CCHA Law and The PICTOR Group Announce Exciting New Partnership

Church Church Hittle and Antrim (CCHA Law) is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with The PICTOR Group, a renowned consulting firm with extensive experience in the athletics sector. This collaboration aims to enhance the services offered to clients by leveraging the combined expertise and resources of both organizations.

Through this partnership, CCHA Law and The PICTOR Group will provide comprehensive legal, compliance, and strategic advisory services to higher education institutions and athletic organizations. The collaboration ensures a seamless transition for clients, from legal advisement to the implementation of strategic recommendations, enhancing the overall client experience and service quality.

Kelleigh Fagan, chair of the sports law practice at CCHA Law, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership: “We are excited about the opportunity to partner with The PICTOR Group. Our conversations have convinced us that our clients will greatly benefit from this collaboration. Together, we can offer a broader and more integrated range of services, providing enhanced value for our clients and making it a lot of fun to work together.”

This partnership signifies a shared commitment to providing exceptional service to clients by combining legal expertise with strategic advisory capabilities.

“On behalf of The PICTOR Group, we look forward to the opportunity to work with our engaging colleagues at CCHA Law,” said PICTOR founder and CEO Cary Groth. “We believe that our partnership will offer a synergistic approach to help better serve our clients and the challenges that they face."

About The PICTOR Group

The PICTOR Group offers consulting services in Strategic Visioning and Planning, Program Assessments and Reviews, Sports Performance, Executive Search/Onboarding/Executive Coaching and Culture Assessments and Development. The PICTOR Group’s leadership team includes three former NCAA Division I Athletics Directors and a Division I Conference Commissioner. The PICTOR Group offers a unique blend of exceptional talent, expertise and experience and a team that is passionate for visionary and ethical leadership in intercollegiate athletics. To date, The PICTOR Group has successfully worked with over 100 clients in intercollegiate athletics.

Learn more about The PICTOR Group at www.ThePICTORGroup.com. 

About Church Church Hittle and Antrim

Founded in 1880, CCHA Law is the oldest law firm in Hamilton County, Indiana. As a full-service law firm, CCHA Law provides a myriad of legal services to clients across a wide variety of practice areas including personal injury, business formation and representation, divorce and family law, estate planning and administration, collegiate sports, k-12 and higher education, complex litigation, governmental entity and municipal law, real estate law, criminal law, labor and employment law, mediation services and appellate litigation. CCHA Law serves clients across the country and has offices in Indiana in Noblesville, Fishers, Fort Wayne, Tipton, Crown Point, Westfield, and Zionsville.

Learn more about CCHA Law at www.cchalaw.com and in this video.

Read this press release on CCHA Law’s website here.

FORMER A 10 COMMISSIONER LINDA BRUNO JOINS THE PICTOR GROUP

Former Atlantic 10 Commissioner Linda M. Bruno will join The PICTOR Group as an Executive Search Specialist, Founder and CEO Cary Groth announced Monday.

Bruno comes to The PICTOR Group after spending 45 years in intercollegiate athletics. She will bring her wealth of experience and knowledge to help campus leaders with executive and head coach searches.

“I am honored and excited to work with such a respected group,” Bruno said. “I know that the support and expertise we all bring to intercollegiate athletics will be of great benefit to our search business. Finding the correct fit for personnel in athletics is critical to the success of all institutions, and I will join with all at The PICTOR Group to ensure that we identify strong pools of candidates which are unique to every search we conduct. A special thanks to Cary Groth for allowing me to grow this area for The PICTOR Group.”

Bruno started her career as an administrative assistant at Iona College, working for the AD/basketball coach Jim Valvano. Bruno earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Iona. Following working at her alma mater, Bruno was named assistant athletic director at Yale University. She then served as associate commissioner at the Big East Conference during its meteoric rise through the 1980’s. After 12 years at the Big East, Bruno was appointed as commissioner of the Atlantic 10, a position she held for 14 years.

Bruno established Bruno Sports Enterprises in 2010 and handled several searches for head coaches as well as administrative positions. She served as commissioner of the DIII Skyline Conference, which encompassed oversight of 12 members, in the NYC area and was an adjunct instructor at the Drexel University Sports Management Graduate School.

Bruno has served on several NCAA committees, including as chair for both the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and the Championships Cabinet. She also served on the Television Negotiating Committee, the National Letter of Intent Steering committee, the DIII men’s basketball committee in addition to a stint as Vice President of the Collegiate Commissioners Association. She also spent over 20 years as as a member of the Iona Board of Trustees and is on the Executive Committee of the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association as well as the board of the Collegiate Women’s Sports Award.

“We welcome Linda to our PICTOR Group team. She will do an outstanding job helping institutions with their search process. Linda has helped several institutions hire quality administrators and head coaches,” Groth said.

The PICTOR Group offers consulting services in Strategic Visioning and Planning, Program Assessments and Reviews, Integrated Medicine and Performance Support/Assessments/Audits, Performance, Executive Search/Onboarding/Executive Coaching and Culture Assessments and Development. The PICTOR Group’s leadership team includes three former NCAA Division I Athletics Directors and a Division I Conference Commissioner. The PICTOR Group offers a unique blend of exceptional talent, expertise and experience and a team that is passionate for visionary and ethical leadership in intercollegiate athletics. To date, The PICTOR Group has successfully worked with over 100 clients in intercollegiate athletics.

THE PICTOR GROUP TO LAUNCH HIGH-PERFORMANCE PROJECT IN 2024

The PICTOR Group will launch its High-Performance Project in 2024, providing institutions and teams with ground-breaking consulting, planning and education in medical, performance, coaching and well-being areas, Founder and CEO Cary Groth announced this week.

The work will be directed by long-time college and professional sports performance leader Teena Murray. Murray will bring unparalleled experience and expertise from professional, Olympic and college athletics to advance integrated strategies for competitive success.

The PICTOR Group High-Performance Project will provide medical and performance reviews to athletic departments and teams, education and mentoring to high-performance and coaching staffs, return-to-play process and protocol review, assistance with integrating technologies and creating data-informed processes, facility, equipment and resource evaluation and planning and support for innovation and research initiatives.

Murray brings nearly 30 years of experience in advancing a modern, integrated interdisciplinary approach to player development, health and performance in the NBA, NHL, NCAA, USA Hockey and several international sports organizations. She spent 14 years as the Director of Performance at the University of Louisville, co-creating an NCAA-leading health and performance program supporting 21 different teams and over 500 student-athletes. She helped launch and teach in Louisville’s master’s degree program in strength and conditioning. Murray also served four years as the Vice President for Health and Performance for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and one year as Senior Vice President of Integrated Performance for the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, implementing data-forward and transformative high-performance programs focused on elevating player experience and care as well as team success.

“I am thrilled to be joining an esteemed group like The PICTOR Group and to be adding a new dimension and area of expertise to their already extensive portfolio,” Murray said. “I look forward to working with institutions to provide guidance and strategic support around the integration of medical, performance, coaching and well-being, leveraging data to better inform decisions about student-athlete care and team performance.”

The PICTOR Group offers consulting services in Strategic Visioning and Planning, Program Assessments and Reviews, Sports Performance, Executive Search/Onboarding/Executive Coaching and Culture Assessments and Development. The PICTOR Group’s leadership team includes three former NCAA Division I Athletics Directors and a Division I Conference Commissioner. The PICTOR Group offers a unique blend of exceptional talent, expertise and experience and a team that is passionate for visionary and ethical leadership in intercollegiate athletics. To date, The PICTOR Group has successfully worked with over 100 clients in intercollegiate athletics.

THE NEXT ARMS RACE IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS: REVOLUTIONIZING MEDICAL, PERFORMANCE, COACHING, AND WELL-BEING

To say it has been a chaotic time in college athletics is an understatement. As a period of historic disruption plays out on the front page, in the background a quieter transformational movement is also gaining momentum. This movement- emerging on the heels of a mandate from the Transformation Committee- represents an overdue call to action for modernizing mindset, models, and practices across medical, performance, coaching and well-being.

