Keisha Dunlap talks to us about her journey from being a high school and collegiate athlete to working in sports her entire career.
Keisha is the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Associate Commissioner of Conference USA, a 25-year old league representing 14 schools from Texas and over into Florida.
Hoops at the Star is Frisco’s showcase of men’s and women’s college basketball. Officially titled as the 2020 Conference USA Basketball Championships presented by Baylor Scott & White Sports Performance Center at The Star, the tournament is a multi-day, multi-court event March 11-14 at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco.
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Enjoy episode #51 and check out more of Hustle and Pro.
Show Notes
- [00:35] Quick hits
- [03:01] Trying out for the track and field team in high school
- [04:32] Experience as a college athlete
- [07:46] Working in sports and athletic administration post-college
- [09:15] Conference USA
- [11:15] Schools that makeup Conference USA
- [12:25] Hoops at the Star
- [17:25] Fan Fest at the Ford Center
Resources within this episode:
- Conference USA: Website | Facebook: Conference USA | Twitter: @ConferenceUSA Instagram: @conferenceusa
- Keisha Dunlap: Bio
- Kelly Walker: Instagram @kelly_walkertexas | Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
Transcript: (machine-generated)
This is Hustle and Pro with Kelly Walker. Join Kelly as she talks sports with players, coaches, organizers and entrepreneurs from Pee Wee League to Pro. Now here’s your host Kelly Walker.
We talk plenty about pro sports and even high school athletes in sports here on hustle and pro. But we’re diving into college sports again today and telling you about a chance to see some college basketball here in Frisco soon. Our guest, Keisha Dunlap is here to help. Welcome to Hustle and Pro Keisha.
Thank you Kelly. Excited to be here.
Yeah, thanks for coming. So let’s learn about you and then we’ll get into some of the conference USA action that’s coming up. So tell me who you would say is your all-time favorite athlete.
Ooh, that’s easy. Michael Jordan. Easy, easy peasy.
Would you say then what’s your favorite sport to watch?
Probably along the same lines. We’ll keep the theme going. Basketball grew up playing a lot of different sports. Um, my dad played college basketball, my brother played basketball in high school. Um, so that’s been a big, a big sport in our family.
Then what’s your favorite sport to do yourself or to play? I really liked playing volleyball when I was in, um, when I was in high school. That was probably my favorite sport to play actually when I went to college. Um, I went to college on a track scholarship, so I ended up throwing the hammer, uh, in college. Uh, but my roommates were volleyball players and they’re still some of my very best friends to this day. So I really learned to love the game of volleyball when I was playing it and then supporting my, my roommates and the volleyball team in college.
So you played volleyball in high school then ended up playing, well track and field events, right.
And college, but then your roommates are volleyball players, so you probably were at those games and were kind of a pseudo volleyball team.
And I was, it kinda came full circle for me because that was always my favorite sport. Wasn’t the sport I was best at, but really just, I like the action. Uh, the fast-paced action of volleyball. Um, and then I just so happen to live right across the hall from volleyball players. And like I said, they became really my group of friends in college. And um, still to this day they’re my college friends.
So is this throwing the hammer in, getting a scholarship for that? Was this sort of a random thing or were you, is that something you excelled at all through high school?
I really didn’t start with track until my sophomore year in high school. So I played everything growing up. Um, you know, the Saturday morning soccer where you got the donuts and the orange juice after the games. I did, went through that stage, um, played slow pitch softball. Um, but when I got to high school it was fast pitch softball and I think I got a little scared just because I had never played it before, so I didn’t play anything in that spring of my freshman year in high school and I was so bored, I was just so used to always having, you know, one when once one sport was done, I was going right to the next one. So then after basketball season, my freshman year in high school, I didn’t do anything in the spring. And when about crazy, um, so my sophomore year, one of my friends that played basketball said, why don’t you just at least go out for the track team? Just throw the shot, put in the disc.
It’s just so you’re doing something. And I was like, Oh, okay, I’ll try it.
You never know.
I’m never field is one of those things that you just, you might have that skill and you didn’t really know it. I had no idea.
