Tim Schoonveld, who has served as co-athletic director at Hope College since joining the faculty in 2009, has been named the college’s first full-time director of athletics, with responsibility for all of Hope’s 22 men’s and women’s intercollegiate teams.
His appointment will become effective this summer. Administration of Hope athletics has previously been shared by co-athletic directors, with each overseeing a mix of the men’s and women’s teams in addition to having teaching responsibilities.
The change will follow the departure of co-athletic director Melinda DuPree, who has chosen to return to her longtime hometown of Spokane, Washington, at the end of the current school year. DuPree, who came to Hope in 2014, was married in December and her husband lives in Spokane.
“We’ve been grateful to have had Melinda be a part of the Hope community these past five years and have appreciated her exceptional work,” said Dr. Cady Short-Thompson, provost at Hope. “We’re sorry that she’s leaving and will miss her, but understand her wish to return to Spokane where her husband is living.”
“We’ve worked together with our coaches and kinesiology faculty to review how our program is structured, and rather than seek a new co-director will adopt the more typical model of an individual director of athletics,” Short-Thompson said. “Both the college and student participation in intercollegiate sport have grown through the years. The more unified approach under the guidance of a full-time director will provide greater efficiency that will strengthen our already outstanding athletic program.”
Schoonveld’s role will include mentoring and evaluating head coaches, promoting student-athlete development and welfare, and ensuring the college’s compliance with MIAA and NCAA regulations and reporting. His effective service across the past 10 years has made him a natural choice for the expanded position, said Dr. Scott VanderStoep, who as dean for the social sciences has overall administrative responsibility for the athletics program.
“Tim brings a wealth of experience to this role, having served as co-athletic director for the last 10 years,” VanderStoep said. “Moreover, his leadership is grounded in the relationships that he has developed and the trust he has built across many units of the college.”
VanderStoep noted that Schoonveld has also been popular with students. The graduating senior class presented him with the Hope Outstanding Professor Educator (H.O.P.E.) Award in 2015, the same year that he was selected to deliver the Commencement address. In 2013, the college’s chapter of the Mortar Board honorary society invited him to speak through its Last Lecture Series.
“The only disadvantage in Tim’s new appointment is that we’ll be taking him away from the classroom and other service to the college,” VanderStoep said. “He is frequently called upon to teach in the college’s First-Year Seminar course, as well as kinesiology and leadership courses. From 2016 to 2018 he was interim director of the college’s Center for Leadership. Almost every year, he offers a May Term course titled Thriving in Transitions, which is very popular with the students, most of whom do not play intercollegiate sports.”
Schoonveld’s familiarity with Hope and Hope athletics goes back further than his 10 years on the faculty. He is a 1996 Hope graduate who majored in kinesiology with a minor in political science. Prior to attending Hope, he attended Calvin College, where he played basketball until his career as a collegiate player was ended by a series of knee injuries.
He received the M.A. in sports administration from Western Michigan University in 2005.
From 1997 until 2000 he was the men’s junior varsity basketball coach at Hope while teaching in the Zeeland public schools system. He was employed with the Holland Christian schools from 2000 until joining the Hope faculty, serving as the girls’ varsity basketball coach at Holland Christian High School from 2000 to 2009, and as assistant principal and athletic director of Holland Christian High School from 2006 to 2009.
He was named the Class B coach of the year by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan in 2008 after his team advanced to the state tournament semi-finals. The 2009 team made it to the quarterfinals with a school-record 21 wins.
Schoonveld and his wife, Lisa, who is a 1997 Hope graduate, both grew up in the Holland/Zeeland area. They have three children: Elijah, Kenedy and Teagan. Kenedy is a sophomore on Hope’s women’s basketball team.
More than 550 students participate in intercollegiate athletics at Hope, which competes at the Division III level and is a member of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Hope has teams for both men and for women in basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field; for men in baseball and football; and for women in softball and volleyball. Hope teams and athletes regularly perform well at the regional and national level; among other recent achievements, Hope placed 33rd out of the approximately 440 Division III colleges in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings for the 2017-18 school year.