The search committee charged with helping find the successor for retiring AD Oval Jaynes met for the first time Friday. The group was reminded by JSU president Bill Meehan “what an important hire this is for … shaping the path of the university’s future,” underwent training and began the process of ranking the 17 qualified applicants to date.
“Now that we’ve got all that established,” committee chairman Don Killingsworth said, “we can go forward.”
Jaynes announced his retirement last month, effective April 30.
An interim AD is expected to be named to bridge the gap before the new man comes on board. Meehan said the outgoing athletics director has suggested one, but neither he nor Jaynes would identify that individual.
Search officials also declined to identify any of the current applicants, citing confidentiality — “many are currently employed,” Meehan said — although the Alabama Supreme Court held in a 1989 decision that under the Open Records Act, applications, resumes and other related materials used by a public institution could be accessed by the press.
The Star has submitted an Alabama Open Records request to the university for the information.
The only applicants confirmed by The Star are JSU soccer coach Julie Davis-Carlson and Jacksonville University associate AD for external affairs Joel Lamp, a JSU alumnus.
On March 29, The Star reported retired Coastal Carolina athletics director Warren Koegel has support for the job, but committee chairman Don Killingsworth maintained the search remains “open” and reminded the committee of that.
“Contrary to what you might have read, we have 17 applications at this point and we are looking at each of the 17 as they all have an equal shot,” he said. “It’s open and we will take new applications up until the day it closes. If someone applies on the 29th (of April) they will, in my book, get the same opportunity as the ones we have now.
“But we’re going ahead and starting this rolling because some of our committee members’ schedules are pretty tight and we want to make sure everyone has a chance to be there to be heard.”
The committee is expected to meet again next week with its individual rankings in hand.
The group actually grew in the three weeks the original cast was confirmed with the additions of over the last few weeks with the addition of associate vice president of student affairs Dr. Tim King, the university’s Title IX coordinator, and Atlanta attorney and former JSU tennis player Greg Harley, a past JSU Foundation president.
The rest of the committee includes softball coach Jana McGinnis, soccer player Chelsea Pelletier, sports information director Greg Seitz, J-Club past president Joe Haynie, Gamecock Club president Ed Kimbrough and NCAA faculty rep Maureen Newton.
Al Muskewitz covers Jacksonville State sports for The Star. He can be reached at 256-235-3577.
