Interview with LBCC Athletic Director Mark Majeski

 

Mark Majeski has been the director of athletics for Linn-Benton Community College since 2018. Before that, he was the director of athletics for Willamette University from 2000-2011 and for UC – Santa Cruz from 1995-2000, where he also worked as head coach for the women's basketball team. 

Majeski is a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and serves on the advisory board for University of Washington Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership master’s degree program. 

In 2011 he founded Majeski Athletic Consulting to work with small colleges and universities in a variety of capacities. Majeski was chair of the Division III Membership Committee for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, chaired the Division III West Region Men’s Tennis Committee, and was a member of the Division III Working Group on Membership Issues.

Q: "LBCC’s baseball program has seen some incredible success over the last few years, especially recently winning three of the past four NWAC championships. What was the process for hiring the head coach?"

Majeski: "This is year seven, and I started in July of 2018, and we had a coach in place. In September he told me he just got an assistant job at OSU, and he was leaving, so two months after I got here, OK, and we're right into the school year, so we really didn't have a lot of options, or the time to do a full search like we would. So I asked him if there was somebody on his staff as an assistant he thought could take over, and that's how Andy Peterson was placed into the job, because the previous coach felt strongly about Andy. So Andy was a young coach. Hadn't been a head coach, but it was kind of the right place, right time, and he just picked it up and ran with it."

Q: "The basketball program under Coach Zimmerman also has seen a lot of success. What do you think the team needs to do to get over that final hurdle, to get that NWAC championship?"

    "Basketball is not more, not tougher than the other sports, but it's a tough conference, right? There's a lot of really good basketball teams in the NWAC, OK? And so I think Todd, this is third or fourth year, but it really comes down to building a program over a number of years, to build that strong culture, the right players, the type of players you need to run your system and really develop and buy in and all that. So it takes a little bit of time in both basketball programs, because they're newer. Coaches are at the front end of that curve, right where volleyball has been here. He's been here for a long time. Baseball's even been here. You know? This is his seventh year as well. So it's kind of taken him a few years before he got up to that level as well. So I think it's just a matter of time. Okay, it's really just about establishing the culture of the program, and then you can start to find the right players."

Q: "I look forward to seeing that. The women's volleyball team being three time NWAC champions recently, with the success of the women's volleyball team, has there been any interest for a men's volleyball team? Any outreach for that? Any players wanting to look into that?"

    "I haven't heard that from anybody, internally or in the area. In this particular area, boys volleyball hasn't been big. There are pockets with boys volleyball at the high school level. Okay, the Oregon High School Association has now started sponsoring boys volleyball because enough schools in the state have had interest in it, but across the NWACc, which is where we would have to compete, I've not heard any other rumblings, either of you know, yeah, ever becoming a sport? Because, again, we wouldn't have a sport unless we have opportunities to compete with somebody. Right? You need competition and everything. We would need some teams to compete against, and until the NWAC, as a conference, would have a have a core group of schools that want to sponsor it, it just doesn't make sense, you know, beyond something that might be a recreational opportunity here."

Q: "OK, well, sounds like it's getting more popular at the high school level."

    "So in the state, and across the country, there are just pockets where it's really super popular, yeah, other places that still haven't even, you know, started sponsoring at the high school level, right? 

Q: "I liked playing volleyball as a part of my PE class in high school, and I always wondered why we didn't have a men's volleyball team that would have been a lot of fun. On from that. Are there any thoughts on trying to start a football program here?"

    "Well, the same thing goes, okay, there aren't any other community colleges in Oregon or Washington that sponsor football, so it needs to be like a toll effort from everybody. We need to have a conference. And so way back when, going back to the 50s and 60s, there were some Oregon and Washington community colleges that did sponsor football. Those all went away, probably for various reasons, but I would say that it's probably pretty safe to say that football is not coming to any unwaxed schools in the foreseeable future. There's just an expense to it, there's a facility cost to it, and most people are just trying to get by with what they are currently sponsoring. Yeah, it would be good it would be a huge undertaking for schools to do that. And I have not heard any rumblings of that either."

Q: "Gotcha, do you think, like, maybe, like a state like California, who has a huge JUCO program, probably kind of, like, monopolizes the effort on those, on those community college programs?"

    "It's a good situation, they have, you know, a lot of kids to choose from, because, yeah, high school football is still hugely popular. Yeah, and up here, there's some small private schools. And then Western Oregon and Southern Oregon that sponsor football. Eastern still sponsors it too. But beyond that there, there aren't as many opportunities to play, right? And, yeah, a lot of Oregon high school players are going elsewhere. But yeah, football in California has always had a strong and rich right, so they've got a pretty good thing going."

