Interim AD says track, soccer fields now important

Editor’s note: On Jan. 30, assistant sports editor Joe Marchilena sat down with Pitt’s interim… Editor’s note: On Jan. 30, assistant sports editor Joe Marchilena sat down with Pitt’s interim athletics director, Marc Boehm, and discussed the state of the program. The following is part two of a select part of the interview.

The Pitt News: Earlier in the year, there were some people criticizing the Big East for having weaker nonconference basketball schedules. As the executive associate athletics director, you worked on game scheduling. Was there any reason why Pitt played some weaker teams?

Mark Boehm: When you schedule, it all depends where you are in you’re program. There’s a reasoning behind that.

Coach Howland and I and his staff always get together and map out what’s best for the program and, for the last three years since coach Howland has been here, that’s what’s been best for the program.

What’s on the horizon? Yeah, we could bring in some more teams. It has been incredibly hard I know at the field house to bring in top caliber teams.

I think you’ll see down the line, more top-20 teams coming in. You have to have an equal balance and I think we have that equal balance.

TPN: Do you think that quality of the teams in the Big East offsets that?

MB: The ultimate goal is to get to the NCAA Tournament and Ben’s got a great plan to get to the NCAA Tournament. He’s a master at the scheduling process. He did it at Northern Arizona and he’s done it here for the last two years. He’s very bright when it comes to scheduling.

TPN: Pitt has some of the best facilities in the country as far as football and basketball. What are the current plans to improve the facilities for some of the other sports?

MB: Track and soccer facilities right now are at the top of the list. Obviously that’s something I’ve got to talk more in depth with some other folks here on staff to look more into what other options there are, but it’s a high priority right now.

TPN: Would you personally like to see those teams back on campus?

MB: In perfect world, you bet. Sometimes it’s not a perfect world and you have to look at other locations, but that’s the ultimate goal is to have everything on campus. Obviously with an urban campus, land is scarce.

TPN: What reasons are there for recruits to now come to Pitt as opposed to six years ago?

MB: It’s very simple and that’s what our chancellor, Mark Nordenberg, has done for this campus. You look around and you see all the new facilities and you see the growth and you see the electricity on this campus.

I think things right now are at a high and I think they will continue to be at a high. We’re very, very visible now. The University’s name is all throughout the country, as far as a showcase and this, to me, is one of the most exciting campuses.

And this is what I hear from recruits. They come in and they look at the campus and they look at the facilities, and I’m not talking just athletic department facilities. This is facilities all around campus. It all starts at the top.

TPN: Was the resignation of women’s soccer coach Roland Sturk somewhat of a surprise?

MB: I think it was best for coach Sturk and best for the University. He wanted to move on and now it’s an exciting opportunity for someone else to take over the women’s program.

Sometimes you move on and try different challenges and we wish coach Sturk the best in finding those new challenges of what he wants.

TPN: Is there a replacement lined up yet?

MB: We are taking resumes and we have a full search on right now.

TPN: One of Sturk’s reasons for leaving was a lack of improvement within the program. What can be done to improve the program?

MB: That’s one of the things that we want to try to provide is a facility that we can be very proud to bring quality players here. One by one we’re trying to take care of every single sport.

TPN: Are there any plans to bring outside sports to the Petersen Events Center?

MB: We would love to have the NCAA Tournament here, however, it doesn’t meet the seating requirements. However, we’re looking at possibly an NCAA women’s tournament regional. I think that’s very reasonably down the line.

We had a great wrestling match here that went very well, so I think you’ll see more wrestling matches in the Petersen Events Center. Ultimately, we’ll have plenty of concerts that come through as well.

TPN: I know it’s still unclear, but does the incident involving Tyre Young and the speculation surrounding that, does that do any kind of damage to Pitt’s image?

MB: I do not want to comment on this because I have not been presented the facts. Then I can comment on what happened, but that’s not fair right now to Tyre and to his family.