North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Leaving Pack Not Easy For Athletics Nomad
5/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
BY TIM PEELER
But this time was unlike all the others. Fagg had something at NC State that he never really had before in all the years of moving around the country, living the nomadic life of a college athletics vagabond.
This time, he had actually put down roots.
For the last seven years longer than he has lived in any one place his entire life the 40-year-old graduate of the
And that’s what chokes Fagg up as he prepare for his last day at NC State -- having to uproot his wife, Amanda, their 10-year-old son Jon Madison and the twins to a new home.
He leaves on Friday to become a senior associate athletics director at
“Jon has done an outstanding job organizing our compliance office and making sure all our programs, our coaches and our staff members adhere to NCAA regulations,” said athletics director Lee Fowler. “This is a great opportunity for him and for his family, but he will certainly be missed at NC State.”
Fagg grew up a little bit of everywhere, from the Carolinas to Hawaii. His father was a career assistant football coach, meaning he had the moving company on speed-dial. Fagg also started out as a football assistant, as a graduate assistant at his alma mater,
Prior to coming to NC State, Fagg spent three years as the compliance director at
Fagg sat down with GoPack.com recently to talk about his new opportunity and his time at NC State.
GoPack.com: How will your position at
Fagg: I will be senior associate athletics director. I will oversee compliance from a more big picture sense than I do now and I will oversee all academic support and its organization and I will oversee all the student-athlete development. So I will be over two more areas than I am now. That will be a nice new challenge. It’s a good exciting time in my career to take another step forward toward hopefully being an athletics director someday.
GoPack.com: You have moved many times over your career. Is this one any different?
Fagg: I’ve always had a nomadic lifestyle. I’ve gone from
GoPack.com: What are some of the things you will remember most about being at NC State?
Fagg: The fans here, the Wolfpack nation, truly are amazing. I have been a part of some great schools, but my two youngest children (twins) were born here, and that will always be special. I’ll always remember Philip Rivers and Julius Hodge. At the same time, I’ll remember J.J. Hickson and Darrion Caldwell and Lindsay Vera and the start of softball and the great job Lisa Navas has done. We have a lot of neat things to be proud of here. It is an unbelievable institution. At times, I think, we can all take for granted what we have here. This has been a great place, because everybody gets along pretty well. This is a great place to be from a getting-along standpoint. Everybody is on the same team. We all want to win and we all want to win the right way.
GoPack.com: What do you think the biggest changes have been within athletics and within compliance during your time here?
Fagg: From the compliance standpoint, the rules have become really sport-specific. That has been really challenging. It is getting more and more ornate, which made it more challenging. From a compliance office standpoint, we have remained so stable, with (assistant athletics director for compliance) Michelle Lee and I being here together for six and a half years, it’s been great because it has been stable. But it is going to be a time of transition as I leave and she takes over. We’ll see how that transition works.
GoPack.com: Was there anything here that was a bigger challenge than you thought it would be?
Fagg: Any time you are at a state institution, you always have state and campus-wide issues that you have to learn, only because they are different from state-to-state. I really did not have anything that was too challenging to handle, which really says a lot for the institution, from the chancellor on down. We are following the rules, and we are all looking to win the right way.
GoPack.com: Do you think that you are leaving the NC State compliance office in good shape and in good hands? (For now, Lee will serve as the interim associate athletics director until a permanent replacement is named.)
Fagg: It’s in terrific shape. Everyone at the school has done a great job of busting our tails to make sure everyone is doing things the right way, from Chancellor Oblinger to athletics director Lee Fowler to the athletics council to the boosters. Our boosters are incredible. They check all the time about compliance. We get calls every week about something to make sure they do things the right way and still be great fans. So I do believe the correct system is in place to leave the department in great hands.
GoPack.com: Any final thoughts?
Fagg: I just want to say thanks. This has been a fantastic place. I have been amazed at how great a city
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
