Zeb Hoffman '17 is a long-time Greener, growing up in Olympia and creating many memories at Evergreen throughout his life, Zeb returned to Evergreen in his 30's to complete his bachelors degree and has become an integral part of the community. Zeb has held many roles in his time at Evergreen and currently serves as the Associate Director for Intercollegiate Athletics and assistant track and field coach.
Zeb decided he wanted to be a coach when he saw the far-reaching impacting coaching could have on a community and on the lives of students, sharing "[seeing] the ability to have a positive impact on peoples lives [it] was like 'yeah, that's what I want to do'".
As a student at Evergreen, Zeb took an interest in sports both personally and academically. He studied coaching, earning his Bachelors with an emphasis in coaching in 2017. As a student athlete, he joined the track and field team in hammer throw, ultimately winning Evergreen it's first national title.
Hoffman Earns Evergreen's First Track & Field National Title
Shortly after graduating in 2017, Zeb began working at Evergreen full-time as an Admissions Counselor, working with newly admitted and prospective students to get them started on their journey at Evergreen. After his time in Admissions, Zeb began coaching and became the Head Track and Field Coach. Zeb decided to go back to school to support his career goals within Athletics, earning his Masters in Athletic Administration from Central Washington University before transitioning into the role of Assistant Athletic Director, and now his current role as Associate Director for Intercollegiate Athletics.
As the Associate Director, Zeb oversees daily operations of the Athletics programs at Evergreen, including: working with coaches and teams to prepare for competition, recruiting student athletes, overseeing travel plans, athletic development, and working with students and faculty to ensure athletes are eligible for competition.
Zeb shared that in overseeing eligibility of student athletes he has the opportunity to collaborate closely with faculty members, he asks himself, "how do you take the way we educate folks and translate that?". This task has prove particularly challenging when a new student is in a yearlong program and has no transcript to share with the NAIA, meaning Zeb has to work with faculty to translate an essentially blank transcript to showcase the learning the student is doing.
When asked what it is like working with student athletes at Evergreen, Zeb shares, "how can we do our [Evergreen] thing and serve Washington state? Let's fill that gap". Zeb has a lot of enthusiasm for athletics and student athletes and wants to highlight the efforts of student athletes on campus, "we have four women going to wresting nationals this year, we have 168 student athletes - over 6% of our overall enrollment".
"I hear over and over again that we are never going to be a 'sports school', but we are a sports school, just a different kind of sports school...students have to want to be here to do athletics here. They're coming here because they want to continue their sport and because they connect with Evergreen's education model".
In addition to Zeb's official role and his part time coaching and conditioning with hammer throw athletes, he also works with the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. The role of SAAC is to advocate for student athletes, making sure they are having their needs met and utilizing their resources. Zeb says that ,"SAAC wants to bridge the gap between student athletes and the rest of the student population at Evergreen, getting students to games and getting athletes involved in other parts of campus life".
For Zeb the question of "Why Evergreen?" had an easy answer:
"I grew up playing YMCA basketball in the gym here, saw my first rock concert in the gym here. Evergreen gave me a place to be a student athlete. I'm sticking around because I want to leave this place better than I found it".
Geoduck Athletics
We pride ourselves on fostering a spirited environment for our student-athletes. Beyond the thrill of competition, the lessons learned on the court, field or track are invaluable complements to those imparted in our seminars and labs. Athletics instill a sense of discipline, time management and the ability to push oneself beyond perceived limits.
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