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Eric EngmarvNews-MinerTAKING CHARGE—Randy Pitney is now in charge of the University of Alaska Fairbanks athletics and recreation department, replacing former athletic director Kelly Higgins. Pitney, who also serves as the rifle coach, took over as the interim athletic director on July 1.UAF’s Pitney takes job head onBy CHRIS TALBOTTStaff WriterThursday was like any other day for Randy Pitney, the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ interim athletic director.He got to the office at 7 a.m., attacked the multiple piles of paperwork on his desk, had several meetings, tromped around the school’s ski trails in rubber boots for an hour, had several more meetings and finally went home after a 12-hour day.“There have been a couple of days,” Pitney said, “when I’ve come in at 4:30 inthe morning.”The school’s rifle coach and alumnus made time in that busy schedule for a ques-tion-and-answer session with the News-Miner. He’s been in the position since Kelly Higgins left at the end of June for the same position at the University of South Dakota and he took the time to talk about the issues facing the program and to map out hisvision of the future for the Nanooks.FDNM: You’ve had a month to settle in. How has the transition into your new job gone?Pitney: It’s really busy. There’s a lot to get caught up on. But I think it’s been fairly smooth. Kelly tried to do a decent job as he was leaving, although I’m sure he was looking to where he was headed and everything involved there. He’s in the same position that I’m in right now. But he seemed to leave everything in pretty good order. I’m just trying to figure out some of these things and get us moving forward in a positive direction.FDNM: What’s the hardest part of the job?Pitney: Oh, I’m not sure there’s any hard part. I’m trying to catch up for the most part. When you’re new everybody’strying to get in and talk to you and that takes a lot of time. And you need to listen. One of my major tasks was to set out and gather all the information I could. So I really enjoyed talking to everybody, from the staff to the university community to the downtown community. I really tried to open myself up to everybody. But that takes a lot of time. Then there’s a lot of paperwork ... all these issues to deal with that take a lot of time. It’d be real nice if we had 40 hours each day. I’ve come in at 4:30 (a.m) a couple of times just to try to get the desk cleared off of the minor little things.FDNM: Are there any similarities between this and coaching?Pitney: Oh, yes, most definitely. Everything’s a team unit. It doesn’t matter if you’re the United States team, you know,See PITNEY, Page D-3
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Sun, Aug 02, 1998
Page 19
Full Page
Clipped by
Evan G.
USA 19 Jan 2022
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Fairbanks Daily News Miner
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