Interview of Renee Schultz

Renee Schultz, interview transcription, October 29th, 2021

Maddie Young: Hello, here I have Renee Schultz. She is the associate athletic director here at Belmont. Renee, I just wanted to have you tell me a little about your role as the Associate Athletic Director, and what that looks like here at Belmont.

Renee Schultz: Sure, so in my role I specifically oversee all of the student support programs for student athletes. I always say anything from meeting with prospects to managing and overseeing the academic support programs and any support services for student athletes. I have really great relationships with our student athletes. It is not just a transactional relationship where they are here for 4 years and then they move on, and we do not see them again. I want to build great relationships so after they graduate, they still want to come back and consider us family. Really anything from a student support function is what I manage and oversee on a daily basis. I would say along with that, because I am in this leadership role in the department, I have my hands in a lot of different pockets. While my title is student support, I am sitting in external relations meetings, and I talk with donors. I am in a lot of different spaces, which I love.

Young: Absolutely, and as a student athlete I can attest that Renee does a great job of balancing that relationship with Athletics and also Administration which is awesome. From my understanding, you have been at Belmont for about seventeen years, is that right?

Schultz: That is right, professionally. I was also a student athlete at Belmont, so that does not account for my years as playing. But yes, I have been here forever.

Young: I love that. What makes you stay at Belmont even after all this time?

Schultz: Probably the top reason, and it seems very cliché. You would hear that from a lot of people, that it is the people, and it one hundred percent is the people. I recall this story of walking out of my dorm my freshmen year. I did not grow up in the south, came to Belmont to play soccer. I remember walking out of my dorm and students saying, hi how are you and waving. I thought I have never seen you before, why are you waving at me? A little bit of that is the culture and what is engrained at Belmont. Who people are. That has not changed. I think it is a community that cares for its people. I am very much a people first person. That is probably the top reason. I would also say I feel very blessed to be at an institution that is not only growing from an enrollment standpoint but is located in a great city. It has an entrepreneurial spirit to it. There is never a dull moment on this campus, Maddie, you know this as a student athlete. Maybe last year with Covid there were some dull moments. There is not a dull moment. Everything is moving in a positive direction, and I feel as though people are all pulling the rope in the same direction. That is important, and I want to be a part of an environment that is positive and growing. Why I have stayed is because people have invested in me, and I have invested in this place.

Young: As a student, we can see not only the community of care between students, student athletes, and between all of this but we can also see that connection between administration, and professors, and faculty and staff, and that is something that a lot of places do not have, so I can completely understand. I have been here for three years now and thinking about leaving in a year makes me not excited, so I am envious of your position to be able to stay as long as possible.

Schultz: Well, I think it is a testament, and you make a good point. I want to be around people who pour into me, and I can pour into them. There is a spirit of collegiality and family here that I think is invaluable. You cannot put a price tag on a department or even just an office structure that has really good culture in place. That is something that we do not take for granted in this department. We have a strong culture. We know who we are. We love who we serve and who we work with. When we have graduate assistants or interns that come in and they see how we function, and then work somewhere else. They say, but I want to work at Belmont, or I want to work in a place like that. I just remind them that there is a little bit of a controllable there. You also bring value to the culture to the environment that you are working in. I try to not take that for granted

Young: That is something that even as a junior I am thankful for day in and day out. And you were a student athlete, did you coach at Belmont for a little, as well? And now in administration, how does your role as a leader differ being a student athlete, to coach to administrator? How does that look different for you?

