For 19 years, Dan Lepse's job was to keep everyone informed about Seattle Pacific athletics.
Now, he officially will have the job of leading Seattle Pacific athletics.
Lepse, who has served as the school's interim athletics director since last December, has had that interim tag removed and been named the permanent AD. The announcement was made on Friday by Dr. Jeff Jordan, SPU's Vice President for Student Life.
A 1987 graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in sociology and a lifelong resident of the Ballard area, Lepse was a sports information assistant from 1984-89. Then, after 18 years as assistant sports information director at Washington, he came back to SPU in July 2008 as the assistant athletics director for sports information. He remained in that role through August 2022.
Lepse returned to the school last December as the interim AD when former athletics director Jackson Stava accepted a job at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
During Lepse's time with the interim tag, the Falcons continued to excel in and out of competition.
-- Vanessa Aniteye won the national women's 800-meter indoor championship in March and subsequently has been named as one of 30 finalist honorees for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
-- The women's rowing team stroked to a third-place overall team finish at last spring's NCAA national regatta, placing both its eight-oared and four-oared boats into the grand finals.
-- SPU won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women's Academic All-Sports award for the third year in a row.
-- Numerous Falcon teams – volleyball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's track and field, and men's soccer – earned national academic awards from their respective coaches associations.
-- In addition, four rowers earned national academic honors, and 31 SPU competitors were honored by the GNAC with Faculty Athletic Representative Scholar-Athlete awards for maintaining grade-point averages of 3.85 or higher.
-- The women's soccer team just won the GNAC regular-season championship and is in position to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
-- The volleyball team returned to the national top 25 poll and is on the brink of winning the GNAC title and making a trip to the NCAAs – all for the first time since 2011.
