SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Notre Dame College Athletic Department will be under new leadership in the coming months as current Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Scott Swain has announced his resignation after leading Falcon athletics for 12 outstanding years, guiding the College in a transition from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) to NCAA Division II status, which brought multiple National Championships and countless achievements.
The Columbus native came back to Ohio in July of 2012 after working six years at the University of Tennessee. He immediately went to work as the Athletic Director, building an athletic department that could not only compete, but win at the highest level in the new world of NCAA.
Following a promotion to Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics in the fall of 2021, Swain began to also oversee all campus facilities in the summer of 2023.
Swain served as the Chairman of the Mountain East Conference's Committee of Athletic Administrators (CAA) from 2016 to 2021, overseeing the committee made up of MEC Athletic Directors and Senior Woman Administrators. Since June 2019, he has served on the Board of Directors for the Division 2 Athletic Directors Association (D2 ADA), representing the Mountain East Conference.
With Swain leading the way, NDC wrestling and football had some of the most impressive runs of prosperity of any program at any level of collegiate athletics. Since 2012, Notre Dame wrestling has won two NCAA Division II National Championships, as wrestling took the top spot in 2014 and 2017. The 2014 title was accomplished at the Wolstein Center, down the street in Cleveland. In addition to that, the wrestling program has won seven Regional Championships.
Notre Dame College football sat at the top of the MEC for five consecutive seasons, from 2018 to 2022, earning an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Playoffs each year. The Falcons were the top team in the region in 2018. They won their first two playoff games in program history on their way to the NCAA Division II Tournament Semifinals matchup, in Valdosta, Ga, falling to the eventual national champion Valdosta State. NDC holds a record of 5-4 in nine playoff games since 2018.
As a part of USA Rugby, women's rugby grabbed a National Title in 2014 and the men's team earned its own in 2017. And just this past fall, men's rugby defeated St. Bonaventure for a National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) Division I championship. Women's rugby, also a part of NCR, has won three consecutive regional titles and has advanced to the National Championship game in back-to-back campaigns.
Since 2012, men's soccer has taken seven trips to the NCAA D2 Playoffs, women's soccer has gone to the national playoffs three times, men's basketball earned its first trip to the Division II tournament in 2019 and women's basketball qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2020.
In addition to that, Falcon athletics has tallied 13 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Tournament Championships, 11 MEC Regular Season Championships, 108 athletes have earned All-American status and 47 have been named Academic All-America.
Swain has accepted the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics position at Point Park University (PPU), in Pittsburgh, Pa. Earlier this month, the Mountain East Conference announced that it had extended an invitation to Point Park to join the conference. And just as Swain did with the NDC athletic department in its transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II, he will do the same in the Steel City.
With successful acceptance to the NCAA Division II membership process this summer, PPU will begin to compete in MEC regular season competitions in the Fall of 2024 and will be immediately eligible for MEC Championships.
Notre Dame College will be conducting an internal search for interim leadership of Falcon Athletics. Dr. John Smetanka, Interim President and Provost, stated, "the College is deeply appreciative of Scott Swain's leadership of Notre Dame College Athletics for more than a decade. Under his leadership, the athletic programs grew and maintained a high level of excellence. We wish Scott well as he pursues new challenges."
