SF Unscripted - Chanda Stebbins

Hear from Chanda Stebbins, Santa Fe College athletic director since 2023. 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Transcript

00:00:06 Mark Barley

Welcome to Santa Fe Unscripted, the podcast that brings you the behind-the-scenes

stories of Santa Fe College.

00:00:12 Mark Barley

I'm your host, Mark Barley.

00:00:13 Mark Barley

Let's dive in.

00:00:14 Mark Barley

All right, welcome into Santa Fe Unscripted.

00:00:17 Mark Barley

I'm your host, Mark Barley, and I'm here with Santa Fe College Athletics Director Chanda

Stebbins.

00:00:22 Mark Barley

Chanda, welcome in.

00:00:23 Chanda Stebbins

Thanks.

00:00:24 Chanda Stebbins

Nice to see you, Mark.

00:00:25 Mark Barley

It is nice to see you.

00:00:27 Mark Barley

So we, you know, we really want to dial in to, as we get closer to the start of a new

academic year,

00:00:35 Mark Barley

Just recapping how you feel the 25-26 athletic year went.00:00:42 Mark Barley

There was a lot of success in that year.

00:00:45 Mark Barley

But touch on how this past year went in your opinion?

00:00:48 Chanda Stebbins

Sure.

00:00:48 Chanda Stebbins

So we have like 3 pillars in our program, the academic side, the athletic side, and then the

community engagement side.

00:00:55 Chanda Stebbins

And academically, we were off the charts this year.

00:00:58 Chanda Stebbins

We were over a 3-0 as a department both in the fall and the spring.

00:01:02 Chanda Stebbins

We had 43 out of 44 kids graduate with the 44th probably going to be graduating in summer

B.

00:01:08 Chanda Stebbins

So we're very excited academically about how our students have invested in the

opportunities that Santa Fe has to offer.

00:01:15 Chanda Stebbins

Athletically, obviously the headline is softball going to the College World Series, finishing

very well, finishing 6th out of a field of 20.

00:01:24 Chanda Stebbins

So we're really, really proud of them.

00:01:26 Chanda Stebbins

as much as they're getting national recognition for that I think athletically probably what

goes understated is the amount of work that all the sports put into their craft and

fortunately softball reaps some rewards of that as far as awards are concerned and thenfinally I think to recap the 25-26 we were so involved in the community this year we had

some really new initiatives that were fun this year

00:01:50 Chanda Stebbins

Bulware Springs Charter School brought their entire school to one of our games that

happened to be like an afternoon game.

00:01:57 Chanda Stebbins

We partnered with Littlewood Elementary School and did a read-a-thon with them.

00:02:01 Chanda Stebbins

So we really increased, I feel like, our presence in the K through 6 system, which was really

cool.

00:02:09 Chanda Stebbins

And I think that enlarged our community impact.

00:02:12 Chanda Stebbins

So those are our three pillars in athletics and I feel like we're, no pun intended, maybe

batten a little bit above 500 now.

00:02:19 Chanda Stebbins

So we're moving in the right direction.

00:02:21 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:02:22 Mark Barley

How important is that for an athletic department, especially a community college athletic

department, to get out into the community like what you just described

00:02:34 Mark Barley

And how does that play into how you evaluate a department success?

00:02:40 Chanda Stebbins

So department success, again, is any department, just happens to be athletics, is built on

what your strategic initiatives are.

00:02:49 Chanda StebbinsAnd so ours are academic success, athletic success, and community engagement.

00:02:53 Chanda Stebbins

So it definitely is part of that three-legged stool.

00:02:58 Chanda Stebbins

From a community standpoint, I think being engaged with the community is priceless

because what you're doing is you're helping, 3rd, 4th, 5th graders, maybe even

kindergarteners picture themselves as going to college.

00:03:12 Chanda Stebbins

And unfortunately and fortunately, our K through 12 system, they really do value

entertainment and sports.

00:03:20 Chanda Stebbins

And so when they see those two things kind of come into their school, they say, I could

maybe be at Santa Fe.

00:03:29 Chanda Stebbins

I could come to Santa Fe College.

00:03:30 Chanda Stebbins

And I just heard this 6 foot 7 post player on the men's basketball team talk about how

excited he is to be a graphic designer or how excited he is to go to medical school or how

excited he is to go to law school.

00:03:43 Chanda Stebbins

And

00:03:44 Chanda Stebbins

in our younger people in elementary schools, that helps them start picturing what they

might want to become and how Santa Fe may be able to serve them down the road in their

future and what maybe how they can change their family.

00:03:57 Mark Barley

Yeah, that's an interesting point is because, and I don't know the statistics or percentages

behind this, but I would assume it's a small percentage of this level of athlete going to, you

know, these00:04:13 Mark Barley

professionally right and making it and so it is super important in my opinion that a student

athlete like what we have here at Santa Fe gets out into and makes that impact for a

student that may that may have aspirations of maybe playing college sports

00:04:35 Mark Barley

but also recognizing that, hey, this is here in my own backyard too, right?

00:04:40 Chanda Stebbins

Well, I think most of us, whether we've been in an industry for 30 years or we just started a

new career or we're a third grader, we all want to do something that somebody will pay us

for that we love.

00:04:53 Chanda Stebbins

Right?

00:04:54 Chanda Stebbins

And so connecting the dots for them and just letting them know, hey, there are things out

there that we are in love with.

00:05:02 Chanda Stebbins

We are in love with sonography.

00:05:04 Chanda Stebbins

We're in love with building construction.

00:05:06 Chanda Stebbins

we're in love with history or art and that exists at the college level.

00:05:12 Chanda Stebbins

And so helping them see that they can connect how they would make money to actually be

able to survive and eat and most of them pay their cell phone bill, right?

00:05:21 Chanda Stebbins

Like that's something that's really translational to them.

00:05:25 Chanda StebbinsAnd here are these athletes standing in front of them that they already naturally admire

because

00:05:30 Chanda Stebbins

They really like role models and they're saying, hey, I love this class or I love this major.

