The Chicago State Athletic Department Announces Two Key Department Hires

The Chicago State Athletic Department announced today the hiring of Tom DeVinney as the Associate Athletic Director for Student Services and Compliance and Chris Nightengale as an Assistant Men's and Women's Track & Field Coach.

DeVinney is responsible for developing and maintaining effective operating procedures and systems to ensure proper institutional control over compliance within the athletic department. Nightengale will primarily work with the sprints and hurdles event groups for men's and women's track & field and will also assist Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Paul Zavala in developing coaching techniques and all team and individual event strategies.
 
DeVinney joins the Cougars after serving as an associate athletic director/internal operations (2017-19) and assistant athletic director for compliance (2014-17) at Kentucky Wesleyan College. During his time with the Panthers, he performed department budget oversight, academic advising and compliance operations for 20 sports and approximately 400 student-athletes. Most recently, DeVinney served as a substitute teacher at both Riverside-Brookfield School and Hinsdale Township School. He graduated from Cedarville University with a B.A. in sports management and his Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law. Upon graduation, DeVinney interned for the Honorable Charles M. Tailleur, the National Football League Players Association, the Pepperdine University Athletic Department and The College of Saint Rose.

Nightengale returns to Chicago State where he served as a volunteer assistant coach for track and field (2014-16) and was recently an assistant coach at Saint Rita of Cascia High School, an all-male Catholic high school located in the Ashburn neighborhood on Chicago's Southwest Side. While at St. Rita (2016-21), he oversaw all of the event areas and created and executed training plans for throws, distance, sprints and horizontal and vertical jumps. Nightengale's efforts led to all-state relay teams and state finalists in every event group during his tenure. He also works as a sprints and hurdles instructor at the Gately Performance Center in Chicago where he has the added responsibilities of event set up, crowd control, athlete check-in and race timing. He was also an assistant coach of the Windy City Hammers (2016-19), one of Chicago's premier youth track clubs. Nightengale earned a B.A. in aviation from Southern Illinois where he was an All-Missouri Valley sprinter.

About Chicago State

Chicago State University Athletics is comprised of 15 intercollegiate teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and volleyball. CSU held memberships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and NCAA Division II before transitioning to NCAA Division I in 1994. Melvin Bland was the first CSU student-athlete to gain NAIA All-American status in 1974 as a wrestler. Fred Evans became the first black swimmer ever to win a national championship in 1975. CSU's women's basketball team earned a spot in the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational and CSU's men's basketball team won the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament title and made an appearance in the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT).  The Men's Outdoor Track & Field 4x100-Meter Relay team were 2019 Honorable Mention All-Americans and WAC Champions. Their feat marked the first time the Chicago State's men's track & field program was represented at the national meet. 

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