After many months of transition, Goshen College now has a new athletic director: Josh Gleason. When Tim Demant resigned as athletic director last summer, an interim model was put in place and has been followed until now.
Because the job was not opened externally, “the interim model that was put in place went through an extensive review process led by Lee Snyder, the provost, which is who the athletic department reports to now,” said Josh Keister, director of the Recreation and Fitness Center here at GC. “It was then decided to take the interim model and continue it full time without doing an outside search.”
Gleason and Keister began their time here at Goshen as baseball coaches and have worked side by side ever since.
“I think [Gleason] understands GC and its athletics well and has a great vision on how to make both very successful,” said Keister.
Gleason is looking forward to taking on his new role with a collaborative approach. “I don’t see anything as ‘this is my plan’ or ‘this is my vision,’” said Gleason. “I see it as this is what we as a department and we as an institution want to accomplish. My job, as I see it, is to facilitate that teamwork and create a supportive environment for that vision to be realized.”
Gleason’s strong listening skills and creativity will be useful, “as [the college is] faced with a number of obstacles that provide opportunities to be creative about how we approach and solve them.”
When asked in what ways the department can improve as a whole, Gleason said, “Our focus is on being operationally efficient and on coming together and using the resources we have the best way possible.”
“We want to be united in our mission, in our vision for what we can accomplish and for how that contributes positively [to the] campus,” added Gleason.
After Demant’s resignation, Gleason and Keister went to work immediately on filling gaps and getting up to speed on how to best prepare for the year ahead.
“I think our leadership team and entire staff made the transition far smoother than any would have expected,” said Gleason. “I give a tremendous amount of credit to Josh Keister and Doug Yoder specifically, who worked tirelessly covering everything in great detail. It is a blessing to have their passion for GC athletics and their experience in our corner.”
According to Gleason, the interim process gave him “a greater insight to how we can best move forward in accomplishing our mission of developing student athletes competitively, academically and as people who will make a difference far after they leave this campus.”
