Southeast narrows AD search to three

The committee searching for Southeast Missouri State's new athletic director has announced three candidates with plenty of experience in athletic administration as well as demonstrated abilities in fiscal matters and strategic planning.

And, in one case, they have a candidate who already has a favorite restaurant or two in town.

John Shafer, a semi-retired former AD at Ole Miss and Eastern Kentucky, is one of the three finalists announced Monday by the committee after being brought in last summer to discuss the associate AD position with university president Dr. Kenneth Dobbins.

The other finalists are University of Missouri-Kansas City athletic director Timothy Hall and University of Cincinnati senior associate AD Michael Waddell.

All three candidates will be in Cape Girardeau this week and will take part in public forums that are a traditional part of Southeast's high-profile hirings.

The university is seeking a successor to Don Kaverman, who was terminated in October when the university announced the second NCAA investigation into an athletics program in less than three years and placed men's basketball coach Scott Edgar on administrative leave pending the outcome of that investigation. Kaverman also is on administrative leave and will be paid through the end of his 120 days' notice, Feb. 7.

"We feel we have candidates who have demonstrated an ability to handle the challenges and opportunities we have in our program," said Kathy Mangels, the university's vice president for finance and administration and the chair of the eight-person search committee.

The field of more than 40 candidates was narrowed to six this past weekend, and the committee settled on three finalists Monday.

No one currently with Southeast's athletic department applied for the position, Mangels said.

Interim AD Cindy Gannon had said when she was tabbed to replace Kaverman that she would not be an applicant. She had been listed as associate AD for internal operations and senior women's administrator before the shake-up in the program.

Hall and Waddell have been at their positions for more than a year, while Shafer has been involved in a commercial development firm in Alabama. His last stint was as athletic director at Eastern Kentucky from 2003 to 2004.

Mangels pointed out that all candidates had a familiarity with strategic planning, since the university has identified athletics as one of the areas to take part in the strategic planning initiative this spring.

Hall, a 1994 Toledo grad with a master's from Kent State, has been at UMKC for only 22 months. Before that, he was associate AD for development at Kent State from April 2003 to February 2007 and had held development and fundraising positions at Eastern Kentucky, St. Xavier University in Chicago and Youngstown State.

His accomplishments at UMKC include improvements in the department's overall GPA, a 62 percent increase in corporate sponsorships, a 25 percent increase in men's basketball attendance and securing more than $6 million for various projects: a locker room renovation for basketball and volleyball, the renovation of an on-campus gym to be used as a practice facility and a stadium for soccer and track being built with a $5 million gift.

UMKC, a Division I school and member of the Summit League, was 11-21 in men's basketball last year, while the men's soccer program won the conference and made the NCAA tournament this fall.

Mangels said Hall's background shows an understanding of the AD position and a familiarity with the dynamics in the state of Missouri.

"He has been at larger programs, and the programs he has been at before included football," Mangels said, "and this also presents that opportunity."

Waddell never has led an athletics director -- other than two months as interim AD at Akron -- but he has been a part of some big programs, including his current 2-year stint at Cincinnati. He previously was associate AD for external relations at Akron, was director of marketing and broadcasting at the U.S. Military Academy, director of external relations at Appalachian State and worked with the sports broadcast programs for the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina.

Waddell, reportedly a finalist earlier this year for the AD job at Northern Iowa, has had oversight of the marketing and fundraising since his arrival at Cincinnati in March 2006. He was responsible for seven athletic programs -- swimming, soccer, golf and the cheerleading and dance teams -- in addition to marketing, communications and customer service staff. The university's donor base grew by 34 percent last year to reach an all-time high for the number of donors, and the football program has seen its attendance grow by 54 percent since 2006 with a new marketing effort -- and a team that won the Big East this fall to earn a spot in a BCS bowl game.

Waddell graduated from Guilford College in North Carolina and is finishing his master's degree from Ohio University.

Shafer, 61, has bachelor's and master's degrees from Auburn, and has spent most of his professional career in the Southeastern Conference. He was an AD at Ole Miss from 1998 to 2002, had worked 18 years as a senior associate AD at Georgia and also was an athletics administrative assistant at Vanderbilt and Auburn. He said he has been involved with 18 national championship teams.

He said earlier this year that he had an enjoyable "fact-finding" trip to Cape Girardeau in the summer -- including some memorable meals -- but at that time wasn't ready to commit to Southeast's position, which was a newly created associate AD for external affairs. That position will be filled early in 2009 with input from the new AD.

"I miss the smell of the locker room, I miss the kids, and I thought it would be something I might be interested in, so I looked into it," Shafer said this fall.

During his time at Ole Miss, he was involved in a number of fundraising campaigns for construction projects, including a $25 million indoor practice facility, an $8 million administration building, a $2.5 million track facility, a $1.5 million baseball stadium renovation, a $1 million golf house and a $25 million stadium expansion.

Mangels said the committee had no problems with Shafer's withdrawal from consideration for a job earlier this summer.

"I think it was a different situation with different circumstances," Mangels said, "and he addressed that with the committee. I believe he will be willing to address it in the public forums."

Each of the candidates will be on campus a different day later this week, as Southeast remains on schedule to have an offer out by the end of the year.