Coaches Corner for July 31st: DMACC Athletic Director, BJ McGinn

Joining us on KWBG, we're going to chant to DMACC Athletic Director, BJ McGinn, because I told, well, I almost called you coach, and I guess I probably already always will, BJ. But I was telling you, off air, we always get a chance to talk. Usually during Christmas break, because I give the basketball coach a little time off. And then we always talk at the end of summer. And man, if there's a time to celebrate what DMACC Athletics did this past year, I think this is definitely a summer to do it. BJ, I don't know if you know if you were coming or going half of the time, because you were all over the place for districts and regionals and nationals. And I know you wouldn't have it any other way. No, no, I tell you what, Ryan, and thank you for the kind words. We did, you know, at this time of year, you have time, a little bit of time to kind of step back and look at it like I said, through a little bit of a lens. And, you know, we had an amazing year, all our programs. And I was just very, very proud of our coaches and our players, obviously. And certainly our faculty, staff, administration that were so supportive of everything that we were able to be a part of. And, you know, that's what it takes, is all those people working. You know, my job is just to kind of step back and make sure everybody's kind of got the pieces that they need to be successful. And I was very, very proud of our group in terms of the department. I mean, just everybody just really, really chipped into different areas and different ways. You know, we were able to have a lot of success. And it's just, for me, it's just a joy just to watch all those people experience those things. I had somebody ask me once, BJ, and you'll love this, because I used your same very humble answer that you've used to me since you took over as athletic director. But they said to me, how does DMACC do what they do? And I said, BJ told me at one time, this is what Orv taught him. He said, I get the right people. I put them in the places that they're supposed to be. I make sure they have all the resources, and I get the heck out of the way. Now, granted, you didn't say get the heck out of the way, but we'll clean it up for radio. But BJ, that's what you've told me that Orv kind of taught you. And I think you've carried that through since you've been AD now. Well, yeah, I mean, that's, and to me, you know, coaches and having been in their shoes, I think that makes a big difference as well. You know, I can sit and have a conversation with my coaches and talk like a coach to them, right? Because they've experienced a lot of the same things. And I think, you know, that's very important to being successful, you know, because I think they respect that. But yeah, no, exactly right. My responsibility is just to get the right people on the bus. And, you know, I just drive it and put gas in the thing, right? So, you know, and they do a fantastic job, but, you know, when you're in the process of running, you know, a business or whatever the case may be, and this turn, you know, in this case of the athletic department, you have to have the right people with the right vision and everybody's rolling the boat in the same direction. And, you know, everybody's got their own little, you know, quirks or what have you, but by the same token at the end of the day, we all have the same vision and the same common goal. And that's what you want, you know, and that stems back to what I was coaching basketball, you know, I want everybody to assist in players, even the trainers, you know, what have you. We all want to have the same vision and that's to be great. That'd be, and do the best that we can. And, you know, I don't want, you know, I was thinking about this the other day, and I don't know why, but I was talking to someone that in a business world, you know, I don't like this, I don't like that. I said, well, well, here's the problem. You need to surround yourself with winners. Yeah. And that's what we've been able to do here, because winning brings more winning. And that's both on the field or the court, but also, you know, in the academic realm as well. You know, I mean, we got 78% of our kids that are three-pointer above. That's a huge number. I'll take that to get anybody in the nation while sending winning championships. And that's what we're about. And so, like you say, we get the right people on the bus and let them do their thing. And that's kind of been the philosophy. Like you said, the orphan kind of taught me, and we continue to carry that on. And there's a lot of pride in being a DMACC bear because of those things. Well, and I think the proof's in the pudding too. I mean, every time I talk to coaches, besides the fact that they're always telling me about who's coming and here's what's gonna be, what's going to be happening. It's always, you know, I know Nick Mishler told me DMACC baseball coach. He said, listen, I was sitting on my phone. I had my PC open. I had a laptop open. I had an old phone and I had a tablet. And I was still missing my guys. There was a couple others that were playing in super regionals. I mean, BJ, that to me is just, and that's just DMACC baseball. I mean, we're not talking about some of the other sports that are putting people onto different spots as well. I mean, you go to DMACC and you're gonna go, you're gonna get a good education. You're gonna compete at the highest level. And guess what? If you wanna keep going, you got a chance to do that. No, you certainly do. And that's another piece of, you know, our coaching staff, they do a tremendous job of making sure that those kids have opportunities to move on.

