John Blanchard

[PAmedic]

all right. who is this man, you ask?

he may well be our new AD. Word from the mountain that he will be in town this week, don't be surprised to see or hear from him. anyone on campus, let us know what the deali-o is, yo.

Mr Blanchard is currently high up in the AD office at North Carolina, and looks like he has potential to be the real deal here.

will post more as I find it.

[PAmedic]

here's a little on the guy



Baddour, Blanchard Pioneer Carolina Leadership Academy

Read about UNC's newest effort to mold well-rounded student-athletes.

March 3, 2005

by UNC News Services

The impact of talent on athletic performance is obvious even to the casual observer. The stronger and faster the players, the more likely it becomes that the team will compete for a national title.

But it takes athletes with more than just pure talent for a team to succeed.

If the leaders of the team -- coaches and players included -- can't mold a group of individuals into a cohesive unit focused in a single direction, not even the most gifted athletes will achieve the goals they set for themselves.

It was this epiphany that prompted Director of Athletics thingy Baddour in September 2004 to conceive and establish the Carolina Leadership Academy, the nation's premier leadership development program in college athletics.

"We should become the university in the country that is known for developing leaders," Baddour said. "Not only because that has impact right here in their competitive world and in their social world and in their academic world, but also in preparation for the role that they play in their communities."

In partnership with Jeff Janssen, a nationally prominent expert on leadership, Baddour and John Blanchard, senior associate director of athletics, created a program to develop the leadership skills of student-athletes, coaches and administrators at Carolina.

Janssen, a Cary resident who has worked with businesses and college sports teams across the country, applied his award-winning formula for leadership development to the specific needs of the teams on this campus.

"He's the guru," Baddour said. "He's where the rubber meets the road. He's the guy who has specialized in athletics and sports leadership development."

The programs focus on the development of the student-athlete as a leader from his or her freshman season until graduation, but they also teach skills that will benefit the young men and women for the rest of their lives.

"They have a short-term focus in terms of trying to make the experience the best for a college student-athlete in terms of the leadership that they have," Janssen said. "But really, we're trying to create leaders not just for four years but for 40 years, beyond where they go past UNC."

A three-step program The development of student-athletes consists of three stages: Personal Leadership, Rising Stars and Veteran Leaders.

As part of the personal leadership program, Carolina freshmen meet monthly with Janssen and guest speakers to ensure that they learn the most critical of the program's lessons.

"You have to lead yourself first," said football coach John Bunting. "You have to lead yourself through tough times. You have to make good decisions. You have to make good choices. You have to have a good attitude."

The Rising Stars stage involves sophomores and juniors who either volunteer or are identified by coaches as leaders with high potential for the future.

Participants in this group begin to develop skills to lead others by example, but they also are taught to respect and support the authority of team captains.

"I don't think you can lead others unless you can set a good example," Blanchard said. "I don't think you can be a good leader unless you're a good follower."

The Veteran Leaders program provides training and support for those student-athletes with critical roles on their teams -- the captains and seniors whose leadership could make or break a season.

Veteran leaders develop the skills to become coaches on the field, motivators who can sense a shift in momentum during a key sequence and immediately rally the entire team around a common goal.

"Momentum is such a big part about just about every competition, so if you've got a leader who can sense that the momentum's starting to go the wrong way and who can step up and refocus people back on the task at hand, teams won't beat themselves," Janssen said.

The program doesn't only target the student-athletes, however. Its systematic approach permeates the entire department and includes programs both for coaches and administrators.

Coaches participate in workshops that cover a range of team-building topics and reinforce the leadership skills that their athletes are learning.

"One thing we're focusing on with the coaches especially is how best can they develop and groom and partner their leaders within their team," Janssen said.

"We're really working on developing a strong leadership team between the coaches and between the leaders."

Leadership in action Although the genesis of the Carolina Leadership Academy dates only to September, teams have seen immediate results.

The leaders of the Carolina field hockey team, for example, developed a chemistry that propelled the Tar Heels to one of the best seasons in their history.

