James Jackson/MDN Kip Meyer addresses the public and the media in his press conference at Minot State on Wednesday.

The fourth and final candidate for the Director of Athletics position at Minot State met with the public and the media on Wednesday. Kip Meyer, an external candidate, comes with no direct AD experience, however, he has a deep business background and a lifelong dream to be an AD that make Meyer believe he is a great fit at MSU.

Most recently, Meyer served as the Executive Vice President of Schutt Sports, which is a massive sports equipment distribution company that specializes in football, baseball, and softball.

Before Schutt, he spent time working at Adidas where he held a variety of roles such as President – Valley Apparel/Adidas Team, Director of New Business Development and Licensing, Director of Sports Marketing, and Director of Planning and Analysis, with his time at Adidas spanning across 12 years.

“One of the things we need to do here today is recognize and embrace the student learning process. We must take responsibility for these athletes. They are here to grow and learn in life, we must help them get to the next level,” Meyer said during his introduction.

The importance of helping student-athletes on the field, in the classroom, and as they prepare for the professional world was of vital importance to Meyer. He believes that the student-athletes are the most important aspect of the AD position.

His vision for student-athletes involves developing an innovative, supportive, and challenging learning place both on and off the field, as well as motivating and empowering student-athletes to develop leadership skills, sportsmanship, interpersonal skills, and well-being while holding themselves accountable.

For the coaching staff, his vision involves working hard to identify, attract, and retain a diverse group of qualified prospective student-athletes and working on recruiting student-athletes that share common ethical and civic values.

Meyer has core values of his own that he would implement if given the opportunity. Those core values are integrity, respect, empathy, commitment, adaptability, and competitive spirit. Winning the right way is important to him, and he believes that is achievable through competitive spirit and sportsmanship.

Additionally, there are strategic focus areas that he believes would be of benefit to Minot State. Those areas are student-athlete development, partner engagement, fan experience, athletic excellence, and financial performance. If all of these are met, Meyer stated that financial performance would be easier to navigate.

Through student-athlete development, Meyer would like to develop plans that promote wellness, personal development, and challenge the student-athletes to become the best versions of themselves that they can be.

Partner engagement involves building relationships with the community and those involved with the Minot State campus. Meyer would like to actively work with the partners by contacting them frequently and developing other forms of engagement.

Throughout his press conference, Meyer stressed the importance of reaching younger generations to instill fandom and excitement into them. Some ways he believes this is achievable would be by putting together camps, clinics, getting them to attend games, and by finding creative ways to have them meet the athletes.

With fan experience, aside from reaching younger generations, Meyer would like to focus on brand growth, fan experience at athletic events, and work on building attendance at the events.

As he previously stated, winning the right way is important. To achieve athletic excellence, Meyer wants to create a culture of winning conference championships, as well as achieving post-season success while following NCAA compliance regulations.

Lastly, for financial performance, leveraging all revenue streams to properly develop the necessary resources to meet and support the Athletic Department’s strategic goals and objectives is something he believes is achievable.

Developing and creating goals across the board is something Meyer believes can help create consistent success within the Athletics Department. To achieve this success, however, he stressed the importance of everyone buying in and being on the same page.

“I believe the Athletic Department needs to set strategic goals and initiatives and everyone must be in agreement with those goals. If we are not meeting those plans, I believe in developing alternate goals to get us back on track,” Meyer said.

At the minimum, he thinks there are a variety of mandatory things MSU can do to have success in the Athletics Department. Working as a team in developing short and long-term goals, all being in agreement with those goals, trying to limit surprises, believing in each other, and helping each other succeed are among those things.

Kip Meyer comes from a background without any Director of Athletics experience, but he believes that wouldn’t prevent himself from being able to handle the tasks.

“My background from a financial, sales, strategic planning, and marketing perspective is what makes me an ideal candidate for Director of Athletics at Minot State University. Everything I’ve done in the past from building and selling a brand is very, very similar,” Meyer said.

The MSU Athletics Department has wrapped up all their interviews and press conferences with the four finalists for the AD position. Each candidate had the opportunity to express why they are a good candidate for the position and now MSU will take time to determine who they believe will be the best fit to lead the Athletics Department.