Scott McGuinness has spent more than two decades at Washington & Jefferson College. The 2025-26 academic year marks the 25th year for McGuinness in Washington. He currently serves as Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Athletics at W&J.
McGuinness came to W&J in 2001 and spent 13 years as the college's Sports Information Director. He then served as the Interim Co-Director of Athletics in 2014-15 before taking over the role as Director of Athletics in July of 2015. He added the Assistant Dean of Students title in the summer of 2023.
From March 2019 until January 2023, he served on the NCAA Division III Management Council, which handles the implementation of policies adopted by the Association’s Board of Governors and Presidents Council.
Washington & Jefferson has won 36 conference championships under McGuinness’ leadership, including first-time conference titles in the sports of women’s lacrosse, men’s cross country, women’s tennis, and men's indoor track & field.
During the 2024-25 academic year, W&J earned conference titles in football, men's wrestling and women's basketball. The academic year was highlighted by women's basketball's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory when they defeated Messiah College in the NCAA First Round. Several other student-athletes put together record-breaking campaigns including qualifying for NCAA Championship events.
The 2023-24 academic year saw Cassie Carr honored as W&J's first female student-athlete to earn the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 Award in the sport of Women's Cross Country. Carr is just the second-ever W&J student-athlete overall to earn one of the NCAA's top academic honors.
W&J captured five conference championships during the 2022-23 academic year. W&J has claimed five or more conference championships in an academic year just eight times in school history. W&J had four academic All-Americans during the year which included seeing Tyler Horvat be named Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for Division III Baseball.
W&J claimed four PAC titles during the 2021-22 academic year, which included men’s basketball’s first conference crown since 1994-95. W&J had five student-athletes earn CoSIDA Academic All-America honors during the year.
During the 2018-19 academic year, W&J won six conference championships for the first time in school history. The Presidents have also made two trips to the NCAA Division III Baseball World Series (2017, 2019) during his tenure as AD.
While serving as the Interim Co-Director of Athletics in 2014-15, McGuinness helped lead an athletic department that won four conference titles for the first time since 2009 and had three student-athletes chosen as Capital One Academic All-Americans. Additionally Nick Carr became the first wrestler at W&J to win a national championship, claiming the NCAA Division III title at 157 pounds. Carr was just the fourth President to claim an individual national title in any sport.
McGuinness also played a major role in helping Washington & Jefferson College secure the bid to host the 2015, 2016 and 2017 NCAA Division III Mideast Baseball Regionals at Ross Memorial Park. He has helped restructure the department's intern coach program, while overseeing construction of the college's six new tennis courts, The Janet L. Swanson Tennis Center, which debuted in the fall of 2015.
The 2016-17 academic year saw W&J win the Mideast Regional in baseball and advance to the championship round of the 2017 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship in Appleton, Wis. W&J finished as the national runner-up after being defeated by California Lutheran in a three-game series. It marked just the first regional crown in program history and just the third time a W&J team advanced to the national championship in a sport (Football, 1992 and 1994).
In his first year as the Director of Athletics in 2015-16, W&J claimed the PAC Men’s All-Sports Trophy for the 11th time and featured a pair of Academic All-Americans in Ryan Doyle (football) and Nicholas Willison (men’s water polo and swimming).
McGuinness also helped with the planning of The James David Ross Family Recreation Center, which opened during the 2016-17 academic year and features a three-lane walking and running track as well as three full-sized athletic courts. The new center includes a general exercise room and phase two of the athletic renovation project also introduced new coach offices, an expanded wrestling room and team meeting spaces in the area of the previous auxiliary gymnasium.
In the fall of 2019, McGuinness helped plan and implement the renovation of the Henry Memorial Gymnasium. A new wood floor was constructed, while new bleachers with sections of VIP chairback seating was installed. The newly-renovated Salvitti Family Gymnasium also added central air conditioning, four new offices and the Morrow Alumni Suite.
In January 2018, the W&J Athletic Department announced an exclusive partnership with BSN Sports to outfit all of its athletic teams in Nike gear, the first such deal in department history.
A 2000 graduate of Shippensburg University, McGuinness previously oversaw the promotion of Washington & Jefferson's NCAA Division III athletic program to local and national media as SID. McGuinness helped promote 14 W&J student-athletes who have earned CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-America awards during those 13 years.
From 2014-2016, McGuinness served as a member of the NCAA Division III Women's Golf East Region Advisory Committee. He is also spent two years as a member of the NCAA Division III Athletics Direct Report Institute planning committee.
Three times (2010, 2011, 2014) he was selected as the Division III Sports Information Director of the Year by the CWPA and was honored as the 2006 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Region SID of the Year by the AVCA.
McGuinness' SID career began during the 2000-01 academic year as the assistant SID at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. McGuinness was the media relations coordinator of the 2001 NCAA Division III Baseball South Region Tournament (Lynchburg, Va.) and worked as the assistant statistician for the 2001 NCAA Division III Football National Championship, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl (Salem, Va.).
He and his wife, Amanda, are the proud parents of son Colman and daughters Maysen and Ellie. His brother, Todd, is the head men's basketball coach at NCAA Division III Case Western Reserve University.
