June 23, 2010

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A veteran of nearly three decades in the University of Notre Dame athletics department, Sally Derengoski has been named Director of Recreational Sports.

Derengoski now supervises a staff of 30 and is responsible for all areas of RecSports programming – including club and intramural sports, aquatics, fitness, instructional, special event and family programming areas — as well as the department’s recreation facilities. She also oversees the Rolfs Sports Recreation Center, the Rockne Memorial and the Rolfs Aquatic Center. A member of athletics director Jack Swarbrick’s senior staff, she previously supervised Notre Dame summer sports camps for seven years.

Until last summer Derengoski served as co-director for the RecSports department with Rich O’Leary, who oversaw the club and intramural sports areas. O’Leary passed away last July following 37 years with the athletics department.

Derengoski is responsible for developing the fitness, instructional, family and special event program areas. More than 94 percent of the student body participates in some aspect of the RecSports program, considered one of the top campus recreation programs in the country.

During the course of her career, her responsibilities have varied, including serving as director of the University’s golf course for 12 years, concurrent with her duties at RecSports. She has been very active in the golf industry, including serving on the National Golf Foundation’s Board of Regents for the Institute of Golf Management. She also served as game manager for the Notre Dame women’s basketball team from 1996-2008. She has been a consultant for a number of recreation facility projects, is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences, and has served on many state and national committees, including as president of the Indiana chapter of the National Intramural – Recreational Sports Association. Derengoski represents RecSports on the University’s wellness committee.

Derengoski also is active in the South Bend community, and has been the longtime chair of the “run, jane run” golf tournament, a fundraiser for the YWCA of St. Joseph County. Currently, she is chair of the YMCA of Michiana and has been co-chair of the University-sponsored Robinson Community Learning Center’s program advisory board.

In 2005, Derengoski received an honorary monogram from the Notre Dame Monogram Club. Two years later, she was honored with the Arthur Quigley, PhD., Award for outstanding service to the Northeast Neighborhood, and received the Donna R. Pheil Award for community service from the YWCA in 2006. In 2002, she received Indiana University’s Division of Recreational Sports’ Outstanding Alumni Award.

A native of East Lansing, Mich., Derengoski is a 1981 graduate of Indiana University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and was the 1981 intramural Athlete of the Year. She went on to obtain her masters’ degree in business administration from Notre Dame in 1983.

–ND–