In the past year, Grant Leiendecker, Butler’s vice president and director of athletics, has overseen five coaching hires, brought the NBA Cup to Hinkle Fieldhouse and navigated a rapidly-changing college sports landscape. This week, he sat down with The Butler Collegian for more on the happenings of Butler athletics.
THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN: You hired five new head coaches in the past year. Take me through the process of choosing a new coach.
GRANT LEIENDECKER: It has been a lot. It seemed like they all kind of stacked on top of each other, which is not ideal because they’re pretty consuming, right? The most important thing I do in this role is personnel and hiring our coaches.
You’re looking for a coach for unique reasons. Each sport is unique. Each search is unique. You have, for us, the most high-profile [sport], men’s basketball, [whereas] women’s lacrosse or women’s tennis may not be in the public spotlight, but [are] still very important for us, and a lot of student-athletes and alumni care about where that lands. Ultimately, we’re always looking for someone that fits Butler, represents us and has an appreciation and understanding of who we are and what we’re about, just culturally.
I feel good about where we landed on all of them, so I’m really excited to get them settled in and see their teams in action.
TBC: Four of the five new hires were student-athletes at Butler. How much weight did you put on bringing in people with that perspective?
GL: It wasn’t a priority going into the search, but as we moved through the search, each one separated themselves, and them having that love and appreciation and understanding of Butler definitely became a factor. There’s a lot of factors, and as I said, each search is unique. But it’s exciting to know that this is a place that people want to come back to, and [it is] no different than me being here. People tend to have a great experience here, and it leaves a lasting impact on you. [The fact] that people want to come back and be a part of that for the next generation of student-athletes says a lot, and that was the case for those four.
It’s not hiring a Butler person to ‘stay within the family’, but there’s something to be said about having been developed here, [having] success here [and] then they want to come back. There’s a certain way that we do things here; some could say it’s The Butler Way, but when they understand that and appreciate that, and also happen to be good coaches in every other area of measurement, it’s a nice thing.
TBC: You went fairly young with the group of new coaches, particularly with Leah Rubino and Natalie Boesing. My first exposure to that strategy was Erin Matson with UNC Field Hockey. How much did you evaluate how well the strategy worked for other programs?
GL: Yeah, I was very familiar with that because I’d spent time in North Carolina [as a member of the UNC athletics fundraising team] and was there when [Matson] was a player, and obviously then they made that decision, which was shocking to some. But when you know the person, have a chance to spend time around them and then really dig into the other people that know them and know what they’re about, the age thing becomes a non-factor if you can validate and verify all the other things you’re looking for in a head coach.
I feel very confident in Leah, Natalie and all the coaches we hired. Part of it is kind of what that program needs at the time. What type of energy, what type of person can connect with recruits and the current team and alumni, and what their vision is for how they grow it. Every coach is going to have strengths and weaknesses, and then it’s our job to make sure that we’re filling and coaching them up on the weaknesses. But we certainly look to see where that’s had success in the past.
TBC: Aside from wins and losses, how do you evaluate new head coaches?
GL: Each one’s different. It depends on what they’re inheriting and what the recruiting landscape looks like. Generally, we want to see progress. We want to see the student-athletes coming together. We want to make sure that they’re having a great experience. We want to see healthy recruiting activity. We want to see [them] getting acclimated in the university, in the campus, in the department. So it’s less about wins and losses, frankly, than it is about seeing things moving in the right direction, right?
All these coaches fit us culturally; they’re already getting integrated and making a great impact on this building and across campus, so we just want to see progress. We want to see [that] they have a particular identity and style that they want to play, and so that takes time to get the people that fit that and get people connected around that. Generally, we have a pretty generous evaluation of coaches in year one, but it’s mostly all the off-the-field stuff that we want to help them get acclimated [to], get their program kind of on the right track and then see growth year in and year out.
TBC: There has been a lot of news centered around Hinkle as of late. Firstly, you recently debuted a new-look volleyball court. How did that come about?
GL: That project specifically has been on [volleyball head coach Kyle] Shondell’s wish list since he got here. It’s the gold standard of surfaces for volleyball. It’s always been something we would love to provide our student-athletes. It’s been something we wanted to accomplish, so we set out a fundraising plan to do it. We’ve been fortunate that we had some lead donors step up and be willing to help us make it happen, [so] we fundraised around it to make it a reality. It was a multi-year process to get it, but we’re thrilled to have it and excited for our student-athletes to benefit from it.
It certainly is going to help them day in and day out, just in terms of the wear and tear on their bodies. It is going to be a recruiting asset for us as well, and we’re proud to be able to to roll that out and have them compete on it and practice on it. So it was a process, but it was donor-driven, just like the many other areas that we’re trying to grow and improve across the department.
TBC: Can you explain the difference between the new floor and the old floor?
GL: It’s less than an inch thick surface, but probably one of the most expensive less than an inch thick surfaces you could find. It lays right on top of our basketball court, the current surface, and it provides a lot more give, so it’s much better on the student-athlete’s joints when they’re constantly jumping up and down. The other thing is, if you were to dive full out on a basketball court, you’re going to feel it. This surface actually provides an easier pathway for them to slide and avoid those injuries.
