A new era begins Monday for Hampden-Sydney College (H-SC) athletics when Chad Eisele officially starts as athletic director, bringing a wealth of collegiate coaching and administrative experience with him.

He is in his final week of an 11-year run as director of athletics at Knox College. The Galesburg, Illinois school is his alma mater, the place where he got his bachelor’s degree in political science and served as a three-sport athlete, competing in football, baseball and track and field.

Eisele’s mentor is Harley Knosher, who was the athletic director (AD) at Knox from 1968-2000, and Eisele said Knosher was certainly a big influence that led to his wanting to be an AD someday.

That day came sooner than Eisele had been anticipating. He said that when the AD position became open at Knox, it was not something he was thinking about.

“You don’t get to choose when opportunities knock, and so it was something that I talked myself into that this would be a good thing, and it was,” he said.

During his time as AD at Knox, he has overseen 20 intercollegiate sports, six club sports and four intramural leagues, as was stated in an H-SC press release. He also played a significant role in major facility upgrades, booster and fundraising efforts and recruiting and marketing initiatives.

Eisele served as a head football coach at two colleges for a combined six years prior to coming to Knox, where he served as head coach for three years. He was also head men’s tennis coach at Knox for two years after holding that position for five years at Lake Forest College in Illinois.

He pointed to three reasons he choose to come to H-SC.

“I think that one, just the school with the mission to form good men and good citizens, that’s something that’s very appealing, and after going out and interviewing and being out on campus now a few times, I don’t think that’s just a bumper sticker or a slogan,” he said. “I think they really live that and believe in that and have done it since (1776).”

Eisele said the other reasons H-SC appealed to him were its athletic success and President Larry Stimpert’s commitment to making sure that the institution as a whole strives to be even better than it is today.

Both his time spent as a head coach and as an athletic director have prepared Eisele for his new position at H-SC.

“I think what helped prepare me (to) be an athletic director is being the head coach of the smallest team on a campus and being the head coach of the largest team on the campus, and I actually did both those jobs at the same time for two years,” he said. “There’s a lot of difference in coaching a team sport and an individual sport, and I think that experience helped me greatly.”

Eisele said what he enjoys most about being a college AD is coaching coaches — without micromanaging them — and getting to know the student-athletes throughout all of his school’s programs, not just a few.

The AD position ultimately leads to a different perspective than the one he held as a coach.

“I don’t get W’s on game days, but I see my W’s as my programs being successful and making the most of their opportunities,” he said.

When it comes to his goals for H-SC athletics, “the vision is that all our teams, all 10 of our programs, compete for ODAC championships,” he said. “That’s first and foremost is you want to be the best in your league, and then from there be able to compete nationally.”

He noted H-SC has demonstrated its ability.