Mount Mercy College Sports News
June 29, 2006
FOR RELEASE

McCormick Named MCC'S Top Administrator

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Mount Mercy College's Don McCormick is the inaugural recipient of the Midwest Classic Conference Athletics Director of the Year award, the league announced today.

McCormick spearheaded a $60,000 fundraising effort for the Mount Mercy athletic department that included major improvements to Hennessey Recreation Center. The gymnasium was upgraded with a Daktronics scoreboard system and scoring tables, as well as a redesigned playing surface. A new batting cage and lift system for baseball and softball was also installed.

The 2005-06 season was a successful one on and off the court for the Mustangs. The women's golf team qualified for the NAIA national tournament, while Mount Mercy won its third straight MCC women's outdoor track & field championship.

The college also counted three national qualifiers in men's cross country and track & field, six NAIA all-region performers and 54 all-MCC selections. Nine Mount Mercy student-athletes were NAIA Champions of Character, seven were NAIA Scholar-Athletes and 61 earned academic all-conference honors.

McCormick also contributed at the conference, regional and national levels. He strongly supported the hiring of the league's first-ever, full-time conference commissioner, was the women's golf chairperson in the MCC and NAIA Region VII and a national women's golf rater for the NAIA.

McCormick, a 1971 Mount Mercy graduate, is retiring this summer after 35 years at the college, including the past 16 as assistant director of athletics, athletics director and women's golf coach. In 16 years leading Mustang women's golf, he built a nationally recognized program that won six MCC titles and went to nine NAIA national tournaments.