00:05:37 Chanda Stebbins

I think it's contagious and really we're fortunate at CNFA because the number of programs

we offer, we can really drop like a very broad net that maybe like when I played for Florida, I

didn't have that option when I'm speaking in elementary schools or middle schools

because the University of Florida, I love it, I had a great education.

00:06:00 Chanda Stebbins

But we offer so many more programs here for all levels of students and all different kinds of

majors and certificate programs and degree programs.

00:06:11 Chanda Stebbins

So I feel like we have a really good chance of hitting each person in that classroom or in

that auditorium when our students are out speaking.

00:06:20 Chanda Stebbins

And again, it's about repetition

00:06:23 Chanda Stebbins

So even though we had a great experience with Boulware and we did a great job at

Littlewood and we've been at other schools, we've hidden Oak and Fort Clark.

00:06:31 Chanda Stebbins

Now next year when we go, they'll hear us again.

00:06:34 Chanda Stebbins

And then maybe it'll be a different student at that time and maybe that student has a

different major.

00:06:39 Chanda Stebbins

And so it's, you know, I needed that when I was growing up.

00:06:43 Chanda StebbinsI didn't know what I wanted to do.

00:06:45 Chanda Stebbins

Yeah.

00:06:45 Mark Barley

And it's interesting you say that it's because you just described a ripple effect, right?

00:06:50 Chanda Stebbins

Yeah.

00:06:51 Mark Barley

And we talked, we had James Albury, if you've been listening to the podcast for any length

of time, we have had James Albury, planetarium manager here for the podcast, and he

talked about the ripple effect of getting in community engagement, right?

00:07:08 Mark Barley

It's because he's somebody that is front-facing in what he does.

00:07:13 Mark Barley

And so that ripple effect to getting the interest, right?

00:07:20 Mark Barley

not in just athletics, but to Santa Fe, I mean, they're ambassadors.

00:07:24 Mark Barley

These athletes are ambassadors.

00:07:26 Mark Barley

Talk a little bit about inside the building, how do you promote that?

00:07:32 Chanda Stebbins

Inside athletics.

00:07:33 Mark Barley

Inside athletics, how do you promote that to the student athletes as ambassadors for the

college?

00:07:38 Chanda StebbinsRight.

00:07:38 Chanda Stebbins

So the best way you promote anything is you be a consumer yourself.

00:07:42 Chanda Stebbins

And so the best thing we do is help our student athletes be engaged with our campus, with

our faculty, with our learning commons, with our coaches, with our fitness center.

00:07:52 Chanda Stebbins

Once you buy a product, you want to tell everybody about it.

00:07:55 Chanda Stebbins

So the first and most important thing we do is allow and encourage our student athletes to

be engaged with what we have here.

00:08:02 Chanda Stebbins

We convince them day in and day out that they're more than just student athletes.

00:08:07 Chanda Stebbins

that they're people and that we want their whole experience, whether that is in the

counseling and wellness center, whether that's in the cafeteria, whether that's on the

court, whether that's on the bus to a game.

00:08:17 Chanda Stebbins

We want their whole experience to be really solid and that helps them become the people

that they will be leading.

00:08:24 Chanda Stebbins

I mean, they will be leading the country someday.

00:08:26 Chanda Stebbins

And so the first step is help them experience what we know about the college.

00:08:31 Chanda Stebbins

The second step is encourage them when we had take stock in children here from Monroe

County

00:08:36 Chanda StebbinsWednesday, put our student athletes in front of other students and allow them to share

their experiences.

00:08:42 Chanda Stebbins

And the obvious there is as a student athlete, I'm sharing with a high school student.

00:08:48 Chanda Stebbins

But the less obvious is as a student athlete, my other student athletes on the panel hear

what my experience is at the college.

00:08:55 Chanda Stebbins

And they're like, wow, I need to learn more about that experience.

00:09:00 Chanda Stebbins

And then the third thing is when you go back to your communities and you're in your

homes, like you're wearing our stuff.

00:09:06 Chanda Stebbins

And so what are you telling people in Orlando or in Beaufort, Georgia or in Indianapolis?

00:09:14 Chanda Stebbins

What are you telling people about your experience here at Santa Fe?

00:09:17 Chanda Stebbins

Our coaches routinely get emails from people out of the state who said, hey, my cousin's

nephew's sister had a great experience at Santa Fe.

00:09:27 Chanda Stebbins

And we are generally the most accessible because of our visibility, whether it's our Twitter

accounts, Instagram accounts, our website,

00:09:35 Chanda Stebbins

So people naturally feel an inclination to reach out to the sport specific.

00:09:39 Chanda Stebbins

Their child may not be able to play college sports, but they're still going to reach out to a

coach and say, tell me about Santa Fe College.

00:09:47 Chanda StebbinsAnd so I think it's a three-pronged approach.

00:09:50 Chanda Stebbins

Like, are they experiencing it here at the college?

00:09:53 Chanda Stebbins

Are they sharing it when they're out in the community and engaging in community

opportunities?

00:09:58 Chanda Stebbins

And then are they in their community, which is their hometowns?

00:10:01 Chanda Stebbins

Are they sharing how awesome their experience here at Santa Fe is?

00:10:05 Mark Barley

That's great advice just in general, right?

00:10:10 Mark Barley

And the fact that we're getting it, our student athletes are getting that right from the jump.

00:10:13 Mark Barley

So I want to go back in time, right?

00:10:16 Mark Barley

Talk a little.

00:10:17 Chanda Stebbins

How far?

00:10:17 Mark Barley

We're going to start pretty early.

00:10:19 Mark Barley

All right, I'd like for you to start pretty early.

00:10:22 Mark BarleyTell us about your journey to Gainesville, where you grew up, how you got here, and spare

no details.

00:10:31 Chanda Stebbins

Oh, well, it's a funny story.

00:10:33 Chanda Stebbins

People that know the story laugh about it.

00:10:36 Chanda Stebbins

But I played three sports in high school, basketball, volleyball, and tennis was some form

of all-state in all three.

00:10:44 Chanda Stebbins

had a great experience.

00:10:46 Chanda Stebbins

Those listeners that are from Florida know right away, tennis in Indiana is not the same as it

is in Florida.