You don’t play it as a young child usually?
No, not at all. So ended up being pretty successful, um, in the first year that I did it in the second year that I did it. Um, and then it was really important for me. I really wanted to play sports in college and I hadn’t kind of had to look at myself and say, okay, what’s going to give me the best opportunity to play sports in college? And it was track and field. So I really focused on that my senior year in high school.
So growing up, were you a family that had that, you know, hope and goal that you played in college? Like when you were little?
Yeah, not really as a family it was probably more so personal. Uh, again, my brother, uh, played in high school and he just made the decision. He probably could have gone maybe to a small school or done, done something, uh, in college with sports. But um, he chose to go to a major university and in live that normal college student experience. But I just, I didn’t want to do that. I really, really wanted to keep sports as a part of my life. So it was important really for me, not so much for my family, but it was more of a personal goal.
And then so that normal college experience you talked about when we talked to people, sometimes when they get there they realize I want that and I’ve signed on to be an athlete and they realize when you signed on to be an athlete at many schools, it’s your full time life.
Absolutely.
Did you, did you feel that and you obviously still liked it cause you kept with it?
Yeah. Um, I never really felt that. Like I said, I think it was a Testament in my freshman year in high school when I didn’t have a sport to compete in, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I think I was so used to the organization of being in a sport and having a time schedule and um, just making sure that I was going to practice and then doing my homework and all those things that you liked about it. Yeah, I did. I liked the structure. I’m a very structured person so I really think I like that structure. So for me, um, in college especially with a sport like track and field, you essentially with an indoor season and, and outdoor season, you start after labor day. So in September and you essentially go all the way through our outdoor track championship is one of our very last championships of the year in May. So you go all years. So there, I’d never really had a time to be a normal, a regular college student. And in fact, if we did get a week off or time off, I was looking around going, okay, what do I do? I don’t have study tables, I don’t have practice. Like I think I can get in too much trouble here without having a sport.
Right. So it was a good, it was a good experience for you then.
Absolutely.
Okay. We haven’t talked about where you went to college. Eastern Illinois.
Yeah. Okay. When I hear that, you know, here in Dallas. So I think Tony Romo right? Go.
Absolutely.
So I looked it up to double check. Um, there’s also some others, right?
Yes.
Who else do you use at the top of probably the most, um, popular coming off the heels of the Super Bowl is Jimmy Garappolo.
I know, I didn’t know that. So I researched to interview.
Yeah. No, I didn’t cross over with Jimmy. I’m a little older than him, but Tony and I actually crossed over for a couple of years, so I knew Tony. I knew Tony in college. Yeah. And, um, you know, he came to Dallas to, to um, play for the Cowboys pretty soon after college. And I was here pretty soon after college and we ran into each other maybe once or twice, um, just around at a different event. And we would sit and, you know, have a conversation and then really I’ll throw the story in real quick. I saw him probably on his last maybe year or two of playing and you know, he’s a big sports fan and he loved going to SMU basketball games. And I had gone to an SMU basketball game and saw him in a parking garage and I was like, I’m probably never going to see Tony again just on the street. I need to say hello. So I yelled, you know, Tony, it’s Keisha, Eastern, Eastern Illinois. And he was so excited to see me and it felt really good only because people always know, you know, they always hear me say Eastern Illinois and they think of Tony and Dallas and I always say yeah and I always say, cause in college he was the nicest guy and I say he’s a really good guy and you’d never know how fame affects people. Um, so I had been saying that for so long, so for us to have that interaction and we like walked into the arena together and he was asking me about all of our mutual friends and asking me what I was doing. It was just such a genuine conversation that it felt good that I was saying that he was such a good guy, but really validated that. Yeah, it did. It did.
That’s awesome. I’m glad too. I love him.
Yeah.
