Speaker Summary #3 Coach Bill Popp

On October 19, 2010, Bill Popp came to talk to our Sports Administration class. Popp is the Head Baseball Coach and Athletic Director at Reinhardt University. He has been at Reinhardt since 2004 when he built the baseball program from the ground up. He has been the Athletic Director for six years. He said that the job basically fell into his lap. Popp came in as the Assistant A.D. and the year after he came the Head A.D. left and he was offered the position.

Before Reinhardt, Popp attended West Georgia and was undecided about a major. He then went on to Kennesaw State University and graduated with a B.S. in Sport Management. He played baseball at KSU when they were a NCAA Division II powerhouse. After graduating from KSU he became the Assistant Baseball Coach at Oglethorpe College in 1994. The head coaching job at Oglethorpe also fell into his lap. The year after he became assistant the head coach resigned. He was then offered the head job. He was there for 13 years. Popp also coached at East Cobb for 14 years with his assistant at Reinhardt, Coach John Ihlenberg.

He came to talk to our class about the things that an Athletic Director does.
As an Athletic Director he has several administrative tasks that he has to do on a regular basis. Some of the things that he does include:

- He works with the budgets of both scholarships and athletic operations
- He deals with eligibility issues of student-athletes
- He on committees for both the NAIA and the AAC (Appalachian Athletic Conference)
- His hours are basically 9:30-5:30 or 6:00 during the summer
- When school is in session he pretty much sets his own hours as long as he gets his things finished.

Coach Popp also gave us some statistics about Reinhardt University and the NAIA.

- There are more than 240 student-athletes at RU. This totals to about 1/3 of the population on campus.
- Reinhardt started off in the GCAC (Georgia Collegiate Athletic Conference). This conference was every school in the state of Georgia besides Division I schools. Reinhardt then spent six years in the SSAC (Southern States Athletic Conference).
- This past year RU moved into the AAC. Scholarships played a major role in the move. The schools in the AAC offer around the same amount of athletic scholarships as RU. However, due to the move RU's teams have longer travel times to face conference opponents. There are currently eight schools in the conference and they are pursuing the idea of adding more in the near future.

Coach Popp also mentioned the fact that Reinhardt is talking about adding a football program in the future.

- He said that in six months he should know more details about whether or not it is a real possibility.
- The reasons they are pursuing a football program include the fact that it will pay for itself in the long run and the recent success of football programs at schools the same size as RU.

Bill Popp's visit was very informative and we really appreciate him taking time out of his busy schedule to spend a few minutes with our class.

Estarr10