Todd Garzarelli enters his sixth year as the Director of Athletics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in the fall of 2025. A veteran leader with over 20 years of experience in intercollegiate athletics, he took over as IUP's AD in May 2019.
Garzarelli was busy during his first year at IUP, starting with the agreement to a multi-year exclusive apparel partnership with BSN SPORTS and Nike in June 2019. The agreement between IUP and BSN is for five years and made Nike the official athletic apparel, footwear, accessory and equipment brand for all 19 Crimson Hawks' varsity sports.
Garzarelli brought several changes to the Memorial Field House, rebranding the lobby to include a fueling station for student-athletes. The fueling station is a collaboration between IUP Athletics and Sports Nutrition Services to build out a first-class experience for student-athletes with nutritional food and beverages.
Continuing with that mantra, Garzarelli also led the charge to transform the auxillary gym into a 7,900 square foot indoor turf space for practices and training sessions. The facility measures 35 yards long by 25 yards wide with 12-foot high usable wall space.
More changes to the interior look of the Memorial Field House included wall wraps and screened murals dedicated to the success of IUP student-athletes and teams; an All-American Wall; and sections dedicated to the IUP football dynasty, including championships, NCAA playoff success, and NFL ties.
Facility upgrades continued during the latter half of Garzarelli's first year at IUP with the completion of a turf project on South Campus. Baseball's Owen J. Dougherty Field and softball's Ruth Podbielski Field each received turf infields, which included IUP Athletics branding, and other facility upgrades that improved the overall look and student-athlete experience.
Also during his first fall in Indiana, Garzarelli launched a new tailgating initiative to improve the IUP football game day experience. The initiative improved home attendance by 25 percent per game and brought events like the free concert from rising country star Tucker Beathard for the Hall of Fame Game against Lock Haven.
Garzarelli witnessed a highly successful winter season for the IUP Athletic Department, which included No. 1 seeds and hosting responsibilities for the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Championships from both the men's and women's basketball programs. IUP basketball combined for 56 victories, second only to Gonzaga (59) for most wins among all NCAA schools. Both teams won PSAC West regular season titles with the men winning their second straight - and 11th overall - conference tournament championship. In the pool, the sophomore duo of Paige Mikesell and Rachel Johnson earned All-American honors with Mikesell also earning CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades.
Garzarelli came to IUP after spending the last two academic years in the same position at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has a strong background in athletic administration, serving in a leadership capacity at five schools for the last 14 combined years.
While at Whitewater, Garzarelli served as an executive staff member of the Chancellor's cabinet, providing leadership and guidance on university matters, with direct oversight of the division of intercollegiate athletics and campus recreation services.
He was directly responsible for administering, managing and leading all facets of both the athletic department and campus recreation services, including budgeting, strategic planning, creation of facility master plans, personnel management, revenue development and policy development. He also worked to foster strong collaborative relationships with other university and community entities to advance the university and both units locally, regionally and nationally.
Whitewater was one of the top NCAA Division III athletic programs during the 2017-18 academic year, finishing 20th in the Learfield Directors Cup standings. Whitewater athletic programs combined for seven conference championships, nine conference player of the year/meet honors, two NCAA Division III player of the year honors and over 50 All-American honors in either the academic or athletic categories.
Whitewater is currently 30th in this year's Learfield Directors Cup standings.
Academically, three Whitewater student-athletes earned conference scholar athlete of the year honors and over 40 percent landed on the conference's academic honor roll.
Garzarelli oversaw $5.1 million in new facility construction, including the renovation of the football locker room, state of the art football athletic training room, baseball clubhouse and office complex and the tennis bleachers project. He also assisted in the $130 million athletic and campus recreation facility master plan design, which included a weight room addition, indoor turf facility, new convocation center, natatorium, athletic training room and locker room renovations.
In Garzarelli's first year in 2017-18, the athletics department saw an increase of more than $950,000 in fundraising as well as a 50 percent increase in revenue from corporate sponsorship. He also improved the department's operating budget by 5 percent and reduced its debt by $500,000.
Garzarelli joined Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2017 after spending the previous four years as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
At Buffalo, Garzarelli oversaw athletics communications and branding, corporate sales, ticket sales and operations, promotions, gameday experience and community relations. He secured the department's first six-figure sponsorship, and in the last fiscal year helped raise a record $1.75 million in corporate sponsorships. Attendance, ticket sales and brand awareness at Buffalo all significantly increased during his tenure.
Before arriving at Buffalo, Garzarelli served as associate athletic director for external affairs and director of the athletic association at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He previously served as associate director of external affairs and major gifts at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and as associate athletic director for marketing at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.
Garzarelli earned a Bachelor of Science in sport management from Slippery Rock University and a Master of Science in sport management from Northern Illinois University.
