Alumna proud to be director of athletics for her alma mater

Holly Schreiner stepped foot on the St. Cloud State University campus in the fall of 1996, and never left.

Now the director of athletics at SCSU, Schreiner earned her bachelor’s in communication studies in 2000. She has worked in different positions with the University, first as an associate director of operations for the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center following graduation. While working full-time at St. Cloud State, Schreiner also pursued her master’s degree in sports management, which she earned in 2008. She worked in athletic compliance for about 15 years before she was named interim director of athletics in 2022, and the interim tag was removed from her title in 2023.

“I think anytime you work with students, it's easy to be passionate about the work you do. They keep us young, they keep us motivated. It's fun to see them pursuing what they want to be doing and see where they think they're going to go and help to be a little bit of an influence in their journey,” she said. “It’s fun to see how they can energize us, keep us going — and we kind of live a little bit each day through them and see what we were like when we were in college through them.”

It’s important for Schreiner to keep impacting her students as well as the University and community as a whole.

“Each day I think I take it with the perspective of, ‘What difference can we make? How can we make — whether it's one student, whether it's a whole bunch of students, whether it's the community — what can we do to make a difference?’ Sometimes those are little things and sometimes they're bigger things,” she said. “It can be as simple as extending an invitation to someone, holding a door for someone; we can do little things each day. In the long run, I just hope we make this department and university the best it can be and that when the students leave here, they leave here first with a great education, and second with an experience in athletics that they'll never forget.”

While she said there’s always more work to be done, Schreiner is proud of the Huskies athletics program and its influence on #OurSCSU community.

“Seeing what our athletics program does for all these students and the doors it opens, the dreams it makes come true — I think being part of that really has been the best thing that I can say I have accomplished,” she said. “The victories are always fun. The national tournaments and going and competing and participating is always fun, but I think it's the difference in lives we make, and that truly is the best thing about this job.”

It’s special for Schreiner to be able to have that impact at her alma mater. She couldn’t have predicted her professional journey would start here, but said her postsecondary educational journey starting at the University was a given.

“Pretty early on, I knew St. Cloud State was the place I wanted to be and I knew a four-year degree was minimally what I wanted to do. When I stepped on campus my first year here, I knew this was the place. I knew I wanted to be here; I knew I was passionate about it,” she said. “Would I have guessed that 28-plus years later, I would still be on campus? No, but I am so very thankful I am.”

There are too many things to name that make St. Cloud State special, Schreiner said, but the people connected to the University are high up on the list.

“I think there's just so many things that make this place great. We don't have things handed to us on a silver platter and I think that's pretty awesome, because that means we have to work for things. I think St. Cloud State brings out so many of those strong characteristics of hard work and motivation and achieving things in ways that maybe other institutions can’t,” she said. “It’s just a great place to really find out who you are, to work hard and to achieve something. We set you up here at St. Cloud State to go out and do great things. The education people receive at St. Cloud State and the experiences are second to none, and I think it's an amazing institution that really prepares our students and our staff for their next step in life.”

Schreiner said SCSU has been “a blessing” for her as well as her entire family — a number of whom are alumni.

“It means so much every day to my family. It has provided for us in so many ways, through so many different learning opportunities, that I'm just thankful,” she said. “I think this place is absolutely amazing. I'm excited for our future, and I don't think there's a better time to be a Husky.”