Lafayette’s fall sports are off to a historically hot start — five of the six sports currently in action have a positive win-loss record. Sherryta Freeman, the college’s athletic director, has been pointed to as one of the main reasons why. Buttressed by Lafayette’s strong athletics performances, Freeman was selected to serve as a vice president of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association for the 2023-24 academic year.
“What I love about Sherryta is that she believes in this sense of inclusive excellence,” college President Nicole Hurd said. “She is absolutely dedicated to the idea that our student-athletes succeed in the classroom and have relationships with the faculty members and the student body.”
The Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association, according to its mission statement, aims to “provide a collective voice for FCS athletics directors, provide a forum to discuss issues that impact the role of FCS athletics directors, provide a recognized relationship with other athletics director associations and NCAA leadership groups and provide helpful information to the FCS athletics directors including surveys, newsletters and meetings.”
“When I took the call and listened to what the annual obligations were — because I never want anything to take away from what I do at Lafayette in a significant way — they were very clear that it was a fairly reasonable obligation for me and that they were definitely just looking for athletic directors who are leaders and who can contribute to the discussions that we have,” Freeman said.
Freeman is one of three vice presidents who serve under Ryan Ivey, the Athletic Director for Stephan F. Austin University who serves as the organization’s president. Freeman was selected out of a pool of 133 athletic directors within the Football Championship Subdivision. In addition to serving in this position, Freeman will also serve as the Patriot League’s executive committee member.
Freeman began her career in college athletics as a women’s basketball player for Dartmouth and completed her master’s in sports management from the University of Massachusetts. She then spent the next 15 years working in the Dartmouth, Temple and Penn athletic departments.
“I’ve spent the majority of my career at high academic institutions, so protecting the well-being and the experience of the student-athletes will always be what my charge is,” Freeman said.
Freeman was brought on as Lafayette’s athletic director in February of 2018. She then strategized an athletic five-year plan entitled “Creating a championship culture.” In that time, Lafayette has instituted multiple successful capital campaigns, established a department-wide diversity, equity and inclusion initiative and boasted an NCAA-leading 100 percent athlete graduation rate.
Freeman was previously named a Nike Administrator of the Year by Women Leaders in College Sports and one of the “100 influential Black women in sports” by Sports Illustrated and Empower Onyx.
“I think we are providing the most for the student-athletes, recognizing that we can still be elite athletes and still compete at the highest level while still being good in the classroom,” Freeman added.
While this new role further establishes Freeman as a rising star in the industry, she remains committed to Lafayette and the overall upward trajectory the athletic program has seen, especially since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the coaches currently at Lafayette, over half have been hired within Freeman’s tenure and these hires are beginning to bear fruit.
“She [believes] that part of athletics is leadership development and making sure all of our student-athletes have a good experience,” Hurd said. “So she has a very holistic frame about the way this works.”
Madeline Marriott ’24 contributed reporting.
