‘Bigger than wins’

Flowers focused on community, relationships after one year as SMSU AD

“My biggest priority initially was meeting my staff,” Jennifer Flowers said.

On May 11th, 2022, Southwest Minnesota State University hired Flowers to be the Director of Athletics. Her goal for the first couple of months on the job was to familiarize herself with her new staff and build camaraderie between them.

“The first six to eight weeks was to try to gather them and get to know them a little bit,” Flowers said. “I’ve learned through mentors and over time that making change just to change isn’t appropriate and doesn’t get bought into. I wanted to rebuild confidence in our department, rebuild some confidence in each other and build some team chemistry. I did a lot of listening. Listening to the cabinet, listening to the students of the school trying to find out what are the conversations that will have an impact on us. I felt I had to say yes to everything, so I was in a bunch of meetings in year one but it was about the relationships with people. Knowing the players in the game. It was a full year of learning.”

As the weeks came on, Flowers would slowly implement things by listening to the needs of her staff, also the students around the campus, and the athletes on the team. Flowers built a priority list of what she would like to accomplish in year one and talked about the highlights of her first year as Director of Athletics.

“I talked to our coaches a lot and tell them that it has to be bigger than wins,” Flowers said.” I felt like one of the best things that happened to us is a great start to our football season winning three home games. That mattered. Our program and community needed that. That environment is a place where people need to be on Saturdays so we have to give them a reason. The volleyball program is the driver in this region. I felt like they were trying to find their identity. They had moments similar to the SMSU men’s basketball program where they played up and down. We weren’t consistent but I do think both of those programs will be better next season.”

After a solid fall season with athletics, women’s basketball had a great run in the winter and made it to the semifinals of the NSIC tournament for the fourth time in school history. The soccer team didn’t have much success but had a very impactful season through the eyes of Flowers.

“I was so happy for Clay Glasgow because the soccer program didn’t win a lot of games, but their experience, output and expectations all have shifted,” Flowers said. “That is how you have to start when you are rebuilding or taking over a program. Every one of our sports programs had something to celebrate about their season. I want us to be relevant. I thought we made good strides toward that this year.”

Flowers is remodeling the P.E. gym floor, the site of the Mustangs’ home volleyball games. If you saw her out amongst the crowd, she brought the spirit and energy needed at the games. She described herself as super competitive and wanting to win but understands there is a process to go about it.

“Flowers has been an absolute pleasure to work for this past year,” SMSU assistant athletic director Kelly Loft said. “Her passion for the job and making SMSU Mustangs Athletics better each day is very evident. Over the year, she has been active in the Marshall community in building partnerships with our Mustang supporters and meeting with as many individuals and businesses as she can. Flowers is committed to making the student-athlete experience the best it can be. She has done a great job connecting with our student-athletes, meeting with each team, and making our student-athletes proud to compete as Mustangs, earn their degree and be successful in life.”

Flowers has had countless meetings with the team and coaches to set an expectation for the team, encouraging them to embrace the underdog role and to give everything they have to their teammates for their school.

As spring came around, the winter weather persisted. The weather delayed the start of spring sports and it was up to Flowers to readjust schedules and also manage the situations of the weather and teams that became frustrated with having to adjust so much. Flowers spoke on how the spring season was hard for her in year one of her tenure.

“The emotions were high all spring,” Flowers said. “The frustrations of the weather and the inability for us to be on turf for a while mounted. Managing people during that space was the hardest part because everyone was frustrated. Our softball team played like 30 games in 25 days, which is wild. That was the hardest time of the year because everyone was over it. Just the situation that we were in.”

Flowers and her staff will now be more acquainted with each other, certain events that are happening throughout the year, and how to adjust and do a better job of putting herself first at times.

“I would say for me, I didn’t do a great job all year of putting myself first at certain times,” Flowers said. “I think the thing is as a leader you’re always pouring out but who’s pouring into you? If you’re not doing that, then you can drain yourself quickly. I think that will be better going into and I feel like as a staff we are more prepared to plan for events heading into year two.”

Along with the new remodeling of the facility, there will be some new staff within the Athletics department. Jeremy Ische has been hired as the new baseball coach, Charles Alexander is a new addition to the football staff and Hannah Geistfeld has been promoted to assistant coach of the women’s basketball team. SMSU will also welcome a new athletic trainer and a group of new graduate assistants. There is also an ongoing search for the team’s new tennis coach. Flowers spoke on what she is most looking forward to in the year and getting more things accomplished.

“I have some goals around staffing that I want to achieve,” Flowers said. “I don’t think we are appropriately staffed in a few of our sports from an assistant coach perspective. That is a big goal of mine to get those staff stable to provide the best experience there. We are renovating the wrestling room and we are looking to revamp football Saturdays. We want to make Saturday a big deal and get a more tailgate, fun type of atmosphere. As you get comfortable with people and who can do what, there are some structural staff things I’d like to get changed which is probably my biggest goal going into year two.”