In late June, Yurachek announced the UA would be cutting about 10% of the department’s staffing expenditures to free up more money for revenue sharing after the House settlement. The directory was trimmed down through a combination of layoffs and early retirements.
Public relations chief Kevin Trainor, a decades-long servant of the university, was the most notable name on the chopping block. Affected employees were informed of these layoffs in late June, but some continued to work their positions for a few weeks afterward.
With August winding down and the new academic year underway the dust is beginning to settle. Fifteen full-time employees who were listed on the UA athletic department website in early July are no longer listed.
Some got better opportunities elsewhere. Some might have chosen to retire. Others were definitely laid off.
Research from Best of Arkansas Sports shows how some of these former employees are dealing with the layoffs.
It’s unclear which specific employees were actually laid off, but one who appears to have left on his own volition was director of player personnel Jovon Hubbard. He is now the assistant general manager at Auburn, which reportedly doubled his salary.
Arkansas, it should noted, is far from the only school to take these actions. Other SEC schools like Texas A&M and Oklahoma made similar downsizing moves, as did programs like Indiana, Kansas and many more.
Employees Affected by Hunter Yurachek’s Staffing Cuts
Some of these workers were able to find other jobs within the UA umbrella.
Most notably, Trainor moved into a role as the chief operating officer for the alumni association. Assistant marketing director Allie Popp announced she was one of the laid-off employees. She has since taken a marketing job with the UA’s parking and transit department. Advertising for arguably the university’s most-hated arm is no small task.
Others have landed on their feet in other Power Four athletic departments. Former sales and service coordinator Mychaela Reynard, for example, is now an account executive at Texas. Taylor McGillis, a former senior associate AD focused on business and marketing, is now working at Texas A&M under Aggies athletic director Trev Alberts as executive senior associate AD for external relations. The current UA website shows McGillis’ position has not been filled.
Some former Razorback staffers have found athletic department jobs at smaller schools at the Group of Five or FCS level. Maerys Joseph, a former academic advisor for track and field and golf athletes, took the same position at Georgia State. Pete Heim, an associate AD focused on ticket sales, appears to have taken on a larger role at Montana State as a senior associate AD tasked with revenue generation.
For some employees, though, the transition has not been as smooth. Former athletics support services manager Misti Ceseña lists herself as “open to work” on LinkedIn.
A number of others have yet to update their LinkedIn profiles or announce a new job elsewhere, indicating current unemployment or a possible early retirement.
Tracey Stehlik, for example, is no longer listed in the directory. She began working in the athletic department in 1985 as an assistant women’s basketball coach. She eventually worked her way up to the title of associate AD for compliance, a position she held for the last 16 years. Her husband, Wayne Stehlik, served alongside Mike Anderson as an assistant coach under Nolan Richardson for his entire 17-year tenure at Arkansas.
Working under Stehlik was Scotty Thurman Jr., former Hogs football player and son of the great Arkansas basketball player. The Stehliks’ daughter, Mollie Stehlik, still works in the department as the senior director of event management.
Tracey’s position has not been filled, according to the UA staff directory.
New Positions in UA Athletic Department
Not every change has come from the downsizing knife, though. Four new employees are listed in the directory, including two working under all-sport general manager Remy Cofield.
Davonté Higginbottom is now serving as the director of NIL strategy. The Boston native formerly worked in marketing and NIL for Klutch Sports Group, the sports agency empire founded by Rich Paul. Former Razorback guard Nick Smith Jr., now with the Charlotte Hornets, is a Klutch client.
Sydney Lemmerhirt is the new associate director of player relations. She previously served as the assistant director for the now-defunct ONEArkansas NIL collective, and most recently as the director of operations for Arkansas Edge.
Additionally, Eliza Vandewalle joined the department as a creative media director, and James Beasley as a senior assistant athletic trainer for the football team.
Yurachek set a self-imposed deadline of Aug. 1 to find a trio of employees working under Cofield: a football-specific assistant general manager, analytics staffer and player relations director. Lemmerhirt fulfills the latter void, but the other two positions remain empty as September approaches.