Tim Demant, a professional with more than 15 years of experience leading small-college athletics departments, was selected as director of athletics at Whitworth University in the summer of 2014.
Demant came to Whitworth from Goshen College (Indiana), where he has served as director of athletics for six years (2008-14). Prior to his move to Goshen, Demant was the athletics director and head men’s volleyball coach at Columbia Bible College, in Abbotsford, British Columbia, from 1998-2008.
At Goshen, a small, church-based institution, Demant managed a 15-sport collegiate athletics department much like the one he inherited at Whitworth. The Maple Leafs compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes (NAIA) as part of the Crossroads League.
Some of Demant’s accomplishments as the AD at Goshen included developing a department strategic plan, creating and implementing a department policies-and-procedures manual, improving the academic profile of the school’s student-athletes, enhancing community engagement, and increasing fund-raising. He also expanded the Maple Leafs’ local exposure through improved marketing, both on campus and in the larger community.
Demant was a leader in the Crossroads League, serving as the chair of the conference in 2013-14 and as vice-chair the previous two years. He was named the Crossroads League Athletics Director of the Year in 2012-13.
Demant served in the dual roles of head coach and AD during his 10-year tenure at Columbia Bible College. His major accomplishment at Columbia was the addition of a new athletics center for the Bearcats’ four primary sports – men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s volleyball. It was the first on-campus facility dedicated to athletics at CBC. He directed the planning, construction and ongoing operations of that facility.
Demant served as the president of the Pacific Western Athletic Conference, of which CBC is a member, for three years (2005-08), chairing the league’s bi-annual meetings and representing the conference on various governing committees.
Demant has lived the life of small-college athletics, first as a student-athlete, then as a coach and only later as an administrator.
Demant successfully coached his CBC volleyball squad at the same time he led the department as AD. He developed a national-caliber team that finished as high as third in the nation (Canadian Colleges Athletic Association). He was the PacWest Coach of the Year in 2002-03 and in 2003-04.
A native of Ontario, Canada, Demant earned his B.A. from Trinity Western University, in Langley, B.C, where he was a standout volleyball player, twice earning CCAA All-Canadian honors. Following graduation, in 1995, he was immediately tabbed as TWU’s interim head coach in men’s volleyball. He then served two more seasons as the Spartans’ top assistant coach before moving to Columbia Bible.
Demant earned a master’s degree in human kinetics from the University of British Columbia in 1998 and is currently working on a doctor of education degree in sports management through the U.S. Sports Academy, in Daphne, Alabama.
Demant leads a Whitworth athletics department that has claimed nine consecutive Northwest Conference McIlroy-Lewis All-Sports Trophies, including the last two under his leadership. Â
Tim and his wife, Shannon, have three children, Joshua, Katelyn, and Janae.
