Catching up with Ken Kavanagh

Disclaimer: I am friends with Ken Kavanagh and I like him, so what I write will reflect that fact. So if you have some biased, negative opinion of Ken, then don't bother reading this because it will force your mind to become uncontrollably and unreasonably negative, and you'll attempt to attack the messenger or go ballistic and blame Ken for everything you now don't like about Bradley.


Anyway -- Ken is being hailed as a HERO - saving the people at Florida Gulf Coast University MILLIONS of dollars, saving taxpayers millions as well and keeping them from having to settle a warped and selfish lawsuit settlement driven by greedy disgruntled employees and ambulance-chasing lawyers....and on top of that what Ken and his associates did was simply the BRAVE and correct thing to do - to stand up and FIGHT against greed and corruption.

Just before Ken Kavanagh was hired at FGCU, the university was forced to fight then pay off and settle "three expensive discrimination lawsuit settlements."

"Women coaches and a lawyer claimed a good old boy network was keeping them down.
Settlements totaled $4.2 million."

"Then came a new administration, led by a new president and athletic director, Wilson Bradshaw and Ken Kavanagh, respectively. When yet another civil suit was filed by a former provost, also a woman, in 2009, FGCU leadership had a decision to make — settle again or stand and fight.

Those officials fought, and won, prevailing over claims of mistreatment and male bias."

Now - the local newspaper has gotten hold of the inside and previously secret & confidential court documents and has gone public in expressing their opinion on the actions of Ken Kavanagh and the others...

And Ken's actions are being PRONOUNCED GOOD!!
The officials at FGCU are being hailed as HEROES for standing up and fighting this silly lawsuit and eventually winning and saving everyone involved MILLIONS of dollars.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/jan/26/editorial-fgcu-did-what-it-had-to-do-with/?print=1

The editors of the Naples News are saying that Ken's actions saved the university's reputation and took stamina and shows INTEGRITY!
The editors pronounce Ken's (and the others') actions GOOD!!!

GOOD for FGCU!!!

(btw- Ken says this kind of lawsuit and others, like Title IX suits and challenges are becoming ever more common as disgruntled coaches, athletes, and employees go for the deep pockets. His warning sounds legit in that Bradley just added another men's sport - track & field - and already has some grumbling heard from the Bradley women's soccer club team that argued for use of Shea Stadium facilities and want school support)
http://www.bradleywomensclubsoccer.com/

Ken is currently in the 3rd year of his tenure at Florida Gulf Coast University - a school that is new to Division I...
Here are but a few of Ken's accomplishments in that short time span - in addition to being courageous and fighting that stupid lawsuit and slamming the door in the ambulance chaser's face.....

-Their athletic programs won FIVE different conference titles in the first two years Ken was there! FIVE -- that's WAY, WAY more than Bradley has won in all sports since Ken left!

-their entire athletic GPA was 3.17 - average among ALL scholarship athletes - incredible!

-men's and women's basketball, and men's and women's soccer have all seen tremendous successes and marked rise in attendance.
Men's basketball with their new head coach in a year that was expected to be a bad rebuilding year - unexpectedly however are doing way better than expected - 12-12 and 7-6 in conference -- whoa! they even played to within ONE point of beating a Big Ten team, and came within 6 pts of winning AT Maryland!

-last year's men's and women's soccer BOTH won the A-Sun regular season championship - as did women's basketball and in Ken's very first year there, they had almost as much success.

-Volleyball is currently 10-3 in conference and looking to be the champs, softball last spring won 31 games against a schedule of teams such as Georgetown, Michigan State, NC State, University of Florida, USC, Villanova, Iowa, Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Creighton, etc...

-Golf (both men's and women's) have consistently finished among the leaders and women's have finished Top 3 the last couple years.

-baseball has NEVER had a season where their team batting average was less than .306, they won 38 games in 2010, they're an amazing 331-165 since playing at the D-I level, (they became full fledged D-I members just in the past 2 years), they've won their conference title 3 of the past 4 years, and they have an all-time winning record against every single one of their conference opponents.

-simply put, they have enjoyed more success than just about any school every in their first few years of D-I competition!


http://www.fgcuathletics.com/athletics/directory/1320/ken-kavanagh/