ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Julia Anne ``Judy'' Southard, the first of five candidates to become Radford University's athletic director, completed a two-day interview process Wednesday and headed back to Texas.
Southard, the athletic director at NCAA Division II Texas Woman's College, toured the city and campus. She met with students, faculty, coaches and administrators, and was interviewed by the search committee, university president Douglas Covington and vice president for student affairs Paul Harris. The search is being directed by Harris.
``I hope they're as happy with me as I am with them,'' she said by telephone as she prepared to board a flight in Roanoke.
``I think she had an excellent interview,'' Harris said. ``We are very pleased with her candidacy, very pleased.''
School officials said the process Southard went through will be repeated for the other three out-of-town candidates: Steve Nelson, an associate athletic director at Clemson; Michael O'Brien, athletic director at Lamar; and Katy Wilson, athletic director Moorhead (Minn.) State.
The internal candidate, Radford associate AD Greig Denny, will be interviewed and meet with the same campus groups as the other candidates, but will not need a campus or city tour.
O'Brien will be arriving today and is expected to continue through Saturday; Wilson is coming Wednesday through June 21; Nelson will be on campus June 23-35; and Denny will be interviewed June 25-26.
Southard, 48, the women's basketball coach at Marshall from 1981-92, has been the Texas Women's College AD since 1992. Before that, she was the Thundering Herd's assistant athletic director while also serving as a coach. From January through March 1988, she was the interim athletic director at Marshall, serving between the regimes of current Virginia AD Dave Braine and his successor, Roanoke native Lee Moon.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB