NACDA Honors Ashland AD Goldring
June 22, 2006

There aren’t many three-sport athletes left these days.

There are even fewer 20-sport players.

That, however, is the best way to describe Ashland University director of athletics Bill Goldring. Goldring directs AU’s 20-sport varsity athletic program and under his guidance, the Eagles have been winners across the board, on and off the playing field.

Goldring has been named the GeneralSports TURF Systems Athletic Director of the Year for NCAA Division II, the Northeast Region. He is being honored this week at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) convention in New Orleans.

To those in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and in the Great Lakes region, the fact that Goldring is being honored is really no surprise. He’s beginning his ninth year at Ashland and in that time, AU has had one of the most successful, well-rounded athletic department’s in the country.

The 2005-06 season serves as a perfect example. This past season, the volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball teams all advanced to the NCAA playoffs and the baseball team made it to Montgomery, AL, for the NCAA Championships. Sixteen AU student-athletes were recognized as All-Americas and they earned a total of 26 All-America citations.

Those kind of figures were put together without cutting corners. For the spring, 2006 semester, AU student-athletes had a team grade point average of 3.04. Baseball player Casey Jirsa was a first team Academic All-America. Jirsa is the 13th Ashland student-athlete since 2000 to be recognized as an Academic All-America.

Goldring’s tenure at AU has been marked by expansion. Since arriving on campus, he’s added two varsity sports – women’s golf and women’s tennis. He’s spearheaded projects to update the AU weight room, renovate Donges Field (baseball) and this summer, Community Stadium (football) is getting a new playing surface (Pro Grass).

The AU athletic director has also brought quality events to the campus during his stay. Under Goldring’s watch, AU has hosted NCAA Division II national championship events for men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s and women’s cross country. The school has hosted playoff events in soccer, baseball and wrestling. In 2006-07, AU will host the NCAA Division II softball championships, the men’s and women’s GLIAC swimming championships and the NCAA Division II wrestling regional tournament.

Just bringing championship events to Ashland hasn’t been enough to satisfy Goldring’s athletic appetite. He’s put in place a program that’s been successful on conference, regional and national levels. At one point, the women’s soccer team won eight consecutive conference championships and made eight straight trips to the NCAA playoffs. The men’s soccer team won the first GLIAC championship in school history last year and has journeyed to the NCAA playoffs twice (2001, 2003). Women’s basketball and volleyball have also made their initial NCAA playoff appearances since Goldring came to AU. Volleyball has been to the postseason for two consecutive seasons and women’s basketball has been there two of the last three years.

Athletics is a business of change and Goldring works in that situation as well anyone. A keen judge of talent, the last four coaches AU has hired have all earned GLIAC coach of the year awards. That quartet includes Lee Owens (football), Connie Surowicz (volleyball), John Hall (soccer) and Jud Logan (track and field).

Goldring has served on the GLIAC Championship Committee, Conference Review Committee, the NCAA Division II Regional Committee for Football and the NCAA Division II Championship Eligibility Project Team.

Goldring has close to 30 years of athletics administration experience. His career began at Jacksonville (FL) where he was the sports information director from 1978-81. He was the director of sports information and promotions at Indiana State from 1981-84 and was promoted to the post of assistant athletic director (1984-89). From 1989-90, Goldring was an associate athletic director at Indiana State.

From Indiana State, Goldring moved to Iowa State where he was assistant athletic director for business from 1990-95. He came to AU from Morningside College in Sioux City, IA, where he was the director of athletics for three years.

Goldring is originally from Orrville, OH. He earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from The Ohio State University in 1975. He received his master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University in 1977.