New Athletic Director Poised To Lead Comets Toward Goals

Angela Marin follows a “lift as you rise” philosophy, which has led to what she calls her dream job as the director of athletics at UT Dallas.

Marin joined the athletics staff in 2012 and was promoted to interim athletic director in 2021. She is one of the few Hispanic women to lead an athletic department across the NCAA Division III’s 400-plus schools.

“As a woman of color, … one of my major concerns is providing our student-athletes the opportunities that I’ve been afforded and showing an understanding of their challenges,” Marin said.

The athletic department will mark its 25th anniversary as a Division III member next year, making the Comets “infants in the world of college athletics,” Marin said. “Yet we’ve had such tremendous success, especially in the past decade.”

Since 2015, the Comets have won 28 American Southwest Conference championships. Marin said that after the recent addition of men’s and women’s track and field, the focus will be on improving team facilities, including a site for the new program.

“The majority of our student-athletes come for our academic quality,” she said. “If you come to UTD, you’ll get an excellent education; you’ll play for a championship team; and you get to be who you are. That’s not common in this world.”

– Stephen Fontenot