The decision facing Idaho State University President Kevin Satterlee regarding who should be his school's next athletic director might be one of the most important choices he makes during his time here.

Satterlee's removal of longtime ISU Athletic Director Jeff Tingey this past summer was all about ending the perception that ISU is the home to losing sports teams.

The only athletic program at the university that's been consistently successful is the women's basketball team.

The rest of the school's sports programs are not consistently competitive with other Big Sky Conference teams, and that might be putting it politely.

Coming from Boise State University, Satterlee knows full well that to be a successful college, winning sports teams are required.

The job of the next ISU athletic director will be to change the image of ISU from being a school of mostly poorly performing teams to being a school of champions.

Engaging the school's student population as well as the Pocatello community in ISU athletics is also vital for whoever replaces Tingey.

For several reasons, we wholeheartedly feel that the person Satterlee should hire is the individual who's been serving as acting and now interim athletic director since Tingey's departure.

We believe Pauline Semons Thiros has lots of positives and potential with a downside we can live with for now.

First off, university athletic directors often seem nomadic in that they are in constant resume-building mode, looking to cash in on their successes immediately to get to a bigger university and make more money.

Tingey, who was at ISU for a decade, was not the norm, but even he applied for athletic director positions at other schools during his time at ISU.

One quality we truly appreciate about Semons Thiros is that she's a Bengal to her core and is loyal to ISU and the Pocatello community. She's not hoping to get the athletic director's post so she can cash it in at the first sign she's reversing ISU's athletic fortunes.

The upside of this is that if Semons Thiros turns out to be the all-star athletic director ISU so desperately needs, she will be providing outstanding leadership to ISU athletics for years if not decades.

She has been at ISU since the 1990s and is all in when it comes to wanting to see the school succeed.

Semons Thiros is also very likable and is clearly a people person. She has the charisma to sell ISU and its potential to prospective students, coaches and donors.

In her short time as ISU's acting and now interim athletic director, she's improved the morale of everyone involved in ISU athletics — from the players and coaches to the fans and alumni.

She's easy to find on social media building the Bengal brand, never misses an ISU game and is very approachable in public.

Her accomplishments thus far have included securing funding from the State Board of Education to renovate Davis Field, hiring a new soccer coach, and successfully handling the recent allegations against ISU's football coaching staff.

The transparency with which ISU responded to those allegations was impressive and that episode told us a lot about Semons Thiros and Satterlee and their belief that the public has a right to know what's going on when such allegations are made.

There is the possibility, though, that Semons Thiros won't be able to do what some might call impossible when it comes to turning ISU into a sports powerhouse.

What if after a couple of years we're in the same situation as we have been in the past, with the women's basketball team being the only bright spot in an otherwise bleak sports landscape at our university?

If that's the case, Semons Thiros can be removed and ISU can hire an athletic director from outside of the university. We're certain that the same type of high-caliber candidates that ISU's current athletic director search has attracted will be there in a couple of years.

But our money is on Semons Thiros being the solution to ISU's athletic woes.

She talks the talk and walks the walk. She's a great face for ISU athletics, inspires those around her, and makes you believe she can do anything.

Maybe she can.

Our advice to President Satterlee is to give her the chance.