Alumni Magazine - Summer 2008 - (Page 45) death? (The 21-year-old pitcher was found dead in his off-campus apartment April 11. A coroner’s report attributed the cause of death to morphine toxicity.) We had counselors available to the baseball team after the tragedy. I think Coach [Danny] Hall handled it very, very well. It’s not something that’s going to go away quickly. It was a traumatic experience and I think they’ve been able to segment that aside and continue to perform not only well on the field of play but in the classroom as well. But certainly we had counselors available for those student athletes who felt the need to take advantage of it. continue to educate not only their peers but our coaches and our staff so that if they see changes in people’s behavioral patterns, we look to help them. Certainly there are consequences if they continue to move into bad behavior, but the first thing we want to do is to help the student athletes deal with their problems, deal with the issues at hand. That’s the most important thing. student athletes know there is support from the administration. You said “enjoy” the sports. Are you able to go to a game and enjoy it simply as a spectator? I enjoy looking out there and seeing so many other people having fun. It becomes a little more difficult because you understand what’s at stake. It’s a lot better during the week in the fall if the football team won the previous Saturday. You like to be able to have that feeling as much as you can. It’s also important to understand there are times when it’s not going to work that way and you can’t be to the point that you’re so wrapped up that it inhibits your ability to do your job. Are student athletes screened for drugs once a year, once a season? It’s random testing. The program is administered through our associate athletic director’s office and our Total Person Program as well. We have outreach and systematic programming for student athletes to talk not only about their lives here at Georgia Tech but some of the things they need to do outside of Georgia Tech once they graduate or leave Georgia Tech. Preparing them for that particular stage in their lives is something the Total Person Program does. Will you talk about drugs within Tech athletics? We have a comprehensive drug testing program that we revamped last summer, looking at best practices throughout our industry, and made sure that our drug testing program is in line with some of our peers. It’s important to understand that drug testing just gives you a snapshot of that individual in a moment of time and doesn’t always capture other parts of that person’s being, which is why we need to How often do you go to games? I try to make a number of them, but as I told the coaches when I got here, I have two sons and they were going into their different activities. I think as they continue to move on and get older, there will be a little more time for my wife and I to come and enjoy more Tech events. But I try to get out there and try to make sure some of our staff members who are involved in those particular sports are there so the You don’t go in on Monday and say, “Coach, you should have done this”? No, that’s why we have coaches. Do you ever make preseason predictions? No, not at all. We just want fans to show up and have fun. It’s important for people to understand our student athletes and our program survive in great measure with them supporting the program. GT Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008 45
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