Heath Schroyer

Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? Tell us about your family and your hobbies. What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you?

I grew up on a dairy farm in Walkersville, a small town in Western Maryland. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, my dad sold our milk cows and bought black angus beef. Later, we sold the beef cows. My dad is now 79 years old and farms the ground — hay, corn and soy beans.

I love the sun, a great meal and live music. I also love to be on a boat with friends offshore fishing. My perfect day is a sunny day at the pool or the beach with an autobiography in hand. I really enjoy books that stimulate thought.

My younger sister, Heidi, lives in Greenville, N.C. I have two children. Sierra is 28 and works at ESPN. She’s a go-getter and is one of the youngest people in the director role at the company. My son, Hayden, is 23, and he lives with me. Hayden is on the spectrum, and I’ve had custody of him since he was 9. He works on the grounds crew at McNeese and is training to qualify for a spot on the Special Olympics swim team. He’s a great swimmer, and butterfly is his best stroke. 

I think it might surprise people to hear I’m a first-generation college student who was only able to go to college because of an athletic scholarship.

What can you tell us about your educational background and professional journey? How did you end up in the athletic director role at McNeese?

I started playing basketball at age 5 when my dad put a hoop in our driveway. I was later recruited to play at DeMatha High School for Morgan Wooten. For those that don’t know, Coach Wooten was the first high school coach to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame.

I received a bachelor’s in liberal arts from Georgia Southern-Armstrong Campus, and a master’s in instructional leadership from National University.

I started my coaching career straight out of college. My first job was at Reedley College in California, where I made $5,000 for the entire year and lived in a dorm room. After that, I moved around quite a bit. I coached college basketball for 26 years — 24 of them at the Division 1 level and 12 of them as head coach at four different universities. I was lucky enough to be named coach of the year at two of them.

During my time coaching, I had opportunities to move into athletic administration but didn’t feel the timing was right until I came to McNeese.

I just completed my fifth year as athletic director at McNeese. I came here from BYU in 2018. I was the head basketball coach for two years and then, during COVID, I tacked on the AD role and did both jobs for one season.

When I was named AD in 2020, I inherited an athletic department with a $3 million deficit and a football program on APR probation and with a post-season ban. As your readers know, two months later we were hit by Hurricanes Laura and Delta. It was trial by fire, to say the least. I can’t imagine there’s another AD in the country that’s been dealt that hand at one time, let alone in their first two months on the job. It was tough, but it was also great, because I learned a lot and fell in love with the community during that time. 

Were there any key moments or mentors who shaped your career or your approach to leadership?

Honestly, I learned more about leadership from the time immediately following the hurricanes than any time before that. I’ve never seen or been a part of anything like it. Our campus and our community looked like a war zone.

I learned how to delegate and how to be a leader people could count on. I realized how important being both forward facing and internally sound is in this role. I learned how important it was to have a vision and get people to not only see the vision but believe in it and buy in.

One of the most important things we did during that time was implement the APPE concept: assess the problem, put a plan in place, prioritize the plan, and execute the plan.

When you have 400 athletes dispersed all over the country, facilities completely destroyed, severe budget constraints, a global pandemic and a decimated — and in many ways forgotten — community, nothing is more important than sound leadership.

I realized that McNeese athletics needed to lead the way and rally the community to come together and rebuild. I truly believe McNeese athletics is the soul and backbone of SWLA, and we needed to not only come back but come back better and bigger than before. I was so motivated to give this community an athletic department that they could be proud of — one that was built for both immediate success and success decades from now. I was laser focused on that every single day. I still am.

I’ve been very lucky in my career and have worked for a few truly great head coaches. I’ve been blessed to be around amazing athletic directors at major universities where I was able to see what “big time” college athletics looks like. ADs like Jim Livengood when I was at UNLV, Debbie Yow when I was at NC State, and Tom Holome when I was at BYU. All three of them were extremely organized, great communicators and very forward facing. I learned a lot from them.

Our university’s president, Dr. Wade Rousse, has also been very influential in shaping my leadership style. He’s an amazing leader. I’ve never been around anyone with his energy level or his ability to communicate and motivate people while still holding them accountable.

He and I see the world very similarly. His organizational structure and attention to detail make everyone around him better — me included. Working for him has made me better and he’s continued to push me to grow. I’ll always be grateful for that.

How did your coaching experience prepare you for this position? How is being an AD the same as being a coach? How is it different? 

I wouldn’t be who I am without my coaching background. Being a head coach at the D1 level has prepared me to be an AD more than anything else could have, I think. As an AD, one of the most important skills is the hiring, firing and managing of coaches. As a former coach, I speak their language and understand their stresses and concerns. It’s easier for me to get on their level than it would be for someone who’s never been in their shoes.

A coach must be able to recruit, sell a vision and make decisions very quickly. Coaches usually don’t have time to form committees before making important program decisions. Being a coach comes with a sense of urgency, and I’ve carried so much of that into this role.

Coaches also create a vision for their program, and in order to see your vision come to light you have to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. You can’t be afraid of confrontation. You must hold people accountable. Every coach has players in different positions — offense, defense, quarterbacks. safeties. You have to motivate and coach each a little differently. Managing an athletic department is much the same — the ticket office, compliance, academics, marketing. Each position is different, and you manage each differently. It’s the same, just on a larger scale. 

