Summer is no break for Cone

Alison Cone has known her whole life that she wanted to work in athletics.

However, she says that it was a combination of luck and timing that landed her the job as the athletics director at Cal Poly just more than two years ago.

“I grew up in a family where my dad was an athlete,” Cone said. “So, we were always attending something or playing something. It was part of our family growing up. I just worked in a lot of positions. Timing was right here, and I got pretty lucky. But it’s a really good job. I worked at Cal Poly for about 10 years before I got this job.”

When she took the position in 2005, Cone became one of only 19 female athletics directors at the NCAA Division I level, which includes more than 315 colleges and universities across the nation. Cone took over for John McCutcheon, who accepted a similar position at the University of Massachusetts.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Washington State University and a master’s degree in education from Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cone spent more than 30 years coaching and teaching before finally landing her current position.

Cone is currently finishing her second full school year as the full-fledged athletics director at Cal Poly.

But just because the school year is over doesn’t mean that she’s on a vacation. Although her job is slightly less time-consuming during the summer, there is much preparation that is needed for the upcoming school year.

“Summertime is usually the least busy, since we don’t have the events during the summer,” Cone said. “So most of the things that have to happen during summer, happen during the normal work week. During late August through the end of May, things happen during the regular work week, in the evening, as well as on the weekends. So it’s really a seven-days-a-week kind of situation.”

Whereas Cone spends much of the school year organizing and attending events, the summertime is reserved for planning and preparation.

“There are still a lot of important things that are happening-working on future schedules, fund raising issues, academic issues, budget issues and all the things that come up during the summer,” Cone said. “You know, strategic planning and making sure you have things ready, so when the school year starts, things happen smoothly.”

As athletics director, Cone must supervise the coaches and staff who support the athletics department.

For Cone, no two days are exactly alike.

“Every day is a little bit different,” she said. “We have a fairly decent-sized staff over here. We have to make sure that everybody has the direction and vision of what they’re supposed to be doing,” Cone said. “We have a really talented athletic staff and group of coaches. So, it’s trying to best serve that group and help them get the tools they need to be successful. I spend a little time with student-athletes, but more time with the coaches and the staff who work with the student-athletes.”

After a summer full of preparation, Cone spends the school year ensuring that all 20 of the intercollegiate programs on campus are functioning smoothly.

“I do attend a lot of the events, as do many of our staff people,” she said. “We’re greeting the public, working to generate interest in the program and working to have our program be a part of student life on campus. So, we’re working with people in our housing department and other people on campus, so that students take advantage of the athletics program. And we’re always working with the external people to encourage their participation in our programs.”

Cone is responsible for hiring new athletic staff members, which she enjoys. However, that means that she also has the task of having to replace staff members that don’t meet required expectations.

“Hiring people is a great part of the job,” she said. “The most difficult part is probably when you have to make those negative types of evaluations on somebody’s work. Probably the most important part of the job would be making sure that the right people are dealing with student-athletes-making sure that we have the right coaches in place, and the right staff to help them. And then, secondarily, that those right people have the resources necessary to do everything that they can to help student-athletes have a great experience both on and off the field. We have to make sure that coaches have the budgets they need to take their teams where they need to go, to do proper recruiting, to feed them right, and put them in the right uniforms.”

After many years in the field, Cone still enjoys her work, and finds it rewarding.

“I think the most rewarding part is to see our student-athletes succeed both academically and athletically,” she said. “We’re in a really unique position at Cal Poly to be able to have the kind of athletic program that everybody in the country really wants to have. So I think that the thing that is most satisfying to me is watching the progress of our student-athletes in the classroom, and watching their success on the courts. Seeing all the student-athletes who get postseason experience, and knowing that those student-athletes are walking across the stage at graduation is really rewarding, too. It’s also very rewarding to see venues full of enthusiastic students.”

Now Cone finds herself at the beginning of another summer with much planning and preparation ahead of her.

“We’re just continuing to work hard,” she said. “One thing about athletics is, there’s always change, and something different. We’re just trying to put ourselves in a position to best take advantage of whatever those changes may be. Do I know what those changes are at this point? Absolutely not.”