Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Getting to know Deputy AD Lee De León
12/9/2021 5:45:00 PM | General, BRAA
GBR.com sat down for a Q&A with the Blue Raiders’ new leader of External Operations
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Lee De León has been in the mid-state only a few weeks, but his life has never been busier as he adjusts to his new home as a Blue Raider.
If you've been in the Murphy Center watching either the Blue Raiders or Lady Raiders, you've likely seen him walking around the crowd introducing himself to fans and supporters. During the day, MT's new Deputy Athletic Director for External Operations is meeting individually with different people within the department, learning their backgrounds, their stories, their goals.
And learning about MTSU in the process.
"I genuinely love people, I'm an extrovert through and through," De León said. "I'm trying to go on a listening tour right now and doing a bunch of research to get as many opinions as possible, so I can have a really good grasp of this community and what makes it so unique and special."
Coming to MT from Louisiana, De León has a long career in athletic administration, with stops at Purdue, Abilene Christian, New Mexico and Arizona among others, developing a reputation as an administrator who helps stakeholders get excited about what the athletic department is doing, and helping them fuel their passions in the process.
While De León was busy beginning to familiarize himself with the various areas he oversees in his new role — including the Blue Raider Athletic Association, Athletic Development, Sponsorships, Marketing, Merchandise, and Licensures — the Houston native and Notre Dame graduate sat down with GoBlueRaiders.com staff writer Sam Doughton to discuss his background, why Middle Tennessee appealed to him, and lessons learned during his career.
The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Your bio speaks for itself as far as your success at all your stops in your career. But what's something that doesn't show up in your bio that you want people to know about you?
I was ten years old and I saw the movie 'Rudy' and I fell in love, so I always wanted to go to school at Notre Dame. I tried to be Rudy, trying to walk-on to the football team as a kicker, and I almost made it. It got down to me and another guy, and they took the other guy.
But at that moment, I was like 'ok, if I can't be an athlete, how can I still be around college sports?' And I found out about this career path. I've spent the past 16 years bouncing around the country, I've got a very loving and understanding wife that's willing to allow me to do that. And I'm really excited to be here.
I'm a diehard sports fan. I was not good enough to be a college athlete, I wasn't smart enough to be a college coach. But I just wanted to be around college athletics in some way, shape, or form. A lot of athletics administrators are former players and coaches, and I don't fit into that category. I do this because I love college sports, and I can't imagine my life without it.
Someone with your resume can get a job at a lot of different places. Why did Middle Tennessee specifically appeal to you?
A lot appealed to me. First, being near Nashville in a booming community, I just love this part of the country. I had never lived here before, but I come to Nashville every year for an event and I've just fallen in love with this area. I also wanted to be in a place where I felt like I could make an impact and move the needle.
Second, I feel like Middle Tennessee has the resources and the community to become so much bigger than it is. I hope I can get people excited about the great things happening here and the bright future that we have. I think with the right facilities, which are on their way, and the influx of money that we're getting from all the C-USA departures, that gives you a lot of resources to invest into athletics and to really see this thing take off.
As you get settled in Murfreesboro, what are some of your goals from your first 100 days on the job?
The first thing I want to do is meet with people. Right now, I'm having about ten meetings a day internally just to learn about people, where they come from, how did they end up here, what brought them here, and then I ask them 'what do they want to do long term?' I love helping people move up in college athletics, that's a passion of mine, so I want to meet with people and get to know their passions and help them meet their goals.
Externally, I want to meet people and understand why they love Middle and what makes this place so unique. Because the way that Middle Tennessee is run and operated and what they want to accomplish is different from the other schools that I've been at. So you never just want to show up at a place with guns a-blazing and try to change everything. You want to really learn and understand the culture of that unique institution and what it takes to be successful here.
The second thing I'm going to really try to do is inject some energy and positivity. I want to come in and show people that there's a lot of exciting things happening, that we're not in a position of weakness now but we're actually in a position of strength to climb out of this situation and be better than we've ever been.
I look forward to talking to people about how they can help us. There's a lot of different ways people can do that. Joining the BRAA, making a gift to the Build Blue Now campaign, buying season tickets, buying more gear. I went into a store today, a local shop, and said 'where's the MTSU gear?' and they said 'oh, we don't really have any.' Like, that's not good enough. We need to have more of a presence in this community and we need to see more of our logos throughout Murfreesboro and in the surrounding areas.
You mentioned the BRAA. While you're not running it day-to-day in your new role, it is in your area of oversight, and your past stops have given you a lot of direct experience with similar organizations at other institutions. Given that experience, what's the key to running successful development operations within the athletic department?
It's all about relationships, and learning what people are passionate about. Because people who donate to an athletic department, they don't have to give. They're choosing to give their discretionary income. So our job as professional fundraisers is to make people feel good about the money that they give. Whether they're writing a check for $100 or $100,000, we need to treat them and steward them in a way that makes them feel special.
We need to know their names, we need to go see them, when we walk by them in the stadium, we need to say hi. We need to go visit their tailgate and spend time with them. We need people to know that we appreciate the money that they give, because they don't have to give that money.