Schultz: It certainly looks a little different based on roles and responsibility. Naturally, I have always been a leader. I was a captain my sophomore year on the soccer team. I naturally have a God given ability to lead. I like people. That is something that people saw in me, and I just naturally gravitated towards those roles. I am also a relational person. In any one of those roles, I was not afraid to make relationships with people. To make sure I was having conversations with not only my coach and professor. I wanted to know who the athletic director was. I did not wait for opportunities to present themselves to me. I often say to people I am very much a person who has never looked at what is in front of me. It is not that I am not goal oriented. It is not that I do not have aspirations to be an athletic director one day. For me, I just want to be where I am and do a really good job at what I am doing, knowing I am putting tools in my toolbelt every day. If and when the position opens up to be an athletic director, I am ready to step through that door. The same thing is true that when the opportunity presented itself to move from coaching to academic support in administration. I was willing and ready to step through that door and take on another challenge. The same is true when the Senior Woman Administrator position opened up. Often times as females, I do not have it all figured out at all. Every day, I am trying to figure things out. I doubt myself because that is what we do as females. I am confident, but I still doubt myself in whether or not I am doing the right thing. You have to have a level of confidence, not over confidence. I have to know I am not going to check every single box that they are looking for in any position or role. However, I have put tools in my tool belt to be ready to tackle those issues when they arise. Some of it is timing. Some of it is just the right place and the right time for me professionally in terms of those roles, but also being willing to take on new challenges. And not just be stuck in this my lane, this is what I do, and this is the only thing I do. A strength and a weakness if you are able to ask some of my colleagues or even myself is I am great at staying in my lane. I, often times, ask questions. I am inquisitive, or challenge in a positive way. IS there a way we can do this different, more effectively, or more efficiently; That has proved for me to be a strength for me professionally, because it has opened some of those doors and opportunities at least within our department, from a leadership standpoint.

Young: Of course. I really like the point you made about not necessarily looking at what is right in front of you. That is a mindset that I think is important in any type of leadership. It is not looking at what is next or what is about to come but stepping back and looking at what is around you. And not what is right in front of you, but also what is right next to you. I really like that point.

Schultz: I think it is so important. The future is uncertain. I have no clue what is going to happen tomorrow. I can control where I am right and what I am doing. But I have no clue what is going to happen tomorrow. My least favorite question, so if you are going to ask this I apologize, but where are you going to be in five years from now. I do not know. I have been at Belmont for long time, so I typically say right here. I do not want to sit here and tell you that I know where I am going to be in five years. I am just going to do a really good job today, and we will see what tomorrow brings. I find with students all the time, or soon to be graduates, they start thinking about what if I do not get a job? or where am I going to live? am I going to do graduate school? Life is a journey. There is a journey in this life, and I could not have told you ten or fifteen years ago that I was going to be a senior woman administrator at a division one school.

Young: It is crazy how things like that work out. WE kind of touched on this a little bit, but I am going to go back to you specifically as a leader. You talked about having more of a relational aspect as a leader as opposed to being an overbearing leader. What does that look like on the senior woman administrator level? With the students it makes a little bit more sense, but as far as upper administration in Belmont Athletics, what does that look like for you?

Schultz: I am a relational person. I am going to tell my coaches and administrators all the time sure, Belmont's hours are eight to four thirty. My job extends far beyond four thirty pm every day. Part of that is by choice, because I am going to choose to put people first. If that means someone is walking into my office because they need to talk through a situation, whether that is a coach or administrator I am going to sit down and be present. I am going to listen to them. I also like to say I am a solution-oriented person. Do not just come with some problems without having thought through some form of solution. I like to help people kind of think through things, what makes sense. Well, maybe we just need to stop doing that and think about what makes sense. If that means I am pounding out emails at ten thirty at night because I did not get to them during the day, then I am going to do that. If I do not put my people first whether that is student athletes, administrators, coaches, or even these committees that I am a part of on this campus. I feel like I need to help them figure out ways to lead. If I can impart some, not expertise but maybe some knowledge or ideas, it starts to empower those people to make some of those decisions and to lead. I am a servant leader. I am not going to ask someone to do something I would not do myself.

Young: That says a lot in such a powerful role between students and between athletics and senior administration, as well. The ability to recognize you would not ask someone to do something you would not do is incredibly powerful as a leader. I am going to shift gears a little again. I would love talk a about being a woman in sports administration, because I think that is one of the coolest things. Women's sports have had a hard time throughout the history of athletics. Where we are now is a cool place to look back and appreciate but also take steps forward. As a woman in sports administration, which, from the looks of it, is predominantly male, how has this changed your approach to leadership?

