University of Georgia Athletics
April 10, 2020 | General, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Like a lot of us, Darrice Griffin, Georgia's Deputy Athletic Director for Administration, is used to having a very full calendar at this time of year. There are games, practices, off-the-field events with student-athletes — every day and night of the week can have something going on. That means Griffin hasn't needed to develop much in the way of cooking skills over the years.
Now, with everything shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, Griffin is getting to know her kitchen and enhancing her cooking skills. She's putting in the work and seeing positive results, just as she did as an athlete back in Texas.
Griffin, whose mother, Tami Wilson, played basketball at Texas Tech, grew up in Lubbock and tiny Seagraves, Texas, and followed in her mom's footsteps to Texas Tech, only to have her career cut short due to injury. During a recent Quick Chat, Griffin talked about the lessons she learned during that experience, adjusting to working from home, getting better in the kitchen and much more.
Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: As someone that I know loves interacting with the student-athletes as well as the coaches and your colleagues throughout the athletic department, how hard has this time been to navigate?
Griffin: It is difficult, but I do try to maintain perspective in these times. There are a lot of people in this country and this world who are either fighting for their lives or they're risking their lives every day to help save people and treat people. So when I think about that, it does give me a lot of perspective.
While I'm frustrated by the realities of not being able to walk to Stegeman and watch a women's basketball practice or gymnastics practice, or poke my head into a coach's office to see how they're doing or what they need, I have to keep in mind that if we don't do this (social distancing), we're not being responsible human beings right now.
You've got to do what you've got to do for the greater good and just find different ways to do the things that we love about our job, right? This morning, for example, I called Courtney (Kupets Carter) to check on her and we had a great conversation, and I'm finding that I've been able, now, to be more present because I'm not running from one thing to the next. I've been able to be more present in my conversations with our coaches. I've got text messages flying with different student-athletes across the athletic association, to let them know that we're here and we care.
We also have weekly recurring Zoom calls with student-athlete leadership, so we get to see them once a week. It's a challenge and it's different, but when I think about the bigger picture and why we're having to do this, it humbles and keeps things very much in perspective for me.
Frierson: Speaking of home, what can you tell me about Seagraves, Texas?
Griffin: For clarity, I spent the majority of my childhood in Lubbock. My mom studied and competed at Texas Tech in Lubbock and when she finished she established herself in Lubbock, so I went to elementary school and junior high there, and my first year of high school.
We moved to Seagraves when I was a sophomore because my mother got the head coaching job there, kind of like the women's AD in high school. It was one of those small schools where your coaches coached every sport in every season, so she was the cross-country coach, then she'd transition to basketball and then transition to track. She coached all of those sports at that level and is still doing that same work today.
It was a great experience living there. It's very, very small, a rural community, and they have a great appreciation for sports, especially girls' sports, so I got to focus on my studies and sports, with little to no other distractions because of how small the town was and is.
It was great because I got to play for my mother, which was a great experience that at the time I wasn't always grateful for but I'm incredibly grateful for now. And I got to play basketball and run track with my sister and some of my cousins, because Seagraves was my mom's hometown, so it was very much going back home for my mom.
Frierson: Did you ever play one-on-one against your mom?
Griffin: [Laughs] No. One thing you may know about me, I'm a gross competitor, and my mom is as well. I don't know if we could have [laughs] played and continued to live in the same house together. Somebody's got to win and somebody's got to lose and I don't think either of us would have been OK with going home not the victor in that situation.
Frierson: You get to Texas Tech and your career is cut short by injury, so what did you learn by having your ability to play taken away that has helped you as an administrator?
Griffin: It's those life lessons, right? Sometimes things don't go the way you plan or hope for them to go. I had spent my life at that point in time focused on sport, advancing in sport and winning championships, and maybe going on to have a professional career. I was working toward that and that was what I had hoped for and truly desired, but life had other things in mind for me.
I learned at a very early age how to be resilient and overcome adversity and find lessons in my struggles and my challenges, and those have helped propel me into the next chapter of my life even though it was much sooner than I had planned for or hoped for. It's the adversity piece, it's the resilience piece, it's the appreciation and the gratitude piece — I am grateful every single day that I get to watch student-athletes compete because I do love sport and I do love competition and the skills that we get through sport.
For me, I try to approach my work from a servant-leader perspective and with a grateful heart. And because I am thankful that I get to watch sports and watch student-athletes compete and coaches train and develop, I think it makes me better at my job serving our coaches and our student-athletes.
Frierson: When did you know that this was the path you wanted to take professionally? Did you think about doing anything else?
Griffin: As a student-athlete, I knew I had a coach and a trainer, because I spent so much time with her due to my injuries, and that was about it. It was not until after my student-athlete experience that my coach at the time and my senior woman administrator opened my eyes or helped open my eyes to the professional possibilities in college athletes.
