Trending
BEAVER TOWNSHIP - With collegiate landscapes changing and continually evolving, so, too, are school's athletics departments and it is no different at Youngstown State University.
The newest member of the YSU athletics staff, Tory Lindley, was hired last August as its deputy athletics director for performance excellence, a newly created position that has him overseeing its sports medicine, strength and conditioning and academic services areas while enhancing the performance, nutrition and mental health services of all Penguins' student-athletes.
A 1991 graduate of Michigan State University and former president of the National Athletic Trainers Association, Lindley told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday's weekly meeting at Avion Banquet Center that his background in athletics has helped him ease into his new position.
"I think having an athletic administrator with a healthcare background, specifically my experience as a clinician, is impactful in a number of ways. Not only for the student-athlete experience but also in what tends to come up on a regular basis in athletics and that is their well-being," Lindley said. "Whether it is their experience directly with athletics or in our community, there are a number of issues daily that tend to hit our radar.
"That is where I think the background that I have and the foresight executive director of athletics, Ron Strollo and University President Jim Tressel had in creating this position for someone with my type of background is really unique."
With 19 men's and women's sports currently offered by YSU and 530 student-athletes - that number is second in the state of Ohio to only Ohio State - dotting their respective rosters, Lindley and his staff remain quite busy as they continue to negotiate the current COVID pandemic.
"We have a lot of excellent people in place in the key areas that touch our student athletic experience, areas we are looking to enhance in the years to come," Lindley added. "The pandemic, however, has really changed everything. It has changed our campus which, of course, impacts our students as much as their student athletic experience.
"It changed the ways in which we've had to adjust from a schedule standpoint to facility standpoint to integrating testing, to staying on top of whatever is the latest. If we think back to the beginning of the pandemic, it was literally changing by the hour. What that has brought back to our day to day operation with the last two variances, and what is different now to then and where we've come with the pandemic is not only the level of understanding, but an infrastructure now that is supportive of change, being able to adapt as quickly as we have been able to and as quickly as we must continue to adapt for the student-athlete experience.
"Also, it has taught us two different times that a new variant could be around the corner so it is that adaptability and the flexibility that everybody must be able to display. Our coaches have done a great job of it and the university has stayed on top of it in giving us direction."
With the NCAA approving NIL's (name, image and likeness) and new transfer rules being adopted, Lindley feels the student-athlete is now being recognized for their efforts and accomplishments.
"I think it has right-sized in a lot of different ways. I say that meaning it is really positive changes that have come along to look more closely at the student athletic experience and be more mindful of the things they likely deserve," he noted. "With the amateur model, obviously there is a ceiling with a lot of walls but we're finding the opportunities to right-size it so they can take advantage of this type of experience, this type of atmosphere within college athletics and still have an opportunity to capitalize on their own name, image and likeness but also have some of the freedoms and flexibility.
"What we are going to see in the next five years is really going to be interesting because the playing field has changed so much. Now, how do things adapt to the bigger picture? How does the one-time transfer become a plea to transfer twice? It will be interesting."
Next Monday, Josh Frketic, sports reporter for WKBN-TV, Channel 27 will serve as guest speaker.