Schultz: That is a good question. It is certainly an interesting time to be a part of college athletics and to be a female. What we saw at the NCAA tournament last year was the disparities between the men's basketball tournament and the women's basketball tournament. I am not going to defend either side, but when both tournaments were in very similar in formats, both in bubbles. It was much easier to see the disparities versus the way it was prior to covid. It sort of brought some light to those disparities. I think it is an interesting time. With that, you have to be reflective. We certainly have come a ling way since the fifty years since title IX was enacted. You will find females involved in sports that were pushing for sports back in 1972 or even before that. They would argue the title ix legislation is the single most significant law that was ever passed. Now, fifty years is really not that long ago. I am a beneficiary of title ix. What our student athletes had now versus what they have. I mean, I was buying all my own stuff. Before that, I did not have to pave the way. I was given an opportunity to participate and play. Leading in that space is very interesting as a female. I think it is important for me as leader in this department to not take things for granted, to not be entitled to be grateful and thankful for what we have. But also to not sit back and think, well, one day, they will provide us the same opportunities as they provide the men, or the male teams. I would say specifically in this space as a leader and a female in athletics. One thing I try to advocate for often, and I work very closely with our athletic director and our administration, is making sure our women's teams have the same opportunity as our men's teams. Staffing looks the same. Budget looks close. Somethings are always going to be a little out whack, but our budget for our men's teams do not need to be that far out whack from our women's teams. I am thankful that the leaders I have worked for in this department, our athletic directors, have been advocates and supporters of our female teams. The athletic director that hired me, Mike Strickland, had two daughters. He valued females. We in our department have more women in leadership positions than we have males, or we are at least equal. That is important because the female voice and what we bring to the table, whether it be a level of care or empathy, maybe more so looking at things through a different lens than males is incredibly valuable.

Young: Especially with title IX, and 50 years, is not very long at all. I have had a couple of conversations with Lauri Chaudoin, who is the Belmont title IX representative, and hearing how it started. How it has changed throughout the years, and now seeing, even 50 years later, those small discrepancies. It can be kind of hard to recognize that is still going on, but at the same time, I have done lots of research on Belmont Athletics before coming to Belmont and now being involved in the programs and seeing how well Belmont integrates those gender disparities and making sure that everyone feels heard. It is incredible they are able to that in such a strong way. As far as sports in general, how has being a woman in leadership for athletics changed your outlook on sports overall?

Schultz: I have been involved in sports my entire life. It has been engrained in me. My dad was high school coach. I started playing sports at a very young age. I am the oldest of five kids. There is naturally a lot of competition in my family. All of us were playing sports at a young age, different sports, and whatever we wanted to do. I am not sure that my outlook has changed because it has always been something I am passionate about. To be honest, I came into college thinking I was going to be a teacher and a coach because it was all I knew. You only know what you know when you come to college. Thankfully, there were opportunities that opened up and presented themselves for me to be able to work in sports. Outside of coaching, I did not know there were opportunities to work in sports. I cannot say that I ever really saw females, besides senior woman administrator. There were not many females working in sports. You cannot be what you cannot see. I did not see a lot of females in sports and sports administration, back in the early two thousands. There has been a significant change with that because more females can see that there are opportunities for females. The Senior Woman Administrator designation is a designation that the NCAA put in place years ago. That was to say you need a female in a leadership position. It has to be a top-ranking female. The ironic thing is, if we had a female athletic director, you would still have to designate a senior woman administrator When technically, your athletic director would be your senior ranking female. That is a little bit funky to me in some ways, but I still think it is the right position. I think you still need to have an SWA position because the lens they are going to look through may be different than even an female athletic director because it is less business. A female athletic director is going to be more business oriented. You can not be what you cannot see. I did not see a lot of it when I was coming into the ranks, but you are seeing a lot more of it now. It is exciting. I do not know that I want to be an athletic director, but I would not have told you I wanted to be an SWA because I did not know that existed. Now, I know I can do it. It is a matter of if I will be ready and the timing is right for me personally.

Young: Correct me if I am wrong, but Betty Wiseman was the Senior Woman Administrator before you?

Schultz: There was one person in between. When Betty retired, Lauren Eads came in for a short period of time oversaw marketing and was Senior Woman Administrator. Then she took a job elsewhere, and that is when I stepped into the role. So, yes.

Young: Seeing how Betty Wiseman and Lauren Eads lead in this role, how did that impact your approach? Did you see anything you thought should be changed, or anything you saw that you thought would be a good addition to your leadership repertoire?

