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Behind the Team: Operations
August 02, 2016 11:25 AM | Women's Basketball
During the summer, WVUsports.com will give women’s basketball fans an inside look at the team behind the team. These individuals help the Mountaineers succeed academically and athletically. The third in the series features Director of Operations and Assistant to the Head Coach Pat Biondo.
There’s little downtime for Pat Biondo, who serves as the Director of Operations and Assistant to the Head Coach for the West Virginia University women’s basketball team. During the offseason, Biondo is scheduling nonconference games and setting up summer camps. In the midst of the season, he is making sure that the Mountaineers’ travel itinerary is completed flawlessly.
“I would say the challenging aspect of this is that job you’re dealing with a lot of outside people,” Biondo said. “With travel, you’re worrying about airplanes being on time and worrying about food being there on time. You’re relying on a lot of other people to do their job. You’re always following through and checking up on things. There are a lot of unknowns.”
Biondo calls himself a ‘jack of all trades’ and that’s a pretty fair assessment. The Buffalo, New York native, has been part of the program the last eight seasons. He moved up the ranks from student manager to video coordinator and now to his current operations role. He understands what coach Mike Carey expects of his program and is there to make sure that all of those requirements are met successfully.
“You’re dealing with so many facets of the program from scheduling to the business office to travel to making sure our players are taken care of on a day-to-day basis,” noted Biondo. “The coaches, players and the rest of the staff go to you for everything.”
One of the aspects that Biondo must take care of is the scheduling of West Virginia’s nonconference opponents. That can be daunting dealing with 300 plus schools from around the country and convincing teams to take on a perennial NCAA Tournament team like the Mountaineers.
“By playing in the Big 12, we have a certain schedule criteria that we want to achieve as a program,” said Biondo. “We try to play in a nonconference tournament each year, so that our student-athletes can experience travel to another part of the country. We schedule guarantee opponents in Morgantown, so our fans can see the team. Then we add in a home-and-home with a power conference opponent to get us ready for a challenging Big 12 Conference slate.”
In addition to scheduling duties and other operational parts of the program, Biondo is charged with handling coach Carey’s daily schedule.
“Whenever he’s going, I coordinate his schedule,” explained Biondo. “I’ll go with him on fundraising trips to make sure I’m out there meeting people. When he’s out on the road, I make sure his schedule aligns perfectly. It’s a 24/7 job with coach. He’ll call me at all hours of the night and I’ll be sure to take care of what he needs me to get done.”
Biondo, a WVU graduate, has enjoyed his time with the Mountaineer women’s basketball program and wouldn’t have it any other way. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of his job is seeing the student-athletes develop from freshmen to West Virginia University graduates.
“The most rewarding part of the job is dealing with the student-athletes,” said Biondo. “I love watching them grow from freshmen to seniors. It’s rewarding to see them graduate and succeed in life when they are finished at WVU.”
And that’s all you can ask for and why Biondo is a critical part of the Mountaineers’ success.
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