Being an AD is different in that I always need to have the big picture in mind and know where we’re taking the department as a whole. The role of an AD in today’s climate is completely different than it was five or even three years ago. The days of simply sitting behind a desk in a corner on campus and administrating are over.

I think in today’s climate an AD has to be approachable and have the ability to communicate effectively and raise money. They can’t hide. I think they need to be forward facing, embrace social media and have the ability to run a lean, efficient department. Every dollar counts. The way many athletic departments are running now across the country is simply not sustainable. I think we’ve already made decisions that have set us up for both immediate success and future success.

I’m on the executive leadership team with our senior vice president, provost and CFO. That alone is very different than what the AD role was within universities years ago. Now it’s not uncommon. 

As the landscape of college athletics continues to shift (most notably with changes in NIL), how do you plan to keep the program ahead of the curve? 

The only constant in life — and in any business — is change. I have elected to embrace change and embrace NIL. A lot of my colleagues hate it and have been very outspoken about that. I understand their frustrations, I really do, but I’ve said it a thousand times: the toothpaste isn’t going back into the tube. You either adapt or you get left behind. It’s important to remember that our student athletes weren’t even born in the year 2000, much less in 1990. Things change.

Since the day I moved into this seat five years ago, I’ve prided myself on being proactive and not reactive in every area. NIL/Rev Share has been no different. I hired a lawyer to join our staff full-time to help me navigate the NIL/Rev share space from every angle and point of view. Our number one objective is to protect our university and our student athletes, and we’ve done just that. McNeese’s structure has been vetted by university attorneys, the NCAA, and attorneys who are experts in this space.

Last year we hosted our first NIL summit. We brought in over 30 businesses to meet with our athletes. We were only the second university in the state to host a summit like this. Some of our athletes got NIL deals and some landed internships, but all of them got an opportunity to meet local business owners and learn about financial literacy. I’m really proud of that and look forward to growing it in the years ahead.

I’m really excited about our future. We’ve opted in with the NCAA’s NIL/Rev Share and scholarship model. We’re being responsible and are going to walk before we run. This year, we’ll keep our scholarship numbers the same in each sport. Moving forward, we’ll monitor our financial situation and make adjustments as needed.

I feel strongly that the decisions we’ve made over the last few years have allowed us to have a head start and leg up within our level. We’ll continue to grow revenue and we’ll have a few of our sports in a position to be regionally dominant and nationally relevant.

What role do you see athletics playing in the broader role of the university?

I think our athletic program has a huge responsibility to both our university and SWLA. The three main goals at McNeese are to recruit students, retain students and place them in jobs within their particular discipline. Our athletic department, for sure, has a direct role in the first two. When your athletic department is prospering and you’re winning on the field or on the court, it helps sell the university to potential students. Students want to be proud of their school. Winning matters. Plain and simple.

There have been numerous studies that show a direct correlation between a winning athletic department gaining national exposure and increased enrollment. Take Alabama, for example, their enrollment skyrocketed over the last 10 years thanks to Nick Saban. They built new buildings and enhanced programs across campus. So much of that can be attributed to the success of their football program and, more recently, their men’s basketball success.

We saw it here at McNeese when our men’s basketball team beat Clemson in the NCAA tournament. In order to have the level of exposure we received from that experience, it would’ve cost us the equivalent of $100 million in marketing. Our website actually crashed at the end of the Clemson game. We couldn’t afford to buy what that one game did for our university and our community. 

Hosting the Southland men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Lake Charles brings over $3 million a year into SWLA. Hotels, restaurants and our economy in general benefit from hosting the tournament. When McNeese Athletics is winning, everyone in SWLA wins.

How has the university’s athletic program evolved during your time here? What were your goals for the program and have you met those goals? What can readers expect in the upcoming year and beyond?

I think it’s safe to say that our athletic program today looks completely different than it did five years ago. From a structural standpoint, funding model, academically and on field success … we’ve come a long way.

The way I describe it to people is like this: Imagine we were one of the first homes on the block to get cable television. At that point, we’re ahead of the curve, right? Well, then comes the invention of the internet. Instead of jumping online, McNeese chose to just stick with cable. That’s what our funding model was like when I took over.

We had every coach forced to run around trying to raise money all year. We had clubs asking the same exact people for money and then, on top of that, we outsourced our corporate sponsorships to a third-party company where 30 cents of every dollar went to them instead of us. Our football program was on a post-season ban and academic probation. We literally had one academic advisor for 400 athletes.

When I took over, I said yes to internet. I wanted to do a few key things in the first few years. I wanted everyone to start thinking and understanding that we’re in the people, hospitality and entertainment business. Period. We established a culture: student athlete-centered, donor- and fan-friendly.

We needed to make decisions that positively affected our student athletes. I wanted them to graduate and be proud of their time here. I wanted them to know we cared about them not just as athletes and students but as people. We added more academic advisors. It’s impossible to have one person handle 400 student athletes. We added more strength coaches and trainers. All of that impacts the student athlete experience. 

