Long Beach State’s newly appointed athletics director, Andy Fee, says he is ready to build on the foundation of the program’s successful history.
Fee, who was announced as LBSU’s new AD on Thursday after an 11-month search, becomes the college’s 12th athletics director and replaces Vic Cegles who was with LBSU for nine years.
“I’m fired up,” Fee said. “I can’t tell you how excited I am.”
During his time at UCSB, Fee served as Senior Associate Director for Development and Principal Gifts before finishing his seven-year tenure serving on the Chancellor’s Committee for Enterprise Risk Management and Central Development leadership team.
For Fee, an Orange Country native, putting his name into consideration for the position was an easy decision.
“I’m very familiar with Long Beach State — [as I’m] currently working in the Big West,” Fee said. “I was always aware of the university and success of the programs and the high level of competition.”
He went on to say that while in some cases athletics directors are asked to change multiple things, LBSU is a case of refining and building relationships.
“Long Beach is not a rebuilding job,” Fee said. “A lot of jobs out there you’re going to have to fix a lot of things, but that’s not what the case is at Long Beach and I knew that going in too. So, that was very exciting for me — to me it’s more of refinement. What I mean by that is that no matter where you are, you can always refine, you can be more strategic, really work on the best ways to achieve success.”
When asked during the interview process what the next six months look like for him, Fee responded by saying there’s going to be a lot of introductions, learning and listening.
“[I’ll be] asking a lot of questions and meeting as many people as humanly possible,” Fee said. “I’ve got a good handle of what I think the picture is but I’m the new guy. So, what I need to do is be an active-listener and really hear what people have to share about Long Beach State. For me, I’m fired up it’s going to be a lot of fun engaging a lot of people across the spectrum.
Fee mentioned that he was “fired up’ multiple times in an interview Friday and that while his goal is to continue LBSU’s success in the Big West, but also compete at the national level.
“It’s not just about the Big West championship,” Fee said. “We have teams at Long Beach that can compete for national championships in a number of sports and I think the goal is to build on the base that already exists.”
Along with spending his first six months being an active-listener, Fee will need to fill the women’s head coaching vacancy after Jody Wynn left to become the head coach at the University of Washington, while also assessing the department.
“My first six months to a year — I’m going to be assessing everything — everyone has a clean slate with me,” Fee said. “I’m not going to come in with any preconceived notions of what I think things are. Obviously, I’ve got eyes and ears but I think when you need to make good decisions and really learn what’s around you, you really have to take the time – you can’t make assumptions.”
In the press release Thursday night, President Jane Close Conoley spoke highly of Fee’s experience.
“Andy brings a wealth of experience and energy to Long Beach State,” Conoley said. “His vision for the future of our athletics program provides me confidence that he will build on the many successes we have had over the years and he will take our student-athletes to the next level, athletically and academically.”
Dirtbags coach Troy Buckley also commented on how he looks forward to looking with Fee.
“We are excited to have Andy join our department,” Buckley said. “He has been around quality athletic programs and [I’m] looking forward to him leading us to another level of success.”