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A Winning Perspective: Connee Zotos, Athletics Director
"I loved sports," she says enthusiastically, "and my parents always encouraged me. I was lucky because Park Ridge provided a lot of great opportunities when I was a kid, including the chance to play against other towns." Zotos, in fact, was such an admirable athlete that when she was 13, she was playing softball with the 15-year-olds, and when she reached her midteens, she was recruited for a New Jersey traveling team. By then she was also playing in the Police Athletic League Girls Basketball program, and participating in leagues all year round. At Park Ridge High School, she played basketball and ran on the track team; when she was a senior, Zotos was voted best female athlete. "Actually," she laughs, "I later learned that no one else wanted the 'honor,' but I was proud to be selected. For me, it was natural for a woman to excel at sports because my family had provided such good role models. It never occurred to me that there might be discrimination against women in athletics until I got to college." At Glassboro State College, where she was a two-sport varsity athlete, Zotos had a dual major in health and physical education. During her time there, in the summer of 1972, pivotal federal legislation affecting women's sports was passed by Congress. "Title IX really jump-started women's sports," Connee acknowledges. "Pre-Title IX, there was almost a discouragement for girls to play, and the common attitude toward female athletes was, 'That's nice, dear.' Today, even little girls are encouraged to join athletic teams." Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ensured that girls and women would have equal opportunities in all educational activities receiving taxpayer dollars. Although the original amendments did not specifically mention athletics, the Javits amendment passed in 1974 explicitly included intercollegiate athletics under the law. Sports opportunities for women increased on the interscholastic high school and college level, as did the availability of funding to support them. For Zotos, who was considering a career in coaching and would later become an acknowledged authority on Title IX, the legislation was a defining moment. A Sporting LifeAfter working two years as a physical education teacher and basketball coach at Mainland Regional High School in Linwood, N.J., and part-time softball coach at Stockton State College in Pomona, Zotos decided to pursue a full-time career in college coaching. That meant getting a graduate degree. She investigated five top schools and settled on the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she was awarded a graduate assistantship and worked with the women's basketball team. In addition to receiving a master's degree in physical education with a concentration in sports management, Zotos also gained experience serving as the assistant to the director of women's athletics while she was there. Then she headed back East for her first real college coaching job. In 1978, she was hired as director of women's athletics and head coach of basketball and field hockey at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. The position involved developing policies for six sports programs at the urban school, as well as managing the women's sports budgets, among other duties. "It was an exceptional experience," she says of her four years there. "I was only 25 or 26 at the time, and I was supervising coaches of other sports and evaluating several staff members." Under the capable coaching of Zotos, the women's basketball team took first place in its division in 1980 and 1982, winning a bid to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women eastern regional tournament both years, and finishing third in the latter. The women's field hockey team finished first in its division in 1979 and 1981 and won the Philadelphia All-College tournament championship in 1981. Division IBy 1982, Zotos was ready to move up the career ladder, aspiring to become an NCAA Division I athletic coach -- or director. That summer in Philadelphia, she was administering a high school girls' softball camp. She invited Donna Lopiano, Ph.D., Hall of Fame softball player and then director of inter-collegiate athletics for women at the University of Texas, to participate. Not only did Lopiano agree to come to Philadelphia, she also gave Zotos some extremely valuable career guidance. "Donna told me, 'If you want to work at that level, you've got to have a Ph.D. You need all the credentials possible to be a front runner and to relate to the faculty.' It was very good advice." The next spring Zotos accepted a faculty position at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching two courses and working with undergraduate and graduate students who were pursuing careers linked to professional sports franchises, Olympic development programs, and high school and university athletics departments. At the same time, she began working on her doctorate degree. In 1988, Zotos received her Ph.D. in educational administration, and was appointed assistant professor of sports management in the graduate program. During her 10 years at Texas, she also directed national sports camps and coaches' clinics, and worked as a television "color commentator' for Home Sports Entertainment and Austin Cablevision. Athletics in PerspectiveIronically, while she was at the University of Texas, Zotos realized