After the resignation of Dr. Milton Richards in June, the SFU athletics department had a huge hole to fill. They needed someone who could lead this program into the future, and deal with the issues at hand. They seem to have found the ideal replacement, as it was announced Monday that Theresa Hanson was named senior director of athletics and recreation at SFU.
She becomes the first female athletic director in the school’s history, as well as the sixth overall. Her career has taken her to where it all started, as Hanson started as an assistant coach under the legendary Allison McNeil in 1988. The Peak sat down with the new leader of the Clan to talk about her new position at the school.
The Peak: What attracted you to the job here at SFU?
Theresa Hanson: It was a great opportunity first and foremost, and a career move for me. I’ve been the associate athletics director at UBC for 10 years, and this opportunity came up and I thought it would be a great fit for me. I’ve got ties to Simon Fraser that go back years, long before you were born. And then I also thought that in my career, it was the right time and the right place for a career move for me. I was very humbled and thrilled to actually get the job.
P: How does it feel to be back here, running it all, after starting your career here as an assistant coach on the women’s basketball team?
Hanson: It feels great. It’s a little bit surreal right now because I don’t start until December 14. But I am generally excited about it because I think that SFU has a lot of potential. It think that it’s a bit of a sleeping giant, and I think I have a lot to offer. I really hope I can make a difference.
P: What are some of the first things you will start implementing when you start the job?
Hanson: Well, the first thing is that I need to meet the people. I need to listen and I need to learn, and I need to evaluate everything. I look at the facilities and I look at the structure of the department and I look and the budget, and the funding and everything, and get all that information first before determining and evaluate what comes next.
Obviously the goal is to improve on things, the goal is always to provide those excellent opportunities for student athletes, and for the student body as a whole through the campus recreation program. So I need to listen and learn to start with before I can determine a plan going forward.
“I think that SFU has a lot of potential. It think that it’s a bit of a sleeping giant”
P: You said that one of your goals is to start engaging with the alumni more. How will you go about doing that?
Hanson: You know, I really think one of the best measures of success for an athletics program is engaging the alumni. Again, that’s about meeting the people. Meet them, [and] listen to them. There’s such a great tradition at Simon Fraser, and the alumni are the biggest part of that, and they’re very invested in the program. So you want to listen to those people, you want to nurture relationships, because when you have you’re alumni on board, anything’s possible.
P: Will you be continuing the policy that Dr. Richards put in, which was free admission to students for home games?
Hanson: I don’t even think I can answer that question right now. Again, it’s one of those things that I need to really dive into the athletic program and see how programs have been running, and what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, what we can do better. So I think that it’s too early to answer that question, but certainly we want to engage the students to come to the games.
P: What do you think is your biggest challenge heading into this position?
Hanson: Good question. [. . .] The department both athletics and recreation, need some stability and leadership. Maybe one of the biggest challenges is really to get everyone on [the same] side, get everyone on board, and figure out a way to work together that we’re all getting the same goals. Trying to be excellent in everything they do.
P: How do you go about engaging the student body here to attend games, and to have them be a part of the athletics experience?
Hanson: That is the ultimate question on every university campus. Simon Fraser is a big university — 35,000 students over three campuses — and it’s a high academic university. Students are here first and foremost for their academics. And it’s a commuter campus, so not all the students are staying up here. So how do you get them to stay and how do you to support and have that school spirit for the SFU teams? That’s the biggest question, and it’s faced everywhere.
I think working really close with campus recreation, [because] we’re part of the same department, [is key]. So, how can we work that athletes support the recreation programs, and recreation helps get students to come and support the men’s and women’s clan teams.
P: With your connections inside UBC athletics, does this mean we can look forward to the Shrum Bowl sometime in the future?
Hanson: I certainly hope so. I was talking earlier today about the Shrum Bowl, and to coaches. It’s a game [where the] win-loss is a big part of it, and the bragging rights is a big part of it. But I think in the bigger picture, it’s really about engaging the greater community with university sport. We’ve got Simon Fraser and UBC, two of the province’s’ largest universities in the same community. So what a great opportunity for community engagement with the Shrum Bowl.