00:10:51 Chanda Stebbins

So I'm not claiming to be an amazing tennis player.

00:10:55 Chanda Stebbins

But my dad played college basketball.

00:10:57 Chanda Stebbins

And so like most teenagers, I did not want to do what my dad did.

00:11:01 Chanda Stebbins

So in my sophomore year, this is back when it was mass mailings, you know, one phone

call a week to everybody that was recruiting you.

00:11:10 Chanda Stebbins

They called you and you had to pick up the landline and talk to them.

00:11:15 Chanda Stebbins

I was tired of it by my sophomore year.00:11:17 Chanda Stebbins

I was over it.

00:11:17 Chanda Stebbins

And I just said, I'm not playing basketball in college.

00:11:20 Chanda Stebbins

I will play volleyball, but I'm not going to play basketball.

00:11:22 Chanda Stebbins

So the Big Ten kept recruiting me for basketball and volleyball.

00:11:28 Chanda Stebbins

Mary Wise was the associate head coach at the University of Kentucky at the time under a

really phenomenal administrative leader, Kathy DeBoer, who was also the senior women's

administrator there.

00:11:39 Chanda Stebbins

And Florida

00:11:41 Chanda Stebbins

hired Mary Wise from Kentucky and Kentucky had been recruiting me pretty hard and I

came down for a visit at Florida and I'll never forget this because I wasn't a football football

wasn't on my radar in Indiana We go to an SEC game.

00:11:57 Chanda Stebbins

It's Kentucky and Florida and it was it stuck out to me because that's where that's was one

of my choices

00:12:03 Chanda Stebbins

and I got sunburned.

00:12:05 Chanda Stebbins

They threw out, I thought it was sand.

00:12:07 Chanda Stebbins

I was like, what are they throwing sand out?00:12:09 Chanda Stebbins

This is like the beach.

00:12:10 Chanda Stebbins

I mean, now I know the beach is an hour and a half away, but they were throwing out sugar

because Florida was going to the Sugar Bowl for the first time in who knows how long.

00:12:20 Chanda Stebbins

Finished my visit, go back to Indiana.

00:12:22 Chanda Stebbins

The next weekend I went to the University of Iowa and I still, I really apologetically don't

remember who the volleyball coach was at Iowa at the time, but they introduced me to the

basketball coach

00:12:33 Chanda Stebbins

And even at that time, she was a legend.

00:12:36 Chanda Stebbins

Do you know who that would be?

00:12:38 Mark Barley

Basketball coach in Iowa.

00:12:40 Mark Barley

Women's basketball coach.

00:12:40 Chanda Stebbins

Women's basketball coach.

00:12:42 Mark Barley

No idea.

00:12:42 Chanda Stebbins

It was Vivian Stringer who was a legend even then.

00:12:46 Chanda Stebbins

And then obviously she went on to Rutgers to become even more of a Hall of Famer.00:12:51 Chanda Stebbins

She talked to me for an hour and she probably doesn't even remember who I am.

00:12:55 Chanda Stebbins

But it was so impactful to me.

00:12:58 Chanda Stebbins

My eventual degree ended up in special ed.

00:13:01 Chanda Stebbins

and she had a special needs daughter and her commitment to her daughter and the family

atmosphere that they were creating at Iowa, I would have played basketball for her right

then, even though I had committed two years before not to play basketball in college.

00:13:17 Chanda Stebbins

Long story short, we come out of Hawkeye Arena, which is kind of down in the ground and

there is snow everywhere.

00:13:23 Chanda Stebbins

And the weekend before I was sunburned in Florida and I was like, I'm canceling all the rest

of my visits and I'm going to Florida.

00:13:29 Chanda Stebbins

And so

00:13:31 Chanda Stebbins

I didn't understand that UCLA was hot and sunny.

00:13:35 Chanda Stebbins

I knew Penn State was cold or I thought Penn State was cold.

00:13:38 Chanda Stebbins

I didn't know much about Texas, but I ended up coming to Florida.

00:13:43 Chanda Stebbins

My freshman year I played just volleyball.

00:13:45 Chanda StebbinsI was friends with some guys that I was really tight with and we were playing a lot of pickup

basketball.

00:13:52 Chanda Stebbins

My sophomore year I finally ended up playing both basketball and volleyball.

00:13:56 Chanda Stebbins

Did that my junior year, my senior year, and then my fifth year I just played basketball.

00:14:00 Chanda Stebbins

It's funny in 21 years of coaching and recruiting I used to tell recruits I know you're gonna

make a decision to come to my school or some other school and if you're anything like me

it won't be based on anything it should be based on.

00:14:16 Chanda Stebbins

So I always tell even my students that graduate and are trying to decide what four-year

school to go to the best advice I can give you because you probably won't make the perfect

decision but here's the best advice I can be where your feet are.

00:14:29 Chanda Stebbins

So wherever you go, there you will be.

00:14:31 Chanda Stebbins

And you will be a major deciding factor in whether you're successful at whatever school

you end up at, which is really counterintuitive in today's transfer portal and all this kind of

stuff.

00:14:41 Chanda Stebbins

Like it's all about what are you gonna do for me to make my experience great?

00:14:46 Chanda Stebbins

And I mean, I came to Gainesville and I love it.

00:14:51 Chanda Stebbins

I have a great church family.

00:14:52 Chanda Stebbins

I got great friends here.00:14:54 Chanda Stebbins

And I can't believe I've stayed for 30 some years.

00:14:56 Chanda Stebbins

I never pictured doing that when I came.

00:14:59 Chanda Stebbins

But it's just the Lord had a better plan for me than I could have for myself.

00:15:03 Chanda Stebbins

And I'm so thankful that he knew better than I did because I feel like we don't always get

that lucky.

00:15:12 Chanda Stebbins

And wow, what a great place to be, to grow up.

00:15:15 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:15:16 Mark Barley

So when you finish playing collegiately,

00:15:22 Mark Barley

Can you take us through the journey that led you to Santa Fe?

00:15:25 Chanda Stebbins

Oh, that's a good story.

00:15:27 Chanda Stebbins

Very interesting.

