John Lentz

Director, Office of Recreational Sports

John has been with Indiana State University since 1987, all of those years spent in the Office of Recreational Sports. John began with the office as Assistant Director of Intramural Sports, then became Associate Director in 1992 and finally, Director in 1999. John has lead the growth of the recreational sports department from a predominantly intramural sports program in the 80’s to the multifaceted programming and offerings available in today’s modern programs in the industry. The growth of the department reached a high-point with the opening of the new Student Recreation Center in the summer of 2009. The award winning facility has had a positive impact on the culture of campus and provides ISU with an important student recruiting and retention tool.

John is an active member of the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association and has hosted both state and regional level conferences and workshops. He is also a Certified Recreational Sports Specialist. John is most proud of the over 30 former student employees and graduate assistants who have been hired as professionals by collegiate recreational sports departments across the country since his arrival.

John holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education from IUPUI and Indiana University - Bloomington, respectively. He began his professional career as a high school physical education, health, and biology teacher, as well as a coach, at Danville Community High School (IN). He also worked three years as the assistant director of recreational sports at Miami University (OH) and one year as the adult/youth sports director at the Arthur Jordan YMCA in Indianapolis. John is married to wife Leslie and has two adult sons, Chris and Connor.