Army West Point Athletics
Ask the AD - October 30, 2006
October 30, 2006 | General
Rich DeMarco: Hello again everyone, Rich DeMarco on another edition of “Ask the AD,” your chance to ask questions of Army Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson, and have Kevin Anderson answer your questions about the Army athletic department.
Kevin, always good to be with you as we are here in the month of October, and we have a lot of questions to get to. On this show, we will be doing all questions.
Kevin Anderson: Rich, it’s good to be with you again, and I am looking forward to answering these great questions.
RD: Kevin, we have gotten several questions about future football scheduling here at West Point. Jeffrey Maliska from Plainfled, Ill., is curious about Army playing Northwestern in the future. Roger Jones from West Point wants to know if Army will play a historically black college in the future, and Eric Jensen from Portland, Ore., is curious as to when Army will play a game in the Pacific Northwest.
KA: Well Rich, that’s a lot to bite off with one chew, but I will attempt my best to do so. We will be going to the state of Oregon, however, that won’t happen until the year 2016. We are still working out details, but it looks very promising that we will play the University of Oregon in the city of Eugene sometime in 2016.
We really would like to play at Soldier Field in the city of Chicago. Before we go to play Notre Dame, I will be sitting down with the mayor of Chicago and seeing if we can play there in the very near future. The other thing is that we do have Northwestern on our schedule, and we are looking at games played further out. Our first game would be 2011 and Northwestern would visit West Point. Then we had to reschedule our return to Northwestern to 2015. But, we will be playing in the Chicago area, and we will play Northwestern, and hopefully, we can bring another game to Soldier Field.
As far as scheduling a black college on our schedule, we are open to it, but right now we are pretty well scheduled through the year 2013. So, we would see where something like that could fit in, and again we are open to playing a historically black university.
RD: Kevin, our next question is from George Hartnell from Newburyport, Mass. He was able to attend the AT&T Corps Classic between Army and Texas A&M in San Antonio, and wants to know if that is a rivalry you are going to continue in that form of a neutral site?
KA: As Coach Ross and I believe that we are America’s team, and we are looking to branch out and play anywhere in America particularly where we have Army installations where we can play in front of our soldiers and share the Army football experience with them. So, yes we are looking at several options with some schools that would be very attractive, and I think that we will be able to announce some of these games in the very near future.
RD: Kevin, our next questions is from Roe Fenning from Sylvania, Ohio, and Kevin, Roe wants to know if there are any alumni functions or rallies being planned prior to the football game at Notre Dame coming this Nov. 18?
KA: Right now, we are still in the planning stages. But I do know that there are several alumni tailgates that will take place at Notre Dame for the football game. If you have any questions, please call the Army A’ Club or log on to our web site. We will have more information for you in the very near future.
RD: The Army A’ Club can be reached by calling 845-938-2322 or the Army athletics web site at www.goARMYsports.com.
Kevin, next question from Larry Katz in Newtown, Pa., and he asks about Army and its agreement to go to the Poinsettia Bowl this season should the Black Knights gain six victories. He asks if Army’s victory over VMI, which was a Division I-AA team, counts towards the six wins needed to qualify for a bowl?
KA: Larry, that game definitely counts towards our six to qualify us for the Poinsettia Bowl. VMI has a number of scholarships that qualifies them to be a sanctioned game that will qualify us to go on to a bowl game if we get the six. To make a long answer short, yes the game counts.
RD: Kevin, our next questions is from Carl Budai from Florence, Ky., and Carl wants to know your thoughts on football coach Bobby Ross and his staff.
KA: Carl, I will answer this two ways for you. This is the best job any person could have in my position. I work with the best student-athletes in the country, these young men and women are phenomenal athletes and students. They’re phenomenal citizens. In saying all that, our football staff with Coach Ross are the people who we want to have coach these young people. I have worked with some fantastic and wonderful coaches. I have worked with Bill Walsh, Tyrone Willingham, Jeff Tedford, Tom Homo, Dennis Erickson and Mike Riley, just to name a few. Coach Ross is as good if not better than all of them. He has the kind of character that we talk about that we want every cadet at West Point to have. He models us each and every day.