00:15:28 Chanda Stebbins

So I finished my fifth year at Florida.

00:15:31 Chanda Stebbins

I was about six classes short of a master's.

00:15:33 Chanda StebbinsAnd I didn't know, I mean, I was out of state.

00:15:36 Chanda Stebbins

I didn't know how was I going to pay for a master's degree.

00:15:39 Chanda Stebbins

And PK Young, Chris Morris at the time, was the principal at PK.

00:15:43 Chanda Stebbins

She said, hey, don't you want to come here and coach?

00:15:46 Chanda Stebbins

And now the backstory of that is I was an eye doctor.

00:15:49 Chanda Stebbins

I was going to be a chemistry major because I wanted to be an eye doctor.

00:15:53 Chanda Stebbins

My family, my entire family is educators.

00:15:55 Chanda Stebbins

My grandpa was a principal.

00:15:56 Chanda Stebbins

My dad was a principal.

00:15:58 Chanda Stebbins

Like my mom got her teaching certificate.

00:16:01 Chanda Stebbins

So my whole family is educators.

00:16:03 Chanda Stebbins

I knew I did not want to teach.

00:16:06 Chanda Stebbins

And about halfway through my journey, I know, right?

00:16:10 Chanda StebbinsHalfway through my journey at Florida, I was an honor society student in high school, but

chemistry was so hard at Florida.

00:16:19 Chanda Stebbins

And so I transitioned to special ed, and I got my undergrad in special education with

specialists in mental retardation, learning disabilities, and emotional handicaps, and really

loved that work.

00:16:32 Chanda Stebbins

I volunteered a lot at Sidney Lanier, which is a local school.

00:16:35 Chanda Stebbins

I loved that time with students.

00:16:38 Chanda Stebbins

And so when PK offered me the job, they didn't have special ed at the time.

00:16:42 Chanda Stebbins

They didn't have learning disabilities.

00:16:46 Chanda Stebbins

So it was like, hey, we're trying to develop this out.

00:16:48 Chanda Stebbins

We're trying to figure out how to provide services to students that come to our school.

00:16:55 Chanda Stebbins

So I did that for a couple years.

00:16:56 Chanda Stebbins

My agent was trying to place me overseas.

00:16:59 Chanda Stebbins

I was playing a little bit of pro beach volleyball, not making any money.

00:17:02 Chanda Stebbins

We'll say it's because there wasn't money in it, but the truth is that probably wasn't good

enough.00:17:07 Chanda Stebbins

I was playing in the Pro-Am in Atlanta a little bit.

00:17:10 Chanda Stebbins

My agent had me playing some pro swings where you would go and play three or four days

and sort of try to get exposure.

00:17:19 Chanda Stebbins

This is about the time when the WNBA was starting.

00:17:22 Chanda Stebbins

There was also something called the ABL.

00:17:25 Chanda Stebbins

And so between the ABL and the WNBA, they had a lockout right before one of my workouts

actually with Carolyn Peck, who was the head coach of the Orlando Miracle at the time.

00:17:36 Chanda Stebbins

And so anyways, so I said, okay, I'll bite the bullet.

00:17:40 Chanda Stebbins

I'll go teach it at elementary school so I can train twice a day.

00:17:43 Chanda Stebbins

I'll stop coaching.

00:17:45 Chanda Stebbins

And I remember how hard a decision that was.

00:17:48 Chanda Stebbins

And it should have been an indication to me at that time how much I loved coaching, but it

wasn't.

00:17:55 Chanda Stebbins

I taught elementary at Childs Elementary.

00:17:57 Chanda StebbinsThe first two or three years it opened, had a great experience, great people around me, a

great leader in Ann Mullally, just really, really good time at Childs.

00:18:06 Chanda Stebbins

And I called over to Santa Fe and said, hey, I want to run my camp.

00:18:12 Chanda Stebbins

It's called I Can, I Will, I Am.

00:18:14 Chanda Stebbins

I've run it in Indiana.

00:18:15 Chanda Stebbins

I've run it in different states.

00:18:17 Chanda Stebbins

I want to be able to run it in what I consider my hometown, Gainesville.

00:18:20 Chanda Stebbins

And the coach at the time said, no, we don't do that.

00:18:23 Chanda Stebbins

We don't have camps here.

00:18:25 Chanda Stebbins

We don't let people from the outside come in and do camps here.

00:18:28 Chanda Stebbins

And I said, oh, okay.

00:18:29 Chanda Stebbins

And this is all like on the phone, you know, not cell phones, like landlines.

00:18:35 Chanda Stebbins

And she's like, but I have a coaching position.

00:18:37 Chanda Stebbins

Why don't you come and coach?00:18:38 Chanda Stebbins

I said, no, I don't do that.

00:18:40 Chanda Stebbins

And so then, a couple of days later, Coach Ross, my former coach at Florida, called me

and said, you need to go into coaching.

00:18:51 Chanda Stebbins

One of my good friends, Tina, was like, Tina Pinkison was like, hey, you need to pray about

that.

00:18:55 Chanda Stebbins

And so anyway, I prayed about it.

00:18:57 Chanda Stebbins

I come in and meet with Tammy Ruffian and she's like, well, you know, why don't you

coach?

00:19:01 Chanda Stebbins

I said, okay.

00:19:02 Chanda Stebbins

And I feel like

00:19:04 Chanda Stebbins

It was like 6, eight months into it.

00:19:06 Chanda Stebbins

She's like, hey, I want to go back and get my PhD.

00:19:09 Chanda Stebbins

And I was like, okay, I didn't know what that meant to me.

00:19:13 Chanda Stebbins

And she's like, why don't you take over?

00:19:15 Chanda Stebbins

And I'm like, I don't know how to coach at this level at all.00:19:19 Chanda Stebbins

And long story short, Jim was in his interim year as the AD and he hired me then as interim

along with probably a whole committee of people.

00:19:29 Chanda Stebbins

As Jim Keats.

00:19:29 Chanda Stebbins

Jim Keats, yeah.

00:19:31 Chanda Stebbins

And 21 years later, I'm the all-time winningest coach in women's basketball history and I

never wanted to be a coach.

