PORTLAND, Ore. – Cat Wade, who came to the University of Portland as the Senior Assistant Athletic Performance Coach in July of 2011, was named the Interim Director of Sports Performance, Athletic Director Scott Leykam announced on Thursday.
Wade fills the role vacated by long-time director Bradford Scott, who recently left the Pilots for a position with the Atlanta Braves. The move also coincides with a renaming of the department from Athletic Performance to Sports Performance.
"I have been impressed with Cat's knowledge of her profession and desire to maximize the performance of our student-athletes both on and off the field," Leykam said. "She is a tireless worker and has earned the respect of her colleagues and coaches with her impact over the last five years on campus. It is notable that we are also changing the name of the department from Athletic Performance to Sports Performance to emphasize the performance of each individual athlete in his or her chosen sport."
As the interim director, Wade will be tasked with working collaboratively with Portland's 11 head coaches to develop and implement sport-specific programming across the university's 16 varsity sports. With Wade's promotion, Portland will now conduct a national search for an assistant director position that will focus on men's and women's basketball.
Wade's primary sport responsibilities over the last five years with Portland have been with women's basketball, baseball and rowing. She has also helped develop a comprehensive program focused on decreasing each athletes potential for injury while maximizing their athletic potential through a science driven approach. Each Pilot student-athlete undergoes comprehensive testing protocols to identify strengths and weaknesses from which a customized training program is then built.
Before coming to The Bluff, Wade was the assistant strength and conditioning coach at Columbia University. With the Lions, Wade was responsible for the testing procedures and the strength and conditioning for 11 varsity programs. She also designed and instructed a Strength Training class, which was available to the general student body. Prior to her stint at Columbia, Cat spent a year as the strength and conditioning intern at the University of Houston.
A Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), Wade earned a Masters of Science (Exercise Science) from Syracuse University in June of 2008. As the Syracuse Strength and Conditioning Graduate Assistant, she worked with the women's soccer and basketball teams.
Wade was also a four-year starting goalkeeper at Oklahoma, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in May of 2005. After graduating, she spent two years as a women's soccer graduate assistant coach before moving to the strength and conditioning staff.