Mitts looks back — and forward — after first months as Cottey AD

Back in February, when Dr. Maryann Mitts was introduced as the new athletic director and head basketball coach at Cottey College, she called the opportunity a dream come true.

On Monday, after making a few introductions of her own — for her first three department hires: a new assistant hoops coach, a new esports head coach, and a new flag football head coach and sports information director — Mitts indicated she has yet to be pinched awake from her reverie.

“I feel like I am living the dream right now. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, as far as being an AD,” said Mitts, who officially started in May. “I’ve absolutely loved the past three months. It has been rewarding for me to learn so many new things in terms of being an athletic director. I never imagined how many different venues would be coming my way. But all of it has been so positive.”

At the top of Mitts’s to-do list was to review and develop the department’s policies with the goal of growing Cottey athletics to its fullest potential. While Mitts intended to implement most of the updated policies during a coaches retreat Tuesday and Wednesday, she first needed to make some new staff hires over the summer.

After transitioning head softball coach Mark Skapin from his role as sports information director to assistant athletic director, Mitts garnered more than 60 applications to fill the newly available SID position — one eventually won by Matt Harder, who will also take over as head flag football coach.

The department also hired Dominic Habjan as its new head esports coach and Evan Belk as an assistant basketball coach, assistant SID, and manager of game-day operations.

“These coaching positions were critical to where we were moving, and that took a lot of time,” Mitts said. “The college has been so helpful in understanding that certain things needed to be done and changed in order for Cottey athletics to grow.”

Mitts credited Skapin and his softball squad, as well as the volleyball team led by head coach Marla Kannady Foreman, for bringing added attention to Cottey College this past spring — when both Comet teams reached their respective NAIA national tournaments for the first time in school history.

“Just a baby in the NAIA, that was a huge step for Cottey athletics. If you can see one or two teams do that, you know all teams can do that. Kudos to those two programs for getting more attention to Cottey,” said Mitts, who will now try to replicate that feat with the basketball team in the 2021-2022 season, her first on the sidelines since 2013 when she stepped down as the winningest women’s hoops coach at Missouri Southern State University. “Just starting to think about playbooks and offenses and defensive schemes again, it’s really making me realize that that is probably where my heart has always been and where it continues to be. What I’m grateful for is, I’m able to do it in an environment that, at my point in my career, is going to be very conducive to my philosophy and to what I believe in as a coach.”

Mitts had five players on the roster when she took over head coaching duties back in May. Today, thanks in large part to recruiting efforts by Belk, that number is up to 16 — including three international players.

“There have been a lot of visits to campus, and that has kept us very busy,” Mitts said. “I’m just really anxious to bring these players on campus and get to know them. It’s going to be interesting just to spend the first six weeks getting to know them as people.”

Also interesting: learning more about the two newest sports at Cottey, each of which named a new head coach on Monday.

“From the outside, I think esports looks like one thing. And then, when you get inside and you truly understand esports, it’s something totally different. I have learned a lot about that. It’s not just sitting behind a remote,” said Mitts, who added she’s especially looking forward to the day when Cottey students and fans start tailgating at flag football games. “And flag is just so intriguing to me. We’re going to be able to have an environment very similar to male football programs at Missouri Southern. We can create an environment that only football can bring.”

The A.I.I. Conference-champion volleyball team will open Cottey's fall sports season with a home tilt against Central Christian University on Aug. 27.