I interned as a junior and, so my network wasn't all that robust. I applied for 20 plus jobs, I got turned down by UC Irvine for an internship the day I got the call from Oklahoma, who said, "Hey, we got your name from a colleague of yours at Kansas, and we want to interview you for our internship position." So, one door closes and another opens.
I remember making the trek across half of the country with my best friend. In my mind, I was going to go to Oklahoma for a year and make all the networking connections I needed. Then I was going to come back and work for the Lakers or the Dodgers. Somewhere along the way, I ended up falling in love with the college sports life, and have been in that end of the industry ever since.
Interning at UC obviously it helped you get the position, and you started at OU as assistant director of athletics in media relations. Is that correct?
Yes, the position I had at Oklahoma started as an intern, and then was an assistant director in the communications office. I think I rose to associate director of that office before I left for my first department head opportunity at the University of South Florida.
You had two different roles at OU, what was your major learnings which enabled you to take the next role positioning you into running a department for the first time?
That's a great question. I learned two things in my first year there, that have directly impacted my career. I worked with the volleyball team, that may have won five or six matches out of 30 or so. They had an awful season my first year there. Then in the winter and spring, I worked with our gymnastics programs men and women. The women were very successful, they were a top-10 program. The men would go on to win a national championship. What I learned is, regardless of the sport in college athletics, and regardless of the number of fans that watch or pay attention, the coaches and the staff put the same amount of effort as your very prominent football program. During that season, I made up my mind that I was going treat volleyball like it was the football program. I used every opportunity as my trial run for the more prominent sports.
And that is something that I have shared with every entry-level employee or intern, or graduate assistant. I know your end goal is to be with the more prominent sports with the bigger spotlight, but you have an opportunity with the ones that you're with now. Do not ever take for granted the amount of effort and hard work and heart, that those staffs are putting into it, because it's every bit the same as the sports that get more publicity.
CHRIS FREET INTERVIEW
You accepted an opportunity at the University of Florida, this was a big career leap for you...tell us a little about this transition .
In every transition I've made, they generally come when I feel like the challenge is weakening. I wake up every morning and I'm excited about the challenge and the opportunities that are in front of me, and the bigger the challenge the more excited I get. I felt like I was generally hitting a ceiling in the roles that were available to me at the University of Oklahoma.
The University of South Florida came open through my network, my mentor at Oklahoma, Kenny Mossman, who is still a great mentor to me to this day, knew the head football coach at the University of South Florida, Jim Leavitt, from earlier in his career at Kansas State, where he was an assistant coach with Bob Stoops. That brings it full circle, as Bob Stoops was obviously the head coach at University of Oklahoma at the time, and for many years after.
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