When Steve Waterfield decided to move his wife and two school-aged sons to Michigan for a job offer, it was a decision made from much consideration.
Previously, Waterfield served as the Executive Associate Athletic Director at the University of Nebraska, so deciding to settle down in a completely new state with a differing culture was admittedly a tough choice to make for the sake of his family, according to Waterfield. The Waterfields, however, have been familiarized with the Midwest as the two children were born in Madison, Wisconsin and have all spent time in Lincoln, Nebraska for employment opportunities, so they were able to feel comfortable with the choice to make another move.
“[Rochester, Michigan] was really a place that we could set roots down. We could make it. It felt comfortable, and it would be good for [the children], good for my wife, and had a high quality of life,” Waterfield said.
On April 12, Steve Waterfield gave Oakland University a glimpse into his first year of being the new athletic director to provide the university with a sense of success of the past school year and hope for a promising future under his leadership
Waterfield described his job as OU’s athletic director in his own words.
“I oversee the athletics department, and that’s 18 varsity sports, about 340 student athletes, a hundred and some staff, whether they’re students, full-time, part-time, casual workers, and I certainly represent the athletics department on campus and in the community with a focus on really four things,” Waterfield said. “From the get-go, it’s the student athlete experience, competing for championships, collaborating with the university, and strengthening our connection with the community, alumni, donors, et cetera.”
An element of potential was evident to Waterfield before he began his journey at OU. He described this potential as being rooted in the passion of the university’s athletes and their surrounding community, and the passion that was already evident was what explained was attractive to him from a prospective employee’s standpoint.
“I think, just the fact that there’s potential, there’re ways to get better, they’re things we can do, short and long term, that will require a lot of hard work, but will allow us to get better across the board in a lot of our sports, which is attractive,” Waterfield said. “It’s always that optimism that we can do better than what we did today when we do it tomorrow and down the road. So, that’s been evident, too, which energizes me to want to accomplish and move forward.”
Waterfield viewed his past school year as athletic director as being optimistic and having potential. Similarly, the plans he has for his tenure can be considered to have a quite similar attitude.
“I’m looking at trying to expand medical services, nutrition, sports psychology, and academic services for all of our student athletes,” Waterfield said. “We need to have facility upgrades: We need a basketball practice gym, we need student athlete academic space, we need renovated locker room space, we need a renovated baseball field, we need softball improvements, an indoor golf area.”
Steve Waterfield was optimistic about taking on the role of the athletic director of Oakland University from the very beginning. From making the decision of continuing in calling the Midwest his home, to taking on the challenges of a large leadership role on campus, to finding the potential in the student athletes and creating goals for the department, Waterfield is building what many of his colleagues consider to be a success story in the realm of OU sports. Waterfield looks forward to progressing the university by being dedicated to staff, student athletes, and Oakland’s community.
Written for the Oakland Post in April 2019