Stony Brook’s 1999 inception into Division I brought much needed attention to its athletic department. Since it received membership in the America East Conference in 2002, and has since boosted its athletics greatly, opening the Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium in 2002. The acceptance of Jim Fiore, the former senior associate athletic director at Princeton University, is no exception in Stony Brook’s progressive outlook on athletics.
Fiore, a 34-year old native of Long Island, will be the ninth Director of Athletics at Stony Brook University, succeeding Richard Laskowski, who announced in April that he would step down. Fiore will be responsible for the oversight of the University’s 20 intercollegiate athletics programs, which are comprised of 10 men’s and 10 women’s sports.
“I am looking forward to this tremendous opportunity and the challenges we will face as we chart the course of success at Stony Brook,” said Fiore. “Our core goal will be to make Stony Brook’s outstanding combination of athletics and academics a shining example not only for the America East Conference but also for the entire country.”
During Fiore’s tenure, Princeton achieved unprecedented success on the fields of play and in the classroom. Ranked the number one University by U.S. News and World Report, Princeton has finished among the Top 25 in the Sears Director’s Cup standings in three of the last five years and is the only non-scholarship institution to ever finish in the Top 25. Fiore worked in all facets of Princeton’s internal and external operations, including the athletic programming oversight of all varsity sport programs and personnel matters, as well as the coordination of national searches, employment contracts, employee performance appraisals and capital facility projects.
“Jim is a tremendously talented leader and administrator who understand that the proper role of intercollegiate athletics is to advance the educational mission of the university,” said Gary Walters, the Director of Athletics at Princeton. “Jim has high standards that will raise the overall level of performance in the athletic department. Stony Brook has made an enlightened choice.”
Fiore started his career off as an intern at Princeton, assisting the Director of Athletics for one year. He then worked as an assistant to the executive director of the National Invitational Tournament, after which Fiore interned in the compliance office at Fordham University. From 1995-1999, Fiore served as the assistant director of athletics at Dartmouth, aiding the oversight of 34 intercollegiate programs.
“What we are looking for is a really strong athletic program with a really strong academic tradition,” said Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, an avid supporter of Stony Brook University and its athletic program. “[This] is a marriage of a first-class individual, Jim Fiore, being wedded to a first-class institution with first-class people.”
Fiore graduated from Long Beach High School and went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal arts in 1991 from Hofstra, where he played free safety for the football team. He later earned a master’s of education degree in athletic administration from Springfield College in 1994.
“We will work as hard as we can in attaining the greatest for scholar-athletes,” said Fiore. “Together we will bring this department to great heights. I look forward to a bright, prosperous future-and go Seawolves.”
