When Brett Adams was hired as Villa Julie College?s first athletic director in 1994, the program was not recognized by the NCAA. The school had just one playing field, four tennis courts and two closets, which served as locker rooms. There was no gym.
Today, 12 years later, the program has grown from eight sports and 54 athletes to a budding 21-sport program that boasts nearly 300 athletes.
“I was the only full-time person, and we had eight part-time staff members,” said Adams, noting that those eight staff members were coaches.
Adams? staff now operates on a budget of more than $1 million. Many employees pulled double-duty then, and though Adams said they are moving away from multiple-role employees, many on staff continue to fill more than one position.
Adams, for example, is the men?s basketball coach as well as athletic director. He?s the only person in the school?s athletic history to fill both those positions.
Today, the athletic program has 11 full-time staff members, and the school recently bought the Ravens? old training facility in Owings Mills and has a campus there. “We?re renovating the Ravens? office building and building a whole new athletic complex there,” Adams said. There will be a wellness and athletic center, with some classrooms upstairs. The first floor will encompass offices, a fitness center, a team room and a training room.
Adams said the facility also will house both men?s and women?s soccer and lacrosse as well as field hockey.
“We?d like to build a stadium there with lights and a synthetic field. It would be a premier Division III place to play,” Adams said.
With those sights set, is a football program next?
“We at Villa Julie believe that if you?re going to do it, you?ve got to do it right,” Adams said. “It?s not something you jump into.”
The continuing growth of the school?s student body has played a large role in the athletics expansion.
When Adams joined in 1994, Villa Julie was strictly a commuter school with an enrollment of 980 full-time students. Today, with a dual campus (the athletics department is housed at the Stevenson Campus), Villa Julie officials anticipate roughly 2,800 full-time students in the fall.
The men?s and women?s lacrosse and field hockey programs will join the Capital Athletic Conference this coming year, with the rest of the athletic department leaving the North East Athletic Conference in 2007.
The school and athletic program have soared since Adams? first day on campus.
“Do I feel we have arrived? Absolutely not,” Adams said.
