Mike Buddie
Mike Buddie was announced by United States Military Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams as Army West Point’s new director of athletics on May 22, 2019.
Buddie arrives at West Point from Furman after leading the Paladins to a major resurgence on and off the field. He negotiated a multi-year partnership with Nike, produced the department’s first balanced budget and spearheaded an effort to bring the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament back to upstate South Carolina in 2017, while also landing two future tournament stops. He also secured several major financial gifts, including a trio of $1 million dollar endowments in support of the football and volleyball programs.
Under Buddie’s leadership, the Paladins won 26 Southern Conference Championships and most recently a 73rd place finish among 294 NCAA Division I qualifying schools in Learfield Sports’ Director’s Cup competitions in 2018.
Prior to Furman, Buddie spent a decade at Wake Forest where he oversaw a number of different areas with the Demon Deacons, serving as the sport administrator for baseball, women’s soccer, and men’s golf squads while also working with the football and men’s basketball programs. He cultivated relationships with donors for major gift opportunities and oversaw construction, event management, multi-media, and auxiliary revenue units. In addition, he was involved with contracts, conference issues, NCAA legislation, and capital projects.
Buddie is a 1993 graduate of Wake Forest, where he was a three-year letter winner as a pitcher for the Demon Deacons baseball team. He was drafted by the New York Yankees in the fourth round of the 1992 Major League Baseball draft. During his career, Buddie was a pitcher for the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers from 1998 to 2002 and was a member of the Yankees’ 1998 World Series championship team.
A Berea, Ohio, native, and graduate of St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio.
Buddie and his wife, Traci, have two children, Zachary and Zoe.
