Xavier University of Louisiana's Athletic Director Dennis Cousin oversees mix of academic and athletic success

Manning Architects' rendering of Xavier's Convocation Academic Center, which is 
under construction and is expected to be completed in late summer 2012.  The
 facility will include a 4,500 seat arena suitable for athletic and other large-scale events.

New Orleans, LA - Following 35 years in the Saint Tammany Parish school system, Dennis Cousin said when he accepted the job as Xavier's athletic director in July 2004 he never expected to last this long.

"Honestly, I came here with the intention of staying maybe two or three years, and you look up and now all of a sudden, it's been seven years," Cousin recently said. In six seasons of competition under Cousin's stewardship -- the 2005-06 season was lost because of Hurricane Katrina -- Xavier's seven sports squads have combined for 27 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference or NAIA unaffiliated group championships and 20 appearances in NAIA Division I championships, an unprecedented run of success for the Mid-City school with an enrollment of 3,200.

That level of consistency is a point of pride for Cousin.

"When I took over, I wanted to elevate the status of our athletic program to that of our academics," the 65-year-old Cousin said. "When you think of Xavier, you think of the medical doctors and the pharmacists. My goal was to make athletics a part of our reputation."

While Xavier athletics were far from inadequate before Cousin's arrival, he has expanded the program's reach, leading the athletic department through Katrina's aftermath, reinstating women's volleyball in 2009, and acting as a key force in getting the new arena approved.

READ MORE



VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS