DSU President Harry L. Williams announced today that he has appointed Candy E. Young as Delaware State University’s new Athletics Director.

 

Ms. Young moves into DSU’s top athletics post after serving over the last seven months as an interim senior associate athletics director. She has also served as the senior women’s administrator for athletics since September 2010.

Newly appointed AD Candy Young addresses the DSU athletics staff and coaches after being named to the post.

 She is the first female to ever be appointed to that post in the history of DSU.

 

She first came to DSU in 2006 as the head women’s track and cross country coach, a coaching post she served in until 2010. She served as the acting athletics director for the University from March to May of 2009.

 

Prior to her arrival, Ms. Young served as an assistant men and women’s track coach at California State University, the University of Pittsburgh, Ohio State University, and Seton Hall University from 1992 to 2006. During her 1989-92 stint with Seton Hall, the women’s track team was the Big East Champions in 1992-93. She also served as the head coach of the USA World University team in 1997.

 

As a high school track star, Ms. Young set a world record in 1980 – which still stands – in the 100-meter hurdler (12.94 seconds) during her senior year at Beaver Falls High School in Pennsylvania. That same year, she earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic 100-meter hurdle team, only to be robbed of the chance to compete by the U.S. boycott of the Olympics that year in protest to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

 

She would go on to compete for Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J. where she was an eight-time All-American and a world-record holder in the indoors 55-meter hurdler.

 

The DSU president said Ms. Young’s leadership ability has been well-demonstrated at DSU and that she will bring stability to the DSU Athletics Program. “She is committed to staying here, to building the DSU Athletics Program, and to establishing new levels of excellence,” Dr. Williams said. “As a former Olympian and a world-record holder, Ms. Young brings a set of standards to the DSU athletics that will move it to new heights.”

 

Ms. Young’s selection came after national search. Serving on the DSU Search Committee were Provost Alton Thompson (chair); Carolyn Curry, vice president of Institutional Advancement and chief of staff; Jordan Williams, interim director of the Wellness & Recreation Center; Head Bowling Coach Ricki Ellison; Dr. Charlie Wilson, chair of the Faculty Senate and associate professor of biology,.and Frank Marshall, DSU alumnus and athletics booster.

 

Dr. Thompson said Ms. Young brings a diversity of experience to the AD post that the DSU Athletics Program needs to be highly competitive in Division I sports. “She can identify with student athletes and provide the leadership that will result in an exceptional learning environment where they can compete at the highest level across the wide spectrum of sports,” the search committee chair said.

 

The provost added that the timing of the AD announcement was fitting. “We are announcing the naming of a former Olympian as our new AD at the same time that the Summer Olympics are going on in London,” Dr. Thompson noted.

 

Ms. Young said that she is honored that Dr. Williams and the DSU AD selection committee has chosen her to be the athletics director, and that she is excited about being named the first female AD in the history of this institution. “Our future plans are to revive the department with energetic sports programming,” Ms. Young said. “The core values of this institution will be the foundation for transforming the athletic department.”

 

The new AD said that consistent with being a former track athlete, she is ready to hit the ground running.

 

“I am a sprinter and we come out of the blocks fast; I am a hurdler and we leap tall buildings,” Ms. Young said. “As an athletics program, we are going to get to the finish line.”

 

Ms. Young has a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Education from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a Master of Arts in Sports Administration from DSU.

 

Ms. Young, who will take over as the DSU AD effective Aug. 13, will succeed former Athletics Director Derek Carter, who stepped down in January to assume a new post with the University. Eric D. Hart, associate athletics director of Academic Services, has served since then as the interim AD.