Message from Director of Athletics Shane Lyons

The COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges for our student-athletes during the 2020-21 season. Scheduling changes, game cancellations, travel problems and limited fans in our venues took a big toll on our athletic teams.

However, I am thankful and proud of the way our student-athletes, coaches and staff handled these challenges to accomplish many great things, which you will read about in this annual report.

In the past year, our department had 37 All-Americans, 15 national award winners and 70 All-Conference performers as six of our teams made the NCAA tournament and another 15 individuals qualified for NCAA championships.

While all the accomplishments are too numerous to name, some highlights included men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins winning his 900th game, football coach Neal Brown leading our program to a winning season and a bowl victory, women’s basketball coach Mike Carey winning his 700th career game, women’s basketball and women’s soccer finishing second in the Big 12 Conference and cross country finishing third at the conference championships.

In the classroom, we won 28 individual academic honors, produced 262 Academic All-Conference selections and continued our strong Academic Progress Rate (APR). Rifle’s Verena Zaisberger was a Scholar-Athlete of the Year and four teams earned academic recognition in their sport.

All of our accomplishments are detailed in the pages to come but rest assured that our success in competition and in the classroom is a direct reflection of your support for Mountaineer athletics, and I again thank you for everything you have done for our department. None of our success would happen without your contributions to the Mountaineer Athletic Club, and we appreciate your understanding of how you can make a difference in support of our more than 450 Mountaineer student-athletes.

In the coming year, I will chair the all-important NCAA Division I Council, and it’s an honor to represent you and my alma mater on that prestigious national committee. Also, in the coming year, we look forward to welcoming you all back to our athletic venues at 100% capacity. It’s been a long time coming, and our teams can’t wait for your return.

Stay safe, be well, and I hope you enjoy reading our 2020-21 Annual Report. While it was a difficult year for all of us, I think you will find many accomplishments by our teams and student-athletes that will make you proud to be a part of Mountaineer Nation.

Sincerely,

Shane Lyons Director of Athletics/Associate Vice President West Virginia University