WSSU interviews Virginia Union AD

By: John Dell | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: July 16, 2009

Winston-Salem State may be getting closer to hiring its next athletics director.
According to multiple sources, Michael Bailey, the athletics director and football coach at Virginia Union, was interviewed on Wednesday for the vacant position.
Bailey, 43, who has been at Virginia Union since 1995 in various capacities, has been the AD at Virginia Union the past eight years.
WSSU has been looking for a replacement for Chico Caldwell, who was fired on Feb. 9.
According to sources, the search committee has narrowed its list to three names, with Bailey and Tim Grant as finalists. The third candidate is not known.
Grant, the director of Winston-Salem's Recreation & Parks Department and a former assistant athletics director at WSSU, is on vacation with his family in Orlando, Fla. and could not be reached for comment.
Sources have said that Grant has yet to be interviewed officially for the job.
Bailey, a graduate of Virginia Union, joined the football coaching staff there in the spring of 1995 under Coach Willard Bailey, who is no relation. He stayed as an assistant for six seasons and in 2001 took over as athletics director.
In 2003 Bailey was named the winner of CIAA Athletic Director of the Year award.
Last December, after firing Greg Richardson as the football coach, he named himself as the head coach. This fall would be the first season in which Bailey would be pulling double duty.
At the time of the hiring, Bailey told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the best move to keep the program stable was hiring somebody familiar with Virginia Union.
"Right now, this kind of gives us some closure, so we can move forward," Bailey said at the time. "We have a couple of options that we haven't finalized, but the big thing is we didn't want to impact recruiting too much."
During his time as an assistant the Panthers were 41-31-2 in seven seasons.
"I know I can do it based on my organizational skills as AD," Bailey said about naming himself as coach. "I have a lot of experience in being an assistant and it's important to bring some stability to the program."
 John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.

WSSU interviews Virginia Union AD

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