Eisen steps in as MOC AD

By Steve Roush
Published in Sports on July 14, 2005 1:47 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Jeff Eisen knows a thing or two about success.

During his seven years as director of athletics at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, the Red Flash won 29 Northeast Conference championships, had 19 academic All-Americans and four All-Americans and the Division I school placed in the top four in the Northeast Conference Commissioner's Cup in each year of Eisen's tenure.

Now, he's hoping to take a successful Mount Olive athletic program to the next level.

"We're reloading, not rebuilding," Eisen said at Wednesday afternoon's press conference. "The program's in good shape -- I'm stepping into a good situation."

Eisen, who began his duties as Mount Olive's director of athletics July 5, takes over for Dr. Mac Cassell, who stepped down after 11 years to concentrate on teaching in the recreation and leisure studies department. He credited Cassell and the administration for building up a solid program.

"A lot of credit goes to (Mount Olive president) Dr. (Bill) Byrd, Dr. Cassell, the staff and the athletes for making this program what it is today," Eisen said.

"We hope to build on that success."

The Trojans are coming off a banner year, having won Carolinas-Virginia Conference Championships in men's soccer, women's soccer, men's basketball and men's tennis, with the basketball team making a run all the way to the Division II Elite Eight and a No. 13 national ranking.

"Everyone likes to win, and coming into a situation like this -- with the type of success Mount Olive has had -- I want to be a part of that and help raise the bar," Eisen said. "This is a good fit; it's a small school that is serious about athletics and academics, it's in a good location and that's what made this opportunity attractive."

While at St. Francis, Eisen served on the NCAA Division I tennis committee and was chair of the Northeast Conference Athletics Directors Committee. In addition to the 19 academic All-Americans, student-athletes had an average grade-point average above 3.0 in each of the last 13 semesters at the university.

"Our goals are two-pronged -- to achieve athletic excellence and to achieve academic excellence," Eisen said. "That's what it all boils down to, and that's our focus."

Eisen also served five years as assistant director of athletics at University of Detroit Mercy and was also the director of marketing and promotions, and was a marketing and promotions coordinator at the University of Evansville. He graduated from Marietta College in Ohio, earned a law degree from the University of Michigan and received a master's degree in sports administration at St. Thomas University in Florida.

As an attorney, Eisen worked for the U.S. General Accounting Office.

"We were very fortunate to find someone with the experience and background Jeff has," said Dr. Brenda Cates, who headed up the search committee, is the faculty athletic representative and is a math professor at Mount Olive College. "We think he'll be a very good fit for our institution and are very excited to have him on board."

Byrd introduced Eisen at the Lois K. Murphy Regional Center and echoed Cates' sentiments.

"With his background, we're glad to have him as part of our college," Byrd said. "He's shown proven leadership and we're grateful he's here."