Now in his ninth year as Director of Athletics, Jim Fiore has worked tirelessly to point Stony Brook University on an aggressive course for success in all aspects of intercollegiate athletics. He has been widely praised for his unparalleled success directing an athletics department that is widely considered a model for rising athletic departments around the country. In his first eight years, Fiore has undertaken a major restructuring of the intercollegiate athletics program, including the hiring of new coaching and administrative staff, implemented dramatic facility upgrades and celebrated unprecedented revenue generation. For the near future, Fiore is focused on building Stony Brook University Athletics into the premier athletic program in the Northeast Region among all public research universities.
Fiore's vision for Stony Brook Athletics has resulted in unprecedented growth for the program in countless different ways. He is currently overseeing nearly $80 million in unprecedented athletic facility upgrades. Fiore also elevated the football program from zero scholarships to the full NCAA FCS scholarship level and, while doing so, elevated all of Stony Brook’s women’s programs to fully funded status. As a result, he has ensured the long-term future of Stony Brook football, while positioning all sport programs to eventually compete for a national championship alongside institutions with similar academic and athletic standards. In addition, his dynamic marketing and branding campaigns have given Stony Brook Athletics a national scope. During his tenure, Fiore has helped create a 175-person marching band, was a driving force in a campus-wide branding initiative, the impetus for sealing a multi-year television deal with Madison Square Garden (MSG) Network to broadcast multiple Seawolves games and has worked successfully to gain national television exposure for Stony Brook’s programs on outlets such as ESPN and ESPNU. Fiore also spearheaded the bids that resulted in Stony Brook being awarded the opportunity to host the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship quarterfinals in May 2006 and 2010, which were both sold-out events, as well as the NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship semifinals and final in May 2011 and 2012. The 2011 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship effort resulted in a nomination for "Best Collegiate Single-Sport Event" for the 2011 SportsTravel Awards.
Fiore’s hard work and attention to detail put the Department of Athletics on an upward trajectory, and under his leadership, Stony Brook enjoyed a break-out season as a Division I institution in 2009-10 when baseball, women's cross country, football, men's lacrosse and men's soccer each won conference championships. The men's basketball team claimed the America East regular season championship for the first time and then hosted Illinois in a first round nationally televised NIT game before a sold out crowd. That same year, the Stony Brook men's lacrosse team advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals and hosted top-seeded Virginia before a standing room-only crowd of more than 10,000.
Stony Brook followed its banner 2009-10 season with an incredible 2010-11 year that included major national attention. In addition to conference championships in women's cross country and football and regular season titles in baseball and men's lacrosse, Stony Brook had nine All-American selections, including three selections for cross country/track & field star Lucy Van Dalen, who finished second in the 1,500 at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship. She also helped the women's cross country team finish seventh overall at the NCAA Cross Country Championship, the highest team finish at an NCAA event in the program's Division I history. In addition, the men's basketball team had four national television broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks, including its first-ever America East Championship final appearance; the men's lacrosse team was nationally ranked for the entire season, reaching as high as No. 5; and the baseball team finished the year with the fourth-best winning percentage in the nation and set the school record for victories with 42. During Fiore’s tenure, Stony Brook has already earned 16 conference championships and amassed nine regular season crowns. Fiore has now guaranteed that Stony Brook Athletics is positioned for continued success both on and off the field.
Fiore, known as a tenacious fundraiser, also has turned his attention to department-wide revenue generation efforts, with his efforts resulting in an increase of more than 55 percent in both annual giving revenue and number of donors. In a concerted effort to take a lead role in the university's $300 million capital campaign, the Department of Athletics has secured several major gifts, three of which were the largest philanthropic gifts ever given to athletics. The most recent gift is a five million dollar donation from alumnus Glenn Dubin '78, which is the largest private donation to a State University of New York (SUNY) athletics department and will fund a new 8,000 square foot strength and conditioning center which is currently under construction. In July 2005, Fiore initiated a new philosophy for the annual Providing Athletes With Support (P.A.W.S.) fundraising campaign, a philosophy that streamlined the annual fundraising process to prepare Stony Brook to exceed all fundraising expectations in the future. In addition, he created the Athletic Director Advisory Council, a 19-member board comprised of Stony Brook alumni, staff and community members that advise Fiore in the fundraising advancement process. Fiore's attention to the bottom line resulted in a new athletic department budget process that relieved the department of an annual systemic deficit, resulting in a balanced budget for the 2004-2005 academic year, the first time that Stony Brook realized that goal since moving to the Division I level. Fiore has seen the department balance its budget every year since and has overseen a budget growth from $9 million to $20 million.
