MISSOULA — The University of Montana plans to interview four finalists for the position of athletic director next week.
The finalists are Hawaii associate athletic director Carl Clapp; Kent Haslam, the associate director for development with the UM Foundation; John Johnson, the senior associate director of athletics at Washington State, and Chris King, athletic director at Texas-Pan American.
“We had a strong pool of candidates during this national search,” said UM President Royce Engstrom, who was chairman of the search committee. “These four finalists are passionate about their work and exhibit the strong leadership skills we need to take Grizzly Athletics to an even higher level of excellence.”
Clapp has worked at Hawaii since 2006 and has also served as athletic director at Avila College in Kansas City, the University of Redlands in California and Saint Mary’s College in California. He is scheduled to interview on Monday.
Johnson has been at Washington State since 2004 and has previously served as athletic director at Weber State and Eastern Washington. He is scheduled to interview on Wednesday.
Haslam, who is being interviewed on Thursday, has served in his role with the UM Foundation since 2006. Before that, he was associate athletic director for external operations at Northern Arizona from 2000 to 2006. He was manager of media communications for the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee from 1998-2002 and was the Olympic news service supervisor for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
King has been at Texas-Pan American since 2009. He has also held athletic administration jobs at Alabama and Central Florida. King is scheduled to interview on Friday.
Montana relieved athletic director Jim O’Day of his duties in late March. The school has not released a reason for the firing.