Jan Hathorn enters her 19th year as the Michael F. Walsh Director of Athletics at Washington and Lee University in 2025–26. She became the first woman and just the seventh athletics director in school history when she assumed the role in 2007–08.
Under Hathorn’s leadership, the Generals have won more than 60% of their contests and captured 151 conference team championships. W&L has claimed the Dan Wooldridge Champions Cup as the ODAC’s top overall athletics program in each of her 18 years, extending the school’s streak to 23 consecutive titles. The Generals have also won the women’s Commissioner’s Cup for 25 straight years and the men’s sport cup 13 times, sweeping all three cups on nine occasions during her tenure.
W&L has enjoyed some of its most successful seasons under Hathorn. Excluding pandemic-impacted years, the 2022–23 season marked one of the best in school history, with a 74.7% winning percentage (236-77-9), 10 conference championships, 11 NCAA team tournament berths, and 13 individual NCAA qualifiers. The Generals placed 17th in the LEARFIELD Director’s Cup standings.
Other standout seasons include:
-
2024–25: Program-best 791.5 LEARFIELD Cup points, finishing 13th nationally; 18 individual and team combined NCAA qualifiers, 12 ODAC championship titles, and a 228-91-7 record (.710). Women’s teams posted an .809 winning percentage. Accolades included 38 All-America honors, 88 All-Region awards, and 203 All-ODAC selections, plus three national awards—two in men’s golf (Player of the Year Jonathan McEwen and Coach of the Year Pete Gyscek) and USILA Face-Off Player of the Year Tyler Spanco. Both cross country teams recorded program-best NCAA finishes, with the women placing 8th nationally and the men 21st. W&L captured both the Dan Wooldridge Overall Cup and the Women’s Commissioner’s Cup, setting an ODAC record with a 0.953 rating.
-
2023–24: Four teams reached the NCAA Elite 8 for the first time; men’s soccer and lacrosse advanced to the national semifinals, while women’s basketball and lacrosse reached the Sweet 16.
-
2020–21: Despite pandemic challenges, W&L posted Virginia’s best winning percentage (75.8%), secured five ODAC titles, and had a then-record 419 scholar-athletes.
-
2018–19: League-record 13 ODAC championships, sweeping all three Director’s Cups, and finishing 17th in NACDA Cup standings.
-
2017–18: Program-best 13th in NACDA Cup standings, highlighted by men’s golf’s NCAA runner-up finish and Brian Peccie’s individual national championship.
Across her tenure, W&L has consistently produced Top 50 Director’s Cup finishes, numerous All-America and Academic All-America honorees, and multiple NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients.
Hathorn’s influence extends nationally. She received the 2019 NCAA Division III Administrator of the Year Award from Women Leaders in College Sports, served on the NCAA Management Council (2011–15), and contributed to the Honors, Postgraduate Scholarship, and Legislative Relief Committees. She has also been a featured speaker at NACDA and NCAA forums.
Before becoming athletics director, Hathorn served W&L as women’s lacrosse coach for 19 seasons, women’s soccer coach for 14 seasons, assistant athletic director, and Director of Physical Education. Arriving in 1987, she led her teams to nine conference titles, earned 11 ODAC Coach of the Year honors, and won the Diane Geppi-Aikens Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in lacrosse (2010).
A SUNY Cortland graduate (B.A. in Physical Education, 1982) with an M.A. from Ohio State (1985), Hathorn previously coached lacrosse at Denison University for five years. She has been inducted into four halls of fame: Marcus Whitman High School (2011), SUNY Cortland (2017), IWLCA (2022), Denison University Varsity D (2024) and most recently the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (2025).
Updated August 2025
