Just posted my thoughts on this issue in the Basketball tab under AD. Copy of an email I sent to him after graduating less than a year ago and his response.
Summary: Great person, average AD.
Summary: Great person, average AD.
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Valpo Basketball / Re: AD
April 05, 2019, 06:31:34 PM
Recent grad and I thought a copy of an email I sent after graduation to Mr LaBarbera may shed some light on the SA perspective:
I have many positives and many negatives in this email that I try to speak as open and honestly as possible to give you constructive feedback on the Athletic Department. Some of these things are simply observations, some are opinions, and others are just perceptions of the student athletes.
My time at Valpo with the ____ program was some of the best and formative years of my life. I loved being a part of those organizations due to the people leading them. Their care and passion to develop young people was inspiring and a big reason why I want to continue coaching.
The first negative I wanted to address: Sports medicine. I know you have received complaints in the past 4 years on this issues and from the student athlete point of view, nothing has been done to improve this situation. To put it bluntly, the sports medicine department is fairly incompetent by measures of success in the sports medicine industry. The amount of repeat injuries (I can name 7 off the top of my head in the past 12 months) sustained by athletes (especially females), complaints of their attitudes toward actually doing the bare minimum to help their athletes, and conservative measures taken that hinder a players return to play has hurt the athletes within your department. They do very little in terms of adhearing to your departments philosophy of being champions and going above and beyond to serve student athletes. If you want more specific examples or stories of their lack of benefit to the student athlete, let me know. The culture cultivated by your head trainer of your entire sports medicine department is one of laziness, selfish behavior and not doing the most to help their athletes.
To build off that, I think our strength and conditioning department is a joke in terms of structure, staffing and overall benefit to the student athlete. I have visited and interviewed at Division 3 universities that have a better structure and workflow than ours. It's not just about staffing or facilities. It's about the lack of benefit for our student athletes in using our staff or our facilities. Many of your teams have stopped using Bob and started hire/using their own S/C professionals. I think giving Bob more support so that he is not the leader of 20 teams could make him more effective at his job and in turn help reduce injuries in our athletes. Developing a type of GA or internship program would go a LONG way in helping develop more sport specific programs and deliver them in a practical way. I understand those still cost $ but I think it is an aspect of the athletic department that would help take it to the next level.
I understand that there are things I just discussed that are out of your hands. I know your hands are tied on a lot of issues that you get flack for. I get that, when others may not. But the following things are under your control.
There is a sense of a lack of transparency in the case of the student athletes. We have complaints or concerns that go unanswered by you or administrators and that in turn starts rumors within the athletes about what is or is not true. I think you need to develop some type of email or meeting that would allow ALL student athletes access to the work you are doing. The one example I can think of is the turf. I was in the Athletic advisory board meeting where it was stated by you that the turf was a University budgeted project and is scheduled for this coming summer. That piece of information was misconstrued vastly over the past 3 years within the athlete population and they grew frustrated because they kept hearing it would be done "soon" and it never did. So having some system of communication with Student Athletes may help the growing discord and discontent with the work that you do but may not be well known.
There is also a lack of presence at certain events or within certain teams. While you may stop in for 5 minutes at certain athletic matches/games, I think part of being a figure within our athletic department is being seen and knowing you care about each team. I know you've been to games and just stand in the press box, but none of the girls or fans knew you were there and then your attendance is almost futile becuase they dont "feel" your support.
I hope I didn't overstep myself on giving you my feedback but I hope you know this email comes from a love for my university and passion to help it move forward.
And then here is his VERY political response wrapped up with a futule "GO VALPO":
Thank you for your note and for sharing your observations and opinions on your experiences here at Valpo. It is important for me as the Athletics Director and for the Department overall to get feedback from student-athletes. That feedback helps shape decisions that will hopefully lead to an improved student-athlete experience.
It is encouraging to know that the time you spent with _____ added to your Valpo Experience. It is exciting news that you will be pursuing a career in coaching and that you have already made the first step down that career path. College sports needs more quality people as coaches.
Thank you for all the time and effort you put into being a successful student and athlete. You were an outstanding representative of Valpo on the ____ and we are proud to have you as part of the Valpo Athletics family. All the best in your future endeavors. If I can ever be of any help to you please do not hesitate in contacting me.
All the best. GO VALPO!
