ENMU athletic director Weir heading to ACU

Paul Weir has been named deputy athletic director and chief operating officer at Abilene Christian University, ACU announced Wednesday.

Weir, athletic director at Eastern New Mexico University since July 2021, will step down from that position on Dec. 1, ENMU announced in a news release also Wednesday.

“Paul brings an extremely valuable skill set to our ACU athletics leadership team with his experience as both an athletic director at the Division II level and a head coach in a high-profile sport at the Division I level,” said ACU Vice President for Athletics Zack Lassiter. “His energy. curiosity and attention to detail are infectious and will fit right in with the upward trajectory of our department.”

Weir came to ENMU after coaching basketball at New Mexico State University and the University of New Mexico.

“Thank you Greyhounds!” he said in the ENMU news release.

“I am so grateful to everyone in our community who has supported my family and me for the past three years. Moving to this part of the state was a blessing I will cherish forever.

Weir thanked university officials for “believing in me enough to bring me here. Good luck to our fantastic athletes, coaches, and staff, who have done and will continue to do amazing things for ENMU. … I will continue to cheer for the absolute best future imaginable. God bless and go Greyhounds.”

The ENMU news release stated Greyhound student-athletes had a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher in “almost every semester over the past two years” under Weir’s leadership.

“The football program won the 2022-23 sport Academic Championship for having the highest GPA for a football program in the Lone Star Conference.”

ENMU officials also credited Weir with bringing back men’s soccer to campus after a hiatus, and with helping baseball, softball and men’s basketball programs show “significant improvements over the past season.”

Probably the low point in Weir’s tenure occurred this spring when three former women’s basketball players alleged in a federal civil rights lawsuit that they were sexually assaulted by their former coach’s husband, a volunteer trainer.

The women allege in their ongoing lawsuit that complaints to Weir went ignored for more than a year.

Weir declined to comment on the case, but the university released a statement that read, “There were no findings of an abusive nature nor that any ENMU employee forced student-athletes to seek volunteer services. We did identify opportunities to improve training practices and internal policies with regards to volunteers and volunteer services.”

In announcing Weir’s hiring, ACU in its news release credited Weir with leading “an exponential growth in corporate and ticket sales for ENMU athletics.”

ACU also noted Weir helped ENMU athletics develop its first endowments.

“My family and I are pinching ourselves that this door has opened for us at ACU,” Weir stated in the ACU news release. “To embark upon joint excellence as a Christian, in the classroom, and as an athlete is a journey we can’t wait to serve.”

ENMU stated in its news release that a national search for the next athletic director will start soon.