Larry Hiser will enter his 14th year as the Director of Athletics and Recreation at Marietta College in 2020-21. He is responsible for overseeing the College’s NCAA Division III athletics program with 18 varsity intercollegiate sports in addition to the recreation and intramural programs and facilities.
Under Hiser’s leadership the Pioneers have claimed a pair of NCAA Division III National Championships, five Dad Vail Gold Medals, 13 Ohio Athletic Conference championships and one Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference title. Numerous Marietta athletes have also won individual conference titles.
While the Pioneers have enjoyed success on the field of play during Hiser’s tenure, they have also been highly successful in the classroom. The Pioneers have produced five Academic All-Americans since Hiser came to Marietta. Annually the department has nearly 50 percent of the student-athletes on the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll with a 3.0 or higher grade point average. In addition, Hiser led the creation of a learning outcomes rubric for coaches and athletes to aid in the college-wide learning assessment program, a hot topic in higher education today.
Instrumental in the completion of the $3.6 million dollar Don Drumm Stadium renovation project completed in 2011, Hiser has continued the College’s mission to provide first class facilities. He is responsible for the renovation of a portion of the McCoy Athletic Center into a varsity weight room and the creation of a volleyball-only varsity locker room in Ban Johnson Arena. He also established the Don Drumm Stadium sinking fund for on-going maintenance at the facility.
Recently, Hiser collaborated on the $800,000 renovation of the 1929 Lindamood/VanVoorhis Boathouse. The $220,000 Phase I of the project was completed in the summer of 2015 and Phase II was finished in 2016.
With state of the art athletic facilities, Hiser has been able to attract numerous conference, regional and national events to Marietta College. Don Drumm Stadium served as the host site for the 2009 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Ban Johnson Arena hosted early round NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games in 2011 and 2015 and Don Schaly Stadium remains the preferred site of the NCAA Mideast Regional Baseball Tournament hosting the event four of the last six years.
Prior to joining Marietta, Hiser was the Director of Athletics and Head Baseball Coach at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., from 1995-2008. He was a key player in the college’s change from a two-year women’s institution to a four-year co-educational college. Under his watch the Endicott teams won 37 conference championships and participated in 47 NCAA or ECAC tournaments.
His baseball teams averaged over 20 wins per year in 13 seasons, won six league championships and made four NCAA regional appearances. Three of Hiser’s players went to play professionally. Endicott also successfully launched new programs for equestrian, lacrosse and football, while improving its facilities that now rank among the finest in New England. Hiser was inducted into the Endicott Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014.
Hiser earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Ohio Northern University in 1987, where he was an all-conference shortstop on the Polar Bear baseball team. He went on to earn a Master of Science in Physical Education/Athletic Administration from Springfield College in Massachusetts, where he was a graduate assistant. He joined Endicott College in the fall of 1994 as the Gulls’ first baseball and basketball coach.
In addition to his duties at Marietta, Hiser served on the NCAA Division III Rowing national Committee and is currently a member of the Ohio Athletic Conference Professional Development Committee. He serves on several campus committees, including the President’s Cabinet, and make community contributions as a Marietta Rotary and Washington County United Way board member.
A native of Oregon, Ohio, Hiser is married to the former Susan Chick (of Williamstown, Mass.). The couple reside in Marietta with their two children, Dan and Allison.
