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DeVries happy to be home in Iowa as Drake’s new head basketball coach

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Darian De Vries gers a Bulldog jersery from Drake’s athletic director Brian Hardin.

Aplington native Darian DeVries took over the Drake mens’ basketball program today in a ceremony in Des Moines.

Drake athletic director Brian Hardin introduced DeVries who has been at Creighton for 17 years as an assistant coach and spent 20 years on the staff there. He played college ball at the University of Northern Iowa.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be home, this has been a long-time dream of mine, to be not just a head coach, but to be somewhere where I feel at home around so many friends and family,” DeVries says.

Drake has not been to the NCAA basketball tournament since 2008, and DeVries referenced that season and seeing that team play in talking about what he hopes to accomplish for the Bulldogs.

“Ive seen in those flashes what this place is capable of. And we can get it to that level again — not just as a flash, not just on a single night — but on an every night basis. And it will take some time, it will take some time. At Creighton, I’ve been there 20 years and we are up to 17-thousand fans a nigh now. It wasn’t always like that,”Devries says.

Darian DeVries

De Vries has been in the running for the Drake job before and was passed over. He was asked why he stayed at Creighton instead of going somewhere else. “When other opportunities came around, that wasn’t where I wanted to be. When this one came around –several times,” he paused as the crowd laughed and he chuckled too. “This is what I wanted and I didn’t give up on that,” Devries says. “Because I see something here. I know what this job is, I know what this is about, I know what can work here and that is why I wanted to be here.”

De Vries will replace Niko Medved who left Drake for Colorado State after one season.

 

Drake athletic director leaving at end of the week

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Sandy Haftield-Club (file photo)

Drake University announced today that Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield Clubb will be leaving the university this Friday.

She has is taking a new job as senior partner with the Pictor Group, an intercollegiate athletics consulting firm. Hatfield Clubb was the first female athletic director for a combined athletic department in Iowa.

Prior to joining Drake in 2006, Hatfield Clubb had risen to the role of senior associate director of athletics at Arizona State University, a program she had joined in 1990 as management intern.

“I am proud to have been a Bulldog for the last 11 years and sincerely thank the many student-athletes, coaches, staff, fans, donors, and everyone who has helped grow Drake Athletics,” said Hatfield Clubb. “We have built a strong foundation together, and I’ll be cheering the Bulldogs on as their success continues. The city of Des Moines has been an extraordinary place to raise our children, and I will be forever grateful to this community.”

Associate Athletics Director Megan Franklin will serve as Drake’s interim athletic director and a national search to fill the permanent athletic director role will begin this fall.

Lawyer and child advocate tapped to take over as DHS director

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Jerry Foxhoven

Governor Kim Reynolds is hiring a lawyer with a long career as a child advocate to lead a state agency under scrutiny for how its child welfare programs are managed.

Sixty-four-year-old Jerry Foxhoven will take over as director of the Iowa Department of Human Services on Thursday. Foxhoven worked primarily in juvenile and family court until 2000, when he took a job in the department. He was administrator of the Iowa Child Advocacy Board.

He also managed the Iowa Citizen Foster Care Review Board as well as the program that appoints advocates for children involved in court cases because they were abused or neglected by a parent or guardian.

Since 2006, though, Foxhoven has been working outside the DHS, leading the national Center for Children’s rights. He’s also been a Drake University’s law school professor for the past decade. In 2014, Foxhoven led a coalition that released a voter guide showing how former Governor Terry Branstad and his Democratic challenger would address issues like child care, foster care and preschool.

“There are major child policy issues which much be addressed for childrens’ and Iowa’s properity into the future,” Foxhoven said in 2014.

Governor Reynolds calls Foxhoven a “compassionate, thoughtful leader.” Foxhoven promises to build “trust and relationships in all 99 counties…to solve the challenges many Iowa families are facing each day.”

Photo from the Drake University Law School web page.

Iowa easily downs UNI, ISU uses late run to beat Drake

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Iowa and UNI face off in the HyVee Classic.

The Iowa Hawkeyes clamped down on defense against Northern Iowa and rolled to an easy 69-46 win in the HyVee Classic Saturday.

UNI shot just about 27 percent from the field, including just 6 of 26 from three-point range.

Hawkeye senior Peter Jok said they built on the good defensive effort they had

Peter Jok

in their win against Iowa State. He says they’ve bought into playing defense and are talking on defense and their chemistry has been good.  Sophomore Nicholas Baer says they’ve worked hard on improving their play on the defensive end.