The second thing you have to do in development is you have to show people how we have a need and they have a passion, and when those two things align, it's a beautiful thing. Right now, we're building a new tennis complex, we're renovating the Murphy Center, we're going to build a Student Athlete Performance Center. We need to find people that have a passion for those things and then show them how they can help us. People can't give to something if they don't know how or why. So, a big part of what we do is educating people; this is where your money goes, this is the impact it makes, and this is why we need more of it.
The other thing right now that I'm really excited about is that we get to build a staff. We have three open positions that we get to hire in the next month or two to build up the BRAA staff. Imani Smith has done a great job holding down the fort and being a one-person shop, but we've got to hire some more really good people that will come in and hit the ground running. That will build relationships and will be able to tell people why and how they can help us.
With all of your travels, is there one particular lesson you've learned in your career that you take with you everywhere you go?
Not every place is the same, there's no cookie cutter approach. You have to understand the unique dynamics of each school you're at. You have to understand what makes people tick. You have to take a different approach to each school in how you're going to be effective there.
The other thing I've learned is that fit is really important. You have to fit in at a school. I've worked for places where I feel like I'm a great fit and I worked for places where I wasn't a good fit. I think Middle Tennessee fits me well, I think it fits my family well. I think our values are aligned with this university and this area of the country.
Going back to what I said earlier, hiring people boils down to who's going to fit best at this university. The reason why I'm going on this listening tour is because I'm about to hire a bunch of people. I've got to understand why this place is unique, and what type of person it takes to be successful here.
The one thing that is the same at every school, however, is that it's all about relationships. Do I like you? Do I trust you? Do I want to help you? And if you can build relationships, and get people to like you, to trust, to want to help you, you can be successful.
What's the thing you're most excited about Middle Tennessee athletics in the next few years?
I think the Build Blue campaign, getting to transform the athletic facilities, and the fact that Chris Massaro and Dr. McPhee have already put together a great plan. Now we just need to go execute. We've got the money, we know what we need to build, now we've got to go build it. I love the possibility of really transforming a campus together and looking back on it five, ten years from now, and say 'we did that.'
I got to be a part of that at Abilene Christian as the athletic director. When we transitioned from Division II to Division I, we had to upgrade all of our facilities. So as I look back on it, it's incredible all the things we were able to accomplish. And I want to do that here.
The other thing I'll say is that I'm really excited to learn, and Chris is a guy I think I can learn a lot from. He has done this at a high level for a long time, and I can already tell he's somebody that just oozes wisdom and knowledge of college athletics. So I'm just really excited to learn under his mentorship and guidance.
If you've been in the Murphy Center watching either the Blue Raiders or Lady Raiders, you've likely seen him walking around the crowd introducing himself to fans and supporters. During the day, MT's new Deputy Athletic Director for External Operations is meeting individually with different people within the department, learning their backgrounds, their stories, their goals.
And learning about MTSU in the process.
"I genuinely love people, I'm an extrovert through and through," De León said. "I'm trying to go on a listening tour right now and doing a bunch of research to get as many opinions as possible, so I can have a really good grasp of this community and what makes it so unique and special."
Coming to MT from Louisiana, De León has a long career in athletic administration, with stops at Purdue, Abilene Christian, New Mexico and Arizona among others, developing a reputation as an administrator who helps stakeholders get excited about what the athletic department is doing, and helping them fuel their passions in the process.
While De León was busy beginning to familiarize himself with the various areas he oversees in his new role — including the Blue Raider Athletic Association, Athletic Development, Sponsorships, Marketing, Merchandise, and Licensures — the Houston native and Notre Dame graduate sat down with GoBlueRaiders.com staff writer Sam Doughton to discuss his background, why Middle Tennessee appealed to him, and lessons learned during his career.
The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Your bio speaks for itself as far as your success at all your stops in your career. But what's something that doesn't show up in your bio that you want people to know about you?
I was ten years old and I saw the movie 'Rudy' and I fell in love, so I always wanted to go to school at Notre Dame. I tried to be Rudy, trying to walk-on to the football team as a kicker, and I almost made it. It got down to me and another guy, and they took the other guy.
But at that moment, I was like 'ok, if I can't be an athlete, how can I still be around college sports?' And I found out about this career path. I've spent the past 16 years bouncing around the country, I've got a very loving and understanding wife that's willing to allow me to do that. And I'm really excited to be here.
I'm a diehard sports fan. I was not good enough to be a college athlete, I wasn't smart enough to be a college coach. But I just wanted to be around college athletics in some way, shape, or form. A lot of athletics administrators are former players and coaches, and I don't fit into that category. I do this because I love college sports, and I can't imagine my life without it.
Someone with your resume can get a job at a lot of different places. Why did Middle Tennessee specifically appeal to you?
A lot appealed to me. First, being near Nashville in a booming community, I just love this part of the country. I had never lived here before, but I come to Nashville every year for an event and I've just fallen in love with this area. I also wanted to be in a place where I felt like I could make an impact and move the needle.
