6 minute read
Director of Athletics Shane Lyons
DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS/ASSOCIATE VP
SHANE LYONS
Advertisement
In his sixth year as the director of athletics at West Virginia University, Shane Lyons’ vison for the athletics program is crystal clear. It’s a vision that focuses on the betterment of more than 500 student-athletes and the dayto-day needs that will help them succeed in the classroom and in competition, and it is working.
His open lines of communications have made him a popular role model for WVU athletes and coaches. His honest, fair and caring approach has led to success on and off the field. Whether it’s regularly scheduled meetings with the student-athletes or his open-door office policy, Lyons has his finger on the pulse of his student-athletes, coaches and staff.
His success has brought national exposure to West Virginia as Lyons’ presence is wanted on many national and prestigious committees. He chairs the all-important Football Oversight Committee and is also a member of the NCAA Council. Additionally, Lyons serves on the NCAA Working Group on Transfers, the Football Competition Committee and the NCAA Wrestling Academics Enhancement Working Group.
His work with WVU President E. Gordon Gee’s senior leadership team and the Big 12 Conference has brought additional respect and positive exposure to his department and the University. He served on the Big 12 Administration Committee, Finance and Budget Committee and the Game Management and Officiating Subcommittee, while chairing the Big 12 athletic directors committee in 2018.
In the office, he devotes endless energy to his Climbing Higher facilities master plan that will keep West Virginia a strong Power 5 institution and position his department for growth and continued success. His Climbing Higher facilities master plan isn’t about keeping up with the Joneses, it’s about taking what his department has, improving it and making it complete for the student-athlete. It’s an aggressive, $100 million fundraising campaign centered on one of his core values - enhancing the student-athlete experience. The campaign is already making a difference with a complete renovation of football’s Milan Puskar Center and the future emergence of an Olympic Sports Performance Center.
And, coming in 2021, Lyons will lead the celebration of the 50th birthday of the WVU Coliseum and oversee the installation of 14,000 new seats, a new videoboard, lighting and sound system for the venerable structure. From training, nutrition, medical and competitiveness, Lyons’ vision is for sustained future success, building winning programs and growing WVU’s strong reputation across the country. He is about results, and he has already left a great deal of accomplishments in his rear-view mirror.
In 2019, Lyons commissioned and announced an economic impact study that showed Mountaineer Athletics produced more than $300 million to the state’s economy and more than $78 million to the local economy. And with the local economy in mind, Lyons’s proudly saw the formal opening of a new $45 million aquatic and track facility that will not only benefit WVU, but also local schools and the entire community. The Mountaineers proudly hosted the 2020 Big 12 swimming and diving championships in that beautiful facility.
Additionally, in the last two years, Lyons’ department has hosted the NCAA rifle national championships, the Big 12 golf championship and an NCAA baseball regional. In 2019 and again in 2020, WVU recorded its highest APR score ever and finished above the national average both years. In 2020, Lyons oversaw a department that produced 122 Academic All-Conference performers, 14 academic award winners and six academic team awards.
When he stresses academics, he means it and 2020 was the second year in a row that his department finished with its best overall team GPA in history at 3.36. That accomplishment featured every team with a GPA above 3.0 for the 2020 spring semester.
From 2015-18, he spearheaded and finished more than $100 million in fan enhancements to Milan Puskar Stadium and the WVU Coliseum, completed a second phase of Coliseum renovations, bringing the arena up to current ADA seating code, and for the first-time ever, introduced a second video board to Milan Puskar Stadium to provide information and improve fan entertainment.
He implemented a Clinical and Sport Psychology unit with a full-time director and professional interns, added specialized learning assistants to the Student-Athlete Development unit and entered into a partnership with WVU Medicine’s Neuroscience Department to assist in the training and recovery of student-athletes, all emphasizing his overall commitment to the well-being and performance of Mountaineer student-athletes.
Ask him and he’ll tell you it’s not his department, but West Virginia’s department. He cares, and the proof is in what he has accomplished for Mountaineer athletics.
Lyons came to West Virginia after spending three years as the deputy director of athletics and chief operating officer at Alabama where he worked closely on day-to-day strategic leadership and direction of the Crimson Tide Athletic program.
Prior to joining the Alabama staff in November 2011, Lyons spent 10 years as an associate commissioner at the Atlantic Coast Conference. At the ACC, Lyons focused on conference-wide compliance and academic initiatives, providing direct assistance to the conference’s presidents, chancellors and athletics directors in dealing with NCAA regulatory matters.
In addition, he served as the ACC’s human resource manager and was responsible for the administration, negotiation and mediation of the employee benefits program and managing the conference’s organizational policies and procedures. He was part of the senior administrative team for ACC events, including the football championship game, the men’s basketball tournament and men’s and women’s NCAA basketball events.
Prior to working at the ACC, Lyons served as associate athletics director for compliance at Big 12 member Texas Tech from 1998 to 2001. During that time, Lyons assumed responsibility for the leadership, administration and implementation of a comprehensive NCAA compliance program with emphasis toward rules education and extensive monitoring systems. He also served as oversight administrator for several of the Red Raiders’ athletic teams and had financial and operational supervision of the strength and conditioning, nutritional and sports medicine units. Before joining Texas Tech, Lyons worked at the NCAA for almost 10 years as a senior membership services representative, where he was responsible for the oversight and coordination of rules and interpretations for the 25 membership service representatives and was the staff liaison to various NCAA standing committees. Lyons began his career in college athletics in July 1988 as assistant commissioner of the Big South Conference. With the Big South, he was in charge of conference-wide compliance and championships. A native of Parkersburg, West Virginia, and a graduate of Parkersburg High, Lyons was a standout basketball player for the Big Reds. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sport management from WVU in 1987 and 1988, respectively. Lyons, the University’s 12th athletic director, and his wife, Emily, a graduate of the University of WisconsinMadison, have two children: Cameron and Brooke. Cameron is a member of the football team at Akron and Brooke attends Morgantown High School.
National Committee Appointments 2000-01 Division I Satisfactory Progress Waivers Committee 2004-06 Division I Academics/Eligibility Compliance Cabinet 2004-06 Recruiting Subcommittee (Chair 1 year) 2004-08 Division I Interpretations Committee (Chair 2 years) 2005-07 Legislative Review Committee (Chair 2 years) 2006-08 Division I Management Council 2008-11 Division I Legislative Council (Chair 1 year) 2010-11 Division I Communications and Coordination Committee 2015-18 Big 12 Administration, Finance and Budget Committee 2015-18 Big 12 Game Management and Officiating Subcommittee 2017-18 Big 12 Athletic Directors Council (Chair) 2018-present Division I Council 2018-present Division I Football Oversight Committee (Chair) 2020- NCAA Working Group on Transfers
2020- NCAA Wrestling Academics Enhancement Working Group
