Howard Payne University Director of Athletics, Mike Jones, today announced the promotion of three current HPU athletic staff members to assistant athletic director roles.
Ken Carver, Abram Choate and Joshua Prock will be serving in new roles in the HPU athletic department starting immediately. Current head volleyball coach, Ken Carver, will also work as the Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance. Current sports information director, Abram Choate, will now be the Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Information and Game Administration and current head women’s basketball coach, Joshua Prock, will add duties as the Assistant Director of Athletics for Development.
“I am excited to have these three become a part of my administrative team,” said Mike Jones, HPU Director of Athletics. “Each brings different skills and perspectives and are all well suited for the roles they have been promoted to.”
Ken Carver began his tenure at Howard Payne in the summer of 2006 as head volleyball coach. Before coaching, Carver spent seven years serving in various capacities in the area of student development including three years as the director of an outdoor recreation center, three years as the Director of Intramural Sports and Wellness and four years as a Resident Director all during his tenure at Indiana Wesleyan University.
As the Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance, Carver will be responsible for monitoring compliance with all American Southwest Conference and NCAA rules and policies. He will serve as the Howard Payne athletics representative for all NCAA compliance issues and enforce all ASC and NCAA bylaws rules and regulations. Carver will also develop and conduct rules and compliance education for the HPU coaching and athletic staff.
Carver graduated Cum Laude in May of 1994 from Malone University and has pursued post-graduate studies in Wellness Management at Ball State University. Coach Carver is married to his wife Jill and they have two-year old twin girls.
Abram Choate started working as HPU’s Sports Information Director in the summer of 2005 and had served for six years previously in the admissions office at Howard Payne as an Admissions Counselor. There he played a key role in the recruitment of student-athletes to Howard Payne.
As Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Information and Game Administration, Abram is responsible for all aspects of the HPU sports information office which include game statistics, media releases and promotion of HPU student-athletes. On the game administrative side, he will coordinate the setup of all HPU athletic facilities for athletic events, the hiring and training of all game workers for all home contests, coordinate all special halftime events and game day guests and serve as the main point of contact for athletic facility management and external relations.
Abram is a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (COSIDA). Along with his duties as Assistant AD for Sports Information and Game Administration, Abram is also the webmaster of HPU’s athletic website www.hpusports.com. Abram is married to his wife, Torri, a 1998 graduate of HPU. They have three children – Asher, Ava, and Corban.
Joshua Prock began his tenure at Howard Payne in the spring of 2008 as head coach of the Lady Jacket basketball team. He brings experience from all three NCAA levels to his new assistant AD position, holding coaching positions at D-I Oklahoma, D-II Kentucky Wesleyan and D-III Howard Payne.
As the Assistant Director of Athletics for Development, Prock will work closely with the university’s Vice President for Development on all fundraising activities for the athletic department. He will be responsible for developing strategies for each sports Jacket Century account and ensure all fundraising projects are in compliance with HPU, ASC and NCAA policies and regulations. He will also work as the primary contact with current and prospective donors.
Joshua is a 2001 graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Arts. He also completed a Master’s Degree in Human Relations in 2002 from Oklahoma. Joshua is married to his wife Angie and they have three year old twins, a girl and a boy. They are also expecting a boy in June.
