Maple Leaf Athletics Adds Three To Staff For 2017-18
Snyder, Tropf take on new roles; Fairfield alum Osborne named assistant trainer
GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College athletic department announced a trio of administrative appointments Thursday in preparation for the 2017-18 season.
The Maple Leafs will welcome Emily Osborne as the college’s first assistant athletic trainer, Andrew Snyder as coordinator of athletic marketing and Jon Tropf as coordinator of the Roman Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center. Tropf has worked in the department since 2014 while Osborne and Snyder are Elkhart County natives and Snyder graduated from the college in April.
“We are blessed to have such a talented and mission-focused team in place,” said athletic director Josh Gleason. “I could not be more pleased with these additions to the Maple Leaf family. They each bring needed skill sets and also share our passion for developing student-athletes in all areas of their lives.”
These additions are part of a broader institutional direction to offer expanded opportunities in intercollegiate athletics and an athletic strategic plan to improve the resources dedicated to student-athletes’ college experience.
For the first time since the 2006-07 academic year and just the second time in three decades, each of Goshen’s head coaches is slated to return for the 2017-18 season. The college’s 13 intercollegiate sports included more than 230 athletes in 2016-17, and the first demonstration match in men’s volleyball is slated for October 6.
Profiles of the three new Maple Leaf athletics personnel can be found below.
Emily (Arnsdorf) Osborne
Assistant Athletic Trainer
Osborne comes to Goshen after two years as a graduate assistant athletic trainer at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin, where she worked primarily with women’s softball, men’s varsity reserve hockey, acrobatics, cheer and dance. As an undergraduate athletic training student at the University of Indianapolis, she was the head athletic training student working with women’s basketball before graduating cum laude in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in athletic training.
A 2011 graduate of Fairfield High School in nearby Millersburg, Indiana, where she competed in track and field, Osborne also assisted as an athletic trainer at Brownsburg High School in central Indiana while in college. She also volunteered as an athletic trainer for the Special Olympics basketball tournament in Indianapolis in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
“We are very excited to have Emily join the Goshen College community and athletic training department,” said head athletic trainer Erica Albertin. “She has great experience as a collegiate athletic trainer and will bring new manual therapy techniques, treatments, and rehabilitation ideas into the athletic training clinic. Her experience working with student-athletes and knowledge in healthcare set her apart from the other candidates for the position. Emily will be tremendous at developing our student-athletes as champions of character. Her references spoke very highly of her ability to communicate and treat patients to the best of her ability. She will be an excellent health care provider for Goshen College.”
“Goshen stood out to me because I could see the growth and development going on within the athletic department,” Osborne said. “I am looking forward to being a part of that growth, as well as getting to work with a variety of athletes and continuing professional development. I still have a lot of close friends and family in the area. And whenever I would come home for visits, I always felt at home. I always enjoy the small-town feel.”
Andrew Snyder
Coordinator of Athletic Marketing
Snyder will supervise the Maple Leafs’ efforts in photography, videography, graphic design and social media. A 2017 Goshen College graduate with a degree in broadcasting, he played two seasons with the Maple Leaf men’s soccer team and was a four-year member of the women’s basketball practice squad while spending three semesters as sports director for 91.1 The Globe and sports editor for the Goshen College Record.
During three seasons as a Globe sportscaster and one as a sports information intern, Snyder covered soccer, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball, anchoring the radio station’s coverage of the 2016 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Tournament and the 2014 FIFA World Cup. His play-by-play earned national recognition from the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System twice while the Record took home honors from the Hoosier State Press Association for its coverage of the 2015-16 GC women’s basketball team. As a four-sport athlete at Bethany Christian High School in Goshen, he captained the Bruins’ two-time regional-champion soccer team while also covering sports for the school newspaper as it transitioned from print to digital in 2012.
“Having been a Maple Leaf student-athlete, broadcaster and sports information assistant, Andrew brings a great deal of familiarity and knowledge into this new role for us,” said Gleason. “He is passionate about the Goshen College athletic experience and will be able to jump in immediately helping us tell our student-athletes’ stories in relevant ways.”
“I look forward to the opportunity to further add my own contributions to Goshen College athletics,” Snyder said. “I’ve seen tremendous progress in the department during my four years on campus, and I’m excited to continue contributing to it. Being an employee rather than a student will allow me to continue learning but give more time and dedication to the student-athletes and department as a whole.”
Jon Tropf
Recreation-Fitness Center Coordinator
Tropf joins the administrative side of the athletic department as he begins his fourth year on the men’s basketball coaching staff and his second as the associate head coach. He has also served as an adjunct professor in the kinesiology department and a member of the Maple Leafs’ game-day operations staff for soccer, baseball and softball.
The native of Wichita Falls, Texas, will assume responsibility for day-to-day operation of the facility, including front-desk staffing, community relations and athletic storage and laundry. After growing up in Findlay, Ohio, he spent three seasons as the head men’s basketball manager at Eastern Michigan University, handling day-to-day operations such as scouting and team travel, before graduating summa cum laude. In 2012, he moved on to Oakland University, where he was a graduate manager while obtaining a master’s degree in history.
“Jon has been an important part of helping our athletic department move forward by filling a variety of roles over the last few years,” Gleason said. “He is organized, passionate and has shown the ability to communicate effectively with a wide variety of people, which will serve him well in this new role.”
“As I step into the coordinator position, I’m most looking forward to developing relationships with the alumni and the Goshen community at large,” Tropf said. “Community support for GC is important, and hopefully in this new role I can help continue to make GC a relevant and important part of the Goshen community. We use the slogan #OneLeaf, and to me that represents the family atmosphere of the entire athletic department. I’ve enjoyed the relationships that have grown with others in the athletic department. It’s evident that we care about the well-being of our student-athletes and everyone else on this campus. That makes doing different things inside athletics so much more rewarding.”