Steven Murillo
Staff Writer
Madison Mangum isn’t the only ISU talent to come from the illustrious Brigham Young University: ISU athletic director Jeff Tingey was also brought to Pocatello from the grasps of Provo.
He began his career at ISU in 2007. The job profile he took on as athletic director is a complex and busy one.
Each day holds a different set of tasks for him. Some duties that keep him running around are promotions, corporate sales, marketing, attending meetings, fundraising, paper work, attending practices and meeting with boosters. At times he is even responsible for hiring coaches.
Some of the luxuries that he has helped to provide since his start at ISU include the reconstruction of the Jared Allen Strength and Conditioning Center, new basketball courts inside Reed gym and Holt arena, an upgraded football field inside Holt, an artificial turf practice field just outside of Holt and the Miller Ranch Softball Stadium.
A man with connections at various Division One universities throughout the U.S., Tingey continues to do everything he can to take each ISU sport to a higher level.
One such opportunity he has made possible is the scheduling of big-money football games with opponents such as University of Nebraska, Utah State University and Boise State University.
These games bring in large quantities of money to our athletics department.
The money from these games benefits many sports outside of just football and basketball and is truly a blessing.
As Tingey said, “winning breeds winning,” and there have been several sports uplifted the past few years to championship levels at ISU.
One such sport that has benefitted directly from the decisions of Tingey’s office is women’s softball.
The sport has seen a revival that has vaulted the Bengals into championship contention. The first part of this revival was the hiring of head coach Julie Wright.
Since her first season as head coach, the team’s winning percentage has gone up dramatically.
They’ve also had a new stadium built for them, become more effective at recruiting and have brought in new talent that is able to compete with the best the Big Sky Conference has to offer.
The team was even able to attract an assistant coach and pitching advisor who has experience with Team USA.
Since the construction of the stadium, the team has seen two conference championships.
Tingey is very proud of this whole situation because he played a big part in the fundraising for the new stadium. The hard work by him and his department is continuing to pay off for the girls as they head into another season of high expectations.
Tingey operates under the philosophy that “a rising tide lifts all boats.”
If all the athletes in our community understand what it takes to be successful in their sports, academically and in their personal lives it will show in the success of the teams.
As Tingey provides the direct line of leadership throughout all the sports programs, it begins with him being effective at his job. He is linked with each one of the coaches at the university and work with maintaining relationships with boosters is also critically important to all ISU athletics.
A booster has been defined as a person who has interest in the university and is invested in some way. Some of the boosters are individuals while others are companies such as Idaho Central Credit Union.
Being a former college football and track athlete himself, he brings an experienced and knowledgeable quality to his position.
Earning his marketing degree from Weber State, Tingey started his career as an intern in their athletic department. A humble beginning of working for little to no pay, he soon proved valuable with his sales and marketing abilities and was offered a position after a year.
He later took his talents to BYU as a marketing director before coming to Pocatello.
Tingey is on a mission with his unique position at ISU. More than anything, he wants to provide the best possible opportunities to the student athletes here.
His vision for the time he spends at ISU is to see each of the athletic programs here have their turn at a championship match, and to see all the athletes graduate with excellent grade-point averages.
It has been expressed that grades and the acquisition of degrees are highly valued by the department.
Tingey saw one of his visions come true during the 2012-2013 academic year.
Under his direction, it was reported that a record 183 students received Big Sky All-Academic honors.
