Barton Community College’s Board of Trustees hired two employees for the athletics department on Thursday. Trevor Rolfs, who will take over at the new Athletic Director on July 1, and Patrick Hall, hired as the new women’s volleyball coach, are both leaving positions at Pratt Community College to come to Barton.

Dr. Carl Heilman, president of the Barton college, joked that Pratt has promised to return the favor one day.

Barton has been without a full-time Athletic Director for two years. Instead, the duties were split between a part-time AD — head men’s basketball coach Craig Fletchall — and a part-time assistant AD — volleyball coach Jaime Cabral.

"In January we started talking about the benefit of a full-time athletic director," Heilman said.

The Pratt Tribune, reporting Thursday on Hall’s imminent hiring, noted Cabral was asked to resign after he was accused of giving impermissible benefits to one of his international players in the form of rent money.

Fletchall indicated he’d be happy to give up his part-time AD duties so he could devote more time to his coaching duties, Heilman said Thursday.

Two years ago, a search for a full-time AD wasn’t successful, but this time the college launched a state-wide and national search on Feb. 7 and received 68 applications.

"We wanted someone with head coaching experience, preferably successful, and administrative experience," Heilman said. A screening committee that included representatives from the sports department, administration and community shortened the list to eight finalists, and then to five who were invited to come for interviews.

Two of the five dropped out before the second round of interviews on March 7. Heilman said the college does not pay travel expenses for people interviewing for teaching or coaching jobs, and that was a factor for at least one candidate.

That wasn’t an issue for Rolfs, a Pawnee County native who was working as head men’s basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Pratt. The trustees voted unanimously to follow Heilman’s recommendation and hire Rolfs. His contract starts July 1, but the college is working on an agreement that will have him here "a couple of weeks in May and a couple of weeks in June," Heilman said.

Hall formerly worked on the east coast and was a head high school volleyball coach. Heilman wasn’t sure what brought Hall to Kansas, but at Pratt he was the head women’s volleyball coach. His interview was reportedly done over the telephone.

In other business Thursday, trustees approved hiring Joseph Coney as a customer service representative at Fort Riley, and they approved moving ahead with an application to the Kansas Board of Regents that will allow Barton to offer a certificate program in gas measurement. Staff expects to be able to offer the curriculum this fall.

There was a 40-minute executive session for discussion of personnel.