KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Kathy Beauregard has seen a lot in her 23 years as Western Michigan’s athletic director but she’s never experienced anything like what she’s dealing with now.
"There is nothing that really has prepared us for this," she admits. "I feel like we’ve had 25 puzzles in front of us and (we've been) trying to put 25 puzzles together at the exact same time."
That doesn’t sound easy, nor does it sound like a lot of fun. However, it’s the reality for Beauregard who is trying to navigate her department though an unprecedented worldwide crisis.
"You would make a decision and one minute later, you would get a phone call and that was totally off and you had to start all over," she describes.
Among the many issues facing Western Michigan as well as programs across the country, is what college athletics will look like when the games resume. Beauregard doesn’t know when it will happen but she does know things will be different.
"There’s no doubt about it," she explains. "There is no institution in our state or in our country hasn’t been impacted by this."
Considering the current economic situation, Beauregard says she and other athletic directors are discussing ways to slice their budgets. There have been no final decisions but a lot of options are on the table.
"Do we stay at hotels? do they tell us we can have 28 games, maybe we only have 21. There are just lots of different ways."
Some schools are talking about cutting some of their non-revenue sports but Beauregard says this hasn’t been discussed at Western Michigan and will never be.
"To be division one, you must sponsor 16 sports. We sponsor 16 sports, so that’s not an issue for us."
It’s one less problem for WMU but there are still many others and undoubtedly the most important is what happens if there isn’t a football season.
"There is just a lot riding on all of this."
We’ll discuss that Thursday in part two of our interview with Western Michigan Athletic Director Kathy Beauregard.
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