John D'Argenio was appointed director of athletics on April 21, 1993, after serving as the acting director of athletics for the 1992-93 academic year. He is the second longest tenured athletic director in Division I at the same institution as of December 2023, trailing only Joe Sterrett of Lehigh University (33 years). On January 27, 2014, he was promoted to Vice President at Siena College and asked to join the President's Cabinet. Many new initiatives have been set forth and much progress has been made in the athletic department during D'Argenio's tenure.
The department's first academic advising office was created and a full-time advisor was hired to work with all of Siena's student-athletes. The academic office has been responsible for implementing a tutoring program, developing educational programming and producing a student-athlete population whose graduation success rate (GSR) has ranked among the best in the country. In the NCAA's most recent graduation success rate report, Siena student athletes graduated at a 94% rate which matched the department’s highest rate in a decade. The department has boasted a GSR of 90% or above in every NCAA report.
As part of the College's efforts to address gender equity, the women's sports programs have expanded immensely in the past three decades. With the addition of golf, women's swimming and diving, women's water polo and the elevation of lacrosse from club to varsity status, Siena now sponsors 12 Division I women's sports.
In 1996, D'Argenio was instrumental in negotiating Siena's agreement with the County of Albany and Times Union Center (formerly Pepsi Arena) to move all of the College's men's home basketball games to the downtown facility. The move to the state-of-the-art downtown Albany facility culminated in Siena and the Arena signing a five-year contract and most recently an extension through 2025. Since the move, the men's basketball team has seen its attendance rank inside the top-100 nationally for the past 25 seasons and consistently rank as one of the top Northeast mid-majors and one of the top schools in the state of New York. Siena posted its highest attendance average in 11 seasons (6.415) during the 2022-23 campaign.
Siena Athletics has made major strides in revenue generation under D'Argenio's leadership. An active corporate partnership program continues to grow each year with over 50 local, regional and national companies supporting the Saints.
Athletic Development giving has grown significantly as well. Saints Alive!, the department's athletic development organization, was initiated in 1998 to formalize and bring structure to the department's fund raising efforts and its membership has grown each year since. Anchored by the men's basketball premium seating program, Saints Alive! annually raises in excess of $500,000. Those funds directly support the College's student athletes, coaches and staff.
Athletics is one of four pillars in the College's newest strategic plan: Leading The Way – which was rolled out in 2022. Recent athletic improvements overseen by D’Argenio in order to fulfill initiatives laid out by Siena’s strategic plan included a large-scare renovation of the then-Alumni Recreation Center and the construction of an enclosed 8,360 square foot practice court for the men’s and women’s basketball programs. Siena Athletics announced a naming rights deal with UHY Advisors in 2021 to brand the department’s on-campus playing facility as the “UHY Center”. The Department’s newest significant on-campus addition is the Bob Guido ’68 Athletic Academic Center: a 2,200 square foot state-of-the-art facility located in the Marcelle Athletic Complex that provides an enhanced learning environment for Siena’s student athletes, which opened in May 2022.
Siena teams have enjoyed conference-wide as well as regional and national success. The Saints have won 47 MAAC team championships under D'Argenio's direction, the most recent coming when both men’s golf (fifth) and men’s tennis (first) took home MAAC titles on April 23, 2023. Individually, Siena’s cross country and track programs combined for six individual championships over three seasons during the 2022-23 school year, while Siena Swimming & Diving’s Talia Spenziero captured the 2023 MAAC One-Meter Diving Championship.
Athletic success has been a constant for the past three decades under D'Argenio's supervision. In 1994 the men's basketball team advanced to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals at Madison Square Garden, and won the 2014 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) title for the school’s first national postseason championship since 1950. The Saints claimed their seventh NCAA Tournament appearance in 2020, after capturing their sixth MAAC title since 1999. The women's basketball team has captured seven regular-season Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference titles, and in 2001 advanced to its first NCAA Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. Siena volleyball has totaled nine MAAC titles since 1993 – with the most recent coming in 2014, and two four-peats from 1993-96 and 2005-08. Siena women’s golf is far-and-away the most successful program in the MAAC with 13 conference titles – including 12 straight from 2001-12 and most recently in 2014.
Siena has registered five MAAC baseball titles during D'Argenio's tenure. The women's soccer program has consistently finished in the upper echelon of the MAAC with three MAAC championships, and in 2010 captured its first MAAC Championship and NCAA Women's College Cup Appearance while being ranked No. 25 in the Soccer America Top-25 Poll for consecutive weeks. The women's tennis team won the MAAC in 2006 and 2021 and men's lacrosse took home four consecutive MAAC Regular Season Championships including MAAC Championships in 2009, 2011, and 2014 which led to NCAA Tournament Appearances. In 2011, men's lacrosse earned its first-ever national ranking as the Saints were ranked No. 20 in both the final USILA Coaches' Poll and Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll, while the program Won 87 games over a seven-year span from 2007-14, which tied for the eighth-most in NCAA DI over that time.
Siena's athletic facilities have been dramatically enhanced in the last 30 years. In 2007, the department debuted an artificial turf facility that serves as the home field for the field hockey and lacrosse programs. In 2004, the Callanan Field House was expanded. The expansion features four team rooms as well as the Turchi Theater, a 32-seat room equipped with the latest in digital editing and presentation equipment. In the summer of 2008, Siena enhanced its academic study center, providing a first-rate facility for student-athletes to pursue their academic goals. On May 5, 2010, the Raymond Center and Harry Mikhitarian Golf Training Facility was dedicated and serves as the home for Siena golf. The state-of-the-art facility features a custom putting green, as well as an indoor driving range, a swing/video analysis center and a player lounge.
In 1995, D'Argenio served as Tournament Director for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship First and Second Rounds at Knickerbocker Arena. He again assumed those duties in March of 2003, as Siena served as the host institution for the men's basketball East (Albany) Regional at Pepsi Arena after co-hosting the NCAA wrestling National Championships in March of 2002. Siena joined with the MAAC to play host to NCAA Women’s Basketball Regionals in 2015, 2018 and 2019. The Saints have hosted numerous NIT and Women's NIT games as well, including a remarkable six in 2003. Recently, D’Argenio served at the Tournament Director for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship’s return to Albany to First and Second Rounds at MVP Arena in 2023, and will hold the same capacity during the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Albany Super Regional in March 2024.
D'Argenio currently serves as the chair of both the MAAC Committee of Athletic Administration (COAA) and the MAAC Men’s Soccer Committee, and is also a member of the MAAC Strategic Planning Committee and the MAAC Marketing & TV Committee, as well as the Albany County Sports Commission. He has previously served as the chair of the MAAC Baseball and Men’s Basketball Committees, as well as a member of the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee and the NACDA I-AAA ADA Executive Committee.
D'Argenio earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Dayton in 1982 and a master's of science degree from North Dakota State University in 1985. He is a native of Rome, N.Y.
