William “Drew” Scales III joined the UNCW athletic staff as Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Support Services on Nov. 5, 2014 and was promoted to Associate Athletic Director in April of 2019.
Scales earlier spent seven years as Assistant Athletic Director and Director of Student Athletic Academic Services at the University of Toledo. He served as a diversity coordinator for UT’s Office of Equity and Diversity, where he conducted several diversity workshops for the Culture Building Institute and developed a protocol to increase minority candidates for faculty positions. He also served on the President’s Council for Diversity as well as the Presidential Scholarship Committee for Toledo.
“We’re very excited about welcoming Drew to the Seahawk family,” said Jimmy Bass, UNCW’s athletic director. “He is very well prepared to give our student-athletes the support they need to continue the outstanding academic reputation we have established through the years.”
During his time at UT, Scales was responsible for the daily operations of the Rocket Academic Center, overseeing the academic progress of more than 360 student-athletes. He established a 14-member mentor program to support student-athletes and helped the Rockets be recognized with the Mid-American Conference Institutional Academic Award for the first time in both 2012 and 2013.
Prior to working at Toledo, Scales worked as assistant director on the Student-Athlete Academic Support Services staff at Virginia Tech. He was also an academic mentor at Michigan State University and provided mental training techniques for minor league players in the Seattle Mariners organization.
While at UNCW, Scales has expanded academic support services programming by implementing an academic mentor program for student-athletes. In addition, Scales has created a forum of regular dialogue for African-American male student-athletes that fosters unity and support during their college experience. Through University College, Scales serves on the Academic Appeals Committee, which reviews UNCW's student dismissal appeal cases. He was also a member of UNCW's grant proposal team that earned the NCAA's Choices Grant in 2016.
In addition to overseeing the daily operations of UNCW's Student-Athlete Intelligence Lab (SAIL), he functions as the sport administrator for the women's soccer and women's tennis programs. He has been instrumental in the UNCW Athletics Strategic Plan, chairing the S.W.O.T. analysis sub-committee.
During his tenure directing the SASS unit, UNCW's student-athletes earned the highest term grade point average on record during the Fall, 2018, semester with a 3.360 GPA.
Scales earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Morehouse College and completed his Master of Science in Physical Education and Exercise Science at Michigan State. At Morehouse, he was a four-year letter winner on the men's tennis team. He earned his Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from the Arizona School of Professional Psychology in Phoenix and is currently pursuing his doctorate in higher education leadership at UNCW.
He is a member of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics and is a faculty member for the Professional Development Institute.
