Hickey seems ready for the challenge

The last time Eastern Washington University had to fill the athletics director’s chair was over 10 years ago.

And at the time, it was no question that there was very little stability.

Former AD Bill Chaves, who left Cheney in January to take a similar duty station at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, liked to remind people that when he was tired he was the fifth person – be it full-time or as an interim – to sit in the chair in just a few years.

But a decade of accomplishments with Eagle athletics leaves new athletics director Lynn Hickey in a good place as she officially took over the job, the interim title erased from everywhere — except her business cards.

Hickey was introduced at a rousing pep rally-like event April 25 at Reese Court featuring student-athletes, coaches, fans and the Code Red pep band.

Addressing the media later, Hickey, who was hired to fill the gap in the transition between Chaves and whomever took his place said, “It’s a very different dynamic because I’ve been here for almost 2 1/2 months.”

Having spent her entire life in the Midwest and Southwest, deciding whether to throw herself into consideration for the permanent position was not all that difficult, she said.

“After about two weeks this place grabbed my heart (and) we started discussing, ‘Is it viable for me to be an applicant?’” Hickey said, referring to her husband, Bill, who sat in the audience at the presser.

“My husband has been a great, great partner for a long, long time and he said, ‘You let me know, wherever you are I will be there,” Hickey said.

He kind of had to move Hickey hinted. “Because first of all, I need to wash his clothes and cook his dinner,” she said, garnering a chuckle with her tongue-and-cheek reply.

In a more serious vein, Hickey knows the challenges in Cheney. Because they are not all that different than at the University of Texas San Antonio, where she stepped away from the AD’s role in 2017.

The potential here and location of this university to the city of Spokane really fits with the exercise she went through with UTSA.

“We were looked upon as a commuter school, we were the only four-year public institution in the city,” Hickey explained. “It wasn’t the thing until we added football and we wanted to plant our flag in the city of San Antonio.”

Their mantra: “Your town, your team,” seems to translate well, Hickey said.

“I think there’s a lot of similarities here with what Eastern can do with the city of Spokane and for us to truly be the Division I, four-year public institution that city surrounds and engages,” Hickey said.

She starts with an athletics program that has certainly elevated itself in the last decade with a national championship in football and significant success in both men’s basketball and women’s soccer.

“I have never been on a campus that won a national championship before,” Hickey said. “When you think about it, there’s not many places that have had that opportunity.”

Hickey passed out a 90-day impact plan to those gathered at Reese. It’s an ambitions “To-Do” list for sure.

“There are a lot of things to do here; there are a lot of things I would like to work on improving, (but) the foundation is strong,” Hickey said.

High on the list, Hickey said are “Relationships, relationships, relationships.”

The other piece is diving into the financial side and putting together a revenue plan and then looking at facilities, tops being a new, or remodeled football stadium.

“Plans have been made over the years (and) to try to put them in some semblance of order (and) to make some decisions on those next steps,” is a major item, Hickey said.

Not forgotten are several hundred student athletes who are busy finishing spring quarter.

“(We) want them to finish strong, competitively in the classroom; we need to pay attention to those little darlings too,” Hickey said.

“I think it’s a great challenge, I really anticipate having fun with that,” Hickey said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].