Matt Pohren was appointed Assistant Athletic Director and Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach at Hartwick College in July of 2013.
Pohren is responsible for numerous day-to-day operations for the 17 sports within Hartwick Athletics. His duties include NCAA compliance, which includes Hartwick’s two Division I sports, oversight of athletic facility scheduling, maintenance and organization, the management and staffing of Hartwick’s athletic fitness center, assisting with Wick AA fundraising efforts, and athletic sponsorships organization and implementation. He is also an adjunct lecturer in Hartwick’s Physical Education department.
In addition to his administrative responsibilities, Pohren serves as the Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach at Hartwick College. His scholar-athletes have seen success at the athletic and academic level under his tenure. In the fall of 2013 his women’s team captured the Cross Country Only Championships (CCOC) team title, Hartwick’s first since its inception. In the spring of 2015 Hartwick’s Gavin Jenkins ’15 was named the Empire 8 Senior Scholar-Athlete award winner. It was the first time in Hartwick’s history in the Empire 8 that a senior-scholar athlete received the distinction.
Pohren is also greatly-involved with a variety of special events and projects including the planning and oversight of recent renovations to Hartwick’s athletic fitness center in the summer of 2014 and its women’s locker room in 2015. Pohren serves on various committees on campus including the Athletics Hall of Fame Committee, the Student Affairs Programing Committee, the True Blue Alumni/Homecoming Committee, and Hartwick Wellness Ambassadors.
Pohren is the creator and lead director of Hartwick’s Hawks’ Night Fever that recognizes and celebrates all of Hartwick’s varsity sports teams while bringing the entire campus together with over a 1000 students in attendance on average.
On the academic side, Pohren’s athletes have also greatly excelled. His teams regularly have some of the highest individual and team GPA’s of any Hartwick athletic program and in the spring of 2014 four of his cross country athletes were honored as John Christopher Hartwick (JCH) Scholars, the highest honor the College can confer upon a student.
Before joining the Hawks, Pohren served as the Assistant Cross Country Coach at Division I Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Pohren helped pilot the Blue Jays’ men’s and women’s programs for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. He also served in the Creighton compliance and marketing departments.
Pohren began his coaching and administrative career at his alma mater, Northwest Missouri State University, in Maryville, MO. He served as an assistant coach with the Bearcats’ cross country and track and field programs for three years from 2007 to 2010, helping to guide several NCAA regional qualifiers and All-America athletes in both sports.
While at Northwest, Pohren also served as the department’s Compliance Assistant and its Senior Marketing Manager. He was elevated to Interim Assistant Athletic Director in the 2010-2011 academic year.
As a student-athlete, Pohren competed in cross country and track and field at Northwest from 2003 to 2007. While competing for the Bearcats, he was a two-time NCAA Division II Academic All-American and a six-time Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) All-Conference performer in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field.
Pohren graduated from Northwest in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. He earned a Master of Science in Health and Physical Education in 2010.
Pohren holds professional memberships with the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators (NADIIIAA), National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC), USA Track and Field (USATF) and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). He was selected to be a facilitator by the NCAA for the National Career in Sports Forum in 2014 and 2015. Pohren also currently serves on the NCAA Division III Strategic Alliance Matching Grant Committee.