TBC: The big news of the summer is that Hinkle is playing host to the NBA Cup championship game. What kind of energy are you hoping that brings to campus?
GL: We’re still kind of getting our arms around that. We’d love for the students to be engaged as much as possible. There is going to be more than just the basketball game. The NBA has plans to really activate much more of our campus so we will absolutely try to find ways for our students to engage. There’s going to be fan-fest type of events and tailgates and all kinds of different things you wouldn’t normally see around a single basketball game, but it’s going to be a big event, so the more we learn, the more we’ll be glad to share and include students. But there’s definitely going to be a lot of excitement and buzz around campus.
TBC: You’ve started to make a habit out of hosting non-Butler events at Hinkle, like the NBA Cup, College 3-Point & Dunk Contest and the NIT Championship. Is it a goal of yours to host at least one big event like that each year?
GL: It absolutely is. Again, we believe this is the best venue in the country that you could host a basketball event [at]. But even outside of basketball events, there’s some other [options]. We’re looking at entertainment events and other sporting events that we can host in this building. The challenge for us is we’re [booked] in here so much from men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball and other things we have going on in this building that there’s limitations to when we can bring other events in here. So unfortunately, we have to turn things down quite a bit, but it is absolutely a priority to bring these events to Butler. It benefits our university and our athletics programs. NBA Cup, for example, [is] going to put Butler on an international stage. There’s going to be millions of people watching. We’re gonna be bringing a new audience that hasn’t really been in this building before. [That is] a great opportunity for our university to market us in a different light. So it is a priority, and we’re always looking to continue to move the needle there.
TBC: Last year you mentioned wanting to de-densify Hinkle by building a new athletic training facility. Where are you at in that process?
GL: We have our master plan roughly done, which includes a new athletic training facility that would allow us to get the majority of our student-athletes into a new home. It would allow us to de-densify Hinkle, do some renovations, be able to then attract more outside events to drive more revenue and bring cool things to our campus.
It’s a big project. We’re talking about close to nine figures all-in on a project like that. So financially, we’re not quite there yet. Obviously, the nature of our industry is changing with revenue sharing and how you need [money] to build basketball teams. There’s a lot more financial investment involved, so that’s causing us to have to press pause on the larger facilities projects.
We’re hoping to break ground [this week] on a new outdoor tennis facility, which is a phenomenal project. It’s going to be a state-of-the-art tennis facility [that will] be able to obviously be a quality home for Division I tennis programs, but then also be able to host some really high-level tennis events. It’s moving from six courts to 12 courts. This project will be completely donor-funded [and] we’re really excited to get that underway.
We’ll be replacing the turf in the Sellick Bowl this spring. We’re going to look at some upgrades to our baseball facility. We’re always looking to try to make these improvements. It just is going to go as fast as we can raise the money.
TBC: Have you decided where on campus the athletic training facility would go?
GL: Whatever we do is going to be in concert with the university master plan and The Gateway Project as it relates to all the other infrastructure needs we [have] on this campus. But right now our top idea would be to build this new facility into the north hill end zone area of the Sellick Bowl. [It would] kind of butt up to where those pickleball courts are, and allow for a smooth transition from the football locker room right out to the field. That’s our current best location for the project.
TBC: Last year I asked you about the potential inevitability of cutting sports due to NIL. Do you feel more or less optimistic that you will be able to avoid that?
GL: I’m feeling more [optimistic]. I feel like we’ve made some hard decisions and had to really tighten things up from a budgetary standpoint. The scary part in this environment right now is the way things continue to change and [I] feel like it continues to be more and more unsustainable. There’s some hope that Congress may want to intervene here in the next month or so. We’ll see where that goes.
There’s obviously incredible national interest in finding a solution for this. I don’t know how feasible that actually is. We don’t really know who’s going to be in charge and who’s going to help us find that solution. But I’m optimistic that within the next few years we will be there.
We have to be very prudent and thoughtful about how we’re using our resources and being really strategic with our budgeting, [but] we are growing our revenue significantly. Fundraising’s increased. Our partnership with PlayFly [Sports] has grown our corporate sponsorship revenue significantly, so we are generating more revenue. [The] challenge is the pressure to increase your expenses is growing at an even more rapid rate, so it’s challenging. But I feel like we have the university support, and we’re in a good place with the current number of programs we have here and the overall impact that our sports have on the university.
TBC: As usual, there’s been a ton of change in college sports lately, including the new five-in-five eligibility rule. How, if at all, is that affecting Butler specifically?
GL: It’s certainly affecting us. Every coach is always trying to do the best [they can] within what the rules allow, so based on what roster availability they have and what recruits are available, they’re going to make sure to try to put the best roster on the field or court. And it’s not just men’s and women’s basketball. This is impacting all of our sports.
The new five-in-five eligibility rule going forward, I think, is a really good thing, and should provide some clarity and eliminate some of what we’re dealing with right now. The challenge is obviously all the lawsuits that have popped up as a result of this, and we are certainly not going to be a school that’s supportive of suing to join our own rules that we’ve agreed to be a part of. But, we also have to respond to what the rules are and who’s eligible and who’s not.
We’re constantly trying to update our coaches on what we know and what we don’t know, and it’s just challenging for our coaches on a daily basis. We’re trying to support them, and we’ll see where it goes here over the next couple months.