Whitworth hires Tim Demant as new athletic director

Whitworth University hired Tim Demant as its new athletic director. He comes from Goshen College in Indiana where he had served in the same job there the past six years.

“Tim Demant will be a great leader for the Pirates’ athletics program because he is a competitor himself, having achieved success in a variety of roles including as coach and administrator,” Whitworth President Beck A. Taylor said in a news release.

Demant replaces interim athletic director Melinda Larson, who served in that role since last June when Aaron Leetch announced he would return to Illinois State after directing Whitworth’s 20 sports teams for two years.

Steve Schadt, Whitworth’s swimming coach, chaired the search committee that resulted in the hire of Demant.

“It was apparent very early in the process that Tim has a genuine heart for student-athletes and he will be a tremendous colleague for everyone within our department,” Schadt said.

Prior to his move to Goshen six years ago, Demant was the athletic director and head men’s volleyball coach at Columbia Bible College, in Abbotsford, British Columbia, from 1998-2008.

A native of Ontario, Canada, Demant earned his bachelor’s degree from Trinity Western University, in Langley, B.C, where he was a standout volleyball player. He twice earned CCAA All-Canadian honors.

Following graduation in 1995, he immediately was hired as TWU’s interim men’s volleyball coach. He then served two more seasons as the Spartans’ top assistant coach before moving to Columbia Bible.

Demant said he learned of the Whitworth job by checking listings on the NCAA job board. He saw the Whitworth posting and then sought information about the school from one of the Pirates’ league rivals, Whitman College.

It turns out that Whitman’s athletic director, Dean Snider, was Demant’s first collegiate volleyball coach at Trinity Western.

“Anytime there is a job opening, obviously a connection helps,” he said. “You can go to a school’s website, but that doesn’t always tell you about the program.”

He visited campus for a couple of days at the end of April.

“It seems like a great place with great people. I kept saying, ‘I see all the great things, but what am I missing?’ ” he said. “I wandered around campus on my own and everybody had the same things to say about it.”

Demant is now in the process of moving his wife, Shannon, and their three children to Spokane. He’s expected to start on July 1.