Mark L
It was a frustrating response to say the least, which is why I share. He just feels to be "all talk" with little push. He definitely has his hands tied from a funding point of view but the student athletes simply dont feel his support for themselves or their teams. This has nothing to do with his character as I believe he is a great person but average AD.
I have many positives and many negatives in this email that I try to speak as open and honestly as possible to give you constructive feedback on the Athletic Department. Some of these things are simply observations, some are opinions, and others are just perceptions of the student athletes.
My time at Valpo with the ____ program was some of the best and formative years of my life. I loved being a part of those organizations due to the people leading them. Their care and passion to develop young people was inspiring and a big reason why I want to continue coaching.
The first negative I wanted to address: Sports medicine. I know you have received complaints in the past 4 years on this issues and from the student athlete point of view, nothing has been done to improve this situation. To put it bluntly, the sports medicine department is fairly incompetent by measures of success in the sports medicine industry. The amount of repeat injuries (I can name 7 off the top of my head in the past 12 months) sustained by athletes (especially females), complaints of their attitudes toward actually doing the bare minimum to help their athletes, and conservative measures taken that hinder a players return to play has hurt the athletes within your department. They do very little in terms of adhearing to your departments philosophy of being champions and going above and beyond to serve student athletes. If you want more specific examples or stories of their lack of benefit to the student athlete, let me know. The culture cultivated by your head trainer of your entire sports medicine department is one of laziness, selfish behavior and not doing the most to help their athletes.
To build off that, I think our strength and conditioning department is a joke in terms of structure, staffing and overall benefit to the student athlete. I have visited and interviewed at Division 3 universities that have a better structure and workflow than ours. It's not just about staffing or facilities. It's about the lack of benefit for our student athletes in using our staff or our facilities. Many of your teams have stopped using Bob and started hire/using their own S/C professionals. I think giving Bob more support so that he is not the leader of 20 teams could make him more effective at his job and in turn help reduce injuries in our athletes. Developing a type of GA or internship program would go a LONG way in helping develop more sport specific programs and deliver them in a practical way. I understand those still cost $ but I think it is an aspect of the athletic department that would help take it to the next level.
I understand that there are things I just discussed that are out of your hands. I know your hands are tied on a lot of issues that you get flack for. I get that, when others may not. But the following things are under your control.
There is a sense of a lack of transparency in the case of the student athletes. We have complaints or concerns that go unanswered by you or administrators and that in turn starts rumors within the athletes about what is or is not true. I think you need to develop some type of email or meeting that would allow ALL student athletes access to the work you are doing. The one example I can think of is the turf. I was in the Athletic advisory board meeting where it was stated by you that the turf was a University budgeted project and is scheduled for this coming summer. That piece of information was misconstrued vastly over the past 3 years within the athlete population and they grew frustrated because they kept hearing it would be done "soon" and it never did. So having some system of communication with Student Athletes may help the growing discord and discontent with the work that you do but may not be well known.
There is also a lack of presence at certain events or within certain teams. While you may stop in for 5 minutes at certain athletic matches/games, I think part of being a figure within our athletic department is being seen and knowing you care about each team. I know you've been to games and just stand in the press box, but none of the girls or fans knew you were there and then your attendance is almost futile becuase they dont "feel" your support.
I hope I didn't overstep myself on giving you my feedback but I hope you know this email comes from a love for my university and passion to help it move forward.
And then here is his VERY political response wrapped up with a futule "GO VALPO":
Thank you for your note and for sharing your observations and opinions on your experiences here at Valpo. It is important for me as the Athletics Director and for the Department overall to get feedback from student-athletes. That feedback helps shape decisions that will hopefully lead to an improved student-athlete experience.
It is encouraging to know that the time you spent with _____ added to your Valpo Experience. It is exciting news that you will be pursuing a career in coaching and that you have already made the first step down that career path. College sports needs more quality people as coaches.
Thank you for all the time and effort you put into being a successful student and athlete. You were an outstanding representative of Valpo on the ____ and we are proud to have you as part of the Valpo Athletics family. All the best in your future endeavors. If I can ever be of any help to you please do not hesitate in contacting me.
All the best. GO VALPO!
Mark L
It was a frustrating response to say the least, which is why I share. He just feels to be "all talk" with little push. He definitely has his hands tied from a funding point of view but the student athletes simply dont feel his support for themselves or their teams. This has nothing to do with his character as I believe he is a great person but average AD.
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