12/15/2009
SUNY Cortland Director of Athletics Dr. Joan Sitterly has announced her retirement, effective Feb. 23, 2010. Mike Urtz, Cortland’s Associate Director of Athletics, will assume the position of Interim Director of Athletics on Jan. 1, 2010, and a search for a full-time director will begin immediately.
Sitterly has served as Cortland’s director of athletics on a full-time basis since 2004 in addition to two prior stints in an interim capacity.
Sitterly joined SUNY Cortland in 1983 as a faculty member in the Department of Physical Education. One of the nation’s most successful women’s volleyball coaches, she guided the Red Dragons for 22 seasons from 1983-2004. Sitterly finished with an overall record of 816-234 and became only the second coach in Division III women’s volleyball history to reach 800 career wins.
A seven-time American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) regional Coach of the Year and a seven-time State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Coach of the Year, Sitterly led Cortland to 18 NCAA Division III tournament appearances and 13 conference titles.
As Cortland’s director of athletics, she oversaw a 25-sport program that ranks among the most successful on the Division III level. Cortland is one of just six schools among more than 400 in Division III to rank in the top 20 of the all-sports National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Directors’ Cup standings each of the past 14 years, including a third-place national finish in 2006-07 and fifth-place showings in 2008-09 and 2005-06.
A 1974 alumna of SUNY Brockport, Sitterly earned a master’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1979 and a Ed.D. from Syracuse University in 1996. She was inducted into Brockport's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.
Urtz has been Cortland's associate director of athletics since 2004, and from Nov. 2007 through April 2008 served as the interim director of athletics while Sitterly was on sabbatical. Urtz was the assistant director of athletics from 2001 until his promotion to associate director.
Urtz graduted from Cortland in 1994 and earned a master's degree in 1999. The Ilion, N.Y., native was a standout baseball outfielder for the Red Dragons from 1990-93 and also served as an assistant baseball coach for 10 seasons.
As a player, Urtz earned All-SUNYAC, all-state and all-region honors in 1992, and as a senior in 1993 he helped the Red Dragons win an ECAC Upstate New York title and qualify for the NCAA Div. III playoffs. A team captain that season, Urtz earned All-SUNYAC and all-region awards.