Ohio State announced that former Boston College Senior Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator Jocelyn Gates will take the reins as Ohio State’s next Senior Associate Athletics Director. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Department of Athletics
Ohio State announced Monday that former Boston College senior associate director of athletics and senior woman administrator Jocelyn Gates was hired as the senior associate athletic director.
Coming to Columbus with years of experience at University of South Florida, Boston College and Duke University, Gates is one of a few women to oversee a Power Five football program. With attention to her historic hiring, Gates recognized the importance surrounding her ascension in the sports administration field.
“The fact that Ohio State is hiring a woman from the outside to be able to do this position is a big deal. So I’m excited to be a part of that small group of women that will be overseeing football,” Gates said. “It’s important for me, as a female and as a Black female, to show those coming after me that they can dream big, they can get opportunities like this and they can work hard and excel.”
During her four-year tenure at the University of South Florida, Jocelyn Gates called then-Ohio State deputy athletics director Martin Jarmond with the goal of scheduling a home-and-home series with the Buckeyes.
Despite contacting Jarmond once a month for three years, she was never able to achieve that goal. Still, Gates learned the difficulties of scheduling at the college level.
Now, Gates finds herself on the other side of the scheduling conversation.
“Scheduling at University of South Florida and Ohio State will be very different, being that one institution is a Power Five, while the other institution is not a Power Five,” Gates said. “Being at South Florida, it taught me how to grind. It taught me how to ask and not be scared for the answer, ‘No’ and to continue to go forward with it.”
Prior to her arrival in Columbus, Gates spent nearly four years at Boston College.
While in Boston, Gates worked closely with Jarmond — who was in the middle of a three-year stint as athletic director — and played an instrumental role in poaching former Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to become the Eagles’ next head coach in 2019.
“Martin has been an amazing mentor and an amazing friend and he’s just taught me so much about people in the business, caring for people, really being student-athlete focused and coach focused,” Gates said. “We did steal Jeff Hafley, we did bring him to Boston College and Martin did have me a part of that process.”
Throughout the interviewing process with Ohio State, Gates said she was enamored with the idea of working with athletic director Gene Smith and senior deputy athletics director Janine Oman, as well as the culture within the Ohio State athletic department.
“The opportunity to work with Gene Smith and Janine Oman, two amazing people in the business, is an opportunity you can’t pass up,” Gates said. “Who doesn’t want to work at an institution like this, who is about the academics and the student-athlete experience?”
Gates added that she was drawn to the job by the familial nature of the program, which is something that, as a pregnant mother of two, she said is dearly important to her.
Alongside new career opportunities from the move, Gates will also be moving closer to her family.
Her husband, Dennis Gates, has been the men’s basketball head coach at Cleveland State since 2019, and with her move to Columbus it now makes it much easier for the couple to see each other on a regular basis.
Prior to the pandemic, Gates said she would see her husband every two-to-three weeks. Now that she will be based in Columbus, Gates said she’s excited for the opportunity for her family to be together more often.
“Now, the arrangement is that we can see each other when we need to,” Gates said. “We are fortunate, we have family, we have help. We make it work.”
As Gates transitions to a new university and position while being due for her third child “any day now,” she said she wants to be an example for women to break down barriers, no matter the circumstances.
“I want women to know that you can be moms and you can be in this business,” Gates said. “I do not take lightly that I am a woman in this business who has great opportunities. And a Black woman in this business, you do not see that often, to oversee football, and that is so important to me.”
