By Steve Holt, Sports Writer
Sylvia Barnier, who was promoted to assistant director of ACU athletics and senior woman athletics administrator at the end of July, has accepted the same position at Minnesota State University at Morehead.
Barnier left Abilene Christian on Aug. 16 and was added to the MSM payroll beginning last week. Her husband Keith, a four-year track letter winner at MSM, was named head track and field coach at the school earlier in the summer.
“It was a great deal for them; it was just a bad deal for us,” said Shanon Hays, ACU director of athletics.
Hays said permanently filling Barnier’s position at this time of the school year would be difficult, so several positions in the athletic office will be restructured accordingly.
He said Barnier had been training Jared Mosley, assistant director of athletics, to deal with ACU’s compliance with NCAA regulations, and he will take over that responsibility immediately. Mosley will still keep the responsibilities of assistant director of athletic operations, but several student interns will help Mosley with his re-sponsibility of athletic marketing.
Mosley said he looks forward to adding to his experience as an administrator.
“I think it is very exciting,” Mosley said. “It’s just another avenue to take, and an-other area on the administrative side I get to familiarize myself with and hopefully get a grasp of pretty quickly.”
“Sylvia did a great job for us as far as organizational skills, and the things she brought to the table are going to certainly be very hard to replace,” Mosley said. “I just hope I can come in and learn this quickly and do the job that she did so well.”
Hays added that Barnier has worn many hats at ACU, ranging from student-athlete to administrator.
“We are sad that she’s leaving,” Hays said. “She was here for seven years. She was an all-American here and in the Track & Field Hall of Fame. We’re missing what she was bringing to the table.
“She has worked at different levels-she’s been a standout athlete at the highest level, she’s someone that has coached, she handled our compliance-so we’re scrambling with how to deal with her loss.”
Hays said Brek Horn, head volleyball coach, will take over Barnier’s responsibilities as senior woman administrator.
