Interview with Mike Cragg(1)

2007-03-05 13:13:14 Zong Xing[ Big Normal Small ]

　　
　　
　　Duke University is famous for its excellent sport traditions, especially its’ basketball tradition. How does Duke run its athletic department? What is the system like? Why does the basketball coach earn twice as much income as the President of the university? With these questions in mind, Xing Zong, of Duke University Chinese Students and Scholars Association, recently interviewed Mr. Mike Cragg, the associate Director of athletic department at Duke.



　　Z: Coach K (Duke basketball legendary head coach) directed Dream Team in the World Champion tournament this year. What do you think of it?

　　C: This is great! It surely promotes the reputation of Duke Athletics.

　　Z: First question for you is: how did you wind up in college sports?

　　C: Well, I was interested in sport when I was a little kid. I can remember when I was in the first grade; we’d do “show and tell”. You bring your favorite toy, I used to have my ‘show and tell’ on Mondays, I used to cut off NFL football results and share with the class all the scores from the football game. So I played a lot of sports growing up, but didn’t really know.

　　I then went to University of Washington in Seattle. My major was communications and journalism. I worked in the athletic department as a student worker. I took all communication classes. Really just through my time working in the athletic department is how I got involved in what I do today. So this is great background.

　　As an assistant, when I graduated from Washington in 1986, I did an internship at the Pac-10 conference office. The University of Washington was a member of that conference. So I was an intern there in the PR office when I applied for a job at Duke. I was the Sports Information Director for 9 years. Then I moved into basketball and have been working here since 2000.

　　Z: Talk about Duke Athletics. In total, how many sports programs are here at Duke?

　　C: We have 26 inter-college sports. 14 men’s and 12 women’s sports.

　　Z: In my opinion, three ingredients are necessary to successfully run a program. The first one is the player, the second one is the coach, and the third one is the money. Let’s focus on the first part, what is the general procedure for Duke to enroll players?

　　C: No. 1, in every school, they are students first and athletes second, they are getting their education, being able to qualify to go to a school, such as Duke, or whatever. In our case, being a player at Duke means they are students as well as athletes. So they have to be just as qualified as anybody else to get into Duke. They go through the process; a number of them are recruited to play their individual sports.

　　Not everybody can come and play for Duke. The coaches have to do a good job of selecting the kids, men and women. Players are good on the court or on the field but also must do well in the classroom. Just as the school itself, we want to excel in all things. We want to have the best athletes we can possibly have here. Be we also want to give them a good education, that’s the mission of our athletic department.

　　Z: What if the academic performance of an athlete isn’t satisfactory; can he or she still come to Duke?

　　C: Well, that depends on how you define “not satisfactory”. No.1, they simply must be dedicated to earning their degree but on the other hand, they must also demonstrate some test-taking ability. The nice part of our school--- it is a nice intimate school. Decisions are made university wide. They reflect not only the students’ skill but also how strongly they perform in the classroom. They may be talented musicians. They may be great thespians and great performers. That’s considered when assessing the overall fitness of a potential Duke student. But that being said, the kids who come to Duke have to be qualified and able to succeed in the classroom. Nobody would put anyone in a position where they can’t see any potential success.