Dr. Noemi Zaharia at Paris Olympics OLY House Our very own Dr. Noemi Zaharia, a Romanian Olympic swimmer, USSU Alumna, and USSU's Director of Sports Leadership and Associate Professor, has had the amazing opportunity to not only attend the 2024 Paris Olympics, but give back to the Games as she serves at the OLY House! The OLY House is an exclusive space for all Olympians, past and present, hosted by the World Olympics Association. The OLY House serves as a gathering place for Olympians to connect and learn from one another, expand their network, and celebrate this year’s Games. Dr. Zaharia was [...]

Celebrating Our Graduates and New Alumni at Commencement  On June 22nd, the United States Sports University honored both the 2024 graduates and previous graduates who had not had the opportunity to participate in a commencement ceremony. During the event, USSU recognized the achievements of three Doctors of Education, six Masters of Sports Science, and three Bachelors of Sports Science degree recipients. It was a special occasion to celebrate our graduates' achievements with great enthusiasm and pride. These graduates will go on to do remarkable things in the world of sport, making USSU proud. USSU also awarded two honorary doctorates to [...]

Meet the President: Dr. Steve Condon Dr. Steve Condon has served as the third President and CEO at the United States Sports University since January of 2023. He is a longtime chancellor, university president, collegiate athletics director, coach, professor, and higher education leader.Dr. Condon has more than four decades of service to higher education institutions and a wealth of experience dedicated to academic and administrative change management through a student-centered philosophy. Prior to USSA, he served as the Chancellor of Carolina University in Winston Salem, NC. In his previous roles, Condon has demonstrated proven results in fundraising, enrollment, accreditation [...]

Intercollegiate Athletics at the Academy The United States Sports Academy launched their first ever intercollegiate athletic team in the fall of 2023 with men’s soccer. This upcoming academic year, USSU will be home to five new intercollegiate sports teams, adding more opportunities for students to pursue their athletic passions. Among the new sports additions are baseball, softball, women's soccer, and men's and women's track and field. The university anticipates adding women’s volleyball and cross country for the 2025-2026 academic year. This expansion of USSA’s intercollegiate athletic program underscores the university's commitment to excellence in sports education, while allowing students to [...]

Noemi Zaharia is an Olympic medalist, world Universiade champion, successful former collegiate swimming coach and a professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. She now has another title: Doctor. Zaharia’s impressive swimming record includes two medals in swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, winning silver in the 400 meter mixed and bronze in the 200 meter mixed for Romania. She also won five gold medals, two bronze medals and MVP honors in swimming at the 1987 Summer Universiade in Yugoslavia. She also competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. In May, she walked across the stage and [...]

Occupation: Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Chicago State University USSA Degree: M.S.S. Sports Management Hometown: New Boston, Texas As Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Chicago State University, Dr. Monique Carroll oversees 15 NCAA Division 1 sports programs and serves as a member of the President's Cabinet. She joined CSU in September 2022 after working two years as athletic director at Huston-Tillotson University. Carroll earned her Master of Sports Science degree from the Academy while she worked in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) office in Birmingham, Ala. "I was in Birmingham at the time and I knew I needed a master's [...]

Throughout his nearly five decade career in athletic leadership, Dr. Marty Durden has written extensively about the “servant-leader” model of sports coaching. Recently, Durden released his new book, “More than Winning: The Servant-Leader Coach in Contemporary Society” that is available for purchase on Amazon. In the book Durden, a 2016 doctoral graduate from the Academy, shares his insight and research about the transformational influence of servant-leadership coaching. “My research has shown that servant-leadership coaching elicits a higher level of sustained effort,” Durden said. “Young people who view their coach through the lens of trust tend to face the crucible of [...]

Longtime faculty member and alumnus Dr. Fred Cromartie has been named interim Vice President of Academic Affairs at the United States Sports Academy. Cromartie is also an Academy alumnus, having earned his Doctor of Education and Master of Sports Science degrees here. Cromartie also holds a master’s degree in Human Resource Development from Webster University and a bachelor’s degree from Ripon College. “I’ve been around here for a long time and I really love the Academy, its students, and its graduates,” Cromartie said. “I am very excited for a new challenge serving as Vice President for Academic Affairs.” In his [...]

When the U.S. Men’s Sitting Volleyball Team completed its best-ever finish at the World ParaVolley Championships in Sarajevo in November, the team did so under the leadership of United States Sports Academy alumnus Greg Walker. Walker was the Academy’s 2021 Alumnus of the Year because of his decade of experience coaching volleyball at the Paralympic and collegiate levels. In addition to his coaching duties with Team USA, Walker is also the head coach of the Smith College women’s volleyball team in Northampton, Mass. A native of Huntingdon, Pa., Walker has been active with the U.S. Men’s Sitting Volleyball Team since [...]

Former United States Sports Academy teaching assistant and alumnus Dr. Jimmy Mattern was recently named the faculty athletic representative at Wilmington College in Ohio. Mattern is an assistant professor of sport management and the area coordinator for sport sciences at Wilmington. He completed his Doctor of Education degree while working on campus at the University in Daphne, Ala., in 2014. Mattern completed his Academy doctoral degree in 2018 at age 27, making him one of the youngest people ever to complete the institution’s doctoral program. At Wilmington, Mattern works with another Academy graduate, Dr. Alan Ledford, who is the program [...]