A Day in the Life: Seton Hall Athletic Director Pat Lyons

Matt Ambrose (@mambrose97)

Some may understand the life of a student athlete can be hectic, but what about the man at the head of the operation?

Seton Hall Athletic Director Pat Lyons is a busy man, in an occupation in which no two days are the same.

“That’s what I love about the job, everything is so different,” Lyons said. “There’s really no typical day.”

Lyons acknowledges the travel aspect of the job, and how a lot of the time spent doing his occupation is spent out on the road. This time in particular, Lyons is in Los Angeles, CA with the men’s basketball team.

He spent part of Sunday watching the women’s basketball team play UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, and on this day, Lyons has plans to head to the FOX broadcast studios to meet with some partners of the Big East Conference. This all comes ahead of the men’s basketball team arriving on Tuesday, when Lyons will travel to Anaheim to meet with them.

In a profession that involves so much travel, no two days will be the same. For Lyons, he knew from early on that regardless of the demands of the job, he knew this is what he wanted to do.

Lyons was a Graduate Assistant during his time attending school at Iona College, and after that experience, knew that this profession was his calling.

“I’ve been around sports my whole life,” Lyons said. “After about a month of seeing what he did for a living, I just decided that that was what I wanted to do.

What else can a day in the life of Pat Lyons entail? Working to improve on-campus athletic facilities has been a huge initiative for Lyons since he took over as AD at Seton Hall in 2011.

Since then, a new Hall of Fame has been built in the Richie Regan Recreation and Athletic Center, a refueling station for student athletes has been placed in the coaches suite, and a new project in the works is the renovation of Owen T. Carroll Field, which houses the baseball and soccer teams. Much of the day-to-day work from Lyons has been his initiative to enhance facilities in the hopes of bringing in more recruits to Seton Hall’s athletic programs.

“We want our athletes to have the best possible resources and support that they can, and I really do think that starts with facilities,” Lyons said.

The upgrades to facilities and the effort by Lyons during his tenure to improve this aspect of Seton Hall does not go unnoticed, even from sports media professor BJ Schecter, who has only been a professor at Seton Hall for just under three semesters.

“If you look at the facilities that he has built, and continues to build…[he is] constantly re-doing their facilities.”

Whether it be the seemingly mundane tasks like attending meetings, traveling with the athletic programs, or working to improve facilities, no two days are the same for Pat Lyons. Every time he steps on campus to come to work, an endless list of possibilities await.