CLEVELAND – Seattle University Director of Athletics Shaney Fink has been named one of a select group of winners of the 2021-22 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Cushman & Wakefield AD of the Year Award (ADOY), the association announced Tuesday. The award spans seven divisions (NCAA FBS, FCS, Division I-AAA, II, III, NAIA/Other Four-Year Institutions and Junior College/Community Colleges). Winners will be recognized in conjunction with the 57th Annual NACDA & Affiliates Convention at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, prior to the Featured Session on Tuesday, June 28 at 4 p.m.
The ADOY Award highlights the efforts of athletics directors at all levels for their commitment and positive contributions to student-athletes, campuses and their surrounding communities.
"This award reflects the great work of our Redhawks coaches, athletics staff and student athletes within a university where student experience is prioritized and valued," said Fink. "I am honored to be recognized and thrilled to share this honor with the entire Seattle U Athletics Department."
Since arriving in Seattle in November 2016, Fink has focused on creating an unparalleled learning environment for student athletes to emerge as exemplars of the greater Seattle University mission. Fink's initial efforts centered on key organizational changes, including the creation of an integrated student services team to ensure a collaborative and seamless experience for student athletes. The results speak for themselves as Redhawk student athlete's first time in college (FTIC) retention rates improved to 90%+ in each of the past three years. Additionally, Redhawk student athletes earned GPA's higher than the general student population for two of the past three years. Recognizing this achievement, Seattle U was honored with the Western Athletic Conference's Academic Excellence Award in June 2020 and again in June 2021.
The past five years have been the most competitively successful in Redhawk Division I history with nine NCAA Tournament appearances, 14 WAC team championships and 10 individual WAC titles. Men's basketball has enjoyed two 20+ win seasons, capturing its first WAC regular season title in 2022. The 2021-22 men's hoops season was historic, including the winningest DI season since 1957-58, a NET ranking peaking at 116 and Head Coach Chris Victor earned WAC and NABC District 6 Coach of the Year honors.
Men's golf (2017), women's basketball (2018) and softball (2019, 2021) captured WAC Championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in Redhawk history. Women's soccer continues its longstanding tradition of WAC dominance, earning five combined regular-season and tournament titles over the past five years. Men's soccer leads the way nationally with NCAA Tournament appearances in three of the past five years, and has been consistently ranked in the top-25 since 2015.
An initiative to expand the Redhawk Athletic Fund resulted in contribution increases for three consecutive years while more than doubling the total number of donors. This success is largely attributed to the efforts of coaches and staff through SU Gives, where 100% athletics staff and coaches contributed, and extraordinary success of annual events including the 2019 Red Tie which raised more than $725,000.
The implementation of an athletics facilities master plan has seen facility projects include upgrades to the athletic training room, newly designed team meeting and office space for men's basketball and covered hitting and pitching cages for baseball at Bannerwood Park. During 2021-2022, women's rowing will move into a new shellhouse on Salmon Bay.
Fink is a campus leader serving on the university's President's Cabinet, Strategic Planning Committee, Strategic Planning Implementation Team, the Academic Calendar Review Committee, Enrollment Management Committee as well as multiple search committees for cabinet level administrators. In 2019-20, she also served as the Chair of the WAC Executive Committee.
"As the intercollegiate athletics enterprise continues to evolve and institutions and their departments journey bravely into uncharted waters, we have a new wave of leaders who have answered the call," said Bob Vecchione, NACDA Chief Executive Officer. "This year, 22 of our 28 Athletics Director of the Year honorees are being recognized with the award for the first time in their careers. Additionally, in the year that we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, we are proud that all four ADOY winners at the Division III level are women. Thank you to our new title sponsor Cushman & Wakefield, for helping the NACDA family applaud the efforts of these athletics directors across the country. We are looking forward to gathering together in person once again to celebrate their achievements during Convention this summer."
Cushman & Wakefield is in its first year of sponsoring the award. The ADOY Award program is in its 24th year and has recognized a total of 535 deserving athletics directors to date.
For the full list of winners of the 2021-22 Cushman & Wakefield AD of the Year Awards click here.
All NACDA-member directors of athletics in the United States, Canada and Mexico who met the criteria were eligible for the award. Among the criteria were service as an AD for a minimum of five academic years; demonstration of commitment to higher education and student-athletes; continuous teamwork, loyalty and excellence; and the ability to inspire individuals or groups to high levels of accomplishments. Additionally, each AD's institution must have passed a compliance check through its appropriate governing body (i.e., NCAA, NAIA, etc.), in which the institution could not have been on probation or cited for a lack of institutional control during the tenure of the current athletics director.
Nominators were NACDA-member directors of athletics, institutional presidents and conference commissioners, as well as other respected intercollegiate athletics administrators. Special Divisional Selection Committees composed of current and former directors of athletics, current and former commissioners and other key athletics administrators voted on nominees for the award. A complete listing of Selection Committee members can be found on NACDA's website at www.nacda.com.
