Last week, Mike Zapolski, director of athletics, was named to the division III men’s soccer committee. This is Zapolski’s fifth time elected to a sports committee. He has served on men’s basketball, men’s tennis, women’s soccer and men’s volleyball committees.
The committee is made up of ten people who provide rankings, select fields for the division III men’s soccer championship and make other decisions across the region for division III men’s soccer.
“You work with a regional advisory committee where there’s a coach from one school and each of those conferences, and you do a weekly ranking,” Zapolski said. “The national committee reviews the rankings. The rankings are eventually published and those rankings are used come early November to help select the field for the division three and soccer championship.”
Essentially, the committee is providing the rankings and picking the most competitive fields to help with the championship.
Zapolski’s expectation is to execute a great tournament.
“The goal is just to put together the best championship possible and provide an outstanding experience for the teams and the student-athletes that advanced to the national tournament,” Zapolski said.
Zapolski hopes to bring experience to the coaches and athletes who participate throughout the tournament. Since 2007, Zapolski has been on a committee 16 out of 17 years and has enjoyed every bit of it.
“It’s a good opportunity to get back to the organization, [and] it’s good for me in terms of uplifting the stature of Augustana College and Augustana athletics [so] we have representation at the national level and keeps you on your toes,” Zapolski said. “[It’s important to] see how other people do things and kind of get a little different exposure that you otherwise wouldn’t get.”
The committee is a self-nomination that coaches and staff complete on the NCAA website.
“This region had an opening where they were looking for either a coach and administrator and something that I had submitted information on that press release,” Zapolski said. “I’ve been on multiple committees, this is my fifth different sport. So maybe they figured, hey, this guy might know what he’s doing.”
Typically, the committee appointments are for four years, but Zapolski’s will be on the committee for three because he is filling in for another committee member who resigned. One way Zapolski sees it as a way of giving back to the community.
“It’s kind of a form of community service,” Zapolski said. “I think it’s more of an opportunity just to meet new people and relationship building, whether it’s folks that are other coaches that you work with or administrators on your committee or people at the host institutions that host these events.”
Overall, the benefits Zapolski gets from being on a sports committee of this kind is that there is a lot of room for professional growth and exposure for the school.
“At the end of the day, it’s just a good professional development opportunity and a good opportunity to interact with other coaches and administrators throughout the country,” Zapolski said.