Pat Atwell
Director of Athletics
Phone: 873-7294
Email:
patwell@drury.edu
Pat Atwell is entering his fourth year as the Director of Athletics at Drury University, overseeing a 17-sport program that continues to rank among the best nationally in NCAA Division II.
With teams represented in NCAA post-season competition in 10 of those 17 sports, Drury is coming off a 2009-10 school year in which it finished 14th in the Learfield Director's Cup national all-sports competition, marking the 10th consecutive year the Panthers have finished 31st or better among the 300 competing D-II schools across the country. That was the second-best finish ever by the Panthers in the competition, trailing only a No. 9 finish in 2006-07.
Closer to home, DU also captured its first-ever Great Lakes Valley Conference All-Sports Trophy in 09-'10, an effort sparked by GLVC championships won in men's soccer, women's basketball and men's and women's tennis. Drury also continued its dominance in the pool as well, claiming a sixth straight NCAA-II national swimming and diving championship on the men's side and a second straight (and third in four years) on the women's side last March in Canton, Ohio.
Most notably, given Drury's emphasis on the student-athlete concept, was the program's continued strong showings academically in the GLVC. Under Atwell's guidance, DU also picked up three individual GLVC Scholar-Athlete Award winners (Jaime Villa Zapatero in men's cross country, Blake Wilson in men's soccer and Alex Kacamakis in men's tennis) in addition to leading the GLVC in team academic awards (10) and individual student-athletes honored by the Council of Presidents (22) for their athletic and academic achievements.
Atwell was named Drury's director of athletics on June 7, 2007, in a joint move when former AD Dr. Edsel Matthews was promoted to a newly created position, Vice President for Athletic Development. Hel had spent the past 16 years at a fellow Great Lakes Valley Conference member school, Quincy (Ill.) University, where he had served as athletic director since 2001 and helped the Hawks not only become highly competitive in the GLVC, but construct several new facilities in his tenure.
Atwell was also a highly successful head baseball coach with the Hawks from 1991 til he assumed the AD's role. He coached the Hawks to a record of 284-196-3 over the next 10 years, making him the all-time winningest coach in the history of the program. He led Quincy to Division II Tournament appearances in 1997 and 1999 and to back-toback 40-win seasons in 1999 and 2000. The second of those teams finished 42-17 and won the school's first-ever GLVC championship.
Atwell was named GLVC Coach of the Year in 1997 and 1999 and produced six All-Americans, including first-teamer Josh Rabe, who was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 11th round of the 2000 Major League Baseball amateur draft, and pitcher Josh Kinney, who reached the major leagues in 2006 with the St. Louis Cardinals, serving as a key contributor on the World Series championship team. Atwell coached nine future professional players and his Hawks teams were ranked nationally six of the 10 seasons he was head coach.
A native of Andover, N.Y., Atwell graduated from Salem-Teikyo (W.V.) University with a Bachelor's of Science degree in physical education in 1983. He also earned his Master's of Arts degree in education from Salem-Teikyo in 1990.
Prior to arriving in Quincy, Atwell was an assistant men's basketball coach at SUNY-Alfred (N.Y.) in 1985-86 before moving to Salem College where he was the head women's basketball coach and assistant baseball coach in 1987-88 and assistant men's basketball coach in 1988-89. He was an instructor and head baseball coach at Salem-Teikyo University in 1989-90.
Atwell and his wife, Lisa, are the parents of two children. Melissa is a high school senior and Eric is a freshman in the Springfield Catholic Schools system.
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