00:19:37 Chanda Stebbins

I'm also the all-time losingest coach because I just coached A lot.

00:19:42 Chanda Stebbins

But I would like to say I would, you know, from an educator standpoint, I think the biggest

difference was not

00:19:48 Chanda Stebbins

the X's and O's, it was the difference you're able to make in students' lives because people

did that for me.

00:19:53 Chanda Stebbins

Coach Ross calling me and saying, hey, I see something in you that you don't see in

yourself.

00:19:57 Chanda Stebbins

You don't have to listen to me, but I'm just telling you this is what I see in you.

00:20:01 Chanda Stebbins

It's what I have made a career doing.

00:20:03 Chanda Stebbins

Being able to go to people and say, hey, this is what I see in you.00:20:06 Chanda Stebbins

don't have to listen to me, but this is what I see in you.

00:20:09 Chanda Stebbins

How can we help this become what will help you make money someday?

00:20:14 Chanda Stebbins

Because people did that for me.

00:20:15 Chanda Stebbins

So people say, you coached?

00:20:19 Chanda Stebbins

I coached, but I taught.

00:20:22 Chanda Stebbins

I taught.

00:20:23 Mark Barley

I feel, and we've talked about that particular thing here on this podcast before with the

various individuals that have been here, is that,

00:20:32 Mark Barley

regardless if you feel like you're an educator, you're an educator, right?

00:20:37 Mark Barley

And you don't need a teaching certificate to be an educator, right?

00:20:43 Mark Barley

So you're now the athletic director, right?

00:20:46 Mark Barley

Talk about, and what, this is year two, three.

00:20:50 Chanda Stebbins

This is the beginning of year four.

00:20:51 Mark BarleyYear 4, wow.

00:20:52 Chanda Stebbins

Year 3 just finished.

00:20:53 Mark Barley

Time flies.

00:20:55 Mark Barley

So talk about your time as athletic director here.

00:20:59 Mark Barley

And where you feel that you have improved the athletic department and then where you

feel like you still need to push the athletic department to.

00:21:09 Chanda Stebbins

I would probably say that the biggest way that I have improved the athletic department is

by improving myself.

00:21:18 Chanda Stebbins

I think anytime you lead any initiative, you lead a boat across the ocean, like the first thing

you have to do is lead yourself well.

00:21:28 Chanda Stebbins

The second thing you have to do is lead the people that are around you well and then you

worry about leading change.

00:21:33 Chanda Stebbins

And so I think that if you can do those three things in order then you have a better chance of

actually having some kind of successful organization.

00:21:43 Chanda Stebbins

And so for me I think the number one thing that I felt like was an initiative for us was just

having a transformational culture.

00:21:52 Chanda Stebbins

I knew that coaches by nature do that really well.

00:21:56 Chanda StebbinsCoaches are naturally transformational with their student athletes.

00:22:00 Chanda Stebbins

They're naturally transformational during the recruiting process.

00:22:03 Chanda Stebbins

Coaches like to see change.

00:22:05 Chanda Stebbins

They like to see development.

00:22:07 Chanda Stebbins

And so the challenge I had, I feel like was helping them all do that together as an

organization, creating some

00:22:17 Chanda Stebbins

fun stuff and they would probably not say that I'm fun, but things where we can sit around

and talk and we can, enjoy each other and growing from each other.

00:22:27 Chanda Stebbins

And I think that the coaches that we have do that with one another.

00:22:31 Chanda Stebbins

And so that's been the most fun part of the change and that has not necessarily been me

making a change as much as it is saying, hey, this is something that we want to work on.

00:22:42 Chanda Stebbins

In fact, the athletic director before me, Greg McVeigh, I think did a really fabulous job of

coming in with great vision and really saying, hey, these are the places where we have to

improve and sort of telling us as coaches, as an institution, how we compare from

somebody on the outside.

00:23:02 Chanda Stebbins

And I think that what he brought to the table really helped all of us because all of us have

been here so long.

00:23:10 Chanda Stebbins

So00:23:12 Chanda Stebbins

Now, the last part of your question is what are some things that we're moving forward to?

00:23:16 Chanda Stebbins

I think it's important for us to continue to embrace like a future focused mindset, not just

for our student athletes, which I think our coaches, our administration, our faculty are

really, really good at helping students see what is next, right?

00:23:34 Chanda Stebbins

Like this conversation of what's next for you is really natural and sometimes to our fault,

00:23:41 Chanda Stebbins

we extend ourselves so much to make that next happen for a year or two years that we

sometimes forget to look out 30 or 40 years.

00:23:49 Chanda Stebbins

And so I think for us having a really zoomed out vision in athletics has been very important

strategically to think how, what do we want this to look like five or six years from now?

00:23:59 Chanda Stebbins

We know that things like COVID will come up and we can't anticipate those, but we also

know other things we can anticipate.

00:24:07 Chanda Stebbins

And so what do we want it to look like five or six years from now?

00:24:10 Chanda Stebbins

What do we want it to look like 15 years from now?

00:24:13 Chanda Stebbins

Right now we have 5 sports.

00:24:17 Chanda Stebbins

I know I get calls every day about are we going to add this?

00:24:20 Chanda Stebbins

Are we going to add that?00:24:21 Chanda Stebbins

And really we're not in a position to do that fiscally until we can take care of the five that we

have.

00:24:27 Chanda Stebbins

But with that said, how are we building out even our gymnasium renovations, our baseball

and softball additions, some of the things that are coming down the pipe?

00:24:36 Chanda Stebbins

How are we thinking about building these facilities and refurbishing these facilities in a way

that will be versatile so that regardless of what we're doing, we're nimble.

00:24:47 Chanda Stebbins

We're able to transition with times and we're not like locked into little boxes.

00:24:53 Chanda Stebbins

A good example of that is

00:24:56 Chanda Stebbins

We would love to get into some of the hosting some of the state tournaments and things

like that but our locker rooms are 40 years old and so they don't lend themselves to a

versatile opportunity.

00:25:08 Chanda Stebbins

Like if I'm using the fitness center they kind of work.

