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Dec. 13, 2006

This is a partial transcript, edited solely for brevity's sake, of the Dec. 13 introductory press conference for Steve Watson, the new Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at St. Bonaventure University.

Sister Margaret Carney, St. Bonaventure President

"The first thing I want to do this morning is thank the members of the search committee that are assembled here as part of this press conference. They had a tough assignment and they did an excellent job in bringing forward a slate of candidates to us and making it possible for us to make the important announcement that we are making this morning.

Since its founding almost 150 years ago, this university has recognized that athletics, sport, have to be an intimate experience of the college students' existence, welfare and success. And today as we stand on the eve of our 150th anniversary, this university is taking another proud, and may I say giant, step in continuing that legacy and ensuring it into the future.

Before there was an NCAA, before there was an Atlantic 10, this university saw to it that its students had opportunities to compete here among themselves and with colleges and campuses and teams across the nation. And in announcing the appointment of our new Athletic Director Steve Watson, we look forward to a future that unfolds with many more glorious moments of brown and white: victory on the field, and victory off the field for our student-athletes."

Steve Watson
"I liked Sister Margaret's use of the word giant, talking about the move here for me coming to St. Bonaventure. First, this is just a great moment and it's overwhelming for me to see so many people here and I want to thank you for taking the time to come and listen to me today.

There are just a few things I want to talk about. First I want to start with how and why I am here today. I also want to share with you a little bit about where I see things going as this department moves forward.

It really started when I heard about the position opening and the things that interested me in St. Bonaventure. I was able to discover some things about this institution that I didn't know about, even though I had grown up in this area, And then, I was able to re-discover some things also.

The first thing I thought about was the St. Bonaventure family; the sense of community that this place has. Like I said, I knew about that before I got here, but I really got a great sense of that since last Friday when the announcement was made ... so many people have reached out and welcomed me, welcomed my family. It's been overwhelming, refreshing and something I'm really excited about: being a part of that community.

I stand here and I look out and see the new baseball stadium and the first class facility that's been built here. There are a lot of good things happening and it made quite an impression on me when I came here on campus, knowing that things are moving forward.

People know about St. Bonaventure and they know that when they go to school here, they're going to get a good education and that's well known throughout the country.

There were some things when I narrowed down and looked at athletics that made me more interested and continued to grow my interest: The academic success of the student athletes here, the softball team having the number one GPA in the country, that's pretty impressive. The overall GPA of the student athletes, being above a 3.0 and higher than the general student body. I look at the graduation success rate, the academic progress rate, all those numbers are off the charts and again academics are important.

I looked at the athletic achievements, some of the things that have happened here out on the playing field were very impressive ... I had no idea we had a nationally-ranked lacrosse team until I started researching the institution. What Larry Sudbrook has done with the baseball program and how his kids have achieved. Other programs ... men's swimming and diving winning the A-10 Championship, softball, men's tennis ... it's exciting that there's a good mix ... the athletic achievements along with the academic success.

I think the one thing that really drew me more than anything else was the passion people have for athletics here and the loyalty that they've shown over the years. It's important, people care. People are loyal and they've stuck through things ... good and bad.

This is home. I grew up here. My first memories are in this place. It's in my heart ... I'm passionate about this place.

My first priority is to assess and get information and get input from people. There are some things that are going to drive everything I do and the decisions that I make. I talked earlier about academics and that's right at the front. Academic success is critical. The student-athlete experience ... I think that all of our student-athletes deserve a good experience and there's a lot of things that go into that.

The one thing that's so important for our student-athletes is being successful on the playing field. That's my job and that's the job of the people in our department ... to provide them the opportunity to be successful. That's so important to our student athletes.

(Athletic success) is important to me ... it's important to the people on the senior staff and it's important to our coaches. You don't get into this business without being a competitor. Winning and losing matters. It's very important to our student-athletes, it's important to our coaches and it's important to everybody that's here.

We all know how important it is to be successful in this building (Reilly Center) and on this floor behind me (basketball court). It's important to St. Bonaventure and it's important to the community. This is one of the challenges that I'm really looking forward to. I can't wait to get with Anthony Solomon and sit down and talk about his vision, talk about success and what it's going to take. I'm looking forward to sitting down, rolling up the sleeves and getting that program headed in the right direction. There's a lot of basketball to be played this year ... there hasn't been one conference game yet. I'm looking forward to watching that team grow and develop and improve throughout the season.

(Compliance) is a non-negotiable for us. We will be complying and we will follow the rules.

Building relationships is what I think this job is all about. It's relationships on campus, relationships with alumni, relationships in the community, student-athletes and coaches ... it's all about building relationships.

This department is not going to be able to survive without the support and help of everyone. We need support, we need help and the only way to to that is to build relationships.

I look forward to getting started. There are great people here and this is a great situation for me and my family and we're really looking forward to getting going."