Salt Lake Community College has never had a losing season, in any program, ever. What makes the college so successful? At first one might point to Athletic Director Kevin Dustin, but he is quick to point to something else, a vision.
“You have to create a culture, create an atmosphere, I always hesitate to say I’m a good leader because we all lead in this department, to have a successful program everyone needs a voice, a vision” Says Dustin. The vision for Dustin however was never being an AD. Growing up in northern Utah near Carrier, Dustin’s aspirations were always to be a coach. He chased those dreams by becoming a head coach at Skyview high school for their women’s and men’s teams. Dustin spent a majority of his life coaching basketball until finally he hung up the clipboard as an assistant at Utah State. That wasn’t the end though, so he made some calls and ended up the AD at SLCC.
Dustin compares getting the SLCC job to taking over the Spurs in there prime. “There was nothing to “rebuild” when I got here everything was running smoothly and my job was to not mess it up” Dustin says. Of course, that doesn’t mean Dustin believes he can rest on his laurels. “Athletics is constantly changing, lay down for a second, take your eye off the prize for a moment and just like that your behind” Dustin snaps his finger as to represent the fleeting dreams of athletic directors who sit back and do nothing.
Sit back and do nothing. That is what some may assume Dustin’s job is, but it is so much more. The AD doesn’t just sit in his office and talk to coaches and cut their life strings when time is up. “A lot of my job is obtaining tools, so our student athletes can succeed” says Dustin. He makes it very clear that the institution is doing its part for the Athletics department but emphasizes he must do more. “President Huftalen understands the importance of athletics to a college. If you have a president who doesn’t that can make this job very hard. My responsibility is to call up some of the very generous people who donate to us and show them that our program is helping young people and that they can help young people by giving us more resources”
How does SLCC help student athletes though? What is the selling point for a small community college in Salt Lake City Utah? “We see ourselves as a place a player can come to develop” Dustin says. It isn’t that the athletes SLCC gets aren’t talented physically and academically, many of them are. The Athletes SLCC gets they get because they are driven. “Rather than sit on the bench at BYU or Utah your first year why not come here and improve your game and get picked up by one of these great institutions like Oklahoma for Kuah Kerr after year one.” Dustin points out that the players SLCC get are just as good as other four-year institutions because they are more driven and are looking to prove themselves. Nothing sells like a chip on the shoulder.
Speaking of selling one of the biggest parts of Dustin’s job is dealing with budgets. So how did a career basketball coach develop a business acumen? Dustin laughs “That’s a good question, I really don’t know, I have had a lot of great mentors to help me through with that kind of stuff. I meet with our accounting department on a regular basis and they are really helpful in giving me the information I need to make good decisions” Dustin knows a thing or two about making good decisions, he has a lot of help around him.
Coaches aren’t hard to motivate. There just wired to be competitive according to Dustin so when it comes to recruiting he leaves most of the heavy lifting to them but that shows a larger part of Dustin’s job a delegator. “If I give my coaches a job to do they are going to do it really well because they want whats best for our school” says Dustin. That’s why he believes turnover can be so poisonous. The last thing you want to do according to Dustin is fire coaches. It creates instability and chaos. If every coach is looking over their back always the quality of play from a team goes down. That and results aren’t the most important thing to Dustin “The reason we are really here is to improve the lives of students and to put them on the right track” He can only remember a handful of students from SLCC who have ever gone pro and that’s not because of the college pro athletics are in nature super competitive and Dustin wants to give his athletes a plan b. “If I can send students out of here with a quality education and a path they can follow to become productive members of society then I have done my job”
Dustin is a nice, loose, focused guy. When asked about leadership he shy’s away from the question. The question is not what makes a good leader for him its how he can make good leaders. Instead he hammers home vision. Vision, crisp, clear, simple. The Vision for SLCC “To be an inclusive, diverse, and successful environment for Student Athletes to succeed” That Vision is working well with athletes from all over the world calling SLCC, home.