Steve Roach was named deputy director of athletics in September of 2024 and began his time at Elon in October of 2024.
At Elon, Roach plays a critical role in developing strategies to increase revenue generation, implementing strategic planning and goal setting efforts, increasing the exposure and brand of the athletics department, enhancing staff development, supervising sport programs and developing innovative engagement opportunities for the entire Elon community. He has day-to-day oversight of development, communications, ticketing and marketing, including the operations, strategic efforts, staffing, budgetary and revenue goals for each area.
Prior to his time at Elon, Roach spent six years as the athletics director at Texas A&M-Kingsville after spending five years at Indiana (Pa.), the final three as the director of athletics. During that time, he led efforts for a football locker room renovation, baseball stadium upgrades and an indoor golf facility. He led and developed initiatives that saw a three-year increase of 257 percent in annual fundraising during his time at Kingsville, increased corporate sponsorships, upgraded the event ticketing software and has a demonstrated background as a strong leader.
Over the course of his six years at Texas A&M-Kingsville, Roach oversaw the holistic development of the department. He undertook a $2.3 million football locker room renovation and the addition of a $100,000 indoor golf hitting room for the women's golf program. He completed a full rebrand of the athletics facilities and implemented a VIP hospitality end zone tent for home football games.
His teams also saw competitive excellence. The football program went 7-3 in 2022 and made an NCAA Division II bowl appearance, the team's first winning season since 2016. The men's basketball program made three NCAA South Central Regional appearances and the softball team was a 2019 national finalist and 2022 NCAA South Central Super Regional finalist.
Academically, Roach implemented a centralized academic support program which has seen the department GPA increase consistently over the past four full semesters, surpassing a 3.0.
Roach has also served on numerous regional and conference committees. He was a member of the NCAA Division II Implementation Committee to review division rules and policies to ensure recommended changes were consistent with newly adopted NCAA legislation. He also served on the NCAA Division II Baseball Regional Advisory Committee and was the Lone Star Conference Administrative Liaison for football and baseball.
Prior to his time at Texas A&M-Kingsville, Roach served at Indiana (Pa.) from 2013-18. He began as the associate director of athletics, overseeing compliance from 2013-15 before being named director of athletics in 2015.
During his time as director of athletics at Indiana (Pa.), Roach directed a $2.5 million renovation project of the football stadium and served as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) baseball liaison, as well as being named to the NCAA Men's Basketball Atlantic Regional Advisory Committee.
Prior to that, he was the associate director of athletics at Millersville from 2007-13, overseeing compliance. He was the assistant to the athletics director at Slippery Rock from 2005-07 and was an adult probation officer with the Indiana County Probation Office from 2001-05.
Roach earned his bachelor's degree in criminology from Indiana (Pa.) in 2001 and his master's degree in sport management from Slippery Rock in 2005. He also received a post-graduate certification in intercollegiate athletics administration from California (Pa.) in 2010.
Roach and his wife Molly are the proud parents of two daughters, Nora and Reagan.