For decades, these critical areas of athletic departments have been lagging, growing without evolving. Today it’s clear they are moving to the top of the priority list, as athletes, coaches, administrators, and University leaders alike, recognize that performance on and off the playing field, begins here. Systemic change, not incremental reform, is needed. The current model is broken. Is it possible the next arms race in college athletics could play out here?

For those in tune with the world of performance beyond college athletics, the mandate to modernize (delivered this past Summer by the D1 Transformation Committee), was not a surprise. Across the landscape these areas have been quickly evolving. Influenced by international sport, North American professional sport has been adopting integrated models and deepening and broadening specialized expertise across the health and performance spectrum for over a decade. And National Governing Bodies (NGB’s) for Olympic sport in the U.S. have been transitioning toward a high-performance approach for almost two decades.

A high-performance approach (also known as a performance support model or integrated performance model) represents an interdisciplinary (or transdisciplinary) approach that unites all athlete support areas under a common umbrella in the spirit of seamlessly delivering evidence-based practices to optimize athlete/player care. These areas operate in synergy and independently at times, with a performance director orchestrating the “front lines” in a holistic and comprehensive manner toward common performance goals (Brocherie and Beard, 2021).

In the NFL, a performance support staff may include 12-15 full-time staff- sport scientists, physiologists, biomechanists, nutritionists, psychologists, strength and reconditioning coaches, physical therapists, athletic trainers and team physicians- under one umbrella and led by a high-performance director (Figure 1A). Beyond athlete care, the impetus for creating integrated performance models is assisting coaching/technical staff and front office staff with strategies to understand what winning looks like through analysis of key performance indicators (Halson et al, 2019).

Why does the integration of medical and performance services really matter? The answer lies in the critical link between athlete development, player availability, return-to-play (post-injury)) outcomes, competitive readiness, and ultimately, winning. Sports science and performance analytics have exploded in elite sport, and now sit (or should) at the epicenter of decision-making around these areas- providing objective data to advance sport-specific, gender-specific and individual-specific planning and programming.

On the reconditioning (rehab) front specifically, return-to-play (RTP) processes have traditionally been based on the application of the same fixed timelines for all athletes, led by medical providers. Today, criteria-based return-to-play processes, leveraging data from sport science technologies and managed by integrated teams of medical and performance practitioners, are guiding progressions and decisions. These objective processes (for the first time) acknowledge every athlete is different. They also ensure late-stage preparation- from movement profiles and conditioning capacities- is effectively organized to safely prepare each athlete to return to game demands. This represents a huge cost saving opportunity- in time and dollars.

From a coaching standpoint, years of data from wearables and/or optical tracking systems have led to new levels of understanding around game and position demands in many sports. Accordingly, there is now a need and an opportunity to apply this data to modernizing coaching- from practice planning to optimizing game day preparation and freshness. Tactical periodization strategies (using sport science data), though still relatively new in North American sport, are designed to integrate physical, technical, tactical, and psychological planning according to a head coach’s playing philosophy (or game model). This is the next frontier.

Though most media coverage focuses on pro sport, early adopters in college athletics have already had years to get ‘ahead of the curve’. At the University of Louisville, where the first sport science and performance analytics division (in NCAA) was created (in partnership with CATAPULT) in 2014, coaches had already been experimenting with sport science integration and tactical periodization for 5-7 years, and the impact on recruiting, player availability and competitive success was paying dividends. Today, Louisville continues to lead from the front with an integrated model and team that now includes a variety of academic and corporate partnerships to advance innovation and research and development efforts.

As leaders in college athletics rethink philosophy and recalibrate models and strategies to build for the future, looking outside their immediate campus gates for expertise and direction is essential. Though NIL collectives, revolving transfer portal doors, coach salaries, and rising cost of attendance issues are front and center, this quieter change management opportunity presents real potential for competitive advantage.

About the Authors:
Teena Murray is a consultant with The PICTOR Group. They are leading The High-Performance Project, a new division of The PICTOR Group, committed to future-focused organizational strategies for college athletics.

References:
Brocherie, F. & Beard, A.., All Alone We Go Faster, Together We Go Further: The Necessary Evolution of Professional and Elite Sporting Environment to Bridge the Gap Between Research and Practice. Frontiers, Jan. 2021.
Halson, S., Hahn, A., Coutts, A.. Combining Research with Support to Enhance Sport Performance. International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance, May 2019.

