LEWISTON Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College Athletic Director Brooke Henze has been named the Women Leaders in College Sports Administrator of the Year for the NAIA and community college level, the organization announced on Monday.
Henze, who is in her third year as athletic director and 14th year overall in athletic administration at LC State, will be honored during the Women Leaders in College Sports national convention on Oct. 15 in Phoenix. Henze is one of eight female college administrators who will be honored.
After serving as assistant and associate athletic director for 11 years at LCSC, she took over as athletic director on July 1, 2017, when Gary Picone retired.
Henze inherited a strong athletic program with LCSC sending either individuals or teams from 11 sports to an NAIA national championship over a three-year span. She has overseen continued success with the naming of five new coaches, including men’s basketball coach Austin Johnson, who led the Warriors to the Final Four of the NAIA Tournament in his first season, a program best.
For the 2018-19 school year, LCSC finished No. 21 in the Learfield IMG Directors’ Cup standings, a huge accomplishment considering the college does not offer 10 of the 24 sports that Learfield uses to determine the standings.
LCSC student-athletes excel in the classroom with 121 student-athletes having a GPA of 3.0 or better during the 2018 fall semester, including 20 with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
During Henze’s tenure as the athletic director, the college has been honored twice as the NAIA’s Best Championship Host for its work with the Avista NAIA World Series. The 10-team double-elimination tournament has been held at LCSC 28 times, including the last 19 straight. Henze recently worked out a contract extension with the NAIA that guarantees the tournament will remain at the college through 2024.
This past spring, Henze successfully worked on the college’s acceptance into the Cascade Conference. LC State will transition from the Frontier Conference to the Cascade Collegiate Conference this year and will become a full member of the Cascade Collegiate Conference in 2020.
Henze also was instrumental in helping to launch the Student-Athlete Advisory Council in 2017, and in May the SAAC held its first LCSCPY’s award show. The awards honored the achievement of LCSC student-athletes, as well as celebrated moments of sportsmanship and those who exhibited “The Warrior Way.”
Henze was raised in Lewiston and is a 1997 graduate of Lewiston High School. She played basketball for four season at LCSC and helped the team qualify for the NAIA National Tournament all four seasons. During her senior year, the Warriors advanced to the NAIA Final Four and finished with a 33-4 record, which at that time, was a program best. During her four years, LCSC posted a 106-23 record.
Henze graduated from LC State in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in communications. She went on to obtain a master’s degree in athletic administration from Gonzaga University in 2007.
She was named assistant athletic director in 2006 and served in that position until 2009 when she was promoted to associate athletic director. Since 2011, she has served as tournament director of the Avista NAIA World Series.
Along with overseeing LCSC’s 12 varsity sports, Henze has an instrumental role in fundraising, operations, and event management for athletics. She has served as director of the LCSC booster club, the Warrior Athletic Association, since 2009.
In 2017, Henze was honored with the Robert E. “Ish” Smith Award from the NAIA Baseball Coaches Executive Committee. The award honors the “unselfish promotion of NAIA baseball” by a baseball coach or an administrator. Last fall, Henze received the Rising Star Young Alumna Award from the LCSC Alumni Association.