Chris Plonsky garners 2023 WBCA Administrator of the Year honors
Chris Plonsky, executive senior associate athletics director, chief of staff and senior women’s administrator at the University of Texas, has been named the 2023 WBCA Administrator of the Year, announced Thursday by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
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The WBCA Administrator of the Year award has been presented annually since 1985 to an administrator, athletic director, associate or assistant athletic director, or senior woman administrator who has excelled at encouraging the growth and quality of women’s basketball programs and women’s athletic programs overall.
The candidate also must have served as a professional role model for student-athletes.
Plonsky is in her 35th year with intercollegiate athletics on the 40 Acres and since September 2018, she has been chief of staff and executive senior athletics director.
She has been UT’s senior woman administrator for NCAA and conference meetings since the late 1990s and previously served UT as women’s athletics director (2001-17), supervisor of athletics external services for men’s and women’s athletics (1993-2017) and as women’s sports information director (1982-86).
“To be associated with the master teachers of the game – the coaches – has been a blessing,” Plonsky said. “All of us in collegiate athletics serve coaches and student-athletes. They provide the joy and meaning of our professions.”
Plonsky’s current direct reports are support service supervisors for all 550-plus men and women student-athletes in academics/learning, enrollment management/eligibility, compliance/risk management and sports medicine/wellness.
“Chris is a talented and wise leader who has given her time and talent to protect and promote the student-athlete,” said WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew. “Her resume of contributions is vast and includes every major board and committee that touches the sport of basketball. She is one of the most powerful leaders and champions for the sport.
“All the while, she has made time for the WBCA as a member of our finance committee for many years, providing guidance to the executive committee and executive director. She is a friend to our coaches and the sport.”
Plonsky is a USA Basketball board member and an emeritus board member of the National Football Foundation/College Football Hall of Fame. She is past president of NACDA, NACMA and Women Leaders in College Sports (formerly NACWAA).