00:25:11 Chanda Stebbins

If I'm an opposing team they kind of work.

00:25:15 Chanda Stebbins

If we're having the president's gala, they kind of work, but there's a way that we can

reshape that and revision that so that it works really well for all the different kinds of

events.

00:25:25 Chanda Stebbins

So being able to be nimble and versatile will be important in the next 10 years of athletics

at Santa Fe.00:25:31 Mark Barley

It leads as a direct segue into my next question of, you talked about, you know, the locker

room, right, needed to be renovated and upgraded and those types of things.

00:25:43 Mark Barley

And that's a partnership

00:25:45 Mark Barley

with another department here on campus, the foundation.

00:25:49 Mark Barley

Talk about the athletics department relationship with the foundation and how the

foundation in athletics kind of coexist and really rely on each other.

00:25:59 Mark Barley

to make these types of improvements or to push the department forward.

00:26:04 Chanda Stebbins

Sure.

00:26:04 Chanda Stebbins

So for our listeners, anytime you think about a state institution, you think about funds

coming from the state to support every aspect of that institution.

00:26:17 Chanda Stebbins

But that's not how institutions, higher education institutions work only.

00:26:22 Chanda Stebbins

They have a lot of pieces and parts, and one of those pieces and parts is the foundation.

00:26:27 Chanda Stebbins

There are numerous people, like we spoke at the beginning about how our student athletes

have had an experience, right?

00:26:34 Chanda Stebbins

And how are they sharing that experience with their community back in their town,

wherever that is?00:26:40 Chanda Stebbins

And so there's a lot of alumni that we have who are like, wow, my experience at Santa Fe, in

fact, I was at the College World Series with softball.

00:26:48 Chanda Stebbins

I had the fun duty of talking to them after their last game, right?

00:26:51 Chanda Stebbins

And they lost their game and they're like, oh, we wish Santa Fe was a four-year school.

00:26:55 Chanda Stebbins

We just love it so much.

00:26:56 Chanda Stebbins

We wish it was a four-year experience, both academically and athletically.

00:27:00 Chanda Stebbins

And people like that, they want to invest in the great experience they had.

00:27:05 Chanda Stebbins

They want to pay that experience forward.

00:27:08 Chanda Stebbins

And the foundation is the fundraising arm of the college that allows people to put their

money where their heart is, right?

00:27:14 Chanda Stebbins

And to be able to invest for us specifically,

00:27:18 Chanda Stebbins

I love what Sherry Houston and Carrie Sanders and those guys are doing to build us

forward.

00:27:24 Chanda Stebbins

And it helps us engage with our alumni.

00:27:27 Chanda Stebbins

It helps us engage with the people whose hearts are with us.00:27:31 Chanda Stebbins

And we're really excited about, we feel like that's really in its infancy, that that's gonna

continue to grow because there are people that believe in what we do and they believe in

the transformational power of athletics.

00:27:43 Chanda Stebbins

in a student athlete's life.

00:27:45 Chanda Stebbins

And the cool thing about, you mentioned ripple effect before, but the cool thing is in any

industry, but specifically in the sports industry, when you actually help somebody

transform their future, then you can look and say, oh, they transformed five other people's

futures, you know, with coaches that retire.

00:28:05 Chanda Stebbins

I think about Coach Wiggs, the number of students' lives that he impacted.

00:28:10 Chanda Stebbins

And let's just pick this one.

00:28:12 Chanda Stebbins

That one that he impacted now has impacted 200 more.

00:28:16 Chanda Stebbins

And so there are donors and there are friends and people that are engaged with us day-to-

day who love that and want to see students' transformational opportunities be expanded.

00:28:29 Chanda Stebbins

And so they donate through the foundation.

00:28:31 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:28:33 Mark Barley

So you touched on Johnny Wigs, and so we'll transition to, you've made a few coaching

hires in your tenure as athletic director, and you're going to be making another one with

Coach Wigs' retirement.00:28:45 Mark Barley

How important is a coach like Johnny Wigs and the legacy that he leaves at an institution,

much like yourself, that he's the, you know, one of the winningest coaches in, you know,

college baseball at this level.

00:29:02 Mark Barley

And

00:29:04 Mark Barley

What goes into attempting to hire somebody as his successor?

00:29:11 Mark Barley

What is important about finding that next person when it's somebody like a Johnny Wigs

who is leaving such a huge impact?

00:29:19 Chanda Stebbins

So really fortunate to have coached for 20 some years, right?

00:29:22 Chanda Stebbins

And so when you're a coach, you know how to strategize and break things down into

smaller pieces.

00:29:29 Chanda Stebbins

We will never be able to replace Johnny Wiggs or the legacy that he has developed and

built.

00:29:35 Chanda Stebbins

But we also felt like we would never replace Harry Tholen.

00:29:38 Chanda Stebbins

And you know, here comes Johnny Wiggs and he does even better and beyond.

00:29:43 Chanda Stebbins

So I'm a really firm believer that if you're going to build anything, you build it brick by brick.

00:29:49 Chanda Stebbins

You don't build it all in one day.00:29:50 Chanda Stebbins

You build it brick by brick.

00:29:52 Chanda Stebbins

And Coach Tholen literally built the pitcher's mound on, I think, Christmas Day.

00:29:57 Chanda Stebbins

and then now you fast forward to what we're doing today it's been brick by brick and some

would argue it's been way way too slow fair enough but so as we approach hiring

somebody to replace Johnny we're not looking to hire somebody that has the legacy that

Johnny does we know that that's not possible instead we're looking to hire somebody that

has the foundational strengths

00:30:18 Chanda Stebbins

that we think make up a good coach that will help that person build brick by brick even

further and build on the foundation that Harry started, Johnny continued, and that we can

be proud of 30, 40 years from now.

00:30:31 Mark Barley

Yeah, and somebody like Johnny Wigs, whose daughter is a part of the volleyball coaching

staff and played for Santa Fe.

00:30:42 Mark Barley

And so it's generational and something like that is not easily

00:30:47 Mark Barley

replicated, right?

00:30:49 Mark Barley

And so it's a tall task, but like you said, getting the right person that can impact in every

way, right?

00:30:58 Mark Barley

Not just on the diamond, right?

00:31:02 Mark Barley

But impacts, because like you said at the beginning of this episode, you have these three

pillars.00:31:08 Mark Barley

And on the field, success is just one of those pillars, right?

00:31:12 Mark Barley

And so it is something that is

00:31:16 Mark Barley

I imagine it's challenging to kind of weigh, hey, somebody may not have the resume that

maybe some other people have, but this other educational aspect of who they embody and

all that can kind of play into that, right?

00:31:33 Chanda Stebbins

Well, I think it's similar to anybody who's trying to hire the right kind of people to work

around you, right?

00:31:41 Chanda Stebbins

For us, you have to define what are the major qualities this person has to have.

00:31:47 Chanda Stebbins

And so for us, the first, let's just talk about athletically, they have to be able to recruit the

right kind of student athletes.

00:31:52 Chanda Stebbins

who can perform and then they have to be able to develop those student athletes, right?

00:31:56 Chanda Stebbins

So that's the athletic part of it.

00:31:58 Chanda Stebbins

The X's and O's part of it, like that comes into it, right?

00:32:02 Chanda Stebbins

That's putting the whole picture together, but that's an athletic side.

00:32:05 Chanda Stebbins

The academic side, they have to really have a kind of a mindset that says, hey, I'm going to

an institution that basically is an Ivy League community college.00:32:13 Chanda Stebbins

Like our student athletes are successful

00:32:17 Chanda Stebbins

and they go on to great careers because of the foundation that Santa Fe faculty lay and so

the person that's coming in here has to be able to acknowledge that and then the third part

of it which you were speaking to I think we have to hire somebody that is really sold out on

developing A transformational culture

00:32:35 Chanda Stebbins

because culture, it impacts everything you do as a coach.

00:32:38 Chanda Stebbins

Our student athletes spend time together in the apartments.

00:32:41 Chanda Stebbins

They spend time together on the field.

00:32:43 Chanda Stebbins

They spend, unfortunately like softball had a lot of rain outs there sitting on the bus for

three hours together.

00:32:48 Chanda Stebbins

So the leader, the head skipper of in this case baseball, that head skipper has to be able to

lead in a transformational culture based

00:32:59 Chanda Stebbins

mindset in order to get those student athletes A, doing what they need to do on the field, B,

doing what they need to do in the classroom, but most importantly, treating one another

and their community and the people they're around in the right way.

00:33:11 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:33:12 Mark Barley

You talked about the softball team getting recognized, or their top finish in at the World

Series and then being recognized for that.00:33:22 Mark Barley

Real quick, let's talk about you being recognized recently

00:33:27 Mark Barley

you received the 2026 Fierce Award.

00:33:32 Mark Barley

Talk just briefly about what recognition means to you and how you can kind of turn that into

success, not just for you, but for your entire department.

00:33:43 Chanda Stebbins

Well, so first of all, anytime you receive any kind of anything, it's usually not all your fault.

00:33:49 Chanda Stebbins

So except for maybe a speeding ticket, that might be your fault.

00:33:53 Chanda Stebbins

But it's really just a testament to any kind of award or any kind of recognition that I get is a

testament to the people that are around us, right?

00:34:01 Chanda Stebbins

The people that help us grow, the people that work with us, the people that interact with us

every day.

00:34:07 Chanda Stebbins

And so that's the first thing.

00:34:09 Chanda Stebbins

The second thing I think awards like that do is just create an awareness.

00:34:14 Chanda Stebbins

I know that I've run into a lot of people in the last two or three years that they just they had

no idea that Santa Fe has five sports or some people I didn't know Santa Fe was number

one in the nation Aspen Institute winner so just anytime you have a platform like that it

gives you an opportunity to develop awareness for your institution for in our case our

department

00:34:40 Chanda StebbinsAlso for I think our student athletes, we're in an industry where student athlete visibility is

really important.

00:34:48 Chanda Stebbins

So helping them start to network and learn those skills now will separate them in the

workforce from students who don't have that experience.

00:34:57 Chanda Stebbins

And so I've really been fortunate with the fierce, the number of different connections we've

made with local companies, local industries that want to be engaged with us.

00:35:06 Mark Barley

Yeah, it's awesome and congrats on that.

00:35:10 Mark Barley

It's, we've talked all about how success translates to the classroom and how classroom

translates to success and how it all plays in together, especially in your department.

00:35:23 Mark Barley

But I want to end on a light note.

00:35:25 Mark Barley

I'm going to ask you 5 quick questions.

00:35:28 Mark Barley

These questions may not have anything to do with one another.

00:35:32 Mark Barley

But I just want you to say the first, I want you to answer them right quick, right off the top of

your brain.

00:35:38 Mark Barley

Really no thinking.

00:35:39 Mark Barley

James Allbury, who was in here a couple weeks ago, he wanted to take some time to think

about this.

00:35:43 Mark BarleyI don't want that.

00:35:45 Mark Barley

I want you to just answer the question.

00:35:46 Mark Barley

It's kind of a this or that type thing.

00:35:49 Mark Barley

Basketball or volleyball?

00:35:51 Chanda Stebbins

Tennis.

00:35:54 Chanda Stebbins

Or pickleball.

00:35:55 Mark Barley

All right, fair enough.

00:35:58 Mark Barley

Favorite thing to do in Muncie, Indiana?

00:36:01 Chanda Stebbins

Pizza King.

00:36:01 Mark Barley

Pizza King.

00:36:02 Mark Barley

All right.

00:36:02 Mark Barley

What's your favorite type of pizza?

00:36:05 Chanda Stebbins

Cheese and mushrooms.

00:36:06 Mark BarleyCheese and mushrooms.

00:36:07 Mark Barley

All right, interesting.

00:36:08 Mark Barley

Favorite thing to do in Gainesville?

00:36:11 Chanda Stebbins

Favorite thing to do in Gainesville?

00:36:12 Mark Barley

When you're not in the gym.

00:36:14 Chanda Stebbins

I love hiking.