WICKER McCREE JOINS THE PICTOR GROUP LEADERSHIP TEAM

Highly respected administrator Dr. Ingrid Wicker McCree has joined the leadership team of The PICTOR Group leadership team, Founder and CEO Cary Groth announced.

Wicker McCree will work with athletic departments and organizations with team leadership development and retreats, program reviews, group dynamics/team building programming and staff onboarding as part of her work with The PICTOR Group.

After her career as a volleyball student-athlete at George Washington University, Wicker McCree began her professional career as a two-sport coach at North Carolina Central University. The three-time CIAA Volleyball Coach of the Year, she became the first coach in school history to win conference championships in multiple sports with NCCU's first conference titles in softball (1998) and volleyball (1999, 2004, 2005).

After coaching, Wicker McCree became the first female to hold the permanent title of the Director of Athletics at North Carolina Central University in 2008. One of the longest-tenured athletic directors in NCCU history, she led the university’s successful reclassification to Division I FCS membership, which included developing and implementing the first long-range strategic plan for the transition. Upon her retirement in 2022, she oversaw the development of a new strategic plan, Era of Excellence, 2020-25. She has also served in various leadership positions on local, regional and national boards, including the Durham Sports Commission, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, FCS Football Regional Ranking Committee, and the NCAA Division II Volleyball Committee, NCAA Research committee, and most recently the NCAA Division I Council. In recognition of her achievements, an endowed scholarship was established in her name at NCCU: the Ingrid Wicker McCree Legacy Endowed Scholarship Fund.

Wicker McCree has been recognized for her career accomplishments with induction into four Halls of Fame. She has been honored as a student-athlete, coach and administrator by the C.E. Jordan High School Hall of Fame, John B. McLendon Hall of Fame (CIAA), the George Washington University Athletics Hall of Fame and most recently the NCCU Alex Rivera Hall of Fame.

“I am overjoyed for the opportunity to work with The PICTOR Group,” Wicker McCree said. “I have always known Cary, Carolyne, Sandy and Dianne as role models as a female administrator. Knowing their history and success and admiring them from afar, I am excited to work with them. We have worked so hard in our careers to get to this point, and I look forward to working with schools and programs.”

The PICTOR Group offers consulting services in Strategic Visioning and Planning, Program Assessments and Reviews, Sports Performance, Executive Search/Onboarding/Executive Coaching and Culture Assessments and Development. The PICTOR Group’s leadership team includes three former NCAA Division I Athletics Directors and a Division I Conference Commissioner. The PICTOR Group offers a unique blend of exceptional talent, expertise and experience and a team that is passionate for visionary and ethical leadership in intercollegiate athletics. To date, The PICTOR Group has successfully worked with over 100 clients in intercollegiate athletics.

THE PICTOR GROUP LEADERSHIP TEAM MEMBERS HONORED FOR PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Three members of The PICTOR Group leadership team, Dr. M. Dianne Murphy, Dr. Ingrid Wicker McCree and Cary Groth, have been honored recently for their professional accomplishments.

Vice President M. Dianne Murphy was inducted into two Halls of Fame this fall, being honored by both Columbia University and Tennessee Tech University. Murphy was part of a Columbia class that included 22 individuals and four teams who were honored at a black-tie dinner and induction center in New York City on October 12, while she was one of five selected as members of the 2023 class at Tennessee Tech.

Murphy served as Director of Athletics at Columbia from 2004-2015, guiding a program that saw the Lions win 30 Ivy League Championships during her tenure. She was honored as Athletics Director of the Year by NACDA in 2013-14. Murphy also oversaw the planning and construction of the Campbell Sports Center at the Baker Athletics Complex, which opened in 2013, and the creation of the Women's Leadership Council in 2007.

Tennessee Tech honored Murphy for her legendary career as a student-athlete, coach and administrator. A member of the inaugural Tennessee Tech women's basketball, women's tennis, and volleyball teams, she became the first graduate assistant for the Golden Eaglettes in the 1972-73 season. She went on to spend 13 years as an NCAA Division I head women’s basketball coach, associate athletics director at three different institutions and Division I Director of Athletics for 17 years. In 2016 she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women Leaders in College Sports and was inducted into the NACDA Hall of Fame in 2017.

