IT WAS TIME: Matt Cochran talks about his retirement over his final days
Jun. 28—Matt Cochran was in the process of packing items in his office Monday morning.
The Northeastern State Director of Athletics is down to his final days.
Cochran, who announced his resignation on March 25 and had the role for two years, will step aside for John Sisemore, who will take over the new lead role Friday, July 1.
It's a bittersweet time for Cochran, who's held a position at NSU for four decades.
"Right now, I just kind of have a numb feeling," Cochran said. "People ask me, 'Aren't you excited that you're at three or four more days?' I kind of am, but I also have a reservation about what's next because I don't have anything next. I want to do some different things...play some golf, do some things around the house."
Cochran had conversations with NSU President Dr. Steve Turner following Christmas about possible retirement plans.
"He didn't want me to do anything rational and think about it a little and make sure I had my bases covered and everything," Cochran said. "Realistically, I kind of had this time frame in mind once I kind of knew where my retirement age was. This was kind of a summer I was shooting for anyway. When the AD job opened up, I thought maybe doing something a little different might re-energize me a little bit more and allow me to get to do things."
The COVID saga also played a factor in his decision to depart.
"That was an interesting time to go through for 18 to 24 months and all the pitfalls it had," Cochran said. "It probably clouded me a little bit and put me right back on the retirement mindset."
Cochran has been involved in some role at Northeastern State since 1991 where he started in Financial Aid and was a counselor and scholarship coordinator. His father, Bill Cochran, was the head baseball coach at NSU from 1979-84 and is in the NSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
Cochran got his start in the athletic department in 1995 when former athletic director Gil Cloud hired him as compliance coordinator. At that time, NSU was moving away from the NAIA to join NCAA Division II.
Prior to becoming athletic director in 2020, Cochran was an interim athletic director four different times. He was also an assistant golf coach for 15 years.
"Obviously I've been around here for a long time and it's time I told Dr. Turner, it's not about sitting in that chair and getting a paycheck, it's about progressing this department forward because I have spent a lot of time here and have had a lot of interest in it," he said. "It's probably time for somebody newer and younger with fresh ideas and see if we can turn another page in this department."
Cochran, who experienced NSU's 2003 Men's Basketball NCAA DII National Championship, the 1999 playoff run in football, a 2004 spring where three NSU teams were competing for championships, and a historic run in baseball this past season, likes where RiverHawks' athletics is headed.
"I like where we're at right now," he said. "We're in a good place from a standpoint that we have a good coaching staff and we have teams that are still doing well. We're coming off a really good spring and moving back into the fall with the soccer programs and seeing how football progresses, and both the basketball programs have a little bit of momentum going into next year as well.
"I think the next athletic director will come in here...on the heels of closing the book on COVID and try to get some things done. It'll be a new train of thought, a new school of thought, trying to rev our base up and just some fresh ideas."
