Talking with Guelph’s athletic director, Tom Kendall
Photo: courtesy of Gryphon Athletics
Written by Justin Dunk
Justin Dunk: Looking back on the 2010-11 athletic year how do you feel the varsity teams performed as a whole?
Tom Kendall: It’s kind of interesting because overall in total we actually finished up winning less national championships, but we actually had a better year overall. I think we had only two teams that didn’t make playoffs this year, of 30 plus teams. We had more teams in quarterfinals and finals than we’ve ever had before. When I look at the overall results I’m really happy that we’re seeing growth and performance improvements pretty much across the board in all of our varsity teams.
JD: What were your most memorable moments provided by Gryphon varsity teams this year?
TK: I think the women’s volleyball playoffs. Actually leading up to the playoffs I thought they played exceptionally well. This is a team that hasn’t really performed well in the last decade. I think they’ve really showed a lot of improvement over the past three years. They were a treat to watch. I think the men’s wrestling program, first time in 28 years that we’ve won a conference title. I just know how hard they’ve worked to get to that level. That was a thrill. I think men’s hockey and women’s hockey really, we showed in both of those teams that we are ready to compete at the national level. It’s really funny because you always forget the cross-country team because we just expect them to win. That’s always a thrill when you have a team that’ll step up every year and win a national title. Those would be amongst the notable performances.
JD: What were some of the surprise or unexpected results put up by Gryphon teams this year?
TK: I think we’re past a point where there are any surprises anymore. There’s been such a steady development in the growth of all of our varsity teams that really there’s no surprises because we expect a certain level of performance and we’re starting to get it.
I think we’re at the point now where a number of our teams can win a conference title for sure and can compete at a national championship very, very well.
I don’t think there was a real surprise, at least not of the top off my head… I can’t think of any surprise that I wasn’t kind of expecting.
JD: Who is one graduating Guelph athlete that has most embodied what it means to be a Gryphon?
TK: Tough to say and the reason I won’t mention a name is because I think there are a lot of athletes in some of our less profile sports shall we say, who probably embody what it means to be a Gryphon and I would hate to think that they don’t think that they do.
You play on a team and there are a lot of guys that you look at as a teammate and you go, ‘This guys an exceptional athlete, he’s an exceptional person,’ but he never really gets recognized ‘cause he is not a star. I think we have a lot of those, I think we have a lot of kids that are just good kids. I would say that of all the schools I’ve worked at we have less problems with discipline here then any school I have ever worked at.
JD: What are some of the areas the athletic department is looking to improve upon in the upcoming year and future?
TK: I think facilities obviously. We’ve got to continue to get better. We’ve got to continue to provide first class training facilities and first class game facilities for our varsity athletes. I think that’s the number one thing. I think the second thing is, we have to continue to get alumni support, particularly, with some of the bigger teams, football in particular, but also hockey and basketball. I think we have to have more alumni involvement and we have to have more alumni giving back to the program because from a scholarship standpoint and from a resource standpoint I think the teams that succeed have that kind of support. There are certain programs in the province that get a lot of support from their alumni and that helps their program step to the next level.
JD: What can the athletic department do to appeal and appease all Guelph students, not just athletes, in the future?
TK: I think we’ve done a really good job of that. You look at the size of our intramural program and you look at the number of people that are using our fitness centre, this place is always packed. What that tells you is, if it’s always packed and it’s 50-years old, that tells you that the programming is solid and they enjoy coming back to get the experience that they get here. From day one that I arrived here in 2004 that was a priority for us. Really, when you look at all of our programs across the board, we actually provide more services and facilities for our non-varsity athletes than we do for the varsity athletes and that’s intentional. There’s 5 000 plus kids partaking in intramural programming and there’s something like 4 000 members at the fitness centre. Those are big numbers so we make sure that we take good care of those programs. I think the renovation of the Mitchell Centre is really focused on recreation and fitness and wellness for our student body.
JD: Will we see any sports being added as official varsity level teams in the near future?
TK: I think we’re really maxed out. It’s going to be at the club level if they come in at all. We pretty much have one of the largest programs in the country, in the province anyway. Adding more varsity sports just gets unmanageable.
JD: What is the state of the athletic department and the Gryphon teams after another year has passed?
TK: I’m pretty happy with the way we are. I think we’ve had a huge improvement in the organization of the department and the things we are able to do. I think we’re way ahead of where we were a few years ago. The university has supported our programming and they think it’s important, so it obviously gets good support from them. I think that our varsity programs in the next two years are really going to explode in terms of their performance. I think most of them are ready now to compete at the highest level. I think when you have that, and I think the difference between us and some other schools, is that we’ve haven’t just focused on one program or two programs. We’ve made an effort to grow all of our programs at the same time and the positive part about that is you get a really positive culture when you have everybody succeeding at the same time.
I see that continuing to happen and I really do believe that as the facilities come on board and as we continue to recruit great athletes I think that we’ll continue to be successful. Not to mention the fact that every year over the last five years we’ve had an increase in the number of academic All-Canadians, so we’re doing pretty well in the classroom too.
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