About NACDA: Now in its 57th year, NACDA is the professional and educational Association for more than 22,000 college athletics administrators at more than 2,200 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. NACDA manages 17 professional associations and four foundations. In addition to virtual programming, NACDA hosts five major professional development events in-person annually. The NACDA & Affiliates Convention is the largest gathering of collegiate athletics administrators in the country. For more information, visit http://www.nacda.com/.
The ADOY Award highlights the efforts of athletics directors at all levels for their commitment and positive contributions to student-athletes, campuses and their surrounding communities.
"This award reflects the great work of our Redhawks coaches, athletics staff and student athletes within a university where student experience is prioritized and valued," said Fink. "I am honored to be recognized and thrilled to share this honor with the entire Seattle U Athletics Department."
Since arriving in Seattle in November 2016, Fink has focused on creating an unparalleled learning environment for student athletes to emerge as exemplars of the greater Seattle University mission. Fink's initial efforts centered on key organizational changes, including the creation of an integrated student services team to ensure a collaborative and seamless experience for student athletes. The results speak for themselves as Redhawk student athlete's first time in college (FTIC) retention rates improved to 90%+ in each of the past three years. Additionally, Redhawk student athletes earned GPA's higher than the general student population for two of the past three years. Recognizing this achievement, Seattle U was honored with the Western Athletic Conference's Academic Excellence Award in June 2020 and again in June 2021.
The past five years have been the most competitively successful in Redhawk Division I history with nine NCAA Tournament appearances, 14 WAC team championships and 10 individual WAC titles. Men's basketball has enjoyed two 20+ win seasons, capturing its first WAC regular season title in 2022. The 2021-22 men's hoops season was historic, including the winningest DI season since 1957-58, a NET ranking peaking at 116 and Head Coach Chris Victor earned WAC and NABC District 6 Coach of the Year honors.
Men's golf (2017), women's basketball (2018) and softball (2019, 2021) captured WAC Championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in Redhawk history. Women's soccer continues its longstanding tradition of WAC dominance, earning five combined regular-season and tournament titles over the past five years. Men's soccer leads the way nationally with NCAA Tournament appearances in three of the past five years, and has been consistently ranked in the top-25 since 2015.
An initiative to expand the Redhawk Athletic Fund resulted in contribution increases for three consecutive years while more than doubling the total number of donors. This success is largely attributed to the efforts of coaches and staff through SU Gives, where 100% athletics staff and coaches contributed, and extraordinary success of annual events including the 2019 Red Tie which raised more than $725,000.
The implementation of an athletics facilities master plan has seen facility projects include upgrades to the athletic training room, newly designed team meeting and office space for men's basketball and covered hitting and pitching cages for baseball at Bannerwood Park. During 2021-2022, women's rowing will move into a new shellhouse on Salmon Bay.
Fink is a campus leader serving on the university's President's Cabinet, Strategic Planning Committee, Strategic Planning Implementation Team, the Academic Calendar Review Committee, Enrollment Management Committee as well as multiple search committees for cabinet level administrators. In 2019-20, she also served as the Chair of the WAC Executive Committee.
"As the intercollegiate athletics enterprise continues to evolve and institutions and their departments journey bravely into uncharted waters, we have a new wave of leaders who have answered the call," said Bob Vecchione, NACDA Chief Executive Officer. "This year, 22 of our 28 Athletics Director of the Year honorees are being recognized with the award for the first time in their careers. Additionally, in the year that we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, we are proud that all four ADOY winners at the Division III level are women. Thank you to our new title sponsor Cushman & Wakefield, for helping the NACDA family applaud the efforts of these athletics directors across the country. We are looking forward to gathering together in person once again to celebrate their achievements during Convention this summer."
Cushman & Wakefield is in its first year of sponsoring the award. The ADOY Award program is in its 24th year and has recognized a total of 535 deserving athletics directors to date.
For the full list of winners of the 2021-22 Cushman & Wakefield AD of the Year Awards click here.
All NACDA-member directors of athletics in the United States, Canada and Mexico who met the criteria were eligible for the award. Among the criteria were service as an AD for a minimum of five academic years; demonstration of commitment to higher education and student-athletes; continuous teamwork, loyalty and excellence; and the ability to inspire individuals or groups to high levels of accomplishments. Additionally, each AD's institution must have passed a compliance check through its appropriate governing body (i.e., NCAA, NAIA, etc.), in which the institution could not have been on probation or cited for a lack of institutional control during the tenure of the current athletics director.
Nominators were NACDA-member directors of athletics, institutional presidents and conference commissioners, as well as other respected intercollegiate athletics administrators. Special Divisional Selection Committees composed of current and former directors of athletics, current and former commissioners and other key athletics administrators voted on nominees for the award. A complete listing of Selection Committee members can be found on NACDA's website at www.nacda.com.
About NACDA: Now in its 57th year, NACDA is the professional and educational Association for more than 22,000 college athletics administrators at more than 2,200 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. NACDA manages 17 professional associations and four foundations. In addition to virtual programming, NACDA hosts five major professional development events in-person annually. The NACDA & Affiliates Convention is the largest gathering of collegiate athletics administrators in the country. For more information, visit http://www.nacda.com/.
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