Coming off her inaugural year as Elon University’s athletic director, Jennifer Strawley has big plans for this academic year and has many goals she wants to accomplish.
Strawley said she is excited for the upcoming year and is eager to implement some exciting plans such as a healthy culture within the athletic department, a new ticketing system and two new head coaches.
In her second year in the position, Strawley said she wants to have a heavy focus on a culture of excellence instilled within the athletic department, from student-athletes to athletic trainers — and even toward herself.
“How do we create a culture that has genuine care and support for each other but also really leans into expecting the highest standards and holding each other accountable and striving for excellence on all that we do on a daily basis?” Strawley said.
Strawley said the department is going to create this culture within the locker rooms of its teams by talking to student athletes about a championship mindset and how to get comfortable living outside of their comfort zone while they push themselves to achieve growth.
Strawley said from a broad perspective, she wants to continue working on creating the best version of Elon Athletics in order to prepare for the ever changing world of collegiate athletics, as evidenced by the recent NCAA settlement that allowed schools to pay athletes directly for the first time in the NCAA’s history.
“That starts with setting metrics and talking about competitive success, talking about winning championships, talking about the academic successes that we’re going to continue to have and leaning into how athletics can help build the brand of the institution as a whole,” Strawley said.
She said she also wants to continue to focus on the holistic student-athlete experience and how to help them be successful. In her first year as athletic director, Strawley guided the athletic department to look at how to improve the nutrition and equipment of student-athletes, experimenting with pre and post game meals and various types of equipment. She said the next step of this plan is to work directly with each individual team.
“The next phase of that is working with each sport program to identify what the pieces that can be most impactful for success in each individual sport program and try to do things that help us competitively,” Strawley said.
Strawley is also excited to oversee the implementation of Ticketmaster as Elon Athletics’ new hub for ticketing.
“Ticketmaster is obviously a leader in that space,” Strawley said. “It gives us the ability to have reports, electronic ticket distribution, sharing of tickets and other modernized ticket experiences that we have not had.”
Strawley said change can be hard but she doesn’t believe that the partnership will bring any increases in prices or negative effects.
Another thing Strawley said she is looking forward to seeing this year is the duo of new head coaches that Elon will see this year. The men’s tennis team will now be led by Maciek Sykut, who was the associate head coach position at Duke University. Strawley believes Sykut brings a deep level of coaching coming from Duke and having played at Florida State University that will prove to be successful.
“I think he understands what it takes to win championships and how to be successful, and I know our student athletes are really excited about the opportunity to work with him,” Strawley said. “I’m excited about the energy that it brings to our department and men’s tennis is a team that’s poised and positioned to win a championship.”
Sykut said in a previous interview with Elon News Network that he hopes to strive for championships by creating a culture of excellence.
“The expectation is to build a culture that is continuing to foster a culture of excellence, and we’re going to push that in the classroom, we’re going to push on the court,” Sykut said. “We’re going to try to get better and be as consistent as we can be and hopefully we can push the envelope to win championships.”
The men’s tennis team is coming off a 16-8 season where they lost in the CAA Championship. The team will be prepared to make another run this season with three returning All-CAA players from last year’s squad.
Sykut said he is excited to work with these players and push them to the next level.
“We’re going to push on the court, we’re going to push in the weight room, we’re going to push in conditioning, we’re going to push on the mental aspect of the game and I’m going to try and deliver my experiences to the players and let them learn from that,” Sykut said.
Mark Rinker is taking over as the head coach for cross country, a program that has won the last five CAA championships. Despite having big shoes to fill, Strawley said she expects Rinker to lead the team to more success.
“We brought in a new coach in Mark, who has had a lot of success in his own right, who understands what it takes to win championships,” Strawley said. “I expect us to continue to compete at the highest levels of cross country.”
As the fall sports season begins, Strawley is excited for what she calls “one of the most exciting points of the year.” Strawley said she is eager to see how all the various athletic teams perform while student-athletes continue to chase academic excellence in the classroom.
“It’s just this energy of hope and promise of the start of a new year and I really believe we have several teams that are positioned to have great seasons and I’m excited for that,” Strawley said.