Even after a single morning session with Janssen in which he outlined a continuum of leadership that stretches from "resistant" to "obsessed," Coach Karen Shelton saw immediate results.

"It made a huge difference," Shelton said. "I'm a firm believer in this program, and with my team we did see immediate results even in the first year, after the first session."

Shelton and her team continued to emphasize the continuum throughout the season to motivate student-athletes to increase their effort and commitment to the goals of the team.

With their increased focus on the goals of the team, the Tar Heels won the conference title and were the nation's top-ranked team for much of the season.

"We didn't win the (NCAA) championship, but it was one the best years that we've ever had in terms of team chemistry and leadership," Shelton said. "And our seniors really led the way. That's what you want."

But perhaps the most visible impact of the Carolina Leadership Academy during the fall season happened on the football field.

Before the season, Bunting and his assistant coaches selected a group of student-athletes who they anticipated taking leadership roles, both senior captains and younger players, to take part in Janssen's programs as well as separate seminars with motivational guest speakers.

But once the season began, the Tar Heels suffered several demoralizing losses to national powers such as Virginia, Florida State, Louisville and Utah.

The loss to Virginia in the second game of the season gave Bunting his first opportunity to remind his team of the importance of self-leadership.

"I laid into them pretty good after the Virginia game in the locker room," he said. "That was about mental toughness -- that's individual, and, once again, that's leading yourself. If you're not mentally tough yourself, you're going to have a hard time with this game."

Two games later, coming off an equally frustrating loss to Louisville, Carolina traveled to Florida State for an important road test.

And while the Tar Heels did not come away victorious, they proved to Bunting that they understood the importance of leadership even in defeat.

Several seniors, including fullback Madison Hedgecock and center Jason Brown, continued to fight for yards late in the second half even though the team had little chance of winning.

"After that game, our players really understood just how important it is for everybody to be accountable," Bunting said. "We didn't win the ballgame, but we were accountable."

And after the team's worst loss of the season, a 46-16 loss at Utah in which nine regulars suffered injuries in the first half, the veteran leaders of the team directed a 180-degree shift in attitude that resulted in the Tar Heels' historic upset of then-No. 3 Miami.

But despite the remarkable turnaround that landed Carolina in the Continental Tire Bowl, the graduation of this season's senior class means that previous participants in the "Rising Stars" program will have to take the reins of next season's team.

"I want to see if these guys really want to make that commitment," Bunting said. "If they do, then we'll be successful. If they don't, if they just give it lip service, then we won't."

The future of the program As successful as was the Carolina Leadership Academy's inaugural season, its creators foresee significant growth in the coming years.

The initial programs focused primarily on the chemistry between student-athletes on a team with coaches simply reinforcing the techniques taught to their players, but future instruction will assist coaches directly as they develop team-building techniques of their own.

Impetus for the Carolina Leadership Academy will continue to come from private funding -- including a $25,000 donation as part of the Carolina First Campaign from William C. Friday, president emeritus of the UNC system, who won the grant money from the NCAA as part of the Gerald R. Ford Award for lifetime achievement.

And flexibility will be an important aspect of planning as the program continues to grow.

"From this first semester, we've found out what's working and we've found out what we need to tweak," Janssen said. "That's always going to be our process, to continually evolve and make sure it's meeting (the student-athletes') needs and the coaches' needs."

But the basic aims of the program -- provide practical, hands-on leadership training for student-athletes to employ both on the field and for the rest of their lives -- will remain unchanged.

"We've got to keep it practical," Baddour said. "We've got to make sure we've got a good balance between theory and practical, and have them always dealing with real-life-type situations, both the coaches and the players."

[Sly Fox]

Gee, that picture looks familiar.

Other than a very brief stay at Minnesota in the middle, he's been at North Carolina for a number of years. He seems to have a strong background on the academic side. I'm curious to hear about his fundraising abilities. That would seem to be the key factor in the hire.

