Athletics Director Joel Maturi announced a restructuring of departmental responsibilities Friday that will free up some of his time.

Under the changes, Maturi will no longer directly supervise the six revenue generating sports, instead distributing those responsibilities among his associate athletics directors.

Maturi said the change was needed because he often could not assist teams in a timely fashion.

“I have found in this job I just cannot provide the daily support to the coaches’ needs in those sports, because of the demanding schedule I have,” Maturi said.

Most university athletics directors do not directly oversee sports teams, Maturi said.

Volleyball coach Mike Hebert will now report to Associate Athletics Director Regina Sullivan. He said the change will have little impact, because he already went to Sullivan for many of his day-to-day needs.

“I’m not going to experience any changes so far as I can tell,” Hebert said.

Sullivan, who will oversee volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball, said she has worked with the programs in the past.

“I hope to develop an even stronger and closer relationship with those programs,” Sullivan said. “I think I already have pretty good ones because of the work that has already been done.

“It’s business as usual,” she said.

The move also frees up more time for Maturi to garner funds for a new on-campus football stadium and other capital needs, he said.

“If indeed we are going to raise money for a football stadium, I have to take the lead on that,” he said.

Maturi also promoted Mark Coyle, who was in charge of marketing and sales, to associate athletics director for External Relations. Maturi said the new position will help the program deliver a consistent external message.

“We had one person in charge of the Web site, another person in charge of athletics communication, someone else in charge of marketing and promotions,” Maturi said. “We had different external pieces overseen by different people; I felt we needed one person to oversee those areas.”

Maturi said the changes were two years in the making, as he has worked to develop and implement the new strategic plan since taking over in August 2002.

The full rollout of the strategic plan, which will include stating department objectives and assigning responsibilities for achieving them, will take place Sept. 8, Maturi said.