Jon Fagg celebrates one year as Athletics director

A figurine sits inside Athletics director Jon Fagg’s office. It immortalizes Sisyphus, a Greek mythology figure who the gods sentenced  to push a boulder up a hill for eternity. 

Fagg wrote a thesis on the figure in high school. For him, the tale is all about perspective. While most hear the story and think about the negative, Fagg focuses on the simplicity of Sisyphus’ life and jokes that pushing the rock will keep him in great shape. 

“Most people would take Sisyphus and think about trudgery and boredom and a lot of things,” Fagg said. “I think about opportunity.” 

Fagg spends his life focusing on solutions rather than problems. When he was announced as the Athletics director last June, it was the start of the next chapter of his life. After 14 years at the University of Arkansas and over 25 years in college athletics, Fagg finally ascended to the top position in an Athletics department. 

Like Sisyphus, Fagg has pushed that rock to the top of the mountain. Now, “I hope it doesn’t roll back down,” he chuckled. 

Fagg celebrated his one-year anniversary as Athletics director. When asked to grade his performance for the year, Fagg gave himself “hopefully a solid B.” 

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“We’re on the right track. I do think that our culture is shifting,” he said. 

Between having more meetings to encourage communication, playing weekly pick-up basketball games with the staff and building relationships with everyone in the Athletics department, Fagg is cultivating a culture he can be proud of. 

The pick-up games give Fagg a chance to bond with his staff in a way that’s not possible in an office. Trash talk over missed jumpers and foul calls are common. Fagg loves the competition. 

“Out there [on the court], I’m just a person,” he said with a smile. 

When he’s not competing with staff on the court, he’s holding regular meetings to figure out what he can do to help the department, said Debbie Garcia, executive senior associate director of Athletics. Garcia has worked with the university since 1999, and Fagg is her third Athletics director. 

Leadership books may frown on numerous meetings, but Fagg said they’re wonderful as long as there’s a purpose. Consistent meetings help people stay updated and are easier to make up for if one gets canceled, he said. 

If he’s not in a meeting, the door to Fagg’s office inside College Park Center is always open, baseball head coach Clay Van Hook said. If Fagg sees someone walking through, he’ll peek his head out to say hello. Fagg’s relational style is what makes him a powerful leader, Van Hook said. 

While previous Athletics directors were largely institutional hires with UT System experience, Fagg was an outsider. Garcia said his curiosity and thirst for knowledge have helped create more communication and collaboration. 

“His process of learning about us and learning about how we operate and everything has triggered us to communicate a lot more with one another, which has been a really positive thing,” Garcia said. 

Fagg’s process goes deeper than learning about the university. He takes the time to build personal relationships with his staff, which matters a lot with the wide range of emotions during a day in the department, Garcia said. 

“I think that people who feel valued but challenged will find a way to operate at peak performance,” Fagg said. 

Working together through those emotions requires people to have respect for each other. This office-wide respect helps people understand one another on a deeper level, Garcia said. 

That respect comes from Fagg as well. 

He said he represents an incredible university, and he wants to bring the respect he has for everyone with him into the office every day. 

“It makes you feel very supported,” Garcia said. “It makes it OK to stop and take a second and back away because they understand that piece of your life.” 

It also makes it easier to deal with adversity. Fagg said the toughest parts of his first year were firing Greg Young, former men’s basketball head coach, and not winning more. Fagg stressed the decision had nothing to do with Young as a person. 

The coaching change was a risky move for Fagg. Young had been with the university for 14 years and held close relationships with a lot of the Athletics staff. Garcia said Fagg did a good job keeping the dynamic professional. 

“He gave those of us that experienced it at a personal level some time and space to go through that, which is really important,” Garcia said. “And then tried to manage the conversation to be about expectations or goals for the program.” 

The firing was Fagg’s third coaching move in his first year. When he came to UTA, the department had two coaching vacancies after the baseball and softball coaches resigned following the 2022 season. 

During Fagg’s transition period, he filled both positions — hiring assistant coaches from Power Five schools to lead the teams. Van Hook got the nod for baseball July 1 and Kara Dill took the reins for softball July 8. 

“We both had our heads on a swivel the whole time because [Fagg] had just gotten hired and I was in the process of getting hired, so there’s always going to be that relational piece for us,” Van Hook said. 

During the hiring process, Van Hook said Fagg sold a vision of the university that he aligned with. Since both were new hires, Fagg didn’t have a UTA-centric pitch and the two bonded over their Power Five ties and coaching relationships with Fagg being a coach’s son. 

“He was basically selling me on himself,” Van Hook said. 

With new coaches on campus, Fagg wanted them to communicate with each other more. He said when he first arrived at the university, the Athletics department felt “siloed” with each sport doing their own thing. The department was doing great work, but not communicating, so things often fell through the cracks, Fagg said. 

Now, Van Hook said coaches are constantly talking about how to improve the university. 

When meetings aren’t happening, people can find Fagg at any number of sporting events. His passion for athletics shows with his attendance. He comes early and stays until the end of each game, shaking each athlete’s hand as they leave the playing field. 

One of Garcia’s favorite moments with Fagg came at the softball team’s home win over Texas Tech University in February. It was the team’s first win of the season, and Garcia brought flowers for the three new coaches she helped hire as a member of the hiring committee. Fagg saw the flowers and said “that was you,” referring to the coaches on the field. 

“As a leader, he knew that was really important to me at that moment,” Garcia said. “And he was like, ‘go enjoy it.’” 

With Fagg’s culture of communication and collaboration, Van Hook compared the Athletics department to an arrow pointing up, ready to fire like a rocket. In Fagg’s first year, the department notched two regular season championships, men’s and women’s tennis, and one conference tournament championship — men’s tennis. 

Fagg said some of his favorite moments this year have been experiencing campus life and enjoying the university’s diversity. He said it was cool the first few times student-athletes recognized him at practices and games. 

During Fagg’s first year, there was a theme of newness. A new conference, a new university president, new coaches. Fagg said there was some uncertainty at the beginning as people settled into their new roles. It felt like a blur at times, but as he enters his second year, he is fully comfortable in his role and ready to hit the ground running. 

“I think we’ve been making progress,” Fagg said. “I don’t think I should give myself that much credit. I’m pretty hard on myself. I think we’re on the right track.” 

@isaacappelt 

sports-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu