The Virginian-Pilot reported Friday, Feb. 19 that Norfolk Collegiate alumnus Wood Selig '79 will succeed Jim Jarret as Old Dominion University's Director of Athletics. Selig is leaving Western Kentucky, where he has served as AD since 1999. In a phone interview with Norfolk Collegiate this fall, Selig noted that he has been passionate about sports since his days as a student at NCS. “From an early age, I’ve always had an affinity for athletics,” he said.
Excellence in the classroom and in competition has marked his 10-year tenure at Western Kentucky University (WKU), a bustling public university with 20,000 students perched a top Kentucky’s rolling hills. “One of the many things I love about Western Kentucky is that our student athletes are terrific overachievers, some of whom may have been passed up by higher profile schools. They can come to WKU and flourish, participating in some of the most competitive college athletics in the country,” he said.
In the past two years, WKU has been awarded 19 combined titles in the Sun Belt Conference, more than any NCAA school in the nation during this period. Under Selig’s leadership, all 438 WKU athletes currently maintain a cumulative average GPA of 3.00. Labeled “Hilltoppers” and “Lady Hilltoppers,” student athletes in the university’s 19 sports are majoring in 76 different programs.
Reflecting on his career, he traces the spark back to his days at NCS, as it was his involvement with the basketball and baseball teams that ignited a passion for sports and peaked his professional and career interests. “A school like Norfolk Collegiate is wonderful because it allows all students to participate in sports. As a teenager, I was athletically inclined and at the same time athletically challenged,” he said. “There was a level of quality in both the academic and athletic experience at NCS and that’s what I strive for our students athletes,” he concluded.
Norfolk Collegiate School congratulates Wood and welcomes his wife Julianna and three children back home to Norfolk!
To read the complete Virginian-Pilot article, read below or visit: http://hamptonroads.com/2010/02/source-selig-odus-new-athletic-director.
Last year, Jarrett announced that he would retire after 40 years as AD, effective this spring.
Selig is a 1979 graduate of Norfolk Collegiate High School, where he played basketball and baseball.
His parents, Dr. Julian and Betsey Selig, reside in Elizabeth City, N.C.
Wood Selig earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Washington & Lee University, a master's in sports administration from Ohio University in 1987 and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Virginia in 1999, with minors in statistics and business.
Selig worked at U.Va. for 11 years, the last five as Associate Athletics Director for External Operations.
Before joining the U.Va. staff, Selig spent three years at Virginia Commonwealth University as Assistant Athletics Director and Director of Ticket Operations.
Old Dominion did not provide a timetable for the announcement of Selig's hiring, but the Western Kentucky student paper reported Thursday that Selig was scheduled to meet with the media today to announce his resignation.
Selig took over an athletic program at WKU that had suffered a deficit in the fiscal year before his arrival. In addition to turning around the program financially, he oversaw a $50 million expansion of the football stadium, part of the $100 million in new construction and renovations to the school's athletic facilities.
In 2006, he was also instrumental in the school's successful move from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Since 2006, Selig has been part of the NCAA women's basketball committee.
In 2009, Western Kentucky reported that it had more athletes honored for academic achievement in the previous five years than any other Sun Belt school.