Q: "I always wish I played high school football in either Texas or California, but then I see how big those Texas guys are, and I'm like, maybe, maybe not. So, doing a little bit of research, the dick McLean field got a new turf. Oh, what was the process behind choosing that upgrade for the field? Like, well, in terms of, like, Do you need new stands, new signage or what?"

    "Well, the biggest thing. I mean, we've been trying to chip away at various improvements out there. You know, what we can, when we can, the turf on the field was probably the biggest impact item, because we were previously, we did have an infield turf, artificial turf, that was at the end of its lifespan, okay, and so that allowed us to play many more games than we ever could have, because the turf drains and all that, right, but that was at the end of its lifespan. So we had begun the conversations about replacing that because we had been putting money aside. We've been raising money, and we had what we thought was going to be enough money to do the infield. Then we just had some conversations with some people that were interested in supporting the project, and then they asked, well, how much more to do in the entire field? Which would be the ideal situation? It was considerably more. But people stepped up and said, Well, no, we think that that's a valuable investment of our donor, yeah, funds here. And so that's kind of how it transpired. And it just that's the biggest impact, because we can play out there rating, you know, all year round, having the infield help, but not having the entire field is even better, because there were occasions where, with the natural grass outfield, if it had been raining for a couple days, we still would have to cancel games or reschedule. They just couldn't use it because it was just too swampy, right?"

Q: "That went right into my next question: how has it been for the players, for their field? Obviously, that's just helped them be able to practice more schedule, more games, get more out there."

"They love it, so they're really enjoying it. And they had to suffer as the project went through the fall, which wasn't anticipated. So all fall, during their fall practices, they were bouncing around from West High School, South High School. Oh, so they're just moving around because that was still under construction"

Q: "That's some dedication. That's some dedication by those student athletes going to different facilities. Wow, that's great. One of my final questions is, what does it take to maintain athletic equipment here at the community college, with the gym and the weight room and all of the sports you have going on. What's the process behind that?"

    "Well, obviously it varies by facility that you're talking about. There's various, you know, maintenance protocol type things that we have to do on a daily or weekly basis, and those things are pretty routine. What you might think I mean cleaning and writing every so often, but equipment wears out. So the fitness center equipment, you know, you got planned. We had a bunch of old equipment in there that we replaced three years ago now, because it was time. I mean, it's just things that have a lifespan. And just like I was talking about with the baseball turf, but turf has a lifespan, right? At some point you got a plan to replace it. The same thing is the gym and all the equipment in there. So it's really a matter of, I think the responsible approach is to, when you put something new in, okay, what's the anticipated lifespan, and just have that continuing on the radar, okay, how close are we? What's the thing? And as long as you're doing the routine maintenance, you know you're going to get a pretty predictable lifespan out of something doing the regular maintenance, which is the cleaning and the right repairs that sort of, yeah, just taking care of the equipment, and it'll last Exactly And then you can have a much more predictable schedule of Okay. By this year, we're going to have to plan to replace whatever it is okay."

Q: "And so what is the next big upgrade you want to envision for the school?"

    "You know, it's tough because it's there. They're bigger ticket items, right? Yeah, so it's one of those things that takes a significant fundraising campaign to do. But this building, while we just got a new gym floor because of an insurance claim, because the roof leaked, I don't know if you're aware of it right? So we've got a new gym floor. We've got bleachers that were relatively new there. The gym itself is actually in great shape, but our locker rooms in our auxiliary facilities, you know, were built when the building was built in 1972 so those things are outdated and the space isn't used efficiently. So a remodel of this building that would include better locker room spaces, some some gender neutral type restroom facilities, you know, yeah, other classroom and meeting space would be the next big project, because, but that's a substantial undertaking, right for a big facility like this. So there's that on the radar. And then I think just the more work that we can develop on our outdoor spaces track, while we don't have a track and field program anymore, the track is old, dilapidated, kind of, you know, not safe, and it's a great community resource. So as we look to develop some outdoor spaces, that's a huge benefit for our local community as well. So a track and some field work out there that could, you know, make those spaces much more usable, would be the other big capital investment, you know, that would take some money from outside, right?"

Q: "So, yeah, so just general improvements of the facility as we go on, awesome. Thank you for your time Mark, this has been really helpful and insightful."

At a glance:

Who: Mark Majeksi 

Title: Director of Athletics at LBCC

Date: 2018-Present

What: Questions about various athletic departments at LBCC

Highlight: LBCC athletics has seen success over the last few years, including winning several NWAC championships