Brooke Beasley was looking for the ideal job to satisfy her desire to get into coaching and to work in athletic administration.
Helping to build a volleyball program and an athletic department at the Mississippi University of Women presented the perfect chance for Beasley to put her attention to detail and her ability to multi-task to good use.
“It is going to be a little bit of everything here and there,” said Beasley, whose hiring as assistant athletic director was officially announced Wednesday. “It is going to be a little bit of compliance, a little bit of budgeting, a little bit of travel, a little bit of making sure the coaches are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. I am going to have my hands in everybody’s cookie jar.”
Beasley started work at The W on Oct. 24 and then went recruiting for a week with Roxanne Hernandez, the school’s new volleyball. Beasley was captain of the Division I Alabama State volleyball team and named 2012 Southwestern Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year, two-time Southwestern Athletic Conference Champion, and Capital One Academic All-District team for two consecutive seasons. She also earned 2011 Alabama Community College Conference/Region 22 Tournament MVP and first-team All-Region honors at Wallace State Community College.
Beasley worked as a compliance specialist at Wallace State C.C., where she performed Title IX federal financial aid calculations, monitored compliance with federal and state requirements, and assisted students with the day-to-day financial aid process.
At Alabama State, Beasley served as athletics business manager. Her responsibilities included reporting monthly and annual expenses forecast and assisting with ticket distribution, game-day operations, and NCAA compliance.
Beasley holds a master’s degree in accounting and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Alabama State.
“We are very fortunate to have Brooke join our staff,” The W Director of Athletics Jason Trufant said in a statement. “Her vast experience working in the business department for athletics at Alabama State and her most recent work in financial aid compliance will be a tremendous asset to our growing staff.”
Beasley will work in all of those areas at The W out of her office in the Cromwell Communication Center, the same building where Trufant has his office. She said she hasn’t had a chance to decorate her new home, but she said she likely will tackle that task in a very organized way. She said juggling numerous job responsibilities will be a challenge, but she feels she will be ready for it because growing up she had her Barbies and all of her other dolls lined up perfectly in her bedroom. She used that same approach as a student-athlete, juggling her travel schedule and her studies so she was able to maintain a 4.0 grade-point average. She also enjoyed the different tasks she had to handle in administration at Wallace State C.C. and at Alabama State.
“It can be a lot, but if you’re very organized like I am it shouldn’t be hard,” Beasley said. “I plan to meet with all of the departments on campus and get to know them to understand how things work on that side of the campus. If we don’t understand how things work on that side, we will never get anything done on our side. Once I get everything written down and get it to all of the coaches, Jason and I will tweak it to how we want it to be for the athletic department. Hopefully from there, it will be pretty self-explanatory. That is what I am going to go through for the next two to four weeks.”
In addition to setting the path for all of The W’s athletic teams, Beasley will be active with Hernandez in building the volleyball program as an assistant coach. She said all of the experiences she had as a student-athlete will help her relate to players and to the work she will have to do as a coach and as an administrator. If that sounds like a lot of work, don’t worry because Beasley said she is a pretty good juggler and likes to stay busy. Her new positions at The W will allow her to hone her juggling skills and keep her from getting bored doing only one or two things.
“In high school, I played three sports,” Beasley said. “When I was playing softball in the spring, I also was playing club volleyball. In the summertime, I was playing travel basketball and travel softball. I was never doing just one sport, and I had school on top of that. I like to have a lot to do, so I am excited about getting everything going.
“I like learning new things and starting new programs. I love being a part of extra-curricular activities. This is the perfect fit for me. This is definitely a history-making moment, and anybody would be excited to be a part of making history.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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