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August 25, 2006 > News > Del Conte brings new faces to senior staff

Del Conte brings new faces to senior staff

By Dylan Farmer | Thresher Editorial Staff

Athletics Director Chris Del Conte is not the only senior employee new to the Athletic Department this summer. David Sayler is the new senior executive athletic director, replacing Steve Moniaci. Russell Dean replaces former Marketing Director Mike Pede, and Chuck Pool replaces former Sports Information Director Bill Cousins.

Del Conte said he hired people who bring their own ideas to athletics.

“What you don’t want to do is bring in people who are ‘yes’ people,” Del Conte said. “You want to bring in people who are team people.”

In his new position, Sayler works directly with coaches and administrators and manages daily internal affairs and budget operations. He began July 26.

Sayler was previously the associate athletic director for business operations at Oregon State University. For two years, he was responsible for OSU’s athletic budget and managing the costs and revenues of individual sports. Before that, Sayler worked for two years at Bowling Green State University, overseeing athletic business operations.

Sayler said he aims to help improve Rice’s reputation nationally while spending within the department’s budget. In addition, he said he will work on improving the interactions between varsity athletes and other students.

“We want to involve people,” Sayler said. “We don’t want campus to end when you get to the football stadium.”

Del Conte announced Wednesday the athletic department had hired Chuck Pool to be Rice’s sports information director. Pool has experience with professional and college athletics programs. For five years, he worked in the University of Nebraska’s sports information department, where he was involved with gymnastics and swimming media relations. He then worked in minor league baseball for the media relations departments of the Houston Astros and Florida Marlins organizations. Most recently, he has worked on the committees of the Rotary Lombardi Award for college football linemen and the Roger Clemens Award for college baseball pitching.

Pool said he is looking forward to the challenge of competing with Houston’s professional sports teams for fans.

“We really have to get the story out about what’s going on in the Athletics Department and let that story be told in a very competitive market,” Pool said.

Dean worked with Del Conte at the University of Arizona for two years before he came to Rice. As marketing director, he will focus on expanding Rice’s fan base in Houston, especially among West University residents.

“There are so many people so close to campus that we can fill up all of our facilities without having to venture over very far, and that’s an incredible opportunity,” Dean said.

Dean said he had success increasing ticket sales while working at Tulane University, where he doubled football ticket sales between the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

Outgoing staff

Del Conte said he asked Cousins, Moniaci and Pede to resign. Athletics announced the resignations July 19.

“All three of them are great people,” Del Conte said. “They were here a long time, but [we had] to make changes. … I asked them to leave in the context that it was not that they did a bad job, it was to … move forward and make changes that were right for Rice.”

Moniaci worked at Rice 26 years, beginning as the promotions director and executive director of the Owl Club. He was promoted to operations director and in May 2001, former Athletic Director Bobby May (Will Rice ‘65) named Moniaci senior associate athletic director, the number-two position in the department.

Moniaci said his views and others’ were becoming incompatible in the time before his departure. Moniaci said he enjoyed working as associate athletic director because he liked interacting with varsity athletes.

“I had a pretty open door policy, and a lot of athletes would stop by my office, and I’d see how they were doing and check up on them,” Moniaci said. “That’s the reason I came to Rice and the reason I stayed there for 26 years.”

Cousins was a 23-year Rice employee who began as assistant SID before becoming SID in 1984. Cousins said he enjoyed working at Rice because of its emphasis on educating varsity athletes.

“I liked working at a place where I didn’t have to apologize for misconduct of student-athletes every day,” Cousins said. “I liked working at a place that had the priority of education.”

Pede was at Rice for nearly 13 years, beginning as the marketing director. His job expanded to include media relations, licensing, athletic promotions, radio and television.

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