Q&A with Explorers AD Brian Baptiste: ‘We’re trying to be the best version of La Salle that we can be’

The Inquirer recently sat down with La Salle athletic director Brian Baptiste to learn about the current position of the department and its future.

Q: From your background in law, what pushed you to pursue athletic administration?

I probably have the nontraditional path. I didn’t have a sports management or sports administration major in undergrad or law school, but I always wanted and had a passion for working in athletics.

I think we all come to this realization that we should go for it. After I graduated from law school when I passed the bar, I said, “there’s no better time than now.” I applied for a bunch of sports-related jobs in the DC area. I was lucky enough that Georgetown had an opening.

At the time, you think it’s just a job, but then you soon realize that it’s really, from my perspective, a life investment in the next generation. How do we provide them with resources and tools so once they leave our campus, they have the opportunity to be able to have sustained success? That’s what really motivates me every day, and I hope the staff around our department is motivated by those same things.

Q: What inspired you to chase where you are now rather than taking another route?

I think we all are trying to figure out what our purpose is and growing up, raised by a single mom, it was education and sport that really kept me on the right path. When you think about college athletics, it’s that same sort of journey and it just happened to be a really good time and really good alignment. To talk about the impact of sports — being part of a team, learning about adversity, learning about ups and downs, and having that competitive spirit — but also understanding the importance of education and really valuing that.

Q: What stood out to you about La Salle when you were weighing your different career options?

I saw myself in a lot of our students. I value what we believe in as an institution and by association and the importance of learning and teaching. And for us, we’re all educators, whether it’s myself, whether it’s one of our coaches, whether it’s [associate athletic director Dan Lobacz], we’re all educating and in importance and wisdom on young people. When you think about the rich history that La Salle has, from an athletic standpoint, it was really intriguing to me — the Big 5, Philadelphia, being from the East Coast — all of those things merged together just made a lot of sense.

Q: Throughout your career at La Salle, a lot has happened such as the pandemic, cutting six sports in 2020, NIL, etc. Where do you think La Salle stands right now as an organization?

I think we’re in a really strong spot. I think we have some tremendous momentum when you think about the things that we’ve been able to do right academically — when you think about our graduation success rate, when you think about our GPA for our respective teams. I’m excited about the opportunity for us to get more engaged in the community. We’ve been a little bit hampered by COVID and not being able to get out and do certain things. I just reflect back on my first year here and in the first semester, we had more community service hours than we had the previous year. Those things are important for our student-athletes to get out into the community and for them to realize that they can be a beacon of hope for the next generation and the importance that we have about being engaged citizens.

When you think about the opportunity that we have with all of our teams, whether it’s cross-country, the excitement that’s happening with men’s basketball, the excitement that has happened with women’s basketball, we’ve had some coaching changes as well too. I’m excited about the direction that our programs are heading.

It’s just a fresh and renewed energy and I think for us sort of going into this year, as you touched on, COVID made the last couple of years really difficult. We’re in a state of constant change from an NCAA standpoint. And so how do we navigate that but also go back to the earlier point of making sure that we’re providing the best experience possible for our student-athletes? How do we provide them with that transformational experience? So, when they come on our campus as a freshman, and then they leave our campus and they walk across that stage as a senior, they can really say, in their heart and in their minds and in their souls that they got the best out of La Salle as La Salle got out of them.

» READ MORE: Can Fran Dunphy lead La Salle back to college basketball relevance?

Q: It seems you’re no stranger to updating facilities, as you have extensive experience from Northwestern. Do you have any progress updates on the Tom Gola Arena or any others? I spoke to a few field hockey players as well who mentioned hoping for a new astroturf.

We’re constantly looking at ways to enhance the experience. So, one of the things that we undertook was a facilities master plan. Not only for athletics but for recreation as well too. That was really important for us because it provided a roadmap for the direction that we need to be able to end. In some of those projects that you mentioned, we’re in the design phase of it. So, with the arena project, we’re in the design phase and I think with any project, you want to make sure that you get it right . . . For us, it’s really about making sure we’re doing our due diligence, making sure that we’re getting as much input as possible with any of the projects that we’re doing.

I think for us to be able to get to the finish line, we’re going to need philanthropic support from our supporters. I’m excited about the direction that we’re headed and the people that are excited about whether it’s astroturf or whether it’s about natatorium, whether it’s about a health fitness and wellness center. . . Construction has been impacted by supply chains and labor costs and all of those pieces. So how do we make sure that we’re being really smart and specific to get to the desired outcome that we want from a facility standpoint? . . . Even if some of the larger projects haven’t been completed, if you walk in the hallway, we have new branding, if you into our basement, whether it’s new equipment in the weight room, whether it’s new flooring in parts of our building . . . We’ve tried to do upgrades right throughout the time so when our student-athletes come back, whether it’s from the summer or whether it’s from the winter break, and they’re like ‘Oh, I can see the transformation is taking place.’ And when those big projects happen, we’ll make sure that they’ll have even more of a wow factor.

» READ MORE: The future of City 6 men’s basketball: Facilities are a bottom-line need

Q: You’re a co-chair for the Atlantic 10 Conference’s Commission on Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and other committees in the NCAA as well. What is that experience like for you and how do you bring that experience to La Salle in your position?

It’s been phenomenal. When you think about the opportunity, how do we weave diversity? How do we weave equity and inclusion in everything that we’re doing from our hiring practices, from our programming, from our education standpoint? I think the really unique thing about my role on both from an A-10 standpoint, from an NCAA standpoint and how it relates to La Salle, I can talk about what’s happening on the local level, what’s happening on the conference level, and also what’s happening on the national level as well too. So, you have a really good perspective of what’s happening across the country and so for us, how do we take those pieces and try to amplify the things that we’re doing on our campus?

Like any place, we still have some work that we need to be able to do, but I think it’s important to embrace the work, embrace those conversations, understand how we can get better as individuals, as teams, as a department as a whole. We’re just scratching the surface, I would say, even locally on our campus, we’re just scratching the surface. I would say we’re just scratching the surface from an A-10 perspective as well, too. . . . Ultimately, we want to be able to make a difference so everyone feels that they’re in an environment where they feel safe, and then they can thrive.

Q: You mentioned getting inspired by other institutions’ projects and thinking about implementing them at La Salle. Do you have an example?

Return on inclusion is a module that some schools within A-10 have embarked on and we’re having conversations here about how do we embark on that. It’s really sort of a self-guided program where you understand the importance of inclusion. You really have the opportunities to be able to educate yourself so that you can take that knowledge and start educating the masses within your department.

The other thing in collaboration with the A-10 — civic engagement. So, we put together a PSA in 2020 on voting and the importance of voting, making sure that we’re really engaged . . . We have student-athletes from all over the country, so we broke down every single requirement that you needed to register to vote . . . So, because it was such a point of emphasis from an A-10 standpoint through the racial equity, diversity, and inclusion commission, it gave us the ability to then amplify those pieces here on campus and make sure that we were making a difference.

Q: Each school is navigating the new NIL laws differently and international athletes are a different story, as most don’t have eligibility. How was La Salle navigated NIL since its inception?

We looked at a lot of the companies and then we tried to figure out what made the most sense for us. We ultimately partnered with INFLCR, which the A-10 partnered with as well. We have brought in, they’re now known as Advance, and we brought them in to meet with all of our student-athletes last year to go through the sessions, to learn about contracts, to learn about due diligence, to learn about taxes, [and] to learn about the financial impact on some of these name image and likeness, possibilities for them . . . We also sent a few of our student-athletes to the NIL summit in Atlanta so that was really positive . . . Then can they bring back that information and then share it with their teammates but also share more broadly with their peers as well too. So, when you think about [swimmer Raven Domingo] — I’m really proud of what she’s done. So, during the pandemic, she created a swimsuit line.

We continue to try to find ways to evolve. Through the working group, we were able to create a course on campus this fall, called personal branding in the age of name, image, and likeness. So, we have student-athletes that are in that course, but we also have other students as well too, because they have the ability — they may not be thinking about how do I leverage my brand . . . As we’ve been doing that and we’re in the process of connecting with some other vendors that we think will hopefully amplify our student-athletes’ voice as well too . . . We have to embrace it. I think that’s the most important thing. We have to embrace it and we have to support them as much as we can. And we have to educate them as much as we can.

» READ MORE: How 5 runners from New Zealand found their place on La Salle’s cross-country teams

Q: You were in the running for athletic director at Boston College and in the event you’re here, what is your vision for La Salle’s future? What do you hope to accomplish?

I mean, it’s really simple. How can we be the best versions of ourselves that we can be, and we have to be really committed to that. That’s what we talk about every day. With our student-athletes. How are you being the best version of yourself? And are you really committed to doing that? . . . We’re making sure that we’re supporting them in the best manner that we can, so they have the best experience possible. How do we make sure that we’re a really engaged community from a campus standpoint, but also engaged community from an external standpoint. And making sure that we have the support from our alums and friends of our program. All of those things are really important to just make sure that La Salle continues to stay to take to stay top of mind. As I talked about, we have a really rich history and ... there’s a pride point in that, and so how do we amplify those pieces? I’m excited about the direction that we’re heading. We’re in a state of constant change from NCAA, and we haven’t seen this level of disruption — I don’t know if we’ve ever seen this level of disruption. We have to be able to make sure that we’re focused and we’re trying to be the best version of La Salle that we can be.