Bill Odell
| Q: | As athletics director, what are your personal goals for the coming year? |
| A: | I want to identify and work to meet the needs of each sport, and part of that will involve more attention to fundraising projects for tennis, baseball and football. Beyond that, I want to develop a three- to five-year plan for the athletics program that will include staffing, scholarships and facilities. |
| Q: | What has been the great challenge in stepping away from the game you love? |
| A: | There are many, but the one that has hit me the hardest is happening as students return to school. I have had the opportunity to talk to Mike Danielian, Caleb Rouse, Chidi Ajufo and Davon Roberts, players for this coming basketball season. I am realizing how much I am going to miss the involvement in the lives of players and the closeness that happens within the player/coach relationship. |
| Q: | Who is the male leader you admire? Why? |
| A: | He has gone to be with the Lord but Tom Byron is that person for me. I admired him in life and in his death. He was the head coach when I was an assistant at Westmont College. He impacted many lives and still is affecting people through those of us he influenced. Tom was the coach I most emulated in my approach to coaching and to relationships. His ability to organize practice, build his players into a team, and help each player develop into the best person that they could be spoke volumes about who he was as a person. His relationship with his wife and children modeled to me how family must be a higher priority than anything that happens in the world of basketball. His battle with cancer, which ultimately led to his death, was also an example of his deep faith in God and his reliance on God for his strength and comfort during that time. |