“Doing a lot better job of just doing it in drills in practice and then the practice carries over to the games. We knew UNI likes to shoot the three’s and that are a good three-point-shooting team, so

Nicholas Baer

we knew we had to get out on their shooters and also contain the drive — because when they drive and kick they are  really effective,” Baer said. “Just really proud of our collective effort as a team.”  Jok said the victory over the Panthers was a good one for their confidence.

“It just means that we can play at a high level against anybody in the country,” Jok said. While the Panthers had trouble scoring, Jok was making shots all over the floor, including 3 of 3 three-pointers to lead all scorers with 21. Baer came off the bench to score 11 points and chipped in 11 rebounds.

He says his mentality doesn’t change whether he is a starter or comes off the bench. “Whenever I go into the game, I’m just trying to impact the game with my energy, just trying to be a good teammate for all my teammates out on the court,” Baer says.

Fran McCaffery

Hawkeye coach Fran McCaffery praised Baer’s effort. “Nicholas Baer is just a special player. Every time he is on the bench I am thinking how I can get him back in. We’ve all seen him kind of go to exhaustion and that’s why we’ve got to take him out,” McCaffery said. He said Baer has the ability to come into the game and get right into the flow, while it takes some guys some time to get going. McCaffery said he is pleased with the way his team had improved its defensive play.

“Our rotations were better, our ball pressure was better, our rebounding was better. Because the thing you know is they are going to defend you and  you don’t know always know that you are going to be able to shoot a good number against them. There were a couple of stretches there where we weren’t scoring, but neither were they — and I think that is a big step for us,” McCaffery said.

Ben Jacobson and Jeremy Morgan.

The Panthers’ Jeremy Morgan was held to one of six three pointers, and says overall they had trouble making shots.

“I did think we got a lot of open looks, the looks that we wanted. And when those aren’t falling you’ve got to have a different level of toughness, you’ve got to have even more stops than you were getting before and you’ve got to rebound better. We weren’t making shots and we also weren’t doing those two things,” Morgan says.  U-N-I coach Ben Jacobson also though they had a lot of good shots that they didn’t make.

He says after you miss those good shots then you’ve got to be able switch gears and drive to the basket or get the ball into the paint and they didn’t do that. “We did not do that tonight and we are going to have to be able to do that going forward,” Jacobson said. Morgan led the Panthers with 14 points. They are now 5-5 on the season, while Iowa moved to 6-5.

Iowa State pulled away late in the second half to down Drake in the second game 97-80.  Drake hung with the Cyclones for most of the game, trailing by 2 at the half. The Bulldogs tied the game at 76-76 before the Cyclones went on a 21-4 run to close it out and get the win.

Naz Mittrou-Long set a Wells Fargo Arena record, scoring 37 points for ISU, Monte Morris added 20 and Darrell Bowie had 12.  Bill Wampler led Drake with 23 points. The Cyclones are now 7-3 and Drake fell to 1-9.

 

 

Vote Smart organization moving to Drake University

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vote-smart-logoAn operation that’s considered one of the leading sources of nonpartisan political information is moving it’s headquarters to Iowa.

Vote Smart will be housed at Drake University in Des Moines early next year. Drake President Marty Martin says the move will strengthen Drake’s reputation as a center for political study.

“We are the capital of the Iowa Caucuses and we’re just building on that expertise and experience by inviting Vote Smart to come to Drake,” Martin said. Vote Smart, formerly known as Project Vote Smart, was started by Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter along with dozens of other leaders from both major political parties in 1992. The operation has been run at a very remote location in Montana.

“I visited their ranch in Montana in July. They’re doing a lot of great work, but perhaps they’re not getting the kind of visibility their efforts deserve because of where they are located,” Martin said. The move to Des Moines will bring 23 full-time jobs and generate up to 70 internship opportunities for students during caucus season.

“In normal, other times of the political cycle, we’re looking at 40 to 50 internships,” Martin said. Those internships will be open to students at Drake, other Des Moines-area colleges and universities, and possibly Iowa State University. The Vote Smart website includes logs of political candidates’ speeches, voting records, special interest group ratings, campaign financing sources, and an assessment of candidates’ positions on a wide variety of issues.

Former Drake athletic trainer files complaint with Iowa Civil Rights Commission

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Scott Kerr

Scott Kerr

The former head athletic trainer at Drake University in Des Moines has filed a formal complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission after being fired in September after 31 years in his job.

Attorney Jerry Crawford spoke about the case Tuesday in a news conference, and says 61-year-old Scott Kerr had a medical condition that required him to frequently use the restroom

“On August 29th Scott had worked long, long days for three weeks with not a single day off, much of it on his feet,” Crawford says. “He was cleaning out a metal whirlpool and using it to rinse dirty containers when he had a sudden urge to urinate. He was alone in the training room and urinated in the tank rather than on the floor, know that he would not be able to make it to the restroom.”

