Lessons From a Former DIII Athletic Director on Adopting Technology
September 15, 2026 · Read Time: 3 mins
Written by Angie Torain, Senior Business Development Executive, Teamworks
When I was the Director of Athletics at the University of Chicago, my days rarely looked the way I planned them, as most people working in collegiate athletics understand. I would come in with a short list of what actually needed my attention, and leave having handled several things that were never on it: a budget question that could not wait, a travel change that needed my approval, a conversation with a coach that ran twice as long as planned. My staff felt that same pressure in their own way, and if that sounds like your week, you are not imagining it. The job has outgrown the staff most departments are able to hire.
By the time I got to UChicago, I already knew what Teamworks could do. I had seen Hub work well from other seats earlier in my career, long before I ever sat in the AD's chair. What I had not done before was be the one to make the call. This time, I was the person who would sign off on bringing in a new platform and be responsible for it working across an entire department, not just one team or one role. Knowing a technology platform works is one thing. Being the one who decides to bring it in is another, and I understand that weight firsthand.
Before we made the change, we all could describe the gaps from any of our seats. As AD, I needed visibility across the department without adding more people than we actually needed, while still making sure my staff felt supported in their work. Our compliance staff had the right framework in place but still spent hours chasing student athletes to fill out forms. Our athletic trainers were coordinating schedules, communication, and travel across teams through text or other means. Our head coaches were managing team logistics on top of actually coaching. And our student athletes were juggling multiple apps and group chats just to keep up with what was being asked of them.
Once Hub was in place, the change showed up immediately:
Messages reached entire teams at once instead of getting lost between apps or passed through three other people first
Forms landed directly on each athlete's phone, so compliance stopped chasing signatures and started seeing them come in
Scheduling and travel logistics lived in one place instead of the same information being entered four separate times
My office had visibility across every team on a single dashboard, without adding a new position to do it
My staff spent less time on manual entry and more time on work that actually needed their judgment
I got to walk through more of this in detail alongside my colleague Emily Artner, a former Director of Football Nutrition at Louisville, during a live session for Division II and Division III athletics staff. We spent most of our time on the same gaps I just described here, plus a live look at what the day to day workflow looks like now.
If I could go back and tell myself one thing before making this decision, it would be this: the cost of waiting is not neutral. Every semester I spent piecing together systems instead of fixing the actual gap was a semester my staff spent on manual work that a platform could have handled. You do not need every answer before you start the conversation. You just need to be honest about where the gaps already are, because your staff can already tell you exactly where they are.
If you’d like to see Teamworks Hub in action, email me at atorain@teamworks.com to schedule a demo.