• The Director of Athletics oversees the operation of the Department of Athletics and Recreation. The department operates two divisions of programming; Intercollegiate Athletics consisting of 21 male and female varsity sports, and Campus Recreation which provides programming in Intramural Sports, Club Sports and Fitness and Wellness for the college community.

John Harper is in his 19th year as the Director of Athletics and Recreation at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, MA.  Bridgewater currently sponsors 21 intercollegiate varsity sports in addition to a wide variety of clubs and intramural/recreational programs.  During his tenure at BSC, Mr. Harper has been instrumental in sponsoring numerous programming, staffing and facilities improvements for the benefit of the entire campus community.  Chief among these projects was the construction of Alumni Park, a new on-campus baseball/softball complex which has already hosted numerous NCAA regional softball tournaments.  However, the biggest facility improvement on the Bridgewater State campus is the new 80,000 square Adrian Tinsley Center which was dedicated in September, 2002.  The building houses the Athletics and Recreation Department along with the academic offerings of the Movement Arts, Health Promotion and Leisure Studies Department.  The opening of that facility also saw a doubling of the Athletics and Recreation Department's professional staff, all of whom report to Mr. Harper.

In addition to his duties at Bridgewater State, Mr. Harper served a three-year term as Commissioner of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference, the nation's second-oldest NCAA Division III men's and women's playing conference.  He has served on numerous NCAA and ECAC regional sports championship committees and recently completed his tenure as chairperson of the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee.  Mr. Harper is currently a member of the Division III Management Council where he serves on the Administrative Review Subcommittee and is liaison to the national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.  His Management Council assignment also finds him serving as chair of the Division III Playing and Practice Seasons subcommittee.  Mr. Harper is a member of many local campus committees such as Minority Recruitment and Retention, Mentors in Violence Prevention and the Safe Colleges Coalition.  Additionally, his long-time involvement with Special Olympics earned him the Massachusetts Outstanding Games Director of the Year Award in 1999 and the Hanlon Award for Volunteerism in 2003.

Prior to assuming his duties as Athletics Director at Bridgewater State, Mr. Harper served as the Associate Director of Athletics at Wichita State University (1987-1991), the Director of the Charles E. Smith Center for Physical Education and Athletics at George Washington University (1982-1987) and the Director of Recreational Sports at Southwest Missouri State University (1974-1982).  He earned his undergraduate degree from Ithaca College (1971) and completed his Master's degree at Indiana University (1974).  John and his wife, Ann, have two sons, and twin grandchildren.  They reside in Bridgewater, MA.