Crawford says someone saw what Kerr did, and two days later he reported it and was told by Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield-Club to leave work immediately and report to the Human Resources Department the next day. A doctor later diagnosed Kerr with an enlarged prostate and prescribed medication.

“Despite the doctor’s diagnoses. Despite the 31 years of perfect performance reviews, despite the Drake HR Department saying that Scott’s disability could be accommodated, the athletic director chose to fire him,” Crawford says. Kerr was given one month severance pay.

Crawford says Hatfield-Club had asked Kerr to work with his son prior to his firing and then asked him to stay and train his replacement after she fired him.

“The same athletic director who said to Scott when she fired him that he is one of the best employees that she had ever known. The AD is not alone in thinking that highly of Scott as he has heard from dozens of past and current coaches, dozens of past and current athletes at Drake saying how sorely he is missed and how sorely he is needed back in his position,” Crawford says. Kerr says he was surprised to be fired given his condition.

“On September first I met with the athletic director and a representative of human resources expecting to get support for my condition,” Kerr says. “However, I was made to feel more embarrassed and humiliated.” Kerr says the firing was even more confusing after talking with Hatfield-Club.

“The athletic director recounted a story where she herself urinated in her pants in an airport while on Drake business and told me I should have done the same thing,” Kerr says. “When I heard that story I was very confused, embarrassed, and I didn’t know quite how to react to that story.” Attorney Roxanne Conlin is also representing Kerr and says the firing violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act as well as the Americans with Disability Act. She says they will ask for compensation.

“He’s entitled to the wages he would have earned had be been permitted to serve out his natural work life expectancy,” Conlin says. “And of course this has been a tremendous blow to Scott Kerr.” The attorneys says filing a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission is the first step in the legal process. Following the commission’s review, the attorneys can request a right-to-sue letter and proceed with a lawsuit.

A spokesman for Drake University issued this statement” “Drake University does not comment on personnel matters or issues pending before the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.”

Drake offers tuition guarantee to new students

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Drake President Marty Martin.

Drake President Marty Martin.

Cable TV and phone companies commonly offer customers a “price lock guarantee”, but it’s not something you usually hear from universities. Drake University in Des Moines is changing that with an offer to incoming freshmen.

President Marty Martin announced Drake’s Tuition Guarantee program Tuesday. “It’s very simple. The price that our students will pay coming in the front door starting in the fall of 2017 will be the price that’s guaranteed to them throughout their undergraduate career at Drake,” The rising cost of tuition has been talked about at the three state-supported universities in Iowa and it’s also been something brought up by various political candidates. Martin says his school also knows about those concerns.

“We’ve been hearing — as I believe many other institutions have — that parents and perspective students really desired greater clarity around what this is going to cost. They wanted to know up front what this is going to cost over the four years that my student is there. How do I better plan for this,” Martin says. “So, we responded to that, we wanted to give them the clarity, that’s what the tuition guarantee does.” Martin says they had to take a hard look at their budget to be able to make this offer.

“We’re very sensitive to costs of course as well, we are a tuition-dependent institution. So, we’ve had to do a lot of planning in our ability to make this guarantee with confidence, and of course we’ve arrived at that because we’ve done so.” Martin says. “But we always have to sharpen our pencils — that’s the world that we live in — and we’ve done that and are prepared to continue to do it.” Drake is a private school and the tuition guarantee is another thing they can use to compete for students.

He says they recently unveiled what they call the “Drake Commitment” in August and it talks about the quality of the experience of education at the school. “Which is incredibly high, great academics, vibrant student culture leads to tremendous outcome. It’s one of the best accomplishment rates in the country, mid-career earnings that are top in the country, the 97th-98th percentile in the country,” Martin says. “So we know that what we do from a quality perspective — and we’ve now addressed cost — and it’s that intersection of cost and quality that really speaks to value.” Martin says the value that students receive is well documented.

“We’ve routinely been recognized by Kiplingers and Princeton Review as one of the best values in higher education in the country. We’re just doubling down on that value proposition,” according to Martin.

Information from the school says the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard of typical federal student loan debt for Drake graduates is $25,000, which the school says is on par with Iowa’s three public state universities: Iowa State University ($25,250), University of Iowa ($22,500), and University of Northern Iowa ($22,148).

The school says Drake alumni pay off their student loans at a rate significantly higher than the national average for student loan repayment, due in part to early- and mid-career success.