I didn't grow up wanting to do this, I didn't really know that there were paths for me as a professional in this world. As I learned more as a young professional at Columbia University about college athletics and administration, helping to set vision and objectives at the highest levels of the organization, I decided that that was the path that I wanted to take.
Frierson: As someone that was born and raised in Lubbock and Seagraves, you find yourself working at Columbia, in New York. What was that transition like and what was living in New York like for you?
Griffin: It was the polar opposite of what I was used to and from where I grew up, moving to one of the greatest cities in the world. It was an incredible living and learning experience and I don't think that I'm the person or the professional that I am today if I hadn't had that experience.
What Columbia opened my eyes to, and the city of New York, was diversity. The diversity of thought, people and cultures, and how when you bring all of that together you can truly do special things as people and as an organization.
Frierson: Was there a cuisine that you discovered there that you fell in love with?
Griffin: I'm going to lead with this and I know it's not a unique answer, but the pizza there is unmatched — and pizza is my favorite food. I ate a lot of pizza, but when you talk about opening my eyes to newer and different experiences, I fell in love with Ethiopian food and Greek food while living in New York.
Frierson: Do you have a creative side? Is there anything creative you do or wish you could do?
Griffin: Here's what I'll say, I appreciate creativity but I don't view myself and my skills as that creative. I love artwork, I love music, I just have a great appreciation for those things, but I can't sing a tune, I can't hum on beats and I can't draw a stick figure. If we're thinking about creative in the traditional sense, I've got limitations there, but I appreciate art and creativity. I think of myself as a problem solver in my career and I think that takes a little creativity, it's just not in the traditional sense.
The one thing I have done in the last couple of weeks is start cooking more. With the pace of what we do and watching events and every weeknight there being some kind of programming or some kind of game, I just never cook. Now, because of these times where I'm in a position where I need to fend for myself, I will say, I'm not hosting anything anytime soon or inviting anyone else to eat what I'm cooking, but I am making progress [laughs].
Frierson: What is your go-to meal at this point? What would you cook if you did invite some friends over?
Griffin: I made it on Saturday night, actually. I made barbecue chicken, fried cabbage and cornbread, and it was great. For me with my limitations, it was really good [laughs]. I was like, you know what, I might be able to make this for someone else someday.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
Like a lot of us, Darrice Griffin, Georgia's Deputy Athletic Director for Administration, is used to having a very full calendar at this time of year. There are games, practices, off-the-field events with student-athletes — every day and night of the week can have something going on. That means Griffin hasn't needed to develop much in the way of cooking skills over the years.
Now, with everything shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, Griffin is getting to know her kitchen and enhancing her cooking skills. She's putting in the work and seeing positive results, just as she did as an athlete back in Texas.
Griffin, whose mother, Tami Wilson, played basketball at Texas Tech, grew up in Lubbock and tiny Seagraves, Texas, and followed in her mom's footsteps to Texas Tech, only to have her career cut short due to injury. During a recent Quick Chat, Griffin talked about the lessons she learned during that experience, adjusting to working from home, getting better in the kitchen and much more.
Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: As someone that I know loves interacting with the student-athletes as well as the coaches and your colleagues throughout the athletic department, how hard has this time been to navigate?
Griffin: It is difficult, but I do try to maintain perspective in these times. There are a lot of people in this country and this world who are either fighting for their lives or they're risking their lives every day to help save people and treat people. So when I think about that, it does give me a lot of perspective.
While I'm frustrated by the realities of not being able to walk to Stegeman and watch a women's basketball practice or gymnastics practice, or poke my head into a coach's office to see how they're doing or what they need, I have to keep in mind that if we don't do this (social distancing), we're not being responsible human beings right now.
You've got to do what you've got to do for the greater good and just find different ways to do the things that we love about our job, right? This morning, for example, I called Courtney (Kupets Carter) to check on her and we had a great conversation, and I'm finding that I've been able, now, to be more present because I'm not running from one thing to the next. I've been able to be more present in my conversations with our coaches. I've got text messages flying with different student-athletes across the athletic association, to let them know that we're here and we care.
We also have weekly recurring Zoom calls with student-athlete leadership, so we get to see them once a week. It's a challenge and it's different, but when I think about the bigger picture and why we're having to do this, it humbles and keeps things very much in perspective for me.
Frierson: Speaking of home, what can you tell me about Seagraves, Texas?
Griffin: For clarity, I spent the majority of my childhood in Lubbock. My mom studied and competed at Texas Tech in Lubbock and when she finished she established herself in Lubbock, so I went to elementary school and junior high there, and my first year of high school.
