Dan Artamenko enters his first year as Director of Athletics at Lakeland University. Artamenko comes to Lakeland after serving athletic director tenures for over a decade at a pair of junior colleges, first at Williston State College in Williston, N.D., and for the past five years as AD at Seward County Community College in Liberal, Kan.
An experienced fundraiser, Artamenko has led numerous facility improvements, including a new softball field, indoor hitting facility, multiple LED scoreboards, and remodels of existing facilities. He has also served in regional leadership positions, including chair of NJCAA D2 Softball.
Before Lakeland, Artamenko was the Director of Athletics at Seward County Community College in the Jayhawk Conference. At Seward County, Artamenko succeeded on the court, with new facilities, and program growth. Team success included a national championship in Men’s Tennis, a National Runner-Up in Volleyball, a program best 3rd place in Women’s Tennis, and multiple All-Americans. Off the courts, he saw facility growth as he oversaw the construction of an indoor baseball and softball hitting facility, which included team locker rooms and offices. In addition, upgrades to other facilities included a makeover of the Hall of Fame Room, a video Hall of Fame display installation, and upgrading the livestream. In his final year, Artamenko was able to add three sports, Men’s and Women’s Soccer, and Esports. During his time at Seward, the student-athlete GPA was 3.17.
Artamenko joined Seward County after five years as the Director of Athletics at Williston State College. While at Williston State, Artamenko oversaw five teams ranking in the top 20 of the NJCAA polls, four teams reaching the national tournament, and the construction of the Teton softball field. Artamenko’s main duties were to lead all department fundraising efforts and manage game-day operations for six athletic programs.
Artamenko came to Williston State after three years as the athletic coordinator of academics and eligibility at Blinn College. His primary duties were to monitor the academic progress of all student-athletes, process and submit NJCAA eligibility, and assist students with all educational issues. Artamenko increased the academic standards of the athletes, increasing overall student-athlete GPA and graduation rates, and had multiple NJCAA All-Academic selections under his watch. He also served on the Brazos Valley Football Bowl Committee, where he was responsible for creating and hosting a junior college football game. The game was held at Kyle Field on the Texas A&M campus. The bowl game set attendance records for NJCAA bowl games with over 6,000 in attendance.
Before he arrived at Blinn, Artamenko worked at the NJCAA headquarters in Colorado Springs. Over his three years working with the NJCAA, Artamenko worked in compliance, media, and sports management. In his duties, he performed eligibility audits of NJCAA member schools, assisted in creating the monthly NJCAA Review magazine, and managed the weekly sports rankings and player of the week awards.
In addition to this experience, Artamenko has worked with multiple sports programs at different levels. He worked for USA Wrestling in the marketing department while assisting with the Olympics VIP program. He also worked in ticket sales for the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets. Artamenko got his start in athletics by working as a game day assistant for the sports information director at Lubbock Christian University.
A Colorado Springs native, he has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado and a bachelor's degree in sports management from Lubbock Christian. He is completing a doctorate in higher education at the University of Colorado-Denver. Artamenko’s wife, Nicole, is a Nurse Practitioner, and they have a son, Ethan.