Murphy has continued to work in the Tennessee Tech community, working as an adjunct professor in Sports Management and serving as the Vice Chair of the Tennessee Tech Foundation Board of Directors. In 2006, she created a leadership initiative at Tech – the Dr. M. Dianne Murphy Leaders for Life program - an initiative that provides comprehensive leadership training to student-athletes.

PICTOR Group Consultant Dr. Ingrid Wicker McCree was inducted into the Alex M. Rivera North Carolina Central University Athletics Hall of Fame on Sept. 30. It marks the fourth Hall of Fame inductee for Wicker McCree who has been honored as a student-athlete, coach and administrator by the C.E. Jordan High School Hall of Fame, John B. McLendon Hall of Fame (CIAA), the George Washington University Athletics Hall of Fame and now the NCCU Alex Rivera Hall of Fame.

Wicker McCree began her career at NCCU as the head coach for women's volleyball and softball in 1994. capturing the university's first ever CIAA championships in softball (1998) and volleyball (1999, 2004, 2005), and becoming the first coach in NCCU history to win conference championships in multiple sports. A three-time CIAA Volleyball Coach of the Year, she earned 239 match victories in 12 seasons as head volleyball coach.

Wicker McCree then became the first female to hold the permanent title of the Director of Athletics at North Carolina Central University in 2008. One of the longest-tenured athletic directors in NCCU history, she led NCCU's successful reclassification to Division I FCS membership, which included developing and implementing the first long-range strategic plan for the transition. Upon her retirement, she oversaw the development of a new strategic plan, Era of Excellence, 2020-25. She has also served in various leadership positions on local, regional and national boards, including the Durham Sports Commission, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, FCS Football Regional Ranking Committee, and the NCAA Division II Volleyball Committee, NCAA Research committee, and most recently the NCAA Division I Council. In recognition of her achievements, an endowed scholarship was established in her name at NCCU: the Ingrid Wicker McCree Legacy Endowed Scholarship Fund.

The PICTOR Group Founder and Chief Executive Office Cary Groth has been named one of 50 Game Changers by the Sports Business Journal. Game Changers are recognized as active leaders, creators and decision-makers within their athletic departments, leagues, teams, media companies and nonprofit organizations. Groth will be recognized at the SBJ Game Changers Conference on October 24 in New York.

Groth also serves as the program director of the Sports Management Program in the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno. The program offers an undergraduate minor and a graduate level Executive Certificate Program, and students learn from industry leaders and professionals through intercollegiate and professional sports. The Sports Management Program has successfully assisted with the long-term job placement of 80 percent of their students.

As a former student-athlete, head women’s tennis coach and athletics administrator, Groth has over 40 years of success throughout her dynamic career. She became the athletics director at her alma mater, Northern Illinois, in 1994. After 10 successful years at Northern Illinois, she served as the athletics director at the University of Nevada from 2004-13. Groth is credited with leading both institutions into nationally competitive athletics programs while increasing the graduation rate of student-athletes. She earned NIU’s College of Education Distinguished Alumni Award and is also a member of the NIU and Mid-American Conference Athletics Halls of Fame.

Groth has held positions on various national and conference committees, including being named to the U.S. Department of Education's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics by President George W. Bush. She has also served as President of Women Leaders in College Sports. She was awarded the Women Leaders in College Sports Administrator of the Year Award and was named the WBCA’s Administrator of the Year in 2003. She founded the PICTOR Group in 2014.

The PICTOR Group offers consulting services in Strategic Visioning and Planning, Program Assessments and Reviews, Sports Performance, Executive Search/Onboarding/Executive Coaching and Culture Assessments and Development. The PICTOR Group’s leadership team includes three former NCAA Division I Athletics Directors and a Division I Conference Commissioner. The PICTOR Group offers a unique blend of exceptional talent, expertise and experience and a team that is passionate for visionary and ethical leadership in intercollegiate athletics. To date, The PICTOR Group has successfully worked with over 100 clients in intercollegiate athletics.