Mississippi State Athletic Director John Cohen has a vision.
Speaking with members of the Columbus chapter of Kiwanis International on Wednesday afternoon at Lion Hills Center and Golf Club, Cohen offered a wide-ranging overview of the MSU athletic department and the new initiatives his arm of the university has begun offering in recent years.
Chief among the announcements, the fourth-year athletic director said the new Mississippi State Tennis Pavilion is scheduled to be completed by May. An indoor facility that cost an estimated $8 million according to the university, it will sit on what was previously an extra football practice field.
“What I’ve discovered in dealing — and if anyone in this room deals in construction, I don’t mean to throw shade — everytime it rains, it’s almost like the construction is a month behind,” Cohen quipped of the project. “But no, that’s just how it works.”
Following the completion of the new tennis facility, Cohen said Humphrey Coliseum is next in line for renovations. Opened in 1975, The Hump houses both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, and its improvements are expected to cost between $40 and 50 million, though an exact number has not been calculated. According to Cohen, the physical construction on the arena is slated to begin in April 2021.
“It needs it,” he said. “It’s desperately caught in that era, and we need to make some major changes in the concourse; we need to have premium seating; we need to have better areas for our student-athletes. We’re going to address all those issues.”
Other major announcements Cohen included as part of a nearly 30-minute speech included an emphasis on MSU’s initiatives for student athlete development. Most recently, third-, fourth- and fifth-year MSU student-athletes were required to attend a job fair Monday night in which they met with over 60 businesses.
In preparation for the networking night, the MSU athletic department helped its student-athletes with workshops in professional dress, resumes and other fundamental pieces to the job hunting process. Participants were also provided business cards for their meetings with prospective employers.
Cohen also highlighted MSU’s recent hiring of two full-time mental health professionals in the athletic department as a major move in the current climate of collegiate athletics.
“When I took over as the athletic director just three years ago, we had no mental health care specialist to take care of our 368 athletes,” he said. “And let me tell everyone in the room, we are in a different age now.
“I will tell you that some of our kids come from backgrounds and have seen things that none of us can even imagine. We have to have the infrastructure for that, and we do at Mississippi State University.”
Beyond the administrative side of things, Cohen sounded off on MSU’s recent success on the playing field. He ran through everything from football and its recent hiring of head coach Mike Leach to the women’s golf team’s victory at the Westbrook Spring Invitational in Peoria, Arizona, last weekend.
“Our women’s golf team has really, really excelled and moved forward due to some really good recruiting classes by (coach) Ginger (Brown-Lemm) and her staff,” Cohen said, referencing the tournament win.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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