Concordia Athletic Department welcomes six new staffers to campus

Jonas Sommerville
Sower Staff

With every new school year new hires join the Concordia family. This year Concordia welcomes six new hires.

Chase Benton joined Concordia as an assistant director of athletic communications.

Chase Benton

He is 33, grew up in Georgia and obtained his undergraduate degree from Jacksonville State in Alabama. He was then hired at Midland University as a graduate assistant for two years until applying to Concordia. When asked what his job entails, Benton said, “In short… we promote all athletics and run live events.” However, the job contains many more complexities, such as running the athletics website, hosting live events and setting up livestreams.

David Chouinard is a new assistant athletic trainer. He is 29, grew up in Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

David Chouinard

When asked what his role as an assistant athletic trainer involves, David said, “I primarily work with the football, wrestling and baseball teams.” He said they do event and game coverage, and work on injury prevention and rehabilitation too. Chouinard is impressed by the beauty of the campus and the facilities. Before Concordia, he worked at Arizona Christian.

Lisa Hart is the most recent hire as the new coach of the men’s and women’s tennis teams. She is 47 years old and originally from Sunnyside, Washington. She has two kids: a daughter entering her junior year of high school and a son in eighth grade. Hart has plenty of experience not only as an associate coach at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, but also as coach at Virginia Tech and Washing- ton State.

Lisa Hart

Hart has goals for the upcoming season, and said, “In the first couple years [I’d like to] see how good we can get and really focus on the process, you know, of developing and just seeing progress on the court.” Hart sees great potential in both the men’s and women’s teams.

Nick Smith was hired last March as the women’s soccer coach.

Nick Smith

Smith is 34 and grew up in Ohio. He played soccer and obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. When asked about his goals for the upcoming season he said, “As this is our first competition season together this fall, I am really excited to learn exactly where our level is. The Great Plains Athletic Conference is a highly competitive conference and I think we have the pieces to be competitive this fall. Our first focus is to continue to build and strengthen our team culture. On the field, I’d like us to finish in the top four, which would allow us to play at least one playoff game in Bulldog Stadium.”

Chevy Stout is assistant lifting sports coach and assistant strength and conditioning coach.

Chevy Stout

Stout grew up very close to Seward in Grand Island. He is 24 years old, attended CUNE for his undergraduate degree and then got a master’s degree from Concordia University in Irvine, California. As the assistant coach for lifting sports, Stout said his role is to “be that coaching presence and help coach Miles coach the athletes in their specific lifts.” Lifting sports are new to Concordia, and Stout will help athletes find their way in uncharted waters for Concordia athletics.

Megan Wood joined Concordia as an administrative assistant.

Megan is 24 and graduated from Big Bend Community College. Big Bend is located in Moses Lake, Washington. As an administrative assistant, Megan is essential to the day-to-day operations in the Concordia office.