The Department of Athletics added a new member to its staff and promoted two athletic staff members over the break.

Director of athletics Lee De Leon initiated the changes after the resignation of former senior associate of athletics Cory Driskill.

After the resignation, Chris Ballard and Dave Kinard received promotions, giving them more responsibilities in the athletic department. Ballard joined the athletic community last year as the director of academics and is now taking the role of assistant director of athletics for academics.

Kinard

“I just wanted to promote him and reward him for the great job he is doing,” De Leon said. “The two things that we did add to his plate, but won’t change his primary focus, are supervision of our baseball program and participation on our budget team.”

The shift isn’t as much of a change in responsibility as it is in title with Ballard still overseeing the academic support services for the student-athletes.

Kinard takes the placed of Driskill with his promotion from associate director athletics for external operations to senior associate director of athletics.

“I needed to move someone into that number two role that I really trusted and had a lot of confidence in,” De Leon said. “Dave is a guy that I have known for a long time, who thinks differently than I do, but is completely aligned with my vision for this department.”

Ballard

Kinard is second in command behind De Leon and will be the primary manager for revenue generation, marketing, ticketing, licensing and other external operations. His promotion also includes supervision over football, softball and cheerleading.

“He and I complement each other really well,” De Leon said. “He will help us take this department to a new level by providing a unique perspective from his experiences at Kentucky, Arizona State and Boise State.”

A new face for ACU is Jon Haarlow, who previously served six years in the athletics department for the University of New Mexico. Haarlow will serve ACU as assistant director of athletics for internal operations.

“I’m thrilled to add him to our team,” De Leon said. “He has a really unique breadth of experience from his time at UNM in the three areas of his primary focus at ACU – facilities, event management and our operating budget.”

In this role, Haarlow manages the athletics department’s budget, event management and facilities. He also aids in the supervision of the baseball team.

“He’s the only person in the in the country that I have heard of with the exact combination of skills and experiences that we were looking for in this position,” De Leon said.