WSFA 12 News Montgomery, AL |ASU appoints Interim Athletic Director

ASU appoints Interim Athletic Director

Posted by Mark Wilder -  email

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - Alabama State University President William H. Harris today appointed Sterling Steward Jr. as its associate athletic director for compliance.

Effective immediately, Steward also has been tapped to serve as ASU's interim athletic director to oversee the university's 18 intercollegiate sports and its compliance department.

"Former Athletic Director (Monique) Holland and the search committee strongly recommended Mr. Steward to us recently and after careful review of his accomplishments and expertise in the field of athletic management, I accepted and approved her recommendation," Harris said.

Steward most recently served as the assistant athletic director for administration and the compliance director for Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Ky.

He has been involved in athletics and education for his entire career.

Steward received a Bachelor of Science degree in human performance and recreation (with an emphasis on coaching and sports administration) from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in 1993 and a Master of Science degree from USM in human performance and recreation (with an emphasis on coaching and sports administration) in 1996.

His first job out of college was as the athletic director and mathematics teacher at Bishop Perry Middle School in New Orleans, where he was named its Teacher of the Year during his first year at the school.

Steward started with Kentucky State in 2005 as its compliance director and then was promoted to serve as its interim athletic director, before being promoted to his present position.

Among his many leadership positions at KSU was his tenure as the chairman of its NCAA Compliance Committee from 2007 to 2009.

Before joining KSU's staff, he served at Eastern Oregon University as its assistant athletic director for internal operations and served in the same position at Xavier University in New Orleans beginning in 1999.

Steward said he is honored at the prospect of beginning his work at ASU.

"This is a dream come true job for me to begin my career at Alabama State University during such an exciting time of growth and expansion for one of the nation's most historic and venerable HBCU's," he said.

"To prepare for my new job at ASU, I will now begin studying the infrastructure of our athletic department, as well as meet with President Harris and his leadership team to get a sense of the vision of excellence that he and the Board of Trustees have set forth for our athletic department, our student athletes and this great university."

©2009 WSFA. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.