater to coach football in 2010, Mike Whalen has had a sizable impact on the progress of Wesleyan Athletics both on and off the field. Along with serving as the head coach of the football team, Whalen oversees all Wesleyan sports as Athletic Director. A week before the Cardinals 2014-15 sports campaign begins, the Argus sat down with Coach Whalen to discuss what’s on tap this year for our student-athletes.
The Argus: What was your overall take on how the athletic year played out in 2013-14? What do you draw as some of the year’s highlights?
Mike Whalen: I think what we’re striving to do is improving the overall athletic program. I think for the most part we’ve been doing that. Several different programs are at different levels, and what makes it extremely challenging is just how competitive the NESCAC is. The first thing that we talk about as a department is to be realistic and to set realistic goals. I think our goal for every program is to have a winning season.
Certainly we feel it’s really important to compete within the Little Three and compete for a NESCAC championship. And for all of the sports other than football that can qualify for NCAAs, we’d love to see our student-athletes and teams compete at that level.
A: Across all sports, what major changes do you see occurring in the upcoming year?
MW: One program we actually started last year that we’re carrying on again is our department recruiting weekend during the weekend of September 27. A lot of our coaches are trying to bring in top prospects that they’re recruiting to come to our campus and meet our student athletes. We’re also going to incorporate two panel discussions: one made up our current student athletes and the other made up of members of our athletic advisory council that will talk about the alumni perspective of Wesleyan and our athletic mentoring program and things that would be beneficial should student athletes choose to come to Wesleyan.
A: How successful do you think this program was last year?
MW: Last fall, we did it for our first game against Tufts, the night game last year. It was kind of something we threw together right at the end of the summer, so not every team was really in a position to take advantage of it. But a lot of teams did, and it was really well received, and we actually had some really good results and [have] a lot of kids on our campus now who visited that weekend. We’re looking to expand it a little bit and get the word out to our coaches so they can get the word out to student athletes. What I’m hearing from the coaches is that it’s going to be a much bigger group coming to campus this year.
A: You mentioned last year’s night football game, the first ever in NESCAC history. Will there be any other sorts of bold innovations you plan on undertaking this year?
MW: Not that I’m aware of, off the top of my head. We actually tried to get another night football game, but unfortunately the schedule didn’t work out. The potential opponents we invited to play us at home in a night game said they didn’t want to do that. But, I think overall what we’re striving to do is to start the year off strong and position ourselves so that our fall teams can create excitement and buzz for our winter teams and our winter teams do the same for our spring teams.
A: Are there any major personnel changes for any sports this year?
MW: Really the only change is that our women’s lacrosse coach, Amanda Belichick, went from interim to our full-time women’s lacrosse coach. That was the only real opening that we had. We did a search, and we felt very good that Amanda was the right person for the job, so we hired her in a permanent capacity. Fortunately, we didn’t have any other changes.
That’s not saying there won’t be any this year; every year is a new year. We’re always bringing new assistants on board as our intern program has been enabling us to bring some excellent young coaches onto our staff and enabling them to work with our student athletes. We do have a number of those folks who are new and on board. One real advantage we expect for the interns is that by coaching at a Division III school like Wesleyan, they’re going to have a real opportunity to coach. Whereas at the Division I level, you do very little coaching; you do a lot of gopher work. Our reputation for what our intern program can do for young coaches is growing, so that’s exciting.
A: Since you took over as Athletic Director in 2011, what has been the most significant change to Wes Athletics that you’ve noted during your tenure?
MW: Our goal has been to raise the overall profile of the athletic [program.] And that’s a process; it’s definitely not going to happen overnight. We have some successful teams, and we’d like to get more. I think that progress has been steady and that our coaches and student-athletes are getting a better understanding of what it takes to compete at the highest levels within our league.
I think it’s something that takes a few years to build in certain sports. For instance, Mike Fried took over our tennis programs in 2012, which were really at the bottom of the NESCAC. Mike comes in, and he brings in a recruiting class that has an amazing impact and takes us from being at the bottom of the NESCAC to having a chance to qualify for the NESCAC tournament, which means you’re in the top half. That’s a huge jump in such a short time. For tennis, and most of our sports, you make the first step to get in the top half of the league, but then to take that next step is even more challenging because when you’re saying getting into the very top of the NESCAC you’re actually saying getting into the top of the national rankings.
That’s what the challenge is, and I certainly have faith [in] our coaches. But you have to approach the building of a program as a process. One talented recruiting class is not going to be enough to build a NESCAC championship. You have to compete at that level for a number of years and bring in high quality student-athletes who can elevate your program over time.
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