W&L's Selig Moving Monarchs Forward
To say that Washington and Lee alumnus Wood Selig has been making his mark on the athletic program at Old Dominion University would be an understatement — at least based on the profile of Wood in the Virginian-Pilot earlier this month.
Wood, a member of the Class of 1983, was named the athletic director at ODU in 2010, as we reported in a blog at the time. He was succeeding a man, Jim Jarret, who had been in the job for 40 years. In the three years that he has been back in his hometown (Wood grew up a half-mile from the ODU campus), he’s definitely shaken things up.
As the profile in the Virginia Pilot notes, Wood “has overseen a period of change that rival any in the school’s athletic history.” He’s hired nine head coaches and has taken a year-old varsity football program to the point of transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision this season when they play East Carolina, Maryland, Pittsburgh and North Carolina. The Monarchs also left the Colonial Athletic Conference to join Conference USA.
A psychology major at W&L, Wood got his master’s in sports management at Ohio University and held positions in the athletic departments at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia before becoming the athletic director at Western Kentucky University. He spent 11 years there before being lured back home.
Here’s one of the best descriptions of his work as ODU’s athletic director from the Pilot article: “His professional metabolism runs faster. Forget working a room. At games, Selig is more likely to work a whole stadium or arena, chatting up fans here, schmoozing potential donors there. Affable and approachable, he seems to have time for everyone.”
If you know any W&L alumni who would be great profile subjects, tell us about them! Nominate them for a web profile.
