Meeting • With
the second search for an athletic director
underway, the first candidate, University
of Alabama at Birmingham Senior Associate
Athletic Director William Lee Moon (standing,
left) takes questions and comments from
a crowd filled with boosters, athletic
department staff and other. Erika Jones
/ Online Forty-Niner
First
AD candidate interviewed
By Patrick Hodgson
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
University of Alabama at Birmingham Senior Associate Athletic Director Lee
Moon interviewed for the vacant athletic director position Wednesday.
Moon met with the Student Athlete Advisory Council, the Student Advisory Council,
the head coaches and President F. King Alexander.
Moon is one of the three candidates vying for the position left open after
CSULB Athletic Director Bill Schumard resigned last summer to become president
of the Special Olympics of Southern California.
“
I hope we find a good athletic director,” said senior Jibril Hodges of
the men’s basketball team. “It will only benefit our recruiting
and all sports getting better as a whole.”
Moon’s résumé includes more than three decades of involvement
in athletics, including playing, coaching and administrating.
Moon played football for the Virginia Military Institute and on the semi-pro
level with the Roanoke Buckskins. He began his coaching career at Virginia’s
Staunton Military Academy and was a graduate assistant at the University of
Virginia, where he earned a master’s degree in education.
Moon’s career as athletic director started at Marshal University in West
Virginia in 1988, where he spent eight years regulating all aspects of athletic
administration. In his last year of tenure at Marshal he managed a budget of
about $7 million before accepting a position with the University of Wyoming.
At Wyoming, Moon managed a $15 million budget to be spread among 17 sports
teams and was a vital part in the construction and renovation of several athletics
facilities, including the Rochelle Athletics Center. Moon has also been credited
with increasing the school’s national TV exposure and stature in the
Mountain West
Conference before being terminated after the school said a change of leadership
was needed to secure more support for its proposed $2.9 million athletic plan
in June 2003.
Shortly after leaving Wyoming, the University of Alabama at Birmingham hired
him to oversee its sports programs. UAB sports have shown strong performances,
like the men’s basketball team qualifying for the NCAA Tournament and
nearly upsetting traditional powerhouse Kentucky.
“
I feel that Lee invokes great leadership qualities and gets the best out of
student- athletes in and off the field,” said an UAB associate. “If
he land at LBSU, they will only wreak the benefits of this.”
Some of the issues the new athletic director will face once he is chosen by
Alexander are recruiting, fundraising and dealing with the demand for a football
team.
“
I’m not worried about the demands of a football program,” Moon
said. “I think this is an attractive place that we can get [a possible
football program] jumping in a hurry.”
Cegles and Winstead will go through the same interview process today.
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