It was important to me to create a strong team around me — men and women who share the same vision and passion and who could complement my strength and weaknesses. I wanted people who had different skill sets than I do. I needed team members who were strong in places where I’m not. I’m so proud of the team we’ve put together in our athletic department and in McNeese Athletic Foundation (MAF). I’ve never felt more confident and comfortable in my professional life than I do right now.

I also wanted to change how we treated our fans and our donors; they keep the lights on. I wanted them to feel appreciated. One of the first things I did was change out our ticket office personnel. We put people in those roles who enjoy customer service and who would make the buyer’s experience at the window a pleasant one. Think about it: When you come to the ticket office to buy a season ticket … that experience matters. Everyone gets in their car and leaves with either a feeling of appreciation and excitement or with a bad taste in their mouth. We had way too many people leaving with the latter when I took over.

Dr. Rousse and I got rid of the third-party corporate sponsorship company and bet on ourselves. I didn’t want our coaches to have to worry about fundraising. I wanted to act and operate like a true Division 1 program. We brought all of our corporate sponsorships in-house and formed MAF a few years ago. This allowed us to consolidate our asks and allowed us to be a one stop shop for donors and local businesses. It was what helped to move the department forward financially, and it might be the best decision we made.

We’ve made a lot of headway in this area, but we aren’t quite where I think we will be in the next two years.

We consolidated some clubs and will look to do more of that in the future. When you have consolidated efforts, you’re able to raise more money and eliminate donor fatigue. Change is never easy, and the changes we made with fundraising didn’t make everyone happy. Leadership is hard, and I learned a long time ago that as a leader you have to do what’s best for the department and the university. Making everyone happy is impossible

It was important that we got our football program out of APR probation, off post-season ban, and once again competing for conference championships. We needed sound, disciplined Cowboy Football. This has taken a year or so longer than I wanted it to, but I know without a shadow of a doubt we’re on the right track. We have the right coach; we’ve upgraded our locker room, weight room and press box; and our funding for the program is where it needs to be.

I want to win football championships and get back to the playoffs. I want to sell out the Hole and make it the place to be on Saturdays again.

I wanted to get our basketball program to a place where I always knew it could be. We have the most to gain –with the smallest investment — in men’s basketball from a revenue and branding standpoint. 

The truth is at the FCS level nothing moves the needle nationally quite like men’s basketball. The proof is in the pudding, and we’ve seen it first-hand. What we’ve done over the last two years on both a regional and national level is second to none. It’s positively affected our bottom line. Nothing else at this level can do that. We needed the right guy, and we found that with Will Wade. I believe we have the best successor in Bill Armstrong. I want to consistently go to the NCAA tournament in men and women’s basketball.

We also have two amazing coaches in baseball and softball. I wanted to try and keep them here and give them what they needed to continue to grow their programs. Re-signing both of them was a huge deal for me and will be in the future.

There are lot of things I want to continue to do that will move our department and university forward.  I want to continue to push the envelope with our in-game entertainment and fan engagement. I want to continue to grow the department and push to not only graduate our student athletes, but to create engaged alumni.

I want to continue to find ways to enhance our facilities, raise money and have the community embrace McNeese Athletics. More than anything, I want to WIN! We’ve accomplished a lot, but trust me, we’re just getting started.

Anyone who isn’t living under a rock has seen the infamous picture of Will Wade leaping into your arms. It happened after the university’s historic first-ever NCAA championship win. What was that moment like for you? And, be honest, were you worried you were going to drop him?

The moment the buzzer sounded I got emotional. It was surreal. My mind went right to all the people who thought I was insane for hiring Coach Wade. At the time, his verdict from the NCAA hadn’t come out yet. We didn’t know if he would ever coach again, much less coach that year. People told me it was career suicide.

It was just a moment of gratitude. When you have a vision and you work so hard … to actually see it come together is priceless. It probably ran even a little deeper for me, to be honest. I thought back to my parents and my upbringing. A first-generation college kid from a tiny town in Maryland who grew up on a farm … I’m not supposed to be here in this job. I’ve had doubters and naysayers my entire life. It’s ok; I actually relish it in a weird way. It fuels me. That moment was emotional because it took so much from so many to get there.

I was just so happy for everyone. Our University, our community, our fans, the players and the coaches. I was especially happy for Dr. Rousse. He believed early on in the vision and he doubled down on it. There’s a picture somewhere of him crying, too. It was just great and it’s something I’ll never forget. Now I just want to do it again. The next goal? To win two games and make it to the sweet sixteen.

I have the picture of me and Coach Wade in my office and gave one to him he keeps in his office at NC State. We had to go through all of it — the verdict, the negative press and the doubters to get to that point. Needless to say, it was worth it.

I was surprised he jumped in my arms, that’s for sure, but I knew I wouldn’t drop him. I could have probably held up a truck in that moment. My adrenaline was sky high.

Overall, I’m so honored to be the AD here and live in SWLA. It’s become our home, and I wake up every day feeling blessed for the job I have, how great the community has been for Hayden and the relationships I have here. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

Geaux Pokes!