[HoldMyOwn]

I 2nd that name...his final interview is thursday


There is a local man with close ties to UNC and he said that Liberty could not have gotten a better 1-2 punch for football than Rocco and Blanchard (if he gets the job)

After all he is a Stanford grad and played football for them...

[A.G.]

OK. This guy seems to be the touchy-feely kind. All about athletes feeling good about themselves. A lot of leadership theory. Looks to me like it has been all about the athlete and not much interaction with coaches, fundraising, and the like. Let's hope he can transition from a support-person type of administrator. It seems like he's big, though, on having the athletes be part of the community. That could be a good thing. However, my initial reaction is kind of like H'burg feels about the football hire.

[A.G.]

This explains why he left Minnesota. No dirt, just was not what he bargained for. Apparently, UNC must have welcomed him back with open arms.

Director of academic counseling resigns after job restructuring

Patrick Hayes - Staff Reporter

John Blanchard, University director of academic counseling and student services, announced his resignation Aug. 23, effective in early October, citing personal reasons.

Blanchard was hired in January 1999 just before the men's basketball academic scandal broke. He served as the University of North Carolina's director of academic counseling before coming to the University.

His position was restructured after University investigators found widespread academic violations within the men's basketball program.

Originally, Blanchard reported directly to the athletics department. After the restructuring, he reported to the provost's office.

Faced with the challenge of reestablishing the credibility of the academic counseling office this year, Blanchard said he lost interest in the job.

"The job changed with the scandal ... and it became more of a rebuilding process than I had signed on for," Blanchard said in a interview.

"It's a different nature of work than maintaining and improving the program. I felt it would be best if I made a change," he added.

Blanchard said he wasn't unhappy with the restructuring of his position, but instead said reporting to the provost would be good for the program's credibility.

Craig Swan, vice president for undergraduate education, said Blanchard's job was not endangered during the academic scandal and said he would be missed.

"The provost and myself had and have full confidence in John's ability to help us deal with the situation," Swan said. Blanchard said he had thought about leaving his position for a few months and decided recently it would be best if he returned to North Carolina.

Contemplating a career change, Blanchard said he will continue to work in higher education, but not in academic counseling. Swan met with University officials Wednesday to discuss the situation and a possible replacement.

Blanchard said he would assist in any way he could.

"I think we're going to overcome (the scandal) and I think people here are going to be very successful," Blanchard added.

[Sly Fox]

Yeah, I had found the same thing but didn't want to drag something he wasn't directly involved in creating into the equation. But now its out there. I think it just shows he had the common sense to bail when he realized the mess he had been invited into.

[baldspot]

It makes sense to hire someone with major D1-A experience given Jerry's 10 year goal. One potential problem here is he probably has as much fundraising experience at this level as I do and that's not much. It's not like we can roll out Dean Smith a couple times a year and ask the state legislature to pump in a few more bucks. Let's hope he's not to used to that kinda lifestyle.

[PAmedic]

My guess is he knows exactly what he's getting into. Like the head FC position, I'm sure there have been extensive discussions for weeks now- not to mention the direct intervention by Lou Holtz, Coach Rut and others we probably haven't heard about.
I'm willing to bet very few stones have been left unturned- we're talking about MAJOR restructuring of the entire athletic dept here. These are not off-the-cuff, shoot from the hip decisions being made.

[PAmedic]

I hope!

[El Scorcho]

I'm very excited about this pick, if this turns out to be the deal. Very. Chapel Hill is home for me, and I've always been in awe of their consistent athletic success across every sport they compete in. Bring him on!

[thelaxman]

Well:

Anyone or anything coming out of Chapel Hill, NC has the ability to turn things to Gold. Carolina has a great D1 NCAA Lacrosse program and look for Liberty to copy UNC's Athletic program and also look for Men's and Women's Lacrosse to go varsity and maybe even Hockey to go varsity in a few years with the investment of the new Arena.

This all looks great on paper. I still have to wonder if we are all in reality about what it is we want the Athletic Department to look like for a small private Division 1 School like Liberty.