I don’t know him by any means, but I love him. Okay. So then you quickly went from being a student athlete to then maybe as a graduate student coaching and never really looked back. You’ve had a long career in sports. Right. Have you ever done anything else? To me it feels like that’s your life forever. Never done anything else. Um, actually when anybody asked me what would you do if you weren’t working in sports and I kinda get a panic attack cause I don’t know what I would do because it’s been such a part of my life for my whole professional career. Uh, as you said, I coached for a year. I knew coaching probably wasn’t going to be, um, longterm, but um, finish that out for a year to finish my coursework for my master’s degree and then started working on the administration side of athletics and that’s where I’ve landed.
So you were at university of Arkansas, right? Um, and let’s see, I wrote that in NCAA D one competition oversight committee. Um, right now and for how long have you been with conference USA? A long time.
It’ll be 16 years in September. Just celebrated the 15 year. Got a little placard on my name and the office. Yes. Thank you.
So you’re the senior associate commissioner? It’s a mouthful. And, and the COO? Yes. Okay. So what I need to know, I would surprise when I first started seeing you guys in town, I’m covering sports for Lifestyle Frisco I was surprised when I learned that a conference as big as you guys were, was local here. Um, and celebrating 25 years. I don’t know if you’ve been here all that 25 years, that’s not you personally at the conference. Um, so tell me just kind of background wise, like what, what does conference USA yeah,
So conference USA came to the metroplex. Um, really at the time I started working for them. So we’ve been here almost 16 years. Our offices used to headquarter in Chicago, so I’m, I’m sure you’ve heard obviously working in sports and talking to a lot of different um, college athletics folks that, um, there’s been a lot of realignment, meaning a lot of institutions have been shifting what conferences they belong to. So because of some realignment, it really didn’t make sense for the headquarters to sit in Chicago anymore. It really made more sense to get it a little bit more centrally located. And I use that term very loosely because if you look at our footprint in [inaudible] right now, we spanned from El Paso, Texas, all the way to Huntington, West Virginia, all the way down to Miami, Florida with our 14 institutions, not Chicago, Illinois, exactly. Not North. So Dallas really does make sense. We have four institutions in the state of Texas. So it makes sense for us to be here. And a lot of people probably don’t know. But Dallas is really a hotbed for not only college athletics, but athletics. Obviously we have all of our pro teams here, but from a college athletic standpoint, the big 12 office is here. Um, the CFP, the college football playoff is here. Um, Lonestar conferences here, Southland conferences here. I mean, there’s a lot of different sports entities that call the metroplex homes. So yeah. And I don’t think a lot of people realize that, but, um, it’s funny because we get a lot of traffic in our office from, um, either interns, like the NCA has a great internship program and they give all of their interns the ability to make one professional development trip a year. And we get so many people coming to Dallas because they can come here and they can go to three, four different conference offices in different athletic departments.The CLI. Yeah. National football foundation is here. I mean, there’s so many different organizations here, so we get a lot of, a lot of traffic because of that.
Wow. I didn’t know that. See, I’m learning. So let’s talk about the schools that make up Conference USA. Who I say you mentioned some of the States. Um, so can you rattle them all off 14 schools?
I can. I usually go West to East to rattle off the school. So let’s see if I hit him. So we’ve got UTEP in El Paso. Um, obviously North Texas in Denton, uh, Houston. Um, Rice, which is in Houston, Rice University, uh, UTSA in San Antonio. Then we’ve got LaTec and Rustin, um, Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, UAB in Birmingham. And I’m going to go up North a little bit and go to middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Western Kentucky in Bowling Green. Then we’ve got a Marshall in Huntington, West Virginia, um, Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia, Charlotte in North Carolina, and then the, our Florida schools. So Florida Atlantic in FIU, in Boca, in Miami. And I hit him. You got him. Okay. I gotta look, I gotta do the mental map in my head. Right.
Great. That was great. So yeah, for Texas schools it’s a lot of activity. So that’s maybe one reason why you guys do host tournaments like the upcoming, um, I call it hoops at the star. I know there’s a formal name for it, but you use that. I do. I like that. It’s easy to remember. Yeah. When I try to go look up the brackets or whatever, it’s easy to find because you do conference usa.com hoops at the star. Yup. Um, so good job count. So that’s coming up. Um, I kind of think of it as like the spring break, um, tournament, but it’s coming up March 11 through 14th. So maybe that’s part of why you guys choose Frisco, cause you’re probably likely to get, uh, some local draw from all those Texas schools. But tell me just in general about that tournament and what it looks like.
