When Tom Collins announced he would step down as Ball State athletic director on Jan. 20, he envisioned a smooth transition into the next chapter of his life.
But his vision was altered on March 21 when head women's basketball coach Kelly Packard decided to resign after directing the Cardinals to back-to-back 9-21 seasons.
With plans to retain Packard for the 2012-13 season, the news of her decision caught Collins off guard.
"[I] wasn't ready for it," Collins said.
At the end every season, Collins sits down with his coaches for meetings. He sat down with Packard on two separate occasions with hopes of discussing the offseason agenda.
The first meeting, which was held two weeks ago, went according to plan. Last week, the two held another conference, which was when Packard informed Collins of her decision to resign.
"We were doing a follow-up [last week]," Collins said. "I thought we were going to talk about the issues that we needed to fix, and she wanted to talk about resigning."
Although Packard's resignation wasn't what Collins expected, he gave Packard the upmost respect regarding her decision.
"[I] know that she's processed it and thanked her for her service [over the past four years]," Collins said.
Collins said Packard was very professional throughout the whole process and said it was a personal decision for her both personally and professionally.
Though Packard's resignation isn't effective until March 30, the search for her successor has already begun.
"We'll post the job and leave it up for the appropriate time, and when the job posting comes down, we'll take a look at the applications, start sorting through them and start going through the [hiring] process," Collins said.
Whether Collins will be heading the search for the next coach is uncertain, but he stressed the importance of getting a wide spectrum of potential replacements.
"We want to get a deep and diverse pool so [that] we've got good candidates to choose from," Collins said.
It also remains unknown whether the university plans to hire the next coach from within the program. But Collins has already received r+â-¬sum+â-¬s from candidates, and he confirmed that there are candidates from outside Ball State.
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