SIOUX FALLS — The University of Sioux Falls has called a press conference for Friday morning, where they will introduce Jon Hart as the Cougars' new director of athletics, multiple sources told Sioux Falls Live.
Hart has spent the last eight years in the same role at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, where he's overseen a thriving and successful Tiger program at the NAIA level.
The Alexandria native is a DWU grad, having played baseball and football for the Tigers. He earned his bachelor's degree in 2011 and his masters the following year. Hart replaces Pam Gohl, who resigned near the end of the summer to take a position within the athletic department at MSU-Moorhead.
At DWU, which was once a conference rival of USF when the Cougars were members of the NAIA's Great Plains Athletic Conference, Hart oversees 18 intercollegiate teams where he's responsible for staffing and managing personnel, budgets, financial aid, letters of intent, fundraising and development, corporate partnerships, marketing, game-day management, compliance, conflict resolution, travel and scheduling.
DWU Athletics raises over $800,000 in scholarships and general fundraising through close work with DWU TeamMakers, Corporate Sponsors and individual team fundraisers, while Hart’s leadership in facility and capital campaign projects have led to completions in the $12 million DWU & Avera Sport and Wellness Center (completed in February 2016), Drake Baseball Field turf and scoreboard project (May 2023), the Christen Family Wellness Center renovation and seating expansion (fall of 2022), $1.2 million Joe Quintal football field turf project in 2018, athletic weight room renovation, locker room renovations, Bary Kusel athletic offices renovation, indoor golf practice facility, soccer and softball facility upgrades.
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Tiger athletic programs have been successful on the playing field during Hart’s tenure, as DWU regularly ranks in the top half nationally of the NAIA Learfield cup standings. In 2019, the DWU track & field program brought home two of its first-ever individual national championships. In 2018, the women’s basketball program won the NAIA D-II National Championship, which was also the first team title in school history. In 2015, the men’s basketball program finished runner-up in the NAIA D-II tournament. The football program also experienced its most successful five-year run in program history from 2013-17.
Hart is the son of former DWU athletic director Curt Hart, and he and his wife Danielle have three children — daughters Harper and Henley and son Hawkins.
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