ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — "When you get a kid on to this campus to come to school they get infected, they get infected with St. Bonaventure," said Bonnies athletic director Tim Kenney.
The Bonnies' new Athletic Director Tim Kenney says he was infected from the first time he stepped foot on St. Bonaventure's campus. Now 67 days into the helm at Bona, he sees big things in the future.
"Where can this place go? We're in a great conference, the Atlantic 10 is solid. We want to be in the top half of the conference in resources and competitiveness every year. That's my goal, to bring it to that," said Kenney.
Those are lofty expectations, St. Bonaventure routinely ranks near the bottom of A-10 athletic budgets. Coming over from UMass, where funding was significant, Kenney has a plan, one he laughingly says is on several notes in the dorm room he's currently living in.
"Whether it's private donations, corporate, or people coming to games, if your story makes sense and it is something people can envision in their heads, more times than not they are going to want to help. What that is, you don't know, could be ten bucks, could be ten million dollars, but you have to have that story packaged the right way and that is the phase we are going into now," said Kenny.
Kenney believes there is a bright future for all St. Bonaventure athletics, but he knows that their bread is buttered in the Reilly Center, where the men's basketball program is the financial tide that rises ships.
"Basketball is the key that will bring in the revenue and the notoriety that will help in recruiting, donations, adding corporate partners, getting on TV. Getting that thing solidified and everything else will trickle down and make us more competitive across the board," said Kenney.
Kenney says the ground work is in place for all of this, starting with the new soccer and softball complexes and the love from Bona Nation.