00:36:15 Chanda Stebbins

I love San Felasco.

00:36:17 Chanda Stebbins

Yeah, hiking.

00:36:18 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:36:19 Mark Barley

Last movie you saw?

00:36:21 Chanda Stebbins

Last movie at Shawshank.

00:36:22 Mark Barley

Really?

00:36:23 Mark Barley

Okay, how long ago?

00:36:24 Chanda StebbinsI watch it all the time.

00:36:27 Chanda Stebbins

I watch it all the time.

00:36:28 Mark Barley

I love that movie.

00:36:29 Mark Barley

All right.

00:36:33 Mark Barley

All right, best thing about Santa Fe.

00:36:36 Chanda Stebbins

Best thing about Santa Fe is the people, no doubt.

00:36:39 Chanda Stebbins

Yeah, the people.

00:36:40 Mark Barley

All right.

00:36:41 Mark Barley

last question.

00:36:43 Mark Barley

What do you want people to know that we haven't touched on?

00:36:46 Chanda Stebbins

I would probably want people to know that our student athletes are amazing.

00:36:50 Chanda Stebbins

They are really, really great kids, great people.

00:36:54 Chanda Stebbins

They have, a lot of times people will say to me something like, oh, you know, I'm so worried

about the future.00:37:00 Chanda Stebbins

And kids today, they make comments like that.

00:37:03 Chanda Stebbins

And I'm like, I am so fired up about kids today.

00:37:07 Chanda Stebbins

I think that it's our job to help them understand how to lead change and how to go set the

world on fire.

00:37:14 Chanda Stebbins

And I mean that in a really positive way.

00:37:16 Chanda Stebbins

But the kids I interact with, I'm encouraged by them.

00:37:21 Chanda Stebbins

I think that they're driven.

00:37:22 Chanda Stebbins

I think that they're excited about whatever their

00:37:27 Chanda Stebbins

wheelhouse is and I see a lot of great leaders.

00:37:31 Chanda Stebbins

Now again, I deal with our student athletes, so I feel like I'm kind of fortunate, but I also

have met a lot of our ambassadors and a lot of our, I just really, I'm encouraged.

00:37:42 Chanda Stebbins

So that's the one thing I would say is I think we have something really special here because

of the students that choose to come here and how driven they are and

00:37:51 Chanda Stebbins

I'm excited about what they're gonna do in the next 20 years.

00:37:56 Mark Barley

Absolutely.00:37:57 Mark Barley

All right, tell everybody where they can find athletics and how they could potentially

donate.

00:38:02 Chanda Stebbins

Yeah, so Santa Fe Athletics has its own website.

00:38:05 Chanda Stebbins

It's www..santafesaints.com.

00:38:09 Chanda Stebbins

On there is all kinds of links to our five sports, to our fitness center, to our intramurals, as

well as how to donate.

00:38:17 Chanda Stebbins

how to be engaged.

00:38:18 Chanda Stebbins

We actually also do camps and clinics and different promotionals with businesses.

00:38:23 Chanda Stebbins

So everything anybody would want to find out is on Santa Fe Saints.com, including our

directory.

00:38:29 Chanda Stebbins

So if you have a student that is in a particular sport, they can reach out to that coach.

00:38:36 Chanda Stebbins

If anybody wants to reach out to me personally, they can find my e-mail address on there

as well.

00:38:40 Mark Barley

How can they donate?

00:38:42 Chanda Stebbins

It's right on the right side of our website.

00:38:44 Chanda StebbinsIt says how to donate and they just click on it and it'll take them to the foundation website

and you can make a tax deductible donation through the foundation Sherry Houston's area

or you can just call me and we can sit and have lunch and chit chat.

00:38:58 Chanda Stebbins

I will say this as far as donating and this is a shameless plug but it's probably important to

note we will literally make your $10 go farther

00:39:07 Chanda Stebbins

than probably a lot of other places that you can donate it to.

00:39:11 Chanda Stebbins

Not just because we just are very frugal in athletics and we really pride ourselves in helping

stretch that dollar.

00:39:20 Chanda Stebbins

And so I've heard people say, well, I don't really have anything to donate.

00:39:23 Chanda Stebbins

Well, there's three areas to me, time, talent, or treasure.

00:39:27 Chanda Stebbins

And so in fact, somebody stole my quote from that like a couple weeks ago.

00:39:33 Chanda Stebbins

But so sometimes we think, I don't really have any money to donate.

00:39:37 Chanda Stebbins

do you have something like, did you play college sports?

00:39:40 Chanda Stebbins

Could you come back and speak to our student athlete orientation?

00:39:44 Chanda Stebbins

Do you have an experience that you can share with them?

00:39:47 Chanda StebbinsCan you, are you a UF student who would like to come and volunteer so that you can gain

experience?

00:39:53 Chanda Stebbins

So I would just encourage people if there's any space in their personal time, talent, or

treasure,

00:40:00 Chanda Stebbins

and they don't know, but they have a heart for athletics to reach out to me and I will help

them figure out how to stretch that hour that they can donate, that dollar that they can

donate, or that wisdom that they can share.

00:40:11 Mark Barley

Absolutely.

00:40:12 Mark Barley

I'll be emailing you shortly.

00:40:14 Mark Barley

Chanda, thank you for joining us today.

00:40:18 Mark Barley

Many continued successes in your department, in your life.

00:40:21 Mark Barley

And thank you for helping our student athletes prepare for the next journey in their life.

00:40:27 Chanda Stebbins

Thank you.

00:40:33 Mark Barley

If you found this podcast informative, there's more to discover on our website,

sfcollege.edu.

00:40:39 Mark Barley

You can also follow Santa Fe on all your favorite social media platforms, X, Facebook,

Instagram, YouTube.

00:40:45 Mark BarleyWe're there at Santa Fe College.

00:40:47 Mark Barley

Give us a like, follow, and a subscribe.

00:40:49 Mark Barley

Have suggestions on who you want to hear from next or watch your story featured on the

podcast?

00:40:54 Mark Barley

Send us an e-mail at communications at sfcollege.edu.

00:40:58 Mark Barley

Thanks for listening and go Saints.