UTICA, NY - After a successful summer as Interim Director of Athletics and Physical Education, former Utica women's lacrosse coach Kristin St. Hilaire has officially been given the role, with her "interim" status being dropped at the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year. 

St. Hilaire has already had an excellent start to her tenure, recently hiring four different head coaches in a few-month span, including her own successor in new women's lacrosse head coach Andrea Cofrin. She was also integral in selecting this year's Pioneer Hall of Fame inductees, helping to put together the event itself, which will take place on a jam-packed Homecoming weekend. St. Hilaire has continued to grow the department through these hires and initiatives, looking to add to the culture and prestige of the department ahead of a much-anticipated 2025-2026 season.

St. Hilaire officially joins the ranks of the Empire 8 as the fifth female athletic director currently leading one of the 12 full members of the conference. She will look to bring Utica to the next level, with the expanded Empire 8 and UCHC bringing increased national recognition to the conference's top teams. 

Her tenure as the official Director of Athletics and Physical Education will be off to a quick start within the coming weeks, with the football and field hockey teams beginning their 25th anniversary seasons, the Pioneer Hall of Fame Class of 2025 induction ceremony due at the end of the month during Homecoming, and many other things on the horizon, including the hockey and lacrosse program's 25th anniversary seasons along with the Division III Frozen Four coming to Utica in March of 2026. In addition, the Special Olympics will be making a return to Utica over the next few years, an initiative that St. Hilaire will help to create.

For more information about St. Hilarie, please follow this link to our previous article announcing her promotion into the initial Interim role in the Spring of last year.