By JOSH LACY
T
Meet Your New Athletic Direct or
Fall 2011
his August, President Frederick G. Slabach announced the hiring of a new athletic director at Texas Wesleyan University. The athletic department has set a high standard of excellence in recent years, and Rams fans can continue to expect that excellence under Steven Trachier’s watch. Trachier comes to Texas Wesleyan from the Grapevine/Colleyville ISD where he put in 18 years of service, most recently as executive director of administration. In that capacity, he supervised athletics and administrators, served as compliance officer, and had oversight of all secondary campuses including athletics and activities. “When President Slabach shared with me his vision for Texas Wesleyan’s athletic program, I knew immediately I could have a positive impact in helping the University realize that vision,” Trachier said after his hire. “When I spoke to Steven about my philosophy on athletics and our obligation to student-athletes, I said that the ‘student’ in student-athlete comes first,” Slabach said. “Our faculty and our coaches have a responsibility to help our students achieve a level of self-confidence that helps them succeed in the classroom, and Steven immediately understood that.” Including his time at Grapevine/Colleyville ISD, Trachier brings more than 30 years of experience in education and athletics to Wesleyan. During his career, he has served as both a middle school and high school coach in Cooper ISD and Deer Park ISD. He has prior collegiate experience as an instructor of health and physical education at East Texas State University (Texas A&M Commerce). Trachier earned a Bachelor of Science in History and Physical Education from East Texas State University and a Master of Science in Health Education from the same institution. He continued his education there, obtaining MidManagement Certification. Trachier is taking over a department that is coming off its first Red River Athletic Conference All-Sports Award in 2010–2011. That award is given annually to the institution that performs best in the conference’s sponsored sports. Points are awarded in sports with at least four member institutions participating. The top five teams in each sport are awarded points on a 10-8-6-4-2 basis, using the
conference tournament results. Twelve of Texas Wesleyan’s 13 varsity sports compete in the RRAC. The Rams were the most consistent institution in the league, garnering only one tournament championship, but taking six runner-up finishes and scoring points in 11 sports. The Rams’ men’s golf team won its eighth consecutive RRAC title. The men’s basketball team won the regular season championship for the fourth year in a row, but finished as the tournament runner-up. The newest additions to the department, cross country and track and field, accounted for 26 of Texas Wesleyan’s 72 points in the contest with runner-up finishes in men and women’s cross country and women’s track and field along with a fifth-place finish in men’s track and field. The department also added runner-up finishes in women’s basketball and softball. Texas Wesleyan student-athletes excelled in the field and in the classroom. The department boasted a GPA of 2.78, while 117 student-athletes held a GPA of 3.0 or higher. All of this came a year after the department won four conference championships and had five teams ranked in the top-25 nationally. The department also boasted six NAIA Scholar-Athletes, while 82 student-athletes posted GPAs of 3.0 or higher and the department as a whole notched a cumulative GPA of 2.84 in 2009–2010. In addition to adding cross country and track and field, the department has also made recent improvements to its facilities in order to better serve its students. The Rams have made improvements to the athletic suite in the Brown-Lupton Center. A newly renovated Sid Richardson Center (basketball, volleyball, table tennis) opened in the fall of 2008, while improvements to Martin Field (soccer) are ongoing. In addition, the Morton Fitness Center, which serves the entire student body, opened in November 2010. After racking up 14 conference championships and making 18 National Tournament appearances, in the last five years alone, Texas Wesleyan has become one of the premier athletic departments in all of the NAIA. With an experienced administrator like Trachier at the helm, that trend should only continue to build. Fans can expect to see Texas Wesleyan student-athletes continue to excel in the field of play as well as in the classroom.
When President Slabach shared with me his vision for Texas Wesleyan’s athletic program, I knew immediately I could have a positive impact in helping the University realize that vision.
25