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Houghton's Lord Named Athletic Director of the Year
HOUGHTON,
N.Y. —The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)
has named Houghton College’s Harold “Skip” Lord the American Mideast
Conference and Region IX Athletic Director of the Year. It is the
fourth time that Lord has won the regional athletic director (AD)
honor.
Among the accomplishments that Lord was cited for were sending 28 different teams to NAIA national tournaments in his 13-year tenure as AD, serving on the NAIA Strategic Planning Task Force and enhancing the facilities and programs at Houghton.
“I feel honored to be chosen for this award,” Lord said, “because it is reflective of the strength of our entire athletics department. We work hard together to do things the right way so that we can represent Houghton well.”
Lord came to Houghton College in 1987 as head coach of the volleyball team and the women’s basketball team, prior to that he coached girls’ basketball and football at Cuba Central School. Before the Cuba position he was athletic director and head coach of the girls’ basketball, football and track teams at Franklinville Central School.
In 1990 Lord took on additional duties as assistant athletic director, while continuing to coach volleyball and basketball. In 1993 he became athletic director, in 1996 he added the duties of co-director of the Houghton College basketball camps and in 1998 he was named associate vice president for athletics and conferences.
Lord stopped coaching the volleyball team after the 1994 season, but continues to coach women’s basketball, even with his other duties. He has taken the women’s team to the NCCAA National tournament twice and the NAIA national tournament four times. He has been named the Conference Coach of the Year twice, regional coach of the year once and WBCA District Coach of the Year once.
Lord has been active in the NAIA at the district/conference, regional and national levels. He was commissioner of the former Northeast Atlantic Conference and has served on the Region X and Region IX management committees. He has chaired the Region IX committee since 2001. Lord has been on the NAIA’s Council of Athletics Administrators, the Constitution & Bylaws Committee, the “Champions of Character” Task Force and the Strategic Planning Task Force in recent years.
Lord’s service has modeled his expectation that the 23 coaches and staff members of Houghton’s athletic department “give back to the profession” by active participation in and attendance at their national organizations and meetings. He ensures that the department provides resources for staff development, including “Champions of Character” instructor training for all head coaches and senior administrators and membership dues for professional organizations.
During his tenure, Lord has brought monumental changes to the college’s athletic facilities, including the building of the Alumni Athletic Complex. The AAC includes Burke Field, a lighted soccer venue surrounded by an eight-lane, all-weather track, grandstands for 1,300 spectators, a press box, a concession building, a storage building, new scoreboards, a separate site for field hockey and two soccer practice fields (one lighted). Lord has also overseen development of Houghton’s “Field of Dreams,” an alternate site carved out of a cornfield with two full-sized soccer fields and two new cross country courses. In the Nielsen Physical Education Center, the college has added a 2,200-square-foot fitness center and an 800-square-foot weight training room and doubled the size of the athletic training facilities.
While accomplishing all of this, though, Lord has emphasized the importance of recognizing athletics as an integral part of the education process. As a result, Houghton’s coaches and athletes recognize that student-athletes are students first. Houghton had 18 NAIA All-American Scholar-Athletes (juniors or seniors with a GPA of 3.5 or above) last year, and that was not unusual. The college had nine varsity teams meet the NAIA’s “Scholar-Team” standard in 2006-07 by achieving a minimum team grade point average of 3.0.
In addition to his professional activities, Lord makes time for volunteer service, most notably in the area of using sports as a means to teach character and faith development. He has been instrumental in bringing the NAIA’s “Champions of Character” emphasis to Allegany County with a program that selects a “Champions of Character” award winner from each of 11 area schools. He has presented his “Blowing the Whistle on Character Education” at every level from high school to the NAIA to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Final Four and to the women’s basketball coaches of the Big East Conference.
Lord is also the volunteer sports ministry coordinator for “Global Partners,” the missions department of The Wesleyan Church, Houghton’s sponsoring denomination. In conjunction with the school, Lord has led and coordinated multiple international sports ministry trips. Houghton College teams have participated in 28 trips to nine different countries in the last ten years. In 2006 he planned and led the “Brno Sports Blitz” in the Czech Republic, which involved 83 athletes and coaches representing eight teams from four colleges and universities.
As the Region IX AD of the Year, Lord’s name will be placed into nomination for the NAIA’s National AD of the Year award.