Schultz: When I stepped into the role of the SWA, I remember saying to myself, and probably my husband, I can only lead how I know how to lead. You know you learn and pick up other things from people just by watching and seeing how they lead. What I can tell you about betty wiseman, she is someone who is always present. If you walked into her office as an administrator, as a coach, as a student athlete, she would stop what she is doing. She gave you the time you needed. That is something that I appreciated about her. It is something that I probably have always done, but I have now made that really intentional. I am going to give people time. Lauren was managing the marketing and juggling a lot of different responsibilities. She as leading students with student athlete advisory. I was watching her and how she was figuring out that role and how to lead. For her, she was new. She came in from the outside. It was awesome because that perspective was a fresh perspective. It had experiences from other institutions. Ultimately, I decided I can only lead how I am going to lead. To be honest, when the SWA position opened up from Lauren, she was in a marketing role. That designation was attached to that marketing role. I remember having a conversation with Dr. Fisher. Scott Corley was just coming in. I said, I think I am the best candidate for this position. He said, can you do the marketing? I said, I could. I have not done marketing before, but I think I could figure it out. I do not think that is where I am needed. I do not think that is where my strengths are going to be. Ultimately, we want to highlight our strengths and not expose all our weaknesses. The value that I provide, in my opinion, to this university, is one that is connected to the student athletes, coaches, and a liaison with different departments. Thankfully, he knew me well enough that he agreed.

Young: It is cool to see how that role has developed and how you stepping into that role has made a difference in how it is viewed in general. It does not have to be tied to one specific thing but accentuating your strengths and not focusing on your weaknesses which is important.

Schultz: Still today, I am learning every single day. I watch different people. I pick up on things. How would I react in this situation? Ultimately, I cannot be anyone other than myself. I have to bring my authentic self to the table every day and just do what I think is best. I have to know how to lead in a situation whether that is with an individual, or a team, or a group. As a female, you second guess yourself often. Could I have done this better? Or should I have led in this way? Or should I be more like so and so. I just have to remind myself, no. I am who I am and that is okay.

Young: That confidence as a leader, especially confidence in general, comes and goes in hills and valleys. Coming back to that center of confidence is super important as a leader in any capacity. I really appreciate that as well. For this question, I am not going to ask you to name names or anything crazy, but you do serve with a lot of the top leaders on this campus, and you are a top leader of athletics on this campus. Do you see any characteristics brought forth in yourself, or in other leaders that are particularly harmful, or particularly helpful?

Schultz: Say the question again.

Young: Do you see any leadership qualities brought forth in other leaders, or yourself, that are particularly harmful or helpful?

Schultz: I think that it is incredibly important to be transparent as a leader. Certainly, there is a level of trust. You have got to keep some things close to the vest sometimes. I will use an example of the transition to the Missouri Valley Conference. I was one of three or four people in our department that was aware of that, and the only person I told was my husband. It was the only person I had a conversation with. Part of that is a trust component with that. Building some trust and having a level of transparency is important, but knowing that you can trust your leaders, and your leaders can trust you. I would say a harmful is keeping things a little too close the vest sometimes. Making sure that all the people in the room that need to know the information know the information. I think that is very important. Communication is key in any environment that you are in. There is a right time and a right place to do that, but making sure you have the necessary people around the table to help in making decisions. All decisions do not run through one person. I know that I need to have the support of some people around me with some of these decisions. Ultimately, there are some decisions that I need to make. Big decisions at a university level or department level, do not just need to be Renee Schultz making these decisions. I would say across this campus, that is incredibly important. We make sure the right hand is talking with the left hand. We have discussed all potential consequences, good and bad, that may come out of a decision.

Young: That communication in pretty much every aspect of life is essential, especially in leadership. My last question for you, I am not going to ask where you see yourself in five years, how would you like to be remembered as a leader even after leaving Belmont?

Schultz: I would say I want to be remembered as someone who brought joy to the work environment. Someone that held people accountable. I think accountability is incredibly important. We all want to be held accountable to some degree. I want to hold my student athletes accountable. I think that helps teach a lot of life lessons. Somebody who served and loved other people. Ultimately, I feel like that is what I am here to do. I feel like my purpose on this campus is not only to lead, but to love people where they are. To help them grow into the best versions of themselves. It is this whole idea of bloom where you are planted. I want to water those seeds to help people to blossom. I have felt that since I have been here, and I still feel that. I want to continue to do that in others.

Young: Absolutely, that is an incredible mindset to have. As a student athlete, and even just a student in general, it is appreciated on this end of the spectrum. That is all of my questions for you. Thank you so much for meeting with me and answering all of the fun, tough, leadership questions.