Following the announcement that Associate Director for Athletics and Assistant Coach Lynn Ruddy will retire at the end of the 2020-21 academic year, the athletic department shared that Assistant Football Coach Kevin Loney has been promoted to the position of assistant athletic director for facilities and event management, effective July 1.

Loney has been a member of the football coaching staff at Bowdoin since 2015 and has coached college football since 2000. He has coached Division I, II and III programs at Notre Dame University, Upper Iowa University and fellow NESCAC Wesleyan University. Through these experiences, Loney believes he has already been introduced to many of the administrative tasks that will be assigned to him as the assistant athletic director.

“I’ve always had a lot of other responsibilities within the [Bowdoin] athletic department, such as game management and operations,” Loney said in a Zoom interview with the Orient. “Game management for a diverse range of sports has always been a big part of what I’ve done, and at Bowdoin, I currently do it for basketball.”

Off the field, Loney is involved in many of the department’s working groups addressing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at Bowdoin. He is a liaison to the Athletes of Color Coalition (AoCC) and is an advisor for the athletic department’s DEI Committee.

Loney has also brought his commitment to DEI work and outreach to his coaching through striving to create strong connections between the athletic department administrators and student athletes. He also hopes to embody Bowdoin’s welcoming, safe community in his new role.

“I’ve learned to listen to the voices of all students and understand what they need,” Loney said. “The most important part of [my job] is to represent Bowdoin in the best and most inclusive way possible.”

In preparation for the transition from coach to administrator, Loney said that he intends to shadow and learn from current athletic department staff.

“I will be meeting with [Ruddy] on a regular basis going forward in order to make sure that I can understand all of her secrets of the trade,” Loney said. “We have a very close-knit community in the athletic department, which is a unique part of Bowdoin, so it’s been easy to talk a lot with other coaches.”

Loney comes to the new role with an understanding that he will face unexpected challenges and will find it difficult to make everyone happy.

“I don’t think that, while focusing on the mission of [the College] and the athletic department, I will be able to please everybody,” Loney said. “You have to try to do what’s right and take care of students to the best of your ability, but you will still end up disappointing people sometimes, and that’s real life.”

Despite these potential challenges, Loney plans to approach the future with the lessons he has learned from his coaching career and an emphasis on the DEI work he has already been engaging with at Bowdoin. His main objective is to make both the physical spaces and the atmosphere on campus more inclusive.

“I don’t care who you are, whether you’re an athlete or a non-athlete. I don’t care where you went to high school and what your background is. You belong at Bowdoin. Every student who is at Bowdoin belongs here,” Loney said. “We have to make sure that this message of belonging comes through in all of our spaces.”