The Wolfpacker's Debbie Yow interview, part III
Next week will be the final one of Debbie Yow’s nine-year, successful tenure as Director of Athletics at NC State. Army AD Boo Corrigan will take her place starting April 30.
In the Learfield Directors’ Cup, a yearly competition measures colleges’ success across all athletics, NC State was No. 89 the year before Yow arrived.
For the 2017-18 school year, it finished a program-best No. 15.
During Yow’s time, she started the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame, spearheaded a $35 million renovation of historic Reynolds Coliseum, oversaw the construction of the Close-King Indoor Practice Facility for football, and negotiated lucrative contracts with adidas and Learfield Sports for apparel and multimedia rights, respectively.
She has also hired a roster of coaches that have collectively made NC State nationally relevant in many sports where it was middle of the pack or bottom-feeders in the ACC before.
Yow sat down with The Wolfpacker for an extensive interview last week to reflect back on her time at the head of NC State athletics. Here is part II of highlights from that conversation.
Related link: Part I of Yow's interview
Related link: Part II of Yow's interview
You mentioned Wes Moore and Tennessee. Did you have a radar on openings that might impact your coaches?
“Yes, but I don’t do it by myself. The staff is just as likely to say it to me as I am to them, ‘Did you see this? Did you see that?’
“We did have our eye for all season on Tennessee. We figured if Holly Warlick got fired they might come after Wes. And she did get fired.
“We knew without a really good year that was a possibility, and we knew that Wes had lived in that state for 15 years while coaching at Chattanooga, had beaten Tennessee and had done a great job. Wes, though, decided to stay with us.
“I feel blessed. I told Wes, ‘I’m so happy you didn’t end up there. You belong here. This is your program. You’re having a great recruiting year. Reynolds is renovated, and it’s just going to be awesome.’
“Next year I think you are going to see a really special women’s basketball team.”
Do you feel the formation of the NC State Hall of Fame will be part of your legacy?
“I hope they feel that way about it. I remember the first one was just stunning. It was all wrapped around changing the culture, remembering who we are and celebrating even the smallest victories.
“Whether it is going to a Sweet 16, which everybody wants to celebrate, or beating Arizona State in a bowl or finally beating Duke in men’s tennis, you need to celebrate it. The success just builds on itself and creates a different environment, ultimately.
“The Hall of Fame is one of my all-time favorite events.”
As you’re leaving what advice would you give those who desire to be an athletics director, particularly women?
“I was the only female AD in the ACC for 22 years. There were a number of very talented women who were passed over and over and over again by schools. Now we have two more. Heather Lyke at Pitt is sharp — she’s an attorney. Carla Williams was a great athlete at Georgia and second in charge there before getting hired at Virginia. I think they are both going to be successful in the long run.
“One thing I would tell them is quit talking about work lifestyles. The concept of work lifestyles doesn’t exist in college athletics in a leadership role. If you have children, terrific. Bring them to the games — that’s going to be your family time because that’s where you’re going to be.
“Having a partner that helps you is so important — I can’t overestimate that. I’ve been married for 35 years in May to a person that’s very proud of me and has helped me every step of the way. I’ve never had the sense that I couldn’t go and be my best because there is a pull at home. He’ll meet me at the game.
“You can do this with children as a female, but you really have to have a partner, and if you don’t I’m not sure that I could see a way to make it work.
“When I say partner, it doesn’t have to be somebody that you’re married to. It could be your very close friend or your family — somebody who supports you and believes in you, that understands that you have a job to do and you need to go do it.
“I say this every summer when I teach at what’s called LEAD1, which is the new name for the Division 1-A athletics director association.
“Ten of us meet at a different place across the country every year. This year it’s Ohio State. Fifty people come who are aspiring ADs, and the 10 of us who have been ADs talk to them about what it’s going to be like, and that’s one of my messages to the women.
“Women ask questions in interviews that men don’t ask. I never heard a man ask in an interview about work lifestyle.
“I tell the women, you go in and you say to them: ‘I’m married, we have two children, and this is why we can do this. I can move here because my husband is an educator who will find a teaching job and our childcare plan is we’re going to get a nanny. We’re going to do this; we’re going to do that.’
“Whatever it is, you just go ahead and tell them. Some people would say, ‘No, they don’t have a right to know that. You shouldn’t tell them, it’s none of their business.’
“Fine, you do it your way, I’ll do it my way. My way’s worked. I don’t know about your way because when you leave the room they still have those questions.
“If you don’t think they’re talking about that after you leave the room then you really don’t understand people. Of course they are talking about it. They’re wondering what your plan is, and they don’t know what it is so they’re not sure you can devote yourself to the job.
“It’s not 9-to-5, it’s 24-7, 365 days. And that includes 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m. calls. Whatever it is, you need to be available and ready to go.”
What is retirement going to be like for you?
“I think that one of the things that has helped me is the number of jobs that I’ve had over my lifetime and the number of times that I’ve had to start over. This is another start over.
“I do have an offer from a couple of entities at NC State to teach if I want to. I’m not going to do that right away. Carrie Sullivan, who retired last year as president of UVA, told me don’t over commit early because you never know what’s going to come your way and what opportunities you’re going to have.
“If you’ve already committed then you’re not going to be able to accept something that you might like better. I’m trying to take that advice. It might be teaching, or it might be guest speaking where I don’t have to deal with the grades.
“It might be consulting. I am familiar with all the search firms. For so long I was the only stable Power Five female AD, so I got to know them well.
“I just wanted to stay at Maryland and do a good job, and then my president was retiring and NC State had hired Chancellor [Randy] Woodson. It was a perfect time for me to come home and help the Pack.
“I don’t know what retirement will be like. I’ve never retired before, so I’m not sure. It’s day-to-day. My main concern is things being in good shape for Boo.
“He will need to understand some things about where we are, and I am so glad that Michael [Lipitz] and Chris [Boyer], Fred [Demarest], and others will be here so when he has questions they’ll have answers. Why do we do such and such, and why haven’t we done such and such. They understand how we got where we are.”
What are you not going to miss about being an athletic director?
“The losses for me are agonizing. I’m sure it’s not healthy. It’ll be different, I think.
“I feel such an overwhelming responsibility to fix things. If we drop a game we shouldn’t have lost, I want to deal with it, to talk about it, to try to figure out how to fix it.
“The fact is that sometimes as an AD the best thing you can do is take your hands off and let your coaches handle it. That’s what they are hired to do. They know when they drop a game they’re not supposed to drop. They understand that.
“One of the wonderful things that happened this year was when wrestling lost to Pitt, which should have never had happened based on rankings. We had an athlete come forward and tell the team why they shouldn’t have lost and what they had to do get back on track.
“I was stunned at the level of maturity and leadership that this young man already has. That floats my boat.
“Even in a loss if you can find a hidden gem like that, what some people call a silver lining, and I think that matters.
“Will the losses still bother me? Of course they are still going to matter, but I am not going to feel the responsibility to go try to figure it out because that’s not my job.
“People say to me, ‘Why weren’t you at Boo’s press conference?’ Because it was Boo’s press conference. He needs space. That’s his day. It’s not my day.
“I’ll try to remember that, too, as we go through this process. I’ll be available to answer any questions he has, but he’s going to be the AD effective April 30. Boo will run with it and do the best he can for us.”
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