Great job with it. Just a great job with it. Couple that I had that I had to highlight because it was such a fun ride. And I'm looking back at some of my notes, but one of my really wanted to talk about with you first was busting through that ceiling. And that was Jocelyn Kivarek and the DMACC women's basketball team. What a thrill, BJ. Finally able to get over a hump that I know, I know coach Craftson was watching and he had a big old grin on his face too, but that was a hill that DMACC women's basketball had been trying to get over for many years. And to do it by going on the road to beat a Kirkwood team at their place to just start the journey. What can you say about where DMACC women's basketball did this past year? Well, I could be more proud of Jocelyn and her staff. You know, it was an interesting season. Let's just rewind. You know, they got beat that last game going into Christmas and then they had a tough January. Yeah. And then, you know, I think it was maybe a seven or eight game, you know, struggle there. And then all of a sudden she got things rolling and stayed the course, stayed with it. And the girls just battled and battled and battled. So I was very, very proud of that. That's a hard thing to do. You know, when you go through those times where everybody's job is down and, you know, those are difficult things. And so, but yeah, but then to be able to turn that corner and they get into those playoffs. I mean, you go on the road, you got to be out of central. Yeah. You go up there and do that. And then you got to go to Kirkwood, who head coaches retiring is the winning head coach in the history of junior college women's basketball. And it goes into the nascent hall of fame with Elena Deladon and those people. You go beat them, right? And then you got to go up to the Dakotas and win one to go. And it was just amazing run. So very proud of them, battle through some injuries, battle through some, you know, just different adversity throughout the season, some illness and whatnot. And, you know, Josh able to keep them together was amazing. I mean, that's one of the best coaching jobs that I've seen. And that was really, really, really amazing. I was so proud of her, you know, it was just coach Harvey, coach Ralph. I mean, it was just incredible. And I was very, very proud of them. And yeah, we actually just put the banner came in the other day. I took a picture and showed it to her. Oh, I bet you love that. So we're excited to get those things up in the rafters. Oh, I bet you are. Well, another coach that I can talk about who has, I feel like Ben here since, well, he was here when I was here because we kind of were around the time when things got started and that's Bob LaGorre and the DMACC women maybe didn't win a national championship in softball. But boy, I tell you what, BJ, it was finally time to get into that championship game. And I really still believe if they didn't have, if that schedule didn't get messed around as much as it did, BJ, I still think they would have had a shot to win the title. Yeah, no, no, no, no, it was an amazing run by coaching his squad. And, you know, they were right, they were right there. I mean, you know, it's just, you know, and again, you know, and I went to that one and, you know, you hit just the weird days. You get the rain delays and you got to change venues. I mean, it was just a strange week, but, you know, look at them go and then they were right there to the very end. And even in that last game, they had an opportunity. So, you know, what a run, what a run. What an absolute run. And I haven't even talked about, and we consider and probably do this for minutes and minutes and days and whatever, but I mean, we haven't even talked about what the DMAC men's basketball team did. I still believe that will never be touched when you talk about going undefeated in the conference during the regular season. I don't believe that will ever be duplicated ever again. I mean, that was just an unbelievable feat. Cross country, what the golfers did as well. Volleyball, she had so many injuries and Danielle, I've talked about this a lot, but yet man, they still persevered and still pushed it at the end. And now you got a track program that's competing for national championships too. BJ, where does it end? Well, like I said, we're gonna step back. You know, I look at it like I said, I'm looking at my calendar and fall sports start on Saturday. You know, so that'll get going. I'm already getting ready to start doing eligibility reports for fall. You know, it seems like we just completed the spring stuff, which you know, delved into late May. So, you know, and you know, we just finalized, NJCAA just finalized their academic awards that came out, I believe yesterday, but we had, you know, nine teams over a 3.0. Wow, that's unbelievable. So it was quite amazing. So. You did something else too, BJ. You guys launched a new website. Tell us about that a little bit. No, we did. We did. We just got that going, I believe, yesterday, which was great. You know, we had to do some things in order to meet the new ADA compliance, but you know, we just upgraded that. So I'll have some new things on that. Another piece on that, you know, you can get on there now. We just signed a deal with game one out of Carroll for apparel, but you can get on there now and you can buy, you know, DMAT gear, which is the same stuff that our teams utilize. And you can get on there now, you know, and buy stuff on our website. So that's kind of a neat feature that we just added. BJ, I feel like you got a lot of pieces for the puzzle when you look at for your athletics. So maybe right now you're going to tell me, hey, we're good, but what's in the future? What's next? I mean, what are some other things, BJ, that you're thinking about? Or are we taking, we're going to just, we're going to put the bus on cruise for a little bit. Well, I think the big thing right now is, you know, we want to kind of just get our feet under us. You know, we've got a lot of new, newness going on district wide in terms of some administrative things and whatnot. So we're going to work on that. Just kind of getting everything solid. But I just want to make sure that we're ready to move forward. Obviously we want to get, you know, tracking. I'd like to progress track and field to get into, you know, sprints and hurdles and field events and whatnot. So that's kind of what we're looking at. Sounds like a big, I don't know, maybe a big blue oval with a DMACC emblem would be pretty nice for a track. What do you think there, BJ? Well, you know, we're not, we're not quite to that, that point yet, not quite to that point yet. But I do think, you know, the future looks bright. We're excited about, you know, kind of where we're going to be and where we're going to go. So just some great stuff that's coming up. That is for sure. That website too, I should mention, just in case folks have not been there yet, but just dmaccares.com is super easy to get there. And I think, I think that's going to be awesome, BJ, to add to what is already a great athletic program. I know I always tell my coaches, congratulations. I don't get a chance to tell you as much to do that, but congrats on just a great academic and athletic season, BJ. I know they're going to be rolling them out here real soon again, so we'll be talking to them. But thanks for some time today here on Coach's Corner. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I appreciate everything you guys do for us at KWBG. And, you know, we're just excited. Come out, check out the Bears. We'd love to have everybody come see them play. And again, thank you again for all you guys do. You bet. BJ McGinnigan joining us. DMACC Athletic Director here on KWBG.