{"id":11569,"date":"2024-09-26T21:28:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T21:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/?p=11569"},"modified":"2024-09-26T21:32:09","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T21:32:09","slug":"augsburg-athletic-director-jeff-swenson-to-step-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/26\/augsburg-athletic-director-jeff-swenson-to-step-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Augsburg Athletic Director Jeff Swenson to Step Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jeff<\/a><\/p>\n

Augsburg University announced today that Athletic Director Jeff Swenson \u201979 will step down at the end of May 2025. A six-time national wrestling coach of the year, Swenson led the Augsburg athletic program through a period of unprecedented growth, improvement and athletic success while prioritizing equity, inclusion, and academic excellence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to overstate Jeff Swenson\u2019s impact on intercollegiate athletics at Augsburg over the past five decades,\u201d said Augsburg President Paul C. Pribbenow. \u201cIt can\u2019t be measured solely in statistics or even championships, impressive as those numbers may be. Jeff\u2019s true legacy is the generations of student-athletes who found identity, purpose, and belonging through athletics under his leadership.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Swenson has been a vital part of the Augsburg community since 1975. As a student-athlete, he was a standout wrestler, winning an individual national championship in 1979. He joined the Augsburg athletics staff after graduating and was named men\u2019s wrestling head coach in 1980. In 25 seasons as head coach (1980\u201384 and 1986\u20132007), Swenson led the Auggies to a record 10 NCAA Division III national championships and 20 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team titles. He was named MIAC Coach of the Year 13 times and NWCA National Coach of the Year six times. In 2002, Wrestling USA Magazine named Swenson National College Coach of the Year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Swenson also served as an assistant football coach for 10 seasons and director of the alumni office before moving into athletics administration in 2001 and becoming athletic director in 2007. During his tenure, Augsburg\u2019s student-athletes have consistently performed at the highest level in and out of the classroom, earning a 3.17 average GPA in 2023\u201324. Since 2001, 42 Auggies have received Academic All-American honors from College Sports Communicators, considered the highest academic award in college athletics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over that same period, Augsburg teams won 32 MIAC team championships, received 83 berths in MIAC postseason playoffs with nine playoff titles, and appeared in NCAA Division III national tournaments 18 times. Augsburg was the first university in Minnesota to add women’s lacrosse as a varsity sport (in 2012), and is the only four-year college in the state to currently offer women’s wrestling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs we celebrate 100 years of Augsburg athletics, and having been a part of athletics here for nearly 50 years, counting my undergraduate years, my family and I felt that the time was right to make a transition,\u201d Swenson said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to helping Augsburg transition to the next athletic administrative team, and finishing up our fundraising for the men\u2019s locker room project and other university priorities. I\u2019m excited to watch Augsburg University and our athletic program continue to improve, grow, and prosper in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Under Swenson\u2019s leadership, Augsburg invested in significant upgrades to athletics facilities, including the completion of new classroom, locker room, fitness center, and wrestling center facilities in the Kennedy Center; the completion a new sports medicine center and renovation of the women\u2019s locker room in Si Melby Hall; new turf and dome at Edor Nelson Field; and updates to the Augsburg Ice Arena. From mentoring young coaches to strengthening alumni connections, Swenson also made it a priority to invest in people, strengthening the community of support for Augsburg student-athletes long past graduation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJeff embodies integrity, honesty, and sportsmanship\u2014all values we hope to instill in our student-athletes as they develop into engaged citizens and leaders in their communities. We are grateful beyond words for his extraordinary commitment and faithful service to Augsburg,\u201d said Pribbenow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal has always been to provide the best possible experience for our student-athletes and to improve one percent each day in everything we do. I hope we\u2019ve accomplished that in the areas I\u2019ve had the opportunity to be part of at Augsburg during the last five decades,\u201d said Swenson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following his transition next May, Swenson will assume a special assistant role in Augsburg\u2019s Office of the President. A national search for his successor will commence in early 2025. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Augsburg University announced today that Athletic Director Jeff Swenson \u201979 will step down at the end of May 2025. A six-time national wrestling coach of the year, Swenson led the Augsburg athletic program through a period of unprecedented growth, improvement and athletic success while prioritizing equity, inclusion, and academic excellence. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to overstate Jeff …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11569"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11577,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11569\/revisions\/11577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}