Second, I feel like Middle Tennessee has the resources and the community to become so much bigger than it is. I hope I can get people excited about the great things happening here and the bright future that we have. I think with the right facilities, which are on their way, and the influx of money that we're getting from all the C-USA departures, that gives you a lot of resources to invest into athletics and to really see this thing take off.
As you get settled in Murfreesboro, what are some of your goals from your first 100 days on the job?
The first thing I want to do is meet with people. Right now, I'm having about ten meetings a day internally just to learn about people, where they come from, how did they end up here, what brought them here, and then I ask them 'what do they want to do long term?' I love helping people move up in college athletics, that's a passion of mine, so I want to meet with people and get to know their passions and help them meet their goals.
Externally, I want to meet people and understand why they love Middle and what makes this place so unique. Because the way that Middle Tennessee is run and operated and what they want to accomplish is different from the other schools that I've been at. So you never just want to show up at a place with guns a-blazing and try to change everything. You want to really learn and understand the culture of that unique institution and what it takes to be successful here.
The second thing I'm going to really try to do is inject some energy and positivity. I want to come in and show people that there's a lot of exciting things happening, that we're not in a position of weakness now but we're actually in a position of strength to climb out of this situation and be better than we've ever been.
I look forward to talking to people about how they can help us. There's a lot of different ways people can do that. Joining the BRAA, making a gift to the Build Blue Now campaign, buying season tickets, buying more gear. I went into a store today, a local shop, and said 'where's the MTSU gear?' and they said 'oh, we don't really have any.' Like, that's not good enough. We need to have more of a presence in this community and we need to see more of our logos throughout Murfreesboro and in the surrounding areas.
You mentioned the BRAA. While you're not running it day-to-day in your new role, it is in your area of oversight, and your past stops have given you a lot of direct experience with similar organizations at other institutions. Given that experience, what's the key to running successful development operations within the athletic department?
It's all about relationships, and learning what people are passionate about. Because people who donate to an athletic department, they don't have to give. They're choosing to give their discretionary income. So our job as professional fundraisers is to make people feel good about the money that they give. Whether they're writing a check for $100 or $100,000, we need to treat them and steward them in a way that makes them feel special.
We need to know their names, we need to go see them, when we walk by them in the stadium, we need to say hi. We need to go visit their tailgate and spend time with them. We need people to know that we appreciate the money that they give, because they don't have to give that money.
The second thing you have to do in development is you have to show people how we have a need and they have a passion, and when those two things align, it's a beautiful thing. Right now, we're building a new tennis complex, we're renovating the Murphy Center, we're going to build a Student Athlete Performance Center. We need to find people that have a passion for those things and then show them how they can help us. People can't give to something if they don't know how or why. So, a big part of what we do is educating people; this is where your money goes, this is the impact it makes, and this is why we need more of it.
The other thing right now that I'm really excited about is that we get to build a staff. We have three open positions that we get to hire in the next month or two to build up the BRAA staff. Imani Smith has done a great job holding down the fort and being a one-person shop, but we've got to hire some more really good people that will come in and hit the ground running. That will build relationships and will be able to tell people why and how they can help us.
With all of your travels, is there one particular lesson you've learned in your career that you take with you everywhere you go?
Not every place is the same, there's no cookie cutter approach. You have to understand the unique dynamics of each school you're at. You have to understand what makes people tick. You have to take a different approach to each school in how you're going to be effective there.
The other thing I've learned is that fit is really important. You have to fit in at a school. I've worked for places where I feel like I'm a great fit and I worked for places where I wasn't a good fit. I think Middle Tennessee fits me well, I think it fits my family well. I think our values are aligned with this university and this area of the country.
Going back to what I said earlier, hiring people boils down to who's going to fit best at this university. The reason why I'm going on this listening tour is because I'm about to hire a bunch of people. I've got to understand why this place is unique, and what type of person it takes to be successful here.
The one thing that is the same at every school, however, is that it's all about relationships. Do I like you? Do I trust you? Do I want to help you? And if you can build relationships, and get people to like you, to trust, to want to help you, you can be successful.
What's the thing you're most excited about Middle Tennessee athletics in the next few years?
I think the Build Blue campaign, getting to transform the athletic facilities, and the fact that Chris Massaro and Dr. McPhee have already put together a great plan. Now we just need to go execute. We've got the money, we know what we need to build, now we've got to go build it. I love the possibility of really transforming a campus together and looking back on it five, ten years from now, and say 'we did that.'
I got to be a part of that at Abilene Christian as the athletic director. When we transitioned from Division II to Division I, we had to upgrade all of our facilities. So as I look back on it, it's incredible all the things we were able to accomplish. And I want to do that here.
The other thing I'll say is that I'm really excited to learn, and Chris is a guy I think I can learn a lot from. He has done this at a high level for a long time, and I can already tell he's somebody that just oozes wisdom and knowledge of college athletics. So I'm just really excited to learn under his mentorship and guidance.
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