Fiore has had a tremendous impact on athletic facilities at Stony Brook. In addition to the approximate $80 million in facility projects currently in action, Stony Brook retained Populous (formerly HOK), the premier sports architectural firm in the nation, to formulate and develop a master plan for the future of Stony Brook athletic facilities. The blueprint already has begun to take hold: the baseball field has been transformed into Joe Nathan Field, in honor of lead donor, former Seawolves baseball player and current Minnesota Twins pitcher Joe Nathan '97, featuring new turf and new dugouts; the softball field received a facelift with the addition of new bleachers and a press box; University Track was completed in June 2011 and provides the Seawolves with a $3 million state-of-the art outdoor track & field facility; Pritchard Gymnasium, home of the basketball and volleyball teams, received a $1.2 million renovation; LaValle Stadium's football, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse and visiting team locker rooms all were redesigned and enhanced for an additional $1 million; and the $4.3 million Dubin Family Athletic Performance Center is currently under construction.
Under Fiore's leadership, Stony Brook student-athletes also have attained new levels of achievement in the classroom. Leading the charge for a department-wide commitment to academic success, one of Fiore’s first achievements was to unveil the new Goldstein Family Student-Athlete Development Center in the spring of 2006, a center made possible through a $1.2 million gift from Stony Brook alumnus and former All-American squash player Stuart Goldstein `74. The 6,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility can accommodate our 430 student-athletes and features a computer lab, a study hall/multipurpose function room, a career resource/library area, 4 academic advisor offices and several private tutor rooms. The Seawolves student-athletes have directly benefitted from this commitment to academics and as a result, have consistently achieved a department-wide average GPA of above a 3.0.
During his tenure, Fiore also has guided Stony Brook through the essential and formative NCAA Certification process; helped redesign the athletic logo and athletic website; developed a new comprehensive student-athlete exit survey and head coach performance evaluation instrument; implemented mandatory drug testing; and, unveiled an athletic department strategic plan. Fiore also has instituted a "Book of the Year" program for coaches and staff that highlights important topics relevant to professional and personal development, culminating with the author's visit to campus and discussion with the entire staff. Early in his tenure, Fiore implemented a Minority Apprentice program to assist in the development of young professionals in intercollegiate athletics.
His list of accomplishments has not gone unnoticed. In 2011, he and the Stony Brook student-athletes were collectively named the Three Village Chamber of Commerce Member of the Year for their work in the community. In December 2007, Fiore was named the Sports Man of the Year by The Village Times Herald and in the fall of 2004, he was recognized by the Long Island Business Association as one of the Top 40 executives under the age of 40 on Long Island. In June 2004, Fiore was a featured speaker at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) convention in Dallas, Texas. He currently serves on the prestigious NCAA Division 1 Championships/Sports Management Cabinet.
On July 23, 2003, then President Shirley Strum Kenny introduced Jim Fiore as the ninth Director of Athletics in Stony Brook University history, stating "Jim has the energy, drive, enthusiasm and intelligence to take this program, in the tradition of Stony Brook, very far, very fast." At the time of his hire, Fiore was one of the youngest Directors of Athletics in NCAA Division I. From 1999-2003, Fiore provided department-wide leadership in support of the director of athletics at Princeton University, a program that supports 38 sports, 40 club sports programs and more than 1,000 student-athletes. A member of the senior management team, he was responsible for all athletic programming oversight of all varsity intercollegiate programs. In addition, Fiore directed all personnel matters, including the coordination of national searches for coaches, staff and administrative positions. Along with the director of athletics, he assisted in the planning for short and long-term capital improvements. During Fiore's tenure, Princeton achieved extraordinary success on the fields of play and in the classroom. Princeton finished among the Top 25 in the Director's Cup standings in three of the four years he was there and is the only non-scholarship institution ever to finish in the Top 25. From 1999-2003, Princeton teams won 60 Ivy League championships and nine national championships.
From 1995-1998, Fiore was the Assistant Director of Athletics for Intercollegiate Programming at Dartmouth College, where he assisted with the daily operation and supervision of Dartmouth's comprehensive 34-sport program. Prior to Dartmouth, Fiore interned at Princeton working directly for the Director of Athletics on assigned projects. He began his career as a graduate assistant at Springfield College before working for the Executive Director of the National Invitation Tournament during the spring and summer of 1993. One year later, he took an internship in the compliance office at Fordham University.
A native of Long Beach, N.Y, Fiore graduated from Long Beach High School and went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hofstra University, where he played free safety for the football team. Upon graduation from Hofstra, Fiore earned a master's degree in education from Springfield College. Additionally, he received a certificate from the highly selective Sports Management Institute held at the University of Notre Dame and University of South Carolina.
