Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

6/21/2010 at 11:55am

ANAHEIM, Calif. - UALR Director of Athletics Chris Peterson will be honored as the Under Armour Central Region Athletics Director of the Year at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics' (NACDA) 45th Annual Convention at the Marriot Hotel on Thursday.

UALR has enjoyed record success under Peterson's guidance, with the women's basketball team making the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2010. The men's basketball team, meanwhile, has captured four Sun Belt Conference division championships in seven seasons under head coach Steve Shields.

"You would be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable and dedicated Athletic Director than Chris Peterson," said UALR Chancellor Dr. Joel Anderson. "Under his leadership, Trojan student-athletes are held to high standards of academic and athletic performance. Chris gives UALR fans much to cheer about year after year."

Led by head coach Joe Foley, the women's basketball team has enjoyed four-consecutive 20-win seasons and three-straight Sun Belt Conference West Division titles, culminating with a 27-7 record this past year. The 2009-10 Trojans went 17-1 in conference play and advanced to the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament with a 63-53 victory over sixth-seeded Georgia Tech.

Over the course of the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, the UALR men's and women's basketball teams were one of just 29 Division I programs to record back-to-back 20-win seasons. Of those 29 schools, UALR ranked 15th among that elite group with a combined winning percentage of .724.

In addition to the accomplishments on the court, the UALR women's soccer team advanced to the championship game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament for the first time in school history in 2009. Led by head coach Freddy Delgado, the Trojans became the first No. 8 seed in conference history to knock off the No. 1 seed.

On the baseball diamond, the Trojans increased their win total by 13 games in 2010, recording the program's highest win total since 2003 in just its second season under head coach Scott Norwood.

Peterson's focus goes beyond competition, as he stresses the value of academics to all Trojan student-athletes. UALR student-athletes have posted a combined GPA of 3.0 or better each of the past eight seasons, while the program has graduated 88 percent of its full-time freshmen who exhausted their eligibility at UALR.

His commitment to academic and athletic excellence was recognized by UALR's University Assembly in April 2009, as the Faculty Senate presented him with an award commemorating his leadership in making academic statistics as important to his student-athletes as those from competition. In April of 2010, the UALR Faculty Senate issued a resolution recognizing the outstanding academic performance of UALR's student-athletes.

During Peterson's tenure, the women's track and field team led the nation with a 3.61 GPA during the 2006-07 season, and the women's golf team was ranked in the top-25 nationally in GPA for two-straight seasons. The 2007-08 season saw 12 of UALR's 16 teams recognized for academic excellence by their respective coaches associations.

Having previously served on the 21-member NCAA Division I Recruiting and Personnel Issues Cabinet, Peterson was recently appointed to the NCAA Division I Administration Cabinet and will serve a two-year term beginning July 1, 2010.

The Under Armour AD of the Year Award program honors intercollegiate directors of athletics for their commitment and administrative excellence. The award spans seven divisions (NCAA FBS, FCS, Division I, II, III, NAIA/Other Four-Year Institutions and Junior/Community Colleges) and annually honors 29 athletics directors (four from each division) as regional winners, as well as one international recipient.

The Central Region is comprised of all schools in the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Peterson will be recognized during NACDA's 45th Annual Convention at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim, Calif. on Thursday at the James J. Corbett Awards Luncheon.