Northern Illinois Vice President & Director of Athletics Sean T. Frazier and Depauw (DIII) Theodore Katula Director of Athletics and Recreational Sports Stevie Baker-Watson sit down with ADU’s Steph Garcia Cichosz at the 2024 NACDA Convention to dive into the experience of parenting through a career in athletics. Baker-Watson reflects on the birth of her first child early in her career, when she was serving as the Head Athletic Trainer and her husband was a Head Football Coach and they realized her due date was in the middle of football season. From that experience, Baker-Watson realized the importance of advocating for herself as she advanced to the Big Chair, recognizing the gap in perspective between working mothers and administrators who weren’t parents or weren’t the primary parent in their family’s structure.
Frazier, who began his journey as a parent while navigating the demanding schedule for a coach, shares insight into having “the talk” with his wife early in their careers: “You’ve gotta have the talk about what this is going to look like, because it has to be a give and take. The marriage is one piece but then the actual give and take of the business is extreme.” Frazier also shares his wife’s concept of “the family business” and how he balances the demands of the Big Chair with family priorities and commitments.
Frazier and Baker-Watson also reflect on how being a parent makes them a stronger and more effective leader for their departments and why athletics and higher education should remain linked in a post-House landscape.
The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).
