For nearly three months now, the athletic director job at Chattanooga State Community College has been cut three ways.
When Kim Smith resigned that part of her Chattanooga State responsibilities in October, the school's three coaches proposed that they divide the duties and handle the job themselves. And then-president Dr. Jim Catanzaro agreed to it.
Greg Dennis"I think if we had said one of us should take it, he would have gone along with that," baseball coach Greg Dennis said. "But I don't think any of us was comfortable dropping it all on one person."
"If you do the job of athletic director like it should be done, it's a lot of work and time-consuming," said Jay Price, who coaches both basketball teams and is in his 11th year at the school.
Blythe GoldenDennis, in his 12th year with the Tigers and with nearly 800 wins as a college coach, is in charge of fundraising and facility rentals. Price handles all the NJCAA issues and paperwork, such as eligibility and compliance. Third-year softball coach Blythe Golden oversees budget and insurance matters and sports information, the latter specifically entrusted to her assistant coach, Amanda Lindsey.
Dennis actually ran into a similar arrangement many years ago when he was coaching in Texas and interviewed at Blinn College there.
"Blinn was using multiple ADs then," he said. "I think they had one administrator and two coaches (running the department)."
Dennis and Price talked with each other about the possibility of shared AD duties when Steve Jaecks left with softball coach Beth Keylon-Randolph for East Carolina University after Chattanooga State's national championship season in 2012. Ultimately, Smith returned to the AD position Jaecks vacated.
When she stepped aside this time, though -- to give more time to family responsibilities -- the coaches decided that the AD compensation could be better used throughout the department. TCCAA schools have a cap on athletic spending, including salaries as well as operation expenses and the like, but each institution is allowed to divide the available money as it wishes.
"We saw this is a way to get more money in our budgets, to use the AD salary in different ways," Price pointed out.
Each of the three gets a "small stipend" for the added duties, Dennis acknowledged. "Super small," Golden said with a laugh.
All three have proven themselves as coaches. Dennis has had his Tigers ranked No. 1 in the nation and playing in the Junior College World Series. Price took both of his teams to NJCAA nationals -- in the same year. Golden guided her Lady Tigers to third place in the NJCAA tournament last spring, her second as a head coach.
"She's still in her 20s, but she's like a 50-year-old to deal with," Dennis said of the 29-year-old. "She's very grounded. She did a really good job of coming in here and getting to know people and handling a tough situation of following a national championship."
"She's very approachable and she's very organized," Price praised. "That's one thing the three of us have in common: We're very organized coaches. But when you look at young coaches, Blythe really stands out in how organized she is and in her ability to get along with people."
Besides the fact that the three get along well, the division of responsibilities seems to be working because "the areas we're doing fit our strengths," Dennis said.
"My dad was a salesman and I like the sales end of it. I'm working with the (Chattanooga State) foundation and going out trying to raise support, and I'm looking forward to it."
Said Price: "I don't really care for fundraising and I really don't want to do budget and insurance, but I enjoy the eligibility end of it -- and making sure our young people do what they need to do to stay eligible."
Golden, whose undergraduate degree was in sports management, agreed that she is ultra-organized -- "anal is more like it," she said -- and does well with managing money.
"And I'm familiar with new systems and how to run budgets," she said. "It's not fun by any means, but it's something I'm good at. I'm just very Type A."
It has been less than three months and all three coaches' sports will be simultaneously in season soon, as of early February, but "right now so far I think we've had a great experience," Golden said. "Things are going really smooth, and the three of us work really well together."
How long will the arrangement last?
"We can take another look at it when the dust settles at the end of this (school) year," Dennis said, "but personally, I'd like to give it two or three years and give us a chance to put some things in place. I think we could work as a pretty well-oiled machine."
Said Golden: "Us getting the opportunity this year gives us a chance to prove it's a good system and it can work."
But they know the new president, whenever that position gets past interim status, may want to follow the traditional model.
"And if that happens, so be it," Dennis said. "We're going to do the best job we can, but I'll be confident they'll hire an outstanding person."
Price said he's not concerned, either.
"I feel like we do a great job of helping young people achieve their goals of going to the next level -- in whatever it is, not necessarily sports," he said. "I'm not worried about who comes in and what they do, because we do our jobs."
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.