Ohio University finds new director of athletics in Schaus
By Britton Dove, Staff Writer
April 8, 2008 | 12:03 a.m.
Jim Schaus did not take the new athletic director position at Ohio University purely as a stepping stone to a better position -- he is here for the “long haul.”
Schaus spent nine years as the athletic director of Wichita State University and gained a background in athletics at the University of Oregon, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Texas at El Paso and Northern Illinois University. He also interned with the New England Patriots after graduating in 1982. With roots in West Virginia and ties in the Ohio region, he said he found his calling at Ohio: “This is coming home for me.”
When former Ohio Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt decided to leave for the University of Miami (Florida) to take the same position, a search committee was formed to find a new athletic director with certain qualities such as a person with great experience, a successful track record of wins, a leader and also a commitment to academics.
The Ohio faculty, administrators and student athletes that made up the search committee chose Schaus over the five other candidates that were looked at for the position. Schaus compiled an impressive resume while at WSU -- he turned a $6 million budget deficit into a $1.5 million surplus and he also increased attendance at all events that ranked the school nationally in the past two years.
“Anything less than success is mediocrity,” Schaus said.
Through a five-year strategic plan, Schaus aspires to make Ohio successful by leading the Bobcats to compete for annual conference championships, to make Ohio a premiere team in the Mid-American Conference, to be playing for post-season play and bowl games on an annual basis, and most importantly to become a nationally recognized program.
“Part of the vision needs to have the highest achievements academically in student athletes in all areas, academics in everything that they do, because a student athlete is at the center of the target no matter what,” Schaus said.
The collective GPA for WSU’s student athletes has remained above a 3.0 in each semester of Schaus’ tenure. (The collective GPA of Ohio's student athletes is 3.088.) In addition, WSU graduated 92 percent of its athletes, 25 percent higher than the graduation rate of enrolled students at the university.
WSU has won the Missouri Valley Conference’s All-Sports Trophy in each of the past four years and had five teams win the MVC in 2007 (baseball, women’s cross country, women’s indoor track and field, women’s outdoor track and field, and women’s tennis). Also, WSU’s men’s basketball team rose to a No. 8 national ranking and its baseball team made it to its 25th NCAA Tournament appearance.
Athletics runs in the Schaus family. Father Fred Schaus played for, and later coached for, West Virginia University in addition to coaching for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA.
---