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LEADERSHIP TEAM GOAL MANAGEMENT DON DIPAOLO BIO L. MARTIN COBB BIO |
An Update on the Culture of Champions process - Nov. 19, 2007
 Brad Bates  |
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On August 27, 2007 we came together as an entire department - students, coaches, alumni/ae, professors, university administrators and staff - to acknowledge our great history, take measure of our current state, and engage in the unveiling of twelve, lofty goals with supporting strategies. We are moving toward our vision of being a "Culture of Champions" with great urgency and determination.
What is particularly profound about our Culture of Champions is the interconnectivity with President Hodge's strategic plan for Miami University. All of the institutional goals within the President's five-year plan have a mutually direct application to our department's goals. But more significantly, the first university goal is to "Make the Miami Undergraduate Experience the Best in the Country." Subsequent to this overarching goal is the direct charge to "Become a national model for intercollegiate athletics by maximizing student development with the successful implementation of the Culture of Champions strategic plan!"
In the same way that all twelve of our Department goals are interconnected, our twelve goals are critically linked to Miami's overall goals for the entire university. This is historic in institutions of higher education and something that is very exciting for our students, programs and department: to have a vision for athletics that is an essential component of the overall university vision!
The success of our initiative is reliant upon our entire staff-one that is committed to making excellence a lifestyle. The early results are in and there is much good news:
- As of this writing, 18 of 146 action plans have been completed.
- Through a collaborative effort of coaches, fund-raisers, students and administrators, we have been able to raise private money to complete the beautiful new basketball coaches' office suite.
- There have been numerous complimentary communications regarding our teammates who have exhibited championship-behavior through their words and actions in serving others.
- For the first time in school history our student-athlete graduation rate of eighty-five percent has exceeded the university's graduation rate and already matched President Hodge's goal for the entire university by 2013.
- Recently we have added some very talented, intelligent, hard-working and experienced teammates to the Miami Athletic family and we are striving to establish a system of retaining the very best and brightest of our team and evolve from the 'Cradle' to a Destination.
- The competitive success of our fall teams has been significantly elevated from merely one year ago: with Field Hockey earning a spot in the MAC Conference Championship game for the second time in the last three years; Laura Neufarth winning the Conference Individual Cross Country Championship and earning an invitation (along with Pat Sovocol) to the NCAA National Cross Country Championship; Football has won their fourth East Division Championship in five years; ice Hockey has been the number one ranked team in the nation for most of the fall season; and we won our first Conference Championship of 2007-2008 with Volleyball sweeping fifteenth-ranked Ohio University in the tournament finals to earn a berth in the NCAA National Championship Tournament!
I encourage all of you to continue to work hard, expect excellence, and celebrate our wins as we are driven to become a Culture of Champions.
Sincerely,
Brad Bates