| Patrick Sterk |
| Title: | Assistant AD/Compliance and Student-Athlete Success |
|---|---|
| Email: | patrick.sterk@uncp.edu |
| Phone: | (910) 775-4108 |
| College: | Oklahoma, 2008 |
Patrick Sterk enters his first year on staff as the Assistant
Athletic Director for Compliance and Student-Athlete Success at UNC
Pembroke after officially starting his post in May of 2011.
Sterk, a Hinsdale, Ill., native, comes to Pembroke from Marquette
Law School in Milwaukee, Wisc., where he was a member of the
Marquette Sports Law Review, as well as a member of the Marquette
Sports Law Society. He also has the distinction of being the first
full-time compliance officer in the UNCP athletic department.
“We are excited to have Patrick become our first-ever
full-time compliance officer,” said UNCP director of
athletics Dan Kenney. “His previous experience at the NCAA
national office and NCAA Division II member Lewis University will
be a big plus for our UNCP Student Athletes.”
Sterk was selected for a law clerk position at the National
Collegiate Athletic Association during the summer months of 2010
where he was tasked with drafting and implementing a comprehensive
open records policy for the national office. While there, he
handled numerous cease and desist proceedings to protect NCAA
trademarks and copyrights, as well as worked on projects concerning
antitrust law, torts, education law and government legislation. He
was also an attendee at an NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions
hearing, as well as the 2010 NCAA Regional Rules conference in
Indianapolis.
As a compliance intern at Lewis in Romeoville, Ill., last year, he
was assigned to day-to-day compliance tasks, including
student-athlete eligibility, the enforcement of NCAA rules, ongoing
student-athlete education and the verification of team travel and
practice logs. He also undertook medical hardship waivers, as well
as work with the eligibility center and national letters of
intent.
Sterk attained his first experience in the athletic field as an
undergraduate at Oklahoma as the vice-president and co-founder of
the student basketball task force in 2007-08. His efforts required
him to work in tandem with the OU athletic department to achieve a
better fan experience for men’s basketball games, while also
marketing the team and events on campus. He continued his work in
the field as a law student, serving as a graduate research
assistant where he assisted one of his professors with research
into the public financing of professional sports arenas.
One of his authored works, “To Pray or To Play: Religious
Discrimination in the Scheduling of Interscholastic Athletic
Events”, was published in The Sports Lawyers Journal this
spring.
Sterk graduated with his bachelor’s degree in political science from Oklahoma in 2008 where he was a national merit scholar, a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society and a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. He maintained a 3.57 cumulative grade point average while a student in Norman, Okla., was a member of the honor roll for all eight semesters and a dean’s list honoree in five semesters. In May 2011, he graduated from Marquette with a juris doctor degree as well as a sports law certificate from the National Sports Law Institute.
Sterk and his wife, Suzanne, reside in Lumberton.