Drake students holding caucus training

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Drake-logoSeveral groups have joined together to hold a “mock caucus” tonight on the Drake University campus.

“We got together and said ‘this would be a good thing to get people more excited to caucus if they know how,'” Jack Hellie, the editor-in-chief of the Drake Political Review. “The purpose is turn people out next Monday.”

Hellie, a junior from Saint Cloud, Minnesota, helped organize the practice caucus with the Drake University Student Senate and the leaders of Drake College Republicans and Drake University Democrats. The purpose of the event is to train students on the caucus process. Many Drake students who are eligible to participate in the Iowa Caucuses are from out of state.

“We thought a lot of those people probably don’t know how…and if they did know how and understood the process and what they would be doing if they made it on February 1, they would be more inclined to do so,” Hellie said.

More college students could be participating in the Iowa Caucuses this year because they’re being held on February 1. In the past, the Caucuses were held in early January when many college students were away from their campuses due to the winter break. The “mock caucus” at Drake University will take place tonight in the Knapp Center.

 

Drake student earns room at retirement center by singing

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Haley Jenkins

Haley Jenkins

You’ve heard of singing for your supper? A Drake University student will be singing for free room, board and utilities in a Des Moines-area retirement community.

Haley Jenkins is a 21-year-old vocal performance major at Drake and is the first student to try out the new living arrangement with Deerfield Retirement Community in Urbandale. As part of the deal, the college senior will sing two concerts a month for the senior citizens.

“My first concert, I’ll be singing many different songs in many different genres and time periods,” Jenkins says. “I want to educate the people at Deerfield about what I’ll be singing about.” Jenkins spent the fall semester studying abroad in Ireland and didn’t have a place to live upon her return, so the new partnership sounded like an ideal fit.

“It was just perfect for me coming back to America, having a great place to not only live but an amazing opportunity for me to start off the spring semester with,” she says. Jenkins, who grew up on a cattle ranch in central Nebraska, says she won’t be missing out on anything by living in a community that’s inhabited by people who are 40-plus years older. She looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm for music and learning from the other residents’ wealth of life experiences.

Besides, she says, her new apartment is great. “I have this very spacious living room, a galley-way kitchen, a whole office to myself — which is weird, a bathroom, a guest bathroom, a walk-in closet which for me is a big perk since I’m a bit of a fashionista, and a rather large master (bedroom).” Jenkins moved in over the weekend and plans to blog about the experience of being Iowa’s youngest senior living resident.

 

Iowa downs Drake 70-64

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Fran McCaffery

Fran McCaffery

The Drake Bulldogs rallied late, but the Iowa Hawkeyes were able to hold them off for a 70-64 win in a Big Four Classic matchup in Des Moines Saturday.

The game was tied 30-30 at the half and Iowa built an 11 point lead in the second half, before Drake made a run to cut it to two points with 1:37 to play. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery says his team continues to compete in every game.

“I’ve been really impressed with our team’s ability to come out every night with a mindset that’s necessary to win. When you look at our losses — we lost to three really good teams — two at neutral sites, one on the road. And we gave everything we had and we were in a position to win, and that’s disappointing, all three of those games we had a chance to win,” McCaffery says.

Nicholas Baer

Nicholas Baer

The Hawkeyes won with some help from a player who is not on scholarship. Redshirt freshman Nicholas Baer of Bettendorf walked on and against Drake had13 points, seven rebounds and six blocked shots. Baer, redshirted his first year, and was asked if this was what he envisioned in deciding to play at Iowa.

“I’m just excited to be here and just get a chance to play. I came to Iowa I always wanted to play at Iowa and coach gave me a chance to walk on. I always envisioned myself as a player, not just a practice player. When you come here you want to have a chance to compete on the floor,” Baer says.

He says he worked a lot on his shot during his redshirt year, with assistant coach Kirk Speraw as his shot doctor. “I didn’t need major surgery, but he gave me a few tweaks,” Baer says. He also credited his teammates with getting him the ball in the right place. McCaffery says he regretted agreeing to give Baer a redshirt after seeing him play last year in practice.

“I would say this, he probably spent more time working on his game than he did on his body, and I respect that. It’s great to be big and strong…but you’ve got to have game and what he’s got is he’s got a game,” McCaffery says.

Ray Giacoletti

Ray Giacoletti

Drake coach Ray Giacoletti was happy with the effort of his team.”I am very proud of our team, we talked all week about taking the fight to Iowa,” Giacoletti says. He says this game was part of the ongoing building process for the team.

“We did a lot of good things that will help us down the road,” Giacoletti says. Iowa improved its record to 8-3, while Drake drops to 4-7.