Three new athletic directors on staff in the WIAC

Roger Ternes has been named athletic director at UW-River Falls. Ternes, 55, comes to UW-River Falls from Dickinson State, N.D., University where he was that institution’s athletic director since 1999. Dickinson State, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic (NAIA) institution. In the past 11 years, DSU had 11 different teams win 54 conference championships. DSU teams have won four national titles including volleyball in 2000 and men’s track & field in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Gary Douglas and I had a chance to sit down and chat with Roger Ternes during UW-Whitewater’s season opening trip to Dickinson to open the 2009 season. Looking at the new football facility and the athletic program’s success at DSU, I believe UWRF is getting the right man for the job as AD.

Speaking of River Falls, the 2010 NCAA Division III football season will kick-off with a definite WIAC flavor. The season gets underway on Thursday, Sept. 2 with six games, including an afternoon contest between No. 11 Ohio Northern and UW-River Falls. "We are excited to have the Thursday afternoon game to open our season,"ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "River Falls is an outstanding opponent from an outstanding league and will be a good challenge for us. We believe that we will be the first Division III game in America for 2010, so that will add to the electricity that afternoon."

Joel Whitman succeeds Joe Baker as the new UW-La Crosse athletic director. Whitman, 32, will begin his official duties the week of Sept. 13. He will join UW-L after working as a sports practice attorney at Covington & Burling LLP of Washington, D.C. The West Lafayette, Ind., native brings sports experience as a four-year varsity tight end at Illinois and NFL player, having been with four teams from 2001-2004. Whitman also worked in athletics administration at Illinois. Whitman was chosen from a field of 70 applicants and four finalists. Baker left UW-L last spring after accepting the Athletic Director’s job at Carroll University in Waukesha.

As previously reported here on Voices Blog - After a highly competitive national search, UW-Oshkosh has chosen Darryl Sims as its new athletics director. Sims, who has served as the assistant director of athletics at UW-Oshkosh since 2007, succeeds Allen Ackerman, who recently announced his retirement from the athletics director position after 19 years. The selection concludes a two-month search that involved more than 60 applicants from across the country. Prior to coming to UW-Oshkosh, Sims earned a football scholarship to the University of Wisconsin, playing four seasons in the Badgers’ defensive line and collected All-Big Ten Conference first team honors in 1981 and 1982. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1985 and 1986 and for the Cleveland Browns in 1987 and 1988.

Sims will oversee a UW-O football program that has what many consider the toughest 2010 NCAA Division III schedule in the country. The Titans open the season at Central Iowa on September 4th. On September 11th UW-O welcomes perennial national powerhouse Mount Union to Roger Keller Field at Titan Stadium. The Titans jump into the WIAC in week three. The final non-conference game is scheduled for October 16th at Lambuth University who are ranked No. 6 in the NAIA Preseason Top 25 Poll.