VERMILLION, S.D.—University of South Dakota president Sheila Gestring introduced Jon Schemmel as the 14^th athletic director for the Coyotes in an early afternoon press conference Wednesday inside the Muenster University Center before faculty, staff, community members and the media.
 
Schemmel addressed the crowd before fielding questions that ranged from returning to South Dakota, first priorities and, yes, mirrored scheduling. Gestring presented Schemmel with a Coyote red football jersey with the number 14.
 
"After a highly successful, highly competitive national search, we found our 14^th director of athletics, Jon Schemmel," said Gestring. "Jon is a familiar face to the University of South Dakota as he once served as our senior associate athletic director for development. Most notable was Jon's role in raising more than $50 million for the new arena, track and soccer complex. I cannot even begin to imagine what USD athletics would look like without that critically important capital improvement plan."
 
Schemmel continued his success at Miami of Ohio where he served as senior athletic director and assistant vice president for development. He moved to Dakota State in 2021 and has raised over $190 million in three years.
 
Schemmel handed out several thank-yous before turning to the "madness of the NCAA and the work at hand."
 
"We all know that the world of college athletics is chaotic at the very best right now," said Schemmel. "That is exciting to me. Where there is chaos there is opportunity.
 
"We're going to set a vision that is going to be bold and it's going to be bright. We're going to put together a plan, probably in the range of a 5-10-year plan, that's going to focus on a lot of different areas. But the goal of that plan is to set a vision and a mission to go along with our brand that every single person in the department – our student-athletes, our coaches, this university – can point to and say this is what Coyote athletics stands for."
 
Schemmel will be in attendance at Wednesday's men's basketball game at 7 p.m. inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. He will visit Sioux Falls and Sioux City Thursday and Yankton, Mitchell and Rapid City Friday.