What’s the format third year here in Frisco? Um, and appreciate you using our, our tag of hoops at the star. It’s really been a great event for us. Um, again with four teams in Texas. Um, our membership was really looking for a neutral site to host our basketball championship and obviously we don’t have a school in Frisco. Frisco is a neutral site obviously. Um, didn’t is a few miles up the road but you know, really it’s North Texas doesn’t play here. So um, it’s really been able to give us a neutral site location in Frisco. I will say just the, the community, the city has done such a phenomenal job of dubbing themselves, I believe as sports city USA and bringing so many different athletic events here and being represented by so many different organizations and from professional to college. I know they do a, you know, a big baseball college baseball tournament, you know, at the rough riders facility. So they just have done such a great job, I think of really bringing in a lot of different sport events that this is just really been a great, uh, great location for us.
Um, speaking of, um, yes, the Frisco classic, it’ll be right before you guys right before it hits at the end of February. Um, and I know that it’s a big part of like economic development here in Frisco. So what do you know about how much having your tournament here does for the city?
Yeah, well we work hand in hand with visit Frisco. They’ve got great folks over there, but really the, our four day tournament and you have to think, we’ve got 24 teams. So our top 12, um, men’s and women’s basketball teams qualify with those teams come their fans with those teams come, their bans bands make up. I mean, there’s 30 different [inaudible] band parents, there’s 30 band members with those bands come cheer and here goes another 12. Um, some of them added dance team on. So we’re talking about a lot of traffic moving in to Frisco really over the course of probably six days for our tournament because obviously teams are going to come early cause we have a practice day and all that. Um, you know, some estimates have said that our tournament will generate over $4 million in direct spending and economic impact to the community of community of Frisco. I mean that’s a huge number when you think about it. Um, I was sent another statistic that over 1400 jobs will be supported because of our basketball championship here. So I mean that’s just a Testament of how important it is for cities in communities to embrace events like that and support them and go out and purchase tickets and show up in the stands and be there to support these events because nice to the people here and you’re sitting in restaurants with these people coming in because you want them.
And like the football bowl games we get, I mean, you want them to enjoy their state. It’s all about them having a great experience. That’s what it’s all about. Props up. They all, they all need a place to stay. They all need something to eat. So they’re, they’re frequenting all these different establishments in the community and if they have a good time, they’re going to go back and they’re going to say, Hey, conference USA basketball tournament is in Frisco again, you guys didn’t go last year. We had such a great time. You should go this year. I mean, and that’s what we’re looking for.
Yes. And one thing I learned about this tournament when it was here last year, I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned that it’s at the star. It is Ford support center at the time that the winner of the men’s and the women’s, they get a bid to the NCAA tournament.
Yes. So March madness, everybody knows what that is. So if you’re even not super familiar with how it all works out, everybody knows what March madness means. For me. Again, you heard me say basketball is my favorite sport. Michael Jordan is my favorite athlete. To me there’s no better time than March madness because that’s the true story of like the underdog can prevail. I mean, how fun is it to see a Loyola Chicago advanced to the final four in those stories that come with that? So to me that’s such a great time. And, um, our tournament, we as a conference, we get an automatic bid for our, both our men’s and our women’s teams, um, into the NCAA tournament. So the winner, the teams that win that, that Saturday four 30 championship final for the women and seven-thirty championship final for the men, those winners get an automatic ticket into the NCAA championship, which is really cool.
Yeah, it’s really cool. And then you guys get to share those teams on throughout. We hope that they have a good show. We do. That’s so exciting. Okay. So what else does anybody in Frisco need to know? Um, I know that there’s some like family friendly things happening and that, um, fantastic. Yes, Fan Fest. Yes. I couldn’t think of the word turf, um, in front of the star. So you can take your kids out there and do all those kinds of activities or there’s games and maybe music and things you’re trying to remember back from last year.