We moved to Seagraves when I was a sophomore because my mother got the head coaching job there, kind of like the women's AD in high school. It was one of those small schools where your coaches coached every sport in every season, so she was the cross-country coach, then she'd transition to basketball and then transition to track. She coached all of those sports at that level and is still doing that same work today.
It was a great experience living there. It's very, very small, a rural community, and they have a great appreciation for sports, especially girls' sports, so I got to focus on my studies and sports, with little to no other distractions because of how small the town was and is.
It was great because I got to play for my mother, which was a great experience that at the time I wasn't always grateful for but I'm incredibly grateful for now. And I got to play basketball and run track with my sister and some of my cousins, because Seagraves was my mom's hometown, so it was very much going back home for my mom.
Frierson: Did you ever play one-on-one against your mom?
Griffin: [Laughs] No. One thing you may know about me, I'm a gross competitor, and my mom is as well. I don't know if we could have [laughs] played and continued to live in the same house together. Somebody's got to win and somebody's got to lose and I don't think either of us would have been OK with going home not the victor in that situation.
Frierson: You get to Texas Tech and your career is cut short by injury, so what did you learn by having your ability to play taken away that has helped you as an administrator?
Griffin: It's those life lessons, right? Sometimes things don't go the way you plan or hope for them to go. I had spent my life at that point in time focused on sport, advancing in sport and winning championships, and maybe going on to have a professional career. I was working toward that and that was what I had hoped for and truly desired, but life had other things in mind for me.
I learned at a very early age how to be resilient and overcome adversity and find lessons in my struggles and my challenges, and those have helped propel me into the next chapter of my life even though it was much sooner than I had planned for or hoped for. It's the adversity piece, it's the resilience piece, it's the appreciation and the gratitude piece — I am grateful every single day that I get to watch student-athletes compete because I do love sport and I do love competition and the skills that we get through sport.
For me, I try to approach my work from a servant-leader perspective and with a grateful heart. And because I am thankful that I get to watch sports and watch student-athletes compete and coaches train and develop, I think it makes me better at my job serving our coaches and our student-athletes.
Frierson: When did you know that this was the path you wanted to take professionally? Did you think about doing anything else?
Griffin: As a student-athlete, I knew I had a coach and a trainer, because I spent so much time with her due to my injuries, and that was about it. It was not until after my student-athlete experience that my coach at the time and my senior woman administrator opened my eyes or helped open my eyes to the professional possibilities in college athletes.
I didn't grow up wanting to do this, I didn't really know that there were paths for me as a professional in this world. As I learned more as a young professional at Columbia University about college athletics and administration, helping to set vision and objectives at the highest levels of the organization, I decided that that was the path that I wanted to take.
Frierson: As someone that was born and raised in Lubbock and Seagraves, you find yourself working at Columbia, in New York. What was that transition like and what was living in New York like for you?
Griffin: It was the polar opposite of what I was used to and from where I grew up, moving to one of the greatest cities in the world. It was an incredible living and learning experience and I don't think that I'm the person or the professional that I am today if I hadn't had that experience.
What Columbia opened my eyes to, and the city of New York, was diversity. The diversity of thought, people and cultures, and how when you bring all of that together you can truly do special things as people and as an organization.
Frierson: Was there a cuisine that you discovered there that you fell in love with?
Griffin: I'm going to lead with this and I know it's not a unique answer, but the pizza there is unmatched — and pizza is my favorite food. I ate a lot of pizza, but when you talk about opening my eyes to newer and different experiences, I fell in love with Ethiopian food and Greek food while living in New York.
Frierson: Do you have a creative side? Is there anything creative you do or wish you could do?
Griffin: Here's what I'll say, I appreciate creativity but I don't view myself and my skills as that creative. I love artwork, I love music, I just have a great appreciation for those things, but I can't sing a tune, I can't hum on beats and I can't draw a stick figure. If we're thinking about creative in the traditional sense, I've got limitations there, but I appreciate art and creativity. I think of myself as a problem solver in my career and I think that takes a little creativity, it's just not in the traditional sense.
The one thing I have done in the last couple of weeks is start cooking more. With the pace of what we do and watching events and every weeknight there being some kind of programming or some kind of game, I just never cook. Now, because of these times where I'm in a position where I need to fend for myself, I will say, I'm not hosting anything anytime soon or inviting anyone else to eat what I'm cooking, but I am making progress [laughs].
Frierson: What is your go-to meal at this point? What would you cook if you did invite some friends over?
Griffin: I made it on Saturday night, actually. I made barbecue chicken, fried cabbage and cornbread, and it was great. For me with my limitations, it was really good [laughs]. I was like, you know what, I might be able to make this for someone else someday.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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