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How Campus Security is taking extra measures to maintain a healthy environment and secure campus community. story and photos courtesy of Parker Brown

Few people connect with a sport like Kevin Grebin connects with tennis. He was always around the game from an early age with his father being considered the “godfather of South Dakota tennis.” Grebin is a proud former tennis player at USF as well as a former football player. Both he and his father have been inducted into the South Dakota Tennis Hall of Fame. He worked as a state trooper for 25 years before transitioning to working at USF. Naturally, Grebin took on the role of head coach of the USF tennis team after he volunteered as a coach for a few years. At the same time, he took on the role of Director of Campus Safety & Security to continue work in law enforcement.

There are many challenges to holding two important jobs on campus, but for Grebin, he has found it to be manageable and enjoyable. “You know I always say that if you want a job to be not a job, enjoy what you do,” said Grebin. “Getting to do two things that I love is probably the most rewarding part, but it’s also working with the staff that I have and these guys are fantastic and that makes my job so much easier.” The people he works with have also helped make the changes brought by Covid-19 more manageable. “I have a really good group of security officers and they’re always very supportive of each other and it just kinda magnified that when Covid came to light. Not only supportive of each other, but supportive of the USF administration and their protocols and everything. ”

Covid-19 has changed how his jobs function. He and the rest of the security team made adjustments to patrol routines and put more emphasis on watching the cameras. Changes were inevitable when students came back as well. All this was on top of measures of social distancing. “It was just basically taking us probably out of our comfort zone in terms of what we did prior to this and kinda getting used to the new normal for now.” For coaching tennis, changes were smaller, but very important. Tennis is considered by many to already be a lower risk sport when it comes to social distancing. “It hasn’t been so drastic for us, but there are still some steps we have taken to just make sure that we don’t increase any chances of exposure to each other or to others that are around us, so it’s just kind of a mindset,” said Grebin. He also more specifically tries to coach and encourage his players from a safe distance, which he has been mindful of: “I’ve always been kind of a high-fiver and a close person so I’ve kind of had to adjust that a little bit.”

As we get through the pandemic, he has taken more time to reflect on the others he works with. “It’s not about me, but it’s about who I have working for me and so that’s what makes it easy for me to do both jobs,” Grebin said. He specifically mentioned he was thankful for his assistant tennis coach Kevin Plank and assistant director of campus safety & security Jeff McDonald. He said that he can know that when he has to attend to responsibilities for his adjacent role, it will be in great hands. In the end, Kevin Grebin finds joy in his work. A pandemic and other day to day difficulties have not changed that. “I can’t see myself doing anything other than this.”

Statement from Kevin Grebin:

“From the security standpoint, I just want to thank the USF community as a whole for their support and understanding all the time, not just during the covid crisis. We’ve always had a very good relationship with the people here at USF: staff, faculty, visitors, students, and, again, it kind of mirrors back to what I have in terms of a staff that can enable that kind of relationship to take place and have students comfortable approaching officers and vice versa and just how well that we’ve all worked towards the greater good to keep everyone safe until we get through this crisis.”