Margie Strait

Now in her 12th year as director of athletics and chair of the department of intercollegiate athletics and recreation, which sponsors the minor in sports studies and exercise science, Margie Strait has been a member of the Saints athletic program since 1970. She was a highly successful tennis coach, and also coached skiing during her coaching career.

Strait has served as a member of the executive committee of the ECAC men's and women's hockey league, the ECAC Board of Directors, and as president of the Liberty League.

Since taking the directorship, she has coordinated the addition of seven new athletic teams to the Saints NCAA Division III athletic program and has been involved in all phases of an extensive renovation of the University's athletic facilities. Those renovations include the completion of renovations to Appleton Arena and Burkman Gym, a new artificial turf field, a new nine-lane outdoor all-weather track, a new football field and several new practice venues. Additional projects include new office spaces, a new fitness center, a new field house, new squash and tennis facilities and a crew boathouse.

She spent 17 seasons as the women's tennis coach and eight as the men's tennis coach and was the 1994 New York State Coach of the Year. She led her women's teams to three conference championships and two state titles and rebuilt the men's program to a conference champion.

A graduate of Cortland State College with a master's degree from St. Lawrence, Strait was inducted into the Cortland State College Hall of Fame in 2003.

Strait and her husband, Russ, are the parents of two children, a son, Hawley, a graduate of Bates College, and a daughter, Wendy, a graduate of Connecticut College.