Fort Lewis College named a new athletic director Tuesday, its third hire for the position this decade.
When Kelly Higgins resigned from the post in 2011, FLC hired Gary Hunter, who served from 2011 to 2017. When Hunter resigned, the job went to Barney Hinkle, who was on the job for two years before he submitted his resignation this spring as FLC had planned to open up a national search for a new athletic director moving forward.
On Tuesday, it was announced Brandon Leimbach would be the new FLC athletic director beginning June 3. He will take over a department that has seen significant budget cuts for all sports during the last five years.
Leimbach will sign a one-year contract that will pay $120,000.
“The opportunity to come and make a difference is what it’s all about to me,” Leimbach said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “The most meaningful job I’ve ever had was to be a Division II athletic director and to work with coaches, help student athletes succeed. It’s about so much more than the scoreboard; it’s about giving them the tools to succeed. There’s a lifetime of achievement beyond collegiate athletics, but I’m pretty dang competitive, too. When we get between the lines, we’re going to get after it.”
Leimbach will join FLC from the University of Colorado where he was the Buff Club’s director of development. Leimbach has been in that fundraising position since February 2018. Previously, Leimbach was an athletic director for Dominican University of California, as he led that Division II athletic department from 2013-15 after he had served as associate athletic director at Colorado School of Mines from 2002-13. While at Mines, Leimbach oversaw a $21 million athletics complex project and a $26 million project for a student recreation center and Lockridge Arena.
As a former Division II athletic director with a strong background in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and a résumé loaded with a demonstrated ability to fundraise, FLC first-year president Tom Stritikus saw Leimbach as a perfect candidate for FLC at a crucial time for the athletic department.
“He has incredible energy and passion,” Stritikus said. “He has an incredible network and great ideas about how to help us move forward. ... He knows the RMAC, understands Fort Lewis and understands that we are going to make the most out of what we have here and do it in a way that works for this college.”
Leimbach was one of four finalists for the job, along with current FLC women’s basketball head coach Jason Flores, Winthrop University associate athletic director Matt Martin and McKendree University associate athletic director Melissa Ringhausen.
“It was a fantastic search conducted in a way that we’re proud of,” Stritikus said. “It was done with integrity. We had a very diverse candidate pool we’re very proud of. The search committee did its job to assess pluses and minuses of each candidate and I made a decision.
“All of our finalists for this position were outstanding, and each brought something really incredible to the process. Brandon was the guy in the end that distinguished himself from a very distinguished group.”
Flores said he applied out of love for FLC and a desire to improve the student-athlete experience for all Skyhawks. He said his basketball players were supportive of him throughout the process. Flores said he is excited to continue to work at FLC and is eager for Leimbach to begin.
“As far as my relationship with the school, it’s the same and strong as ever,” Flores said. “I believe, I really do, that hiring Brandon is a great hire for us. He’s got credentials that make sense. Knowing a lot of people who know him, I think it’s exactly what we needed.
“The finalists we had were great, and to be in that mix was flattering. The reason I did this was because I care a lot about the place and want us to be great. I’m behind Brandon 100 percent. If that’s what’s going to make us great, then I am 100 percent on board.”
Leimbach is originally from Southern California. He graduated from Fountain Valley High School in 1994 and has since been inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame for football and basketball. He attended Saint Mary’s College of California and earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and a master’s degree in athletic administration. In college, he played football and rugby.
While FLC is excited to bring in an athletic director with the fundraising pedigree of Leimbach, he is most looking forward to getting back to work with coaches and athletes after years in a strictly fundraising role.
“It’s so much more meaningful to mentor people and see them succeed,” Leimbach said. “Right now, I’m at a Power Five school doing very meaningful work, but it doesn’t move my needle. I’m doing the same thing every day. We are close to finishing a $5 million endowment for football, the largest in the history of the (University of Colorado). I’m having that kind of success, but it doesn’t fulfill me. ... When I heard about it, I jumped at the Fort opportunity. I know Durango, and it’s a great place for me and my family.”
During this last school year, the only FLC team to qualify for postseason play was the volleyball team, which was eliminated in the first round of the RMAC tournament. It was a rare year of losing for FLC on a campus with a proud tradition in basketball and soccer for both the men and women.
But the football program has only 11 winning seasons since 1963 and is on its fifth head coach this decade, with Brandon Crosby currently serving as interim head coach after Joe Morris resigned in January. FLC’s facilities pale in comparison to most of its RMAC rivals. Leimbach echoed a sentiment shared by Stritikus and Crosby about making the most out of what FLC does have rather than worrying about what it doesn’t.
“When I got to Mines in 2002, we were bottom of the totem pole in the conference,” Leimbach said. “We were struggling with everything. At that point, we saw Fort Lewis have a ton of success. Men’s soccer won three national championships and was runner-up twice. Mark Kellogg had the women’s basketball team in the championship game and Final Four. Bob Hofman and Bob Pietrack have had incredible success in men’s basketball. Pietrack going 50-2 in his first 52 home games, that’s huge. In 2011, Bud Andersen’s Fort Lewis golf team advanced at the national tournament and had the best finish ever. I’ve seen FLC have success, and we have great opportunities ahead. It’s going to be a fun challenge to go in there and compete.
“We are going to go out there and not make excuses and try to recruit the very best student athletes who are a good fit for Fort Lewis. On top of that, any time we create additional funding for scholarships or facilities, it will be a priority moving forward.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com