Position:
Director of Athletics 		Year at Messiah:
13th
Phone
(717) 796-1800 ext. 7359		 Email:
jchaplin@messiah.edu
Date of birth:
October 27, 1951		 Hometown:
Dayton, OH
High school:
Northmont High School (1969)		 College:
Malone College (1973)
Ohio University (1974)

Jerry Chaplin came to Messiah College in July, 1997, as Director of Athletics, and under his leadership the intercollegiate athletics program has blossomed into one of the best NCAA Division III programs in the nation.

Since 2000, the Falcons have won nine team national championships, and three Messiah student-athletes have been national winners in individual sports as well. In addition, since his arrival in 1997, five of Messiah's teams — women's basketball, field hockey, men's soccer, women's soccer, and softball — have competed on the final weekend of NCAA national championship play, advancing all the way to multiple Final Fours. Along with that, two teams have earned the highest grade point average several times among all Division III colleges and universities, a number totalling more than 425 institutions nationwide.

In NACDA Director's Cup standings, which is based on performance in NCAA post-season championship competition, the Falcons have consistently placed in the top 25 nationally, and first among all Division III colleges in Pennsylvania, since the 2000-01 academic year. Messiah's 11th-place standing in the 2007-2008 Director's Cup was the institution's best finish in the history of the award.

Under Chaplin's direction, the department has established its tagline, Pursuing Athletic Excellence...Developing Christian Character. In addition, new logos and wordmarks have been identified, and numerous improvements have been made in the College's athletics facilities.

Chaplin is quick to identify the College's coaches and athletics staff members for being the reason for the department's success in the last 10 years. "The long success of our programs really is a reflection on our coaches," he has said. "First, they set such a tremendous example for our student-athletes. If they expect hard work, then they model it. If they expect commitment, they demonstrate it. If they expect their team to strive for excellence, they do that consistently. Messiah's coaches not only talk the talk, they walk the walk. Their teams know that the coaches care about winning, and about winning the right way. More than that, they care about their student-athletes on the field, in the classroom, and in their Christian character development. Our coaches are fantastic teachers, educators, coaches, and role models."

Indeed, the emphasis, under Chaplin's leadership, is not only on success on the field, but the way the student-athletes and coaches go about competing. "Our philosophy is," Chaplin said, "that we want to win, but we want and need to do it the right way. That includes representing the College well in the heat of competition, by making sure that our student-athletes achieve in the classroom and graduate, and learn all the positive life lessons that athletics offers."

Since 1997, Messiah has added women's indoor track and field, men's indoor track and field, women's swimming, and men's swimming to its intercollegiate program, upping the total number of sports programs to 22 — eleven for women and eleven for men.

He is an active member in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and has served on the Operations Committee of the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Prior to coming to Messiah, Chaplin was Director of Athletics at North Park University, a Division III college in Chicago, for nearly seven years. Before that, he was Associate Athletics Director at Wheaton (Ill.) College, another Division III school, from 1985 to 1990. Chaplin also has been Head Softball Coach at three Christian institutions: North Park, Wheaton (Ill.), and Nyack College, where he was the program's first coach.

Chaplin and his wife, Sally, reside in Mechanicsburg. Their oldest daughter, Emily, is a senior at Taylor University; Maryssa is a sophomore at Southeastern University; and Danae is a sixth-grader at Mechanicsburg Middle School. The family worships at Christian Life Assembly in Camp Hill.