Photo of Dr. Hunter Sims courtesy of Howard Payne Athletics
BELTON — After over eight years spent as the Director of Athletics at Howard Payne University, Dr. Hunter Sims is heading to Belton.
On Wednesday, Sims was announced as Mary Hardin-Baylor’s next Vice President for Athletics, a role he will officially assume on June 2. Highly-respected in Division III and within the American Southwest Conference, Sims is currently the ASC’s chair for athletic directors in addition as well as the ASC football athletic director liaison. On a national level, he sits on the D-III Football National Committee and the NCAA National Committee for Grants.
Sims’ appointment as VP for Athletics is of key importance to UMHB’s athletic future, especially as it comes just a month after the future of the ASC was settled, with the additions of McMurry and Schreiner to the conference. With a 10-year agreement in place that will keep UMHB in D-III for the next decade, Sims will be tasked with continuing to elevate the athletic department, just as he did in Brownwood.
Over his eight years at Howard Payne — the first spent in a dual role as head football coach and director of athletics — Sims upgraded HPU’s department in a number of ways. He notably oversaw renovations to the McCullough Athletic Complex main lobby and Brownwood Coliseum. He negotiated agreements between HPU and both Nike and BSN Sports