Feature: Paredes Reflects on Completed Year in Q&A

It was another banner year for Kansas Wesleyan Athletics.

It culminated with Kansas Wesleyan winning its second consecutive KCAC Commissioner's Cup, which reflects excellence in athletics in 21 championships.

Twelve teams qualified for NAIA postseason play, 11 Coyotes earned NAIA All-America honors, and numerous student-athletes and coaches received postseason recognition from the Kansas Conference. KWU teams won seven KCAC championships and had a .713 winning percentage in conference play.

The department's 659 student-athletes posted a collective 3.24 GPA - the highest, so far - with 131 of them named Daktronics Scholar Athletes. They also logged 7,077 volunteer hours in the community.

Director of Athletics MiguelParedes, who took the reins of the department in January 2023, was named the KCAC's AD of the Year after overseeing the many successes of the 2023-24 school year.

Paredes reflected on the award and the past year and looked ahead to 2024-25 during a recent question-and-answer session.

Question: What does the Athletic Director of the Year award mean to you?

Paredes: It means God is good. It means that we have a plan and God has a plan for us, and I'm a firm believer in that. God brought me to Salina. The tools, the resources to be successful have always been here. I think that, with just a little bit of motivation, having people believe in themselves, believing in a higher power that, no matter what obstacle they face, they can overcome adversity and be successful. (The award) was the cherry on top of the cake. We had a really good, successful year. I wish I could take credit for it, but I inherited an amazing staff, a staff that didn't know me but believed in our philosophy. If it wasn't for their hard work, the hard work of the student-athletes and the belief in me from President (Matt) Thompson and Ken Oliver (executive vice president for advancement and university operations), we wouldn't have all this. So, it feels good but the credit goes to Kansas Wesleyan.

Question: The 2023-24 school year was amazing. In hindsight, how do you view it?

Paredes: I think we're just scratching the surface of what we can become. You can be good, you can be great, you can be phenomenal, you can be legendary, and I think we're heading in that direction. Athletics go from August to June, but they really picks up in May, when we're preparing for the following year - not just what we do on the court but, more importantly, what we do off the court. My staff has done an amazing job with retaining most of their student-athletes. They do an amazing job of recruiting, meeting the recruiting goals.

Question: Success is the goal of all coaches and athletes, but for a department to have collective success, there must be buy-in across the board. How have you been able to build and maintain it?

Paredes: I think we came together as a true family. We always hear the cliche "we're a family here," but then no one really knows each other. I remember when I first came to interview, they said we were tight-knit, but we really weren't. In the summer, we started doing team bonding where each head coach would teach a drill, then at the end of the drill, we all played that sport. It was volleyball, basketball, pickleball, sand volleyball - we even had a wiffleball contest. Just seeing everybody get together, get out of their element, get to know each other - that meant a lot, because it trickles down. It's great to watch a men's volleyball game and in comes men's basketball, softball, women's basketball, football players. That is what it's really about. I tell my staff, "Let's learn from each other first and see how we can encourage each other to be there for each other, not just on the court but off the court, especially." I like to use the acronym for the word family - "Forget About Me, I Love You" - putting our wants or needs aside for the betterment of our family.

Question: It has been said you have some P.T. Barnum in you, with the seemingly endless stream of ideas for improving and making game days more exciting for student and fans. You say you constantly think about new things to do, often at the expense of sleep.

Paredes: You see what they do at K-State, KU, Mizzou, Texas - the big Division I programs - and they have these great game-day environments. You get to the NAIA level and it's pretty much gone. I said, "Why can't we do this?" I think it's all about that pride and if you have school pride. My first semester here, which was the spring of '23, I went to the basketball games and I didn't like that hardly anybody was cheering, so we had crowd practice. They said, "I didn't know that you had to do this chant and it's amazing." After our NAIA Opening Round basketball game, (the LSU-Shreveport coach) went on one of their local radio stations and was talking about how KWU was an experience he'd never coached or played in. He raved about how that's a great environment up there.

Question: Winning is great and KWU has done plenty of it, as evidenced by the Commissioner Cup trophies, but for you there is much more to the story. Success in the classroom is paramount and something you are focused on.

Paredes: My biggest and proudest moment was the fact that we were able to increase the overall GPA for student-athletes from 3.14 the previous year to 3.23 this year. Yes, we won a lot of ball games, we won a lot of conference titles, but I don't want to be known as just an athletic school. I want us to be known for, if you want to get better, if you want to go to a place where they're going to push you mentally, spiritually and physically, there you can walk away being a true leader. That's what Kansas Wesleyan is about. We're developing professionals in something other than sports. At the end of the day, the sport you're in will retire you before you are ready to retire from sport. It's not just what you do on the court, it's more important what you do off of it. You should be preparing to go to class and preparing to go to practice. When you're prepared, you're prepared for whatever comes your way.

Question: Some might say demanding academic success could have a negative impact on athletic success, but you vehemently disagree.

Paredes: It's great to have the tangibles, like guys that can run fast as lightning, can bench press a mountain, can do all that. But if our student-athletes don't understand the mental side of the game, then it's a waste of talent. I've always hated the perception of, you're a jock, you're going to barely have a 2.0 GPA. We would rather have smart athletes or smart students than your most-talented ones. A lot of successful programs, if you look at their rosters, their GPAs are up there. I've never heard of a team that won the national championship and their GPA was a 2.0 or 1.9. We've got to make sure we recruit the right fit, and what's the right fit? Graduates, future alumni - that's the path we're going to take, and it's working so far.

Question: The 2023-24 school year is history and the focus has shifted to '24-25. What are your goals, aspirations and expectations for the upcoming school year?

Paredes: It goes back to the GPA. I don't think we've ever had 25 out of 25 sports programs with a 3.0 GPA. Even though we've raised the bar, we still need to say 25 of 25 have reached a 3.0 or above. Then maybe we can say 25 out of 25 reached a 3.3. That's what I really would like to achieve. Of course, winning a third consecutive Commissioner's Cup - it's never been done in the KCAC - would also be huge. More important is, can we repeat or exceed the overall expectations from last year? I want the environment even better, I want our teams to do extremely well in all aspects. I like to use the acronym of win: What's Important Now. How can we give our best every second of the day and lean on each other? If we can perform at a high level on a consistent basis, those other things will take care of themselves. That's what happened this past year.

Question: You appear to be a like a kid on Christmas morning and having a lot of fun.

Paredes: I once was told if you're not having fun, then why do it? I pass this equation on to my staff all the time: E plus R equals O: the event plus your response equals the outcome. As in sports, it can be going great and all of a sudden, it can be going bad, but how you respond is going to determine how successful you're going to be. I truly believe God put me here for a reason. Every now and then, when you have so much success, you tend to forget about where you started and where you're heading. I think God puts us in certain places to develop us, so when he does push you to your next endeavor, you know what you've got to do. I tell my staff, "Let's embrace this, let's enjoy this, let's continue to put in the work, believe in ourselves, believe that God's with us." It's not going to be easy, though. We talked about the success that we had, but we also had some failures, too. At the end of the day, it's what you learn from those failures and how you are able to keep moving forward.

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