High School - Duke University Athletics

Athletic Administration
Joe Alleva
Director of Athletics
Joe Alleva, a member of the Duke athletic
department since 1980, was named the
school’s sixth director of athletics on February
25, 1998, and has upheld the stature of
the department by striving for success on and
off the playing field.
Alleva had served as Duke’s associate
athletic director for 11 years prior to his elevation, and has been at the
University for 28 years.
In such a short span as the leader of the program, Alleva has
already made his mark by spearheading a multidimensional fundraising
campaign that has taken the athletics program into the 21st
century.
The 52-year-old native of Suffern, N.Y., joined the athletics
staff in 1980 and was named assistant athletic director in July of 1986.
He has also served as assistant director of the Iron Dukes during his
tenure. In 1987, Alleva was promoted to associate athletic director,
assuming a great deal of responsibility for all day-to-day operations of
the department. He also served as the athletics business manager
during Duke’s rapid growth from the mid-1980s until 1998.
Duke athletics has flourished under Alleva’s leadership. The
Blue Devils finished seventh in the 1999 Sears Directors’ Cup, which
rates athletics departments based on the success of its teams. Among
schools that finished in the top 25 of the 2000 Sears Directors’ Cup
standings, Duke ranked No. 1 in graduation rate, with 91 percent of its
student-athletes earning their degrees. Last year, Duke placed fifth in
the final Cup standings — the school’s highest ranking ever.
In 2000-01, Duke won a school-record seven ACC
Championships and captured the championship of the inaugural Carlyle
Cup - a competition between the Duke and North Carolina athletic
departments. Duke has captured the Carlyle Cup in three of the past
five seasons.
Four Duke teams - men’s basketball in 2001, women’s golf in
1999, 2002 and 2005 - have won national championships since
Alleva’s appointment as athletic director. Since taking over the helm at
Duke, Alleva’s teams have notched 35 ACC Championships, which is
second among ACC schools since the 1997-98 campaign.
Alleva’s fund-raising efforts have reached extensive heights.
In 1998, a campaign was launched publicly with a goal of $65 million
and, less than three years later, the standard was increased to $130
million when the department brought in over $110 million.
Support Staff
The Iron Dukes have gone from raising $5 million during the
1997-98 academic year to more than $8 million annually.
Highlighting the use of the millions of dollars raised are the Yoh
Football Center, a $22 million project completed in the summer of 2002.
The 70,000-square foot facility is the new home of Duke Football. Also,
the Schwartz-Butters Athletic Center, a 41,000-square foot addition to
Cameron Indoor Stadium that houses Duke’s men’s and women’s
basketball teams as well as an academic center for all Blue Devil
athletes, and the Sheffield Center and Ambler Tennis Stadium, a pair of
state-of-the-art tennis facilities, have been completed.
The Blue Devil soccer and lacrosse teams have enjoyed
enhancements to their home field, Koskinen Stadium, and the baseball
team played its first season under the lights in 2001.
Alleva has equipped the department to better assist the
student-athlete by providing additional personnel for the strength, speed
and training staffs. An emphasis has been placed on fund-raising, with
new staff members overseeing this important area of growth.
He also established a visionary Athletics Advisory Board
made up of influential business and sports leaders throughout the
country with interests in the Duke athletics program. That group was
initiated in the spring of 1999.
Alleva played football and baseball at Lehigh and was football
captain in 1974. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1975 majoring in
finance and served as a graduate assistant football coach for Lehigh,
earning an MBA in 1976. Alleva began serving Duke in 1976 working
for the vice president for business and finance.
He has played a key role in Durham’s community sports
scene over the last several years. He started Little League Baseball in
174
Durham over 15 years ago, and also began the American Legion
baseball program in the area.
Alleva is a member of the North Carolina American Legion
Hall of Fame, Suffern H.S. Hall of Fame and the Rockland County Hall
of Fame.
He is also taking a more active approach on the national
collegiate athletics scene, serving on the Atlantic Coast Conference’s
Committees on Football, Television and Equity Issues while representing
the ACC on the NCAA’s Championship Cabinet. Alleva serves on the
ACC’s committees for football, men’s basketball and television.
Alleva and his wife, Annie, have two sons, J.D. (25) and Jeff
(23) along with a daughter, Jenny (19). A 24th-round pick by the
Kansas City Royals in the 2001 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft,
J.D. was in the Royals’ minor league system while Jeff finished his
baseball career at Duke in 2003 and signed a free agent contract with
the Royals following his senior season. Jenny is a current member of
Duke’s women’s soccer team.
Brad Berndt
Academic Advisor
David McClain
Equipment Manager
Jamie Pootrakul
Director of Compliance
Derek Repucci
Athletic Trainer
Jacki Silar
Associate Director of Athletics
4 Duke Blue Devil Wrestling 2005-06