Can we really compete with the likes of Kentucky and Carolina in Basketball ? Can we compete with the likes of USC and Alabama in Football and compete with the likes of Syracuse, Hopkins and Virginia on the Lacrosse Field in a couple of years and should that be our goals.

Or are we called to higher things? Are we in need of a
reality check? These are the real questions and only time will tell. I'm just unsatisfied with how the firings have been handled and we have seen these problems with firings in the Athletic Department in the past.

I have always felt we need to learn to walk before we can run. I hope that will be the philosophy of the Athletic Department.

All the best,

Thelaxman

[Sly Fox]

If you never think big you are positioning yourself for a lifetime of small.

[tallyw]

Agreed Sly.

[thelaxman]

All I'm saying is we better have put God first in all these changes. If this is the route the Lord is leading us and not some not in reality ambition phase then we will have a great deal of success and these are exciting times for LU Athletics. If these changes are not led by the Lord then hard will are fall be. If this is the path God has for us then these are good moves and having vision to do great things is good. But we need to keep God first in this no matter what.

Our testimony is not based on scoreboard it is based on how we handle our personal affairs and how we treat others.

If these changes put our Athletic Department as one of the best in the Country then I support that but if they were done with selfish ambition then I can't support it and not the direction of the One we serve, look for more failure . Only time will tell and the testimony of the Institution. Like I tell everyone I hope I'm wrong. I just have seen enough negative from LU in one year to last a lifetime.

Thelaxman

[tallyw]

Also agreed Laxman...
The thing that gives me comfort is to know that this push is not new. Dr. Falwell announced his desire for this University to play Notre Dame in football at the outset of the University in press conference in Lynchburg in front of one or two reporters who bothered to show up. Before one building was up!

To me, this is not selfish ambition as much as it is fulfilling the vision God put on his heart 35 years ago.

Also, for us to think the final goal is wins and losses is short-sighted. The stated goal of Dr. Falwell has always been to use music and atheletics to attract young people to the school. For LU to be considered the evangelical version of BYU and Notre Dame, that prestige in atheletics is as important as our prestige in the classroom. We may not like it. We may want a more utopian scholastic environment, but those are the facts.

LU is also pushing for a more-educated faculty as our student body's SAT scores increase. We don't have a board (to my knowledge) for the history department or school of government that rallies for their jobs every time a professor is not invited back. People are let go every year because they don't cut it as professors. VP's leave the school because they aren't the right fit (professionally and sometimes personally) with the rest of the department. I don't hear many complaints. Change is the only constant.

The ULTIMATE goal in all of this is that more students have the Liberty experience that we have enjoyed and that they go out and Pastor churches, do television (or computer-based) broadcasting, journalism, and yes coach other lacrosse teams. Why? To change our world by reaching people for Christ.

Changing the world for Christ is far more grand than a championship or LU sports discussion board. This is a direction vision to impact our nation for the cause of Christ. The stuff we talk about on this board are the trees in the middle of the forest that is the vision.

My heart breaks for those who have been (directly/indirectly) hurt by the University (Rather: by the people in it) because I know in the grand scheme of things the school and it's alumni are a part of something so much larger in God's plan for the world.

I agree with you LAX:
Ps 127: "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain."

[thelaxman]

TallyW:

Very good points. I hope this is the beginning of some good things for the University and the Athletic Department. I'm looking forward to one day go to the NCAA Division 1 National Championships and watch LU beat Virginia, Hopkins, or Syracuse!

God Bless,

Thelaxman

Go Flames Lax!

[HoldMyOwn]

I believe this to be a good pick...and if it turns out to be a bust then LU will move on...LU luckily no longer has the mentality of...just put up with it b/c with our budget we cant do much better....they now have the budget amount can compete with any D1 program (i'm not speaking on, yearly budgets for teams, I'm speaking on, those of the Admin. & mainly football)

Also, a little off topic but Coach Rocco made the statement that his budget can compete with All D1-AA schools and a lot of D1-A programs and was shocked when he was told how much he had to work with