Joe Glover, the athletic director for IU Southeast, first realized he wanted to be involved in sports while in high school. Not on the court or on the field, but in the press box.

“I remember being a part of New Albany [High School’s] broadcasting for all four years I was there,” Glover said. “It really got my foot in the door in sports and cleared up all questions I had at the time about what I wanted to do with my life.”

Glover was born and raised in New Albany. After attending New Albany High School, Glover went on to graduate with distinction from IU Southeast in May 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing.

Before starting his career in college athletics, Glover worked at several local radio stations including Louisville’s ESPN Radio1570-WSZ. Glover also spent time as a college basketball analyst for WVHF-TV, where he provided play-by-play and color commentary for local basketball games. Prior to venturing to IU Southeast, Glover worked at the University of Louisville in the athletic media relations department.

Glover has since accrued many titles. He became a member of the National Administrative Council last June. Then, Oct. 10, Glover was named president of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) Executive Committee. And to top it all off, he is a husband to Melissa Glover.

“I am very appreciative of everything that has happened to me,” Glover said. “But with more jobs come more responsibility, and I am more than ready to do everything to the best that I can.”

During his first five years at IU Southeast, Glover served as assistant athletic director and sports information director. During that time, Glover’s redesign of the Grenadiers’ athletic website resulted in web traffic increases of more than 95 percent.

In 2009, Glover also designed and managed a complete web overhaul of the athletic department website which included the transition to the new IUSAthletics.com.

In 2010, the NAIA-SIDA presented Glover with an award for his work on the IU Southeast website, which was named runner-up for the Best NAIA Athletic Website.

Stephen Utz, IU Southeast sports information director, works closely with Glover and knows the path he has taken to athletic director.

“When he first got hired on here at IUS, he was basically doing the exact same responsibilities as I do now,” Utz said.

Just one year after that, Glover became one of the youngest athletic directors in the NAIA. As athletic director at IU Southeast, Glover is responsible for the overall guidance, direction and management of the athletic department, which includes intramurals and the campus fitness center. In the grand scheme of things, he pretty much runs the Activities Building.

Glover’s next goal as athletic director is to fill empty seats on game nights. He said he plans to make the attendance of IU Southeast sports events increase in the next five years, like it has in the past five years.

“Playing my first game here, there was no one in the stands,” Jake Simpson, basketball senior guard, said. “Each year, the games have more and more people.”

Glover said he also wants to expand his domain. He said he feels that building a new Activities Building would allow the gym have more open gym hours and a better fitness center, thus giving students an easier way to workout.

The plan is simple. The fitness center will go into its own building, along with some alternative courts for students.

“It would also make it easier in our department,” Glover said. “It would give us more courts and space to have every team practice whenever they want, instead of having to take turns on just that one court.”

The main reason Glover loves his job, he said, is the connections he makes with students and meeting the new athletes.

“There is no better feeling than helping out students get eligible so they can do something that they love to do,” Glover said. “It is also a good feeling watch the kids that you have helped make it and graduate.”