Bottom line, the reason why I am here is because I get to work with people like Coach Ross and his staff. They model “Duty, Honor, Country” each and every day to these young people. They have inherited a program that, to be honest with you, was lacking the talent that we need to be competitive. The last couple of years, we have been able to bring in the kind of cadet-athlete that we need and it’s not going to happen overnight. That’s why most coaches in this country that coach Division I-A football get five-year contracts. They are coming into programs that hadn’t been doing well and we give then the opportunity to move these young people into football players but also to be fine young men. That’s what we are doing here and Carl, if you don’t agree with me on that and if that’s not what we are trying to do here at West Point, then I might be the wrong person for the job. But, as long as I am the athletic director here, I am going to have coaches such as Coach Ross because not only does he coach football well, but he coaches all the other aspects of life that we want the young people to take away and become fine Army officers.
RD: Kevin, our next question from Daniel McNamara in Kearny, N.J., and Kevin, Daniel had a chance to come up to Army’s Sports Hall of Fame and the Rice game, but he said he found it very difficult to get to the stadium. He parked near the library and ended up walking a long way to Michie Stadium and just wants to know why that took place?
KA: Well, as you can imagine, that weekend was very special and we had a good crowd out so parking was at a premium. However, we are trying to do a better job at customer service and getting people to the stadium. There are shuttles, and I understand Daniel had a hard time finding the shuttles. So, I will bring this back to our game day operations people and let them know that we need to do a better job to make sure that we are servicing our fans because it’s very critical for us that we make sure we are giving them the best game day experience because we want them to continue to come back. Daniel, I apologize if you had any inconvenience and we will do a better job next time.
RD: Kevin, our next question is from Harry Trout from Jeannette, Pa., and Kevin, Harry wants to know about attending the Maggie Dixon Classic which will be on Nov. 12 and will feature the Army women’s basketball team taking on nationally ranked Ohio State, and the nationally ranked Pittsburgh men’s basketball team facing Western Michigan.
KA: Well, first of all Harry, I’m very excited we are able to host the first Maggie Dixon Classic here. We are going to have Maggie’s family back and former Superintendent Lt. Gen. Lennox and his wife Anne will be back, so we are going to continue the celebration of the wonderful season we had last year. We are going to raise the banner and give out the championship rings to the former Superintendent, the Dean and the Dixon family. It’s going to be a great event and a great day of basketball. Here is how you can get tickets, first of all, you can call 1-877-TIX-ARMY or go on the world wide web at www.goARMYsports.com. Either way you can purchase tickets, or you can come to Holleder and you can buy them there.
RD: At the Army ticket office which is open during normal business hours Monday-Friday and of course during games, as well.
Kevin, our next questions is from Jack Couch from Norwalk, Conn. Jack wants to know when the completion date occupancy date for the Foley Indoor Athletic Training Facility, which is being erected just behind Michie Stadium and adjacent to the Holleder Center
KA: Well Jack first of all, I must say I am very excited by the progress of the Foley Athletic Center, and as you can see, things are really starting to progress. We expect to be able to move into the building somewhere after the winter break, which would be around Jan. 4. The beginning of Jan., we will start to see our cadet-athletes using the building and becoming bigger, stronger and faster.
RD: Kevin, we move on to Everett Brownsell from Holley, N.Y. Kevin, Everett wants to know if there are any plans to make the women’s lacrosse program here at West Point a varsity sport.
KA: Well Everett, one thing I will say that that our club sports are great, period, and the women’s lacrosse team does a wonderful job. However, the state of the department right now doesn’t really have flexibility to add any sports to it. So, somewhere in the future we might look at it but right now, I don’t foresee it.
RD: Kevin, we wrap things up with James Schulz from Brooklyn, N.Y., and Kevin, James wants to know if there are any plans to erect an instant replay Jumbotron screen at Michie Stadium.
KA: Yes James. We would really like to have an instant replay board erected for next season, and if you are truly interested in this, you can send me a check, and I’ll make sure we get it up next year. But, in all seriousness, we are trying to fundraise or find a sponsor that will help us put up a video board such as the one at Navy and the other fine stadiums in this country.
RD: Kevin, always good to be with you on another edition of “Ask the AD,” and for your listeners out there, keep the questions coming. Go to the official web site of Army athletics, www.goARMYsports.com, click on the “Ask the AD” button and we will be back periodically answering questions.
Kevin, we got to a lot of questions today and we will get to some more in the near future.
KA: Well Rich, it’s always good to be with you, and I just ask our fans to keep them coming and we will sit down and answer as many as we can.
RD: That’s Army Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson. For Kevin Anderson, Rich DeMarco saying so long on another edition of “Ask the AD.” Have a good day everyone.
