Meet Randy Maday, Butte College’s 2024-25 athletic director – Oroville Mercury-Register

Randy Maday

BUTTE VALLEY — Longtime Butte College physical education instructor Randy Maday believes the time has come for him to take the helm of the Roadrunners’ athletic department and help bring unity and cohesion.

Maday, who has been teaching full-time at Butte College since 1995 after five years as a part-time student, has been hired as interim athletic director at Butte College for the next year.

“We are confident that Randy’s extensive experience and long tenure at Butte College make him the ideal candidate to lead the department,” Butte College Superintendent/President Virginia Guleff said in a statement Monday. “We thank him for his leadership and willingness to take on this role.”

Butte College public relations director Christian Gutierez said Maday will lead the athletic department for one year and that “the college will begin recruiting for a permanent athletic director in the spring of 2025 so that he or she can start in July 2025.”

Maday replaces interim athletic director Jeff Jordan, who served in the role for two months after former athletic director Melody Stockwell took a sabbatical before resigning. Stockwell’s last official day was Sunday.

Why take this job now, after 32 years at Butte College? Maday said he is a few years away from retirement and feels it is time for him to step up and help the department. He called it a last hurrah of sorts.

When Jordan decided it wasn’t the right time for him to continue in the interim role and Vice President of Instruction Erik Shearer asked Maday if he would be interested in the role, his first conversation was with his wife. They weighed the pros and cons, including the time commitment it would take. Maday has two children and a grandchild in Arizona, where he travels often, and he laughed that it would also hurt his golf game.

Maday said he felt he was suited for the job because of several factors, including his composure.

“I’m not trying to get high or upset or depressed, I’m just trying to keep a level head and solve problems. That might be the best thing to do,” Maday said, adding that he also has a vast knowledge of the school and the program. “There’s still going to be a lot of things I have to learn on the administrative side, the budget side, all the things I never had to worry about. As president, we had to worry about that, things like curriculum, instructors and hiring.”

Maday outlined several goals, even though Monday was his first official day in his new role.

“The goal is to get back together and working together. Hopefully, I can start building some programs,” Maday said, noting the immediate goal of finding a new women’s basketball coach to replace Tyler Newton, who left for the College of the Sequoias in mid-April. “As a director, my main goal is to get all the coaches together and get us all on the same page. It’s not that Melody didn’t get us together or on the same page, I really don’t know because I wasn’t coaching, I was teaching the general public, but we’ll see. It’s too early to say too much.”

Maday was the chair of the kinesiology department from 2014 to 2020, so his new role isn’t something completely out of the ordinary.

In the past, Maday has taught classes such as Introduction to Kinesiology, Strength Training and Physical Training for the Butte College Fire Academy and Police Academy. Prior to teaching, he played football and rugby at Chico State before becoming the offensive coordinator for the Butte College football team for five seasons.

“I’ve worked with student-athletes and students my whole life, so going from being a coach to being a manager is different for me,” Maday said. “It’s about managing people. When I was president, I seemed to be pretty neutral in my decisions, making the tough decisions when I had to, but being fair when I had to.”

As for his future after his one-year stint as interim athletic director, Maday is keeping his options open. He said many factors come into play, including his daily work life, his grandson, his wife and other family members. It’s a bigger time commitment than Maday is used to as a teacher, which suits him just fine.

Ultimately, Maday’s future in terms of running for the full-time position in the fall will depend on how the next 12 months play out.

“We’ll see how it affects my golf game, which it will, as you know,” Maday said with a laugh. “You never know. I’m not going to say no, I won’t do it, but I’m not going to say yes, I will do it either. I’m just going to come out here and do the best I can to run my department and get morale back.”