Westmoreland college notebook: Athletic director Chris Snyder exits Seton Hill after 2 decades

Seton Hill is looking for a new athletic director after the departure of Chris Snyder, who led Griffins athletics for 21 years.

According to a news release from the university, Snyder is leaving “to look for new opportunities and challenges.”

Snyder began working at Seton Hill in 2004 as the school’s first football coach and executive director for athletics. He coached three seasons before resigning to take over AD duties full time.

Snyder oversaw Seton Hill’s significant move from NAIA to NCAA Division II athletics, as well as a shift from the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.

Sports at Seton Hill grew during his tenure, and athletic facilities expanded with turf fields for baseball and softball.

His fundraising efforts will help the university’s plan to build a new athletic field house.

Snyder also helped to guide the Griffins’ athletic community through tough times, like the deaths of baseball pitcher Maclean Maund in 2020, volleyball player Maggie Murray in 2018 and women’s lacrosse coach Kristina Quigley in 2013.

Maund, 19, was killed in an auto accident near Jeannette; Murray, 22, died in a boating accident; and Quigley, 30, who was six months pregnant, died when the team’s bus crashed on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The campus rallied each time through faith and alliance.

“Together, we have achieved so much: improved academic performance, significant growth of our rosters, and vastly expanded and upgraded our facilities,” Snyder said in the release. “We have also integrated principles within athletics to make us look like a member of NCAA Division II. As I depart, Seton Hill is well positioned moving forward.”

An athletics management team has been formed at Seton Hill to conduct athletic operations until Snyder’s replacement is hired.

Little honored

It is an impressive accomplishment on its own, but even more so because it has not happened at Bloomsburg in 25 years.

Graduating softball player Emma Little, a Penn-Trafford alum, was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America First Team.

The early childhood education major had a 3.88 grade-point average over her four years at Bloomsburg.

A catcher and designated player, Little had a career season. She hit .346 in 52 games with 26 of her 54 hits going for extra bases, including a team-high 10 home runs.

She was an All-PSAC first teamer for the Huskies (33-21), whose season ended in the NCAA Atlantic Regional championship.

Sister act

Former Latrobe soccer standouts Regan and Robin Reilly were opponents in a key USL W League game last Friday at Highmark Stadium.

Both are first-year players in the league but are on different rosters.

Regan Reilly played for Steel City FC, Robin Reilly for the new Pittsburgh Riveters.

Regan is a rising sophomore at Bowling Green, while Robin is an incoming freshman at West Virginia.

The younger sister held on to bragging rights in their second matchup as pre-professionals. The Riveters won, 2-1, to clinch a division title in their first attempt.

Towson’s Sydney Lindeman, a Franklin Regional alum, scored the tying goal for Pittsburgh.

Earlier in the season, Pittsburgh defeated Steel City, 3-1, at Founders Field.

Regan Reilly had started seven of eight matches for Steel City, while Robin had six appearances.