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If you were wondering what it might be like to be thrust into the position of Athletic Director at a major university, let's Pete Sala, Syracuse Orange interim AD, explain what his first week on the new job has been like:
"It's been a week of no sleep," he said. "I can tell you that."
Not only is the 33-year employee running point on the athletic department, but he's also still doing his normal job as Senior Associate Athletics Director for Facilities. That meant balancing the management of the fragile athletics department with making sure the Bill Joel concert when off without a hitch and preparing for the upcoming NCAA Tournament East Regional games.
Oh and Sala is also on the committee in charge of finding the new AD, a role he doesn't appear to be interested in full-time.
"It's not even something I'm thinking about right now. I love what I do," he said. "I don't know. I don't know how to answer that question. I haven't really thought about it."
Sala also shared some insight into what's going on behind the scenes in a department experiencing an upheaval that it hasn't seen in a decade.
"We've made some changes, staffing-wise. It was important to meet with the administrators to say, 'Hey, what can I do for you to make your job easier? Is there a hot-button item we need to get on right now?' To be honest, 90 percent of what I'm doing is communication," Sala said. "That's been a huge issue in the department, just getting in front of each other and talking to each other and helping each other out.
"I've changed the responsibilities of some people, moved a few things around to try to improve operational excellence. There have been some efficiency issues that I've always thought, 'Hey, why are we doing it that way?' And when you sit down with people who are around it every day, it was pretty easy to make a couple changes pretty quickly."
Sala's a hands-on kind of guy who knows how to get things done. Nice to have someone like that running the show, at least for a while.