For a third time in four months, Winthrop athletics is looking for a new leader
Winthrop athletics is looking for a new leader for a third time in four months.
Current Winthrop interim athletic director Kelley Kish has accepted the athletic director job at Wingate University near Charlotte, she told The Herald on Wednesday. Her last day at the Rock Hill university is Dec. 1.
Kish began her tenure at Winthrop as the Rock Hill school’s senior associate athletic director for business and finance in February 2020. She was later promoted to interim athletic director in mid-October.
Kish told The Herald she’s excited to take up the mantle at Wingate, particularly because she’s always had a passion for aiding in the student-athlete experience at the Division II level. Before arriving at Winthrop, Kish had vast experience in the D2 realm — serving in leadership roles at Nova Southeastern in Florida and then later Lake Erie College in Ohio, where she led a department with 19 NCAA Division II athletic programs.
“There’s so much philosophically that aligns with my values, specifically to the student-athlete experience,” she said of Division II athletics. “And at Winthrop, we do so many things the right way around the student-athlete experience, and you see so much of that preparation for life after graduation, but at Division II the emphasis and the priorities and that student-athlete experience is (different).
“It’s something I’ve worked 10-plus years in, and I’ve really desired to get back there.”
Kish’s exit is the latest departure for Winthrop’s athletic department.
The carousel started when Ken Halpin, the school’s athletic director since May 2016, left to become Purdue’s new deputy athletics director and chief operating officer in July. Halpin was then replaced on an interim basis by his right-hand man, Hank Harrawood — until Harrawood left his interim AD post three months later in October.
Kish was then promoted to replace Harrawood on Oct. 15, making Kish only the second woman to lead the department in Winthrop history. The university interim president George Hynd told The Herald in an emailed statement at the time of Kish’s promotion that her appointment brings “a much needed sense of stability to the athletics department.”
Kish said she was contacted by a search firm employed by Wingate this past summer, so her decision to move on was unrelated to those of Halpin and Harrawood.
When will Winthrop hire a new AD?
In a statement to The Herald on Wednesday, Hynd said that the university does not yet know who will replace Kish as the university’s interim AD, and that university officials will soon meet with athletics coaches and staff to discuss “steps for moving forward.”
Hynd, as president, is in an interim role himself. The university’s search for a new interim AD (once again) coincides with Winthrop’s search for a permanent university president.
Originally, the plan was for Winthrop’s 12th president to begin July 2022, and he or she would be able to determine the next steps going forward on searching for a permanent athletic director. But, Hynd wrote Wednesday, the university “may initiate a permanent search after Jan. 1 or after Winthrop’s next president is selected, based on our success in bringing an interim AD aboard soon after Kelley’s departure on Dec. 1.”
One of the top priorities of Kish’s successor will be rebuilding the Winthrop athletic department. In an interview with The Herald after the announcement of Halpin’s departure from Winthrop in July, Halpin estimated that Winthrop athletics had lost 30% of its workforce — most of whom left during the pandemic and weren’t replaced because of a university-wide, de facto hiring freeze.
Kish said she will use the remaining month to help shore up some of the athletic department’s needs in terms of staffing and planning for the end of the fall sports season and the beginning of the winter season so “as many teams as possible achieve the goals they’ve set.”
“I told the staff on Monday,” Kish said, “and I’ve told the president and anyone who inquired specifically so they could know: My intention is to leave Winthrop in the best position possible for the next person who is leading the department.”
.jpeg)