The Concordian

Media Credit: Concord Sports Information Office Greg Quick recently stepped down as Concord's Head Football Coach but will resume full-time duties as the Athletics Director

Greg Quick was recently removed from his position as Concord's Head Football Coach and appointed to the position of full-time Athletics Director. Quick formerly occupied both positions. The "realignment of responsibilities", as President Aloia called it in a November 6 news release, was announced two days before the Mountain Lions finished their 2008 football season at 0-11 following a loss to Fairmont State on Saturday.

"The decision was a joint partnership between Dr. Aloia and I," Quick said. "He offered me the opportunity to become full time Athletic Director."

Quick has been Concord's Head Football Coach since January of 2003 and accepted the additional position of Athletics Director in June of 2004. Up until Quick's new appointment to the Athletics Director position, Concord has been the only school among institutions of comparable size without a full-time Athletics Director to oversee its 18 men's and women's athletics programs.

"Dr. Beasley asked me to assume the Athletic Director position alongside the coaching position to give the program some continuity, and for some fiscal reasons as well," Quick said. "I think anybody that you would speak to would say that it is an impossible combination. You're taking two full time, 80-hours per week jobs and combining them. But by no means is my workload cut now. In fact, in the last week I think my workload has doubled."

"If we're going to move towards being a reputable Divison II athletic program, we need to move in the direction of having proper administrative structure and this is our first move going towards that direction."

Before he accepted the Athletic Director position, the team's record under Quick as Head Football Coach was 3-8 in Fall 2003. After Quick accepted the Athletic Director position the next year, the team's combined record for the next five seasons was 13-42.

"Nobody has been able to grant the attention to all of our sports that they deserve," Quick said. "The Division II model asks for four full-time administrators and we've had no full time administrators addressing athletics."

Throughout his tenure as Head Football Coach, Quick has faced criticism from the student body for the team's consistently poor record, but said that football had little to do with the decision to realign his duties and responsibilities.

"Dr. Aloia and I never spoke about football at all. The only direct discussion about football was the process of hiring a new coach and my desire to be actively involved in that and to see that any personnel involved in the program aren't hurt by the change."

"People can read into it anyway they want. Everybody's going to put their own spin on it - just like you do when you choose to run or pass," Quick said. "But I think if people were correct with any of their judgments on our football program or our athletic program, I don't think Dr. Aloia would've gone in the direction that he did. Any other choices I think would've negatively affected both our football program and our entire athletic program."

Following the announcement, President Aloia was out of town and unavailable for comment, but echoed his support for Quick and his new position in last Thursday's news release.

"We want to use Greg's strengths to be proactive for the athletic program here at Concord," Aloia was quoted as saying. "Among Greg's strengths are his personal and professional integrity, as well as his commitment to excellence. I think he will be very forward-thinking with a focus on improving each of our men's and women's programs, working toward goals that will complement, enrich and enhance the experiences of our student-athletes."

As the new full-time Athletics Director, Quick will work closely with Dr. Aloia to have the newly vacant position of Head Football Coach filled as soon as possible.

"I'll have a big part in developing a pool of candidates for Dr. Aloia to choose from. We're starting a national search and are receiving applications and resumes as we speak. We'll collect those and we're putting a search committee together that Dr. Aloia will approve when he returns next week."

Quick said that the goal is to have the position filled by early next month.

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