In a recent interview, President Kaplan explained the abrupt leaving of former Athletic Director Duane Bailey. Bailey was hired as Athletic Director in May 2017 and was here until January 2018 when the University announced the hiring of new Athletic Director Chris Palmer. At the time the University declined to comment on why Bailey decided to leave so suddenly, but now that everything is cleared up and there is a clear direction for the Athletics Department we now have the story. When President Kaplan interviewed Bailey for the job, he had just bought a house in Long Island. This threw up some red flags for Kaplan, but Bailey promised that he would commute every day and that it would not be a problem for him.

“I think it didn’t take long for him to realize that being away from his family five days a week and commuting every weekend was not what he wanted to do” said Kaplan. “He was a finalist for another position on Long Island and I think that was a big factor in his realizing that he would rather be on Long Island.”

In the short six month span that Bailey was here he gave three year contract extensions to both basketball coach Ted Hotaling and baseball coach Chris Celano. He also promoted Dan Ruede to Associate Director of Athletics for Strategic Communications and hired Megan Cullinane and Rachel Vogel as Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance and Student Welfare and Associate Director of Athletics for Strategic Communications, respectively. Bailey also helped announce the creation of the new Chargers Sports Network streaming service that debuted in the fall. He also announced the expansion of the Chargers Sports Network with partnership deals with WICC 660 AM and iHeart Media which provided partnerships with four radio stations, ESPN Radio 1300, 960 WELI, 100.9 The Beat, and KC 101.

The University has now moved on from Duane Bailey and has now put their full focus in supporting the goals and plans of new AD Chris Palmer.

“[Palmer] is a former NFL coach which means he is highly competitive, like everyone in athletics should be” said Kaplan. “He wants to make sure that as good as some of our athletic programs are that they are even better, so I think there is going to be an increase to drive for excellence from everyone from the coaching staffs, to the students, and to the athletic facilities we have. He has a lot of connections with our alumni and he will look to grow the program from there”.