she didn't want to continue coaching in Division I. "It became clear to me," she says, "that big-school intercollegiate athletics were increasingly based on the 'business' sports model and heavily influenced by the commercialism of professional sports, where the pressure to succeed is tremendous and winning at any cost is everything. "At the Division I level there are some coaches who start compromising and engaging in unethical behavior, and some alumni actually provide players with pay and other perks, such as cars -- those media reports are realities." Fortunately, there is an alternative for those committed to preserving the integrity of intercollegiate athletics, according to Zotos. "I really like the educational sports model," she asserts, which, not surprisingly, is one of the reasons she came to Drew. Heading HomeIn 1992, Zotos left the University of Texas and returned to her Mid-Atlantic roots. She was hired as director of athletics, recreation and wellness and as associate professor of education at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. The move was right for several reasons: the program there placed value on athletics as an educational experience; there was a strong relationship between the school's Division III athletes and their coaches; and she got to super-vise 23 staff members and oversee 10 women's sports programs. She wasn't destined to be there long, however. Two years later, with its multimillion-dollar field hockey complex in place and the impressive Simon Forum and Athletic Center completed, Drew opened its nationwide search for a new athletics director to reinvigorate the University's strong sports tradition. There were big shoes to fill -- Sherman Plato "Doc' Young, who had only five losing seasons out of the 22 that he coached the Drew baseball team, and Harry Simester, who coached men's basketball for 22 years and chaired the physical education department for 36, were two larger-than-life legendary Drew figures. Undeterred, Zotos was eager to apply and easily got the job. "Drew was the right fit for me," she reflects, "because the athletic de-partment is an integral part of the educational experience. Here, athletics really are an extension of academics. I like Drew as a university -- it's friendly, intellectual, diverse, and more open and accepting than many schools. "One of the reasons I love my job is that I have a boss who 'gets it'," she says of Mike McKitish, vice president of finance and business affairs, to whom she reports. "He supports me, challenges me to think outside the box, and aids in the decision-making process. He was an athlete himself, so he understands and has a passion for sports." A Winning PerformanceUnlike her predecessors, Zotos doesn't do any coaching at Drew, in keeping with her philosophy. "I believe no one should be both a coach and an athletic director," she says emphatically. "There are just too many opportunities for abuse and conflicts of interest." What she does do is manage more than two dozen staff members, including head coaches and their assistants, with responsibility for hiring, supervising and evaluating all of them. When she hires a coach, she looks for someone who will be a teacher first and foremost. "I look for a demeanor that is consistent with that of our students, who are used to questioning as part of their rigorous academic experience," she explains. "Connee has a skill and knack for hiring the right people," says Frank Merckx, previously a part-time athletic trainer at Drew and now the director of residence life. "After she hires them, she motivates them by letting them do the things they're good at -- coaching and recruiting -- and she's always there to support them in the decisions they make." Zotos uses seven different means of evaluating her coaches, including input from their peers and from the athletes for whom they are responsible. She admits that coaches are at a dis-advantage because currently their profession doesn't require in-service training or licensing. "We desperately need a nationally recognized certification program that prepares coaches for their tremendous responsibilities," she notes. In addition to her Drew responsibilities, Zotos is a nationally recognized speaker and author. She's written extensively about designing coaches' employment and compensation packages, funding trends of women's athletics programs, and gender equity in sports. She also serves on the NCAA Division III Management Council, the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NAC-WAA) board of directors, and is chair of the NACWAA Title IX Committee, among other affiliations. When she looks to the future, Connee Zotos thinks about the possibility of teaching again after she retires -- perhaps a class in sports ethics or organizational theory. And she'll probably take some time to play more golf. It's evident that Zotos' most significant victory now is in fulfilling her destiny as an accomplished athlete, coach, educator, and mentor. The Zotos Hall of Fame
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Articles
She was a little girl, only 7 or 8, when she first started swinging a bat on the dusty playing fields of Park Ridge, N.J. Athletics were in her genes -- her mother was "the best stickball player ever," she remembers, and her father's sister in Bay Ridge was devoted to golf and tennis. For Connee Zotos, director of athletics at Drew, the concept of play, and of playing hard, was ever present as she was growing up.