So, um, they call, it’s called Tostito’s Plaza and that’s the turf outside of Ford center. Um, we hold a Fan Fest in conjunction with our championship. So every game day we’ll have inflatables and baskets and just all set up a sponsor village, have an opportunity for people to try things and get free stuff.
It’s really a great opportunity to bring your family out, especially since it’s spring break. I know I’m a lot of times people are trying to find things for their family to do when they’re not in school. So, um, you know, year one, it wasn’t on spring break and I think we had kind of a different approach to it but the now the last two years, it’s spring break week and I really think we can capitalize off of that and we have been able to capitalize off that because again, people are trying to find something for their kids to do, bring them out to Ford center and let them play, let them play in the Fan Fest and then come on inside and watch some great basketball. So yeah, it’s really exciting. It’s fun to go in there cause you have two courts going and you can, we strategically sat kind of in the middle so you can sort of see both.
Yeah. Yeah. Different ones are going. That was a really interesting, um, and I give all all credit to our commissioner for coming up with that idea because we were in a different city on a site visit just looking at different places to potentially have our tournament. And um, you know, one of the city officials said, I wish we could get more, more traffic into our football arena. I mean it was just kind of an offhand comment and my commissioner Judy McCloud was like, well, I mean we’ll just put both, we’ll just play both tournament’s in there, separated by a curtain, have two courts going on at the same time. You can watch both, you know, both games at the same time and we’ll do it. And everybody was like, Oh ha ha ha, funny, funny, funny. And then I was kinda thinking, I was like, that’s really not a bad idea. And then that’s really where it birth. And we just, we just kept kind of talking about it and thinking about it. And then when Frisco came to play, we were looking at obviously at Ford center and building a facility, building a, an arena basically with a court. I mean we bring everything in court, basket seating, um, shot clocks, everything we build and we bring it in. And then we looked at, at another facility, because again, what’s unique about our tournament is that we host both our men’s and our women’s at the same time, which means we either need more days to get more games in or we need more facilities to get more games in. So instead of extending our tournament to like an eight, nine day tournament to get all these games in, we chose to keep it tight under four days, but we need a secondary facility. So we looked at some facilities around the area and then that idea kind of came back. Well, I mean, Ford center is big enough. What if we built it? What if we built too? So, um, it’s really unique and I will, I will say I’m confident saying that we’re the only, um, conference that, that conducts our championship in this way. And, you know, it was scary. Year one was scary because we put all of our, you know, all of our thought, all of our resources into making sure that we had to, we could have two games going on with no noise issues with no issues building two courts. So until you build that fully, which is not cheap, um, you don’t really know. So we didn’t have really a dry run so I will never forget, uh, when that first game tipped off, we were like, okay, good.But then the second we stagger our game times a little bit. So when that second game tipped off 30 minutes later, I think we were all just kind of standing there holding our collective breaths and hoping it all. Yeah. And it ended up being great. And um, you know, the, I think the best comment is, um, after in year one, because we play on two different courts for the first round and then the quarter finals. And then when we get down to four men’s and women’s teams, we combine on one court and it was like magic because in the middle of the night, on Thursday night, we had them totally unload that other court. So when people showed up on Friday morning for the semifinals, the second court was totally gone. Yeah. And it was just one court. And I think we had a couple people comment and say, you know, something that’s kinda missing, not having the other game going on. And it just, it just caught it just made for a different atmosphere and we hear a lot. It really gives a championship atmosphere, kind of an NCA championship atmosphere, which is great. And it preps those teams that win as they head into first rounds of the NCAA event.
So it’s fantastic. So my whole family enjoyed that because of the two different, you know, courts and activities. So we will be back again.
Awesome.
This spring break. Um, so awesome. Well, it’s nice talking to you and learning a little about your story and your, uh, career in sports and bringing the conference USA tournament here to Frisco. So thank you for your time today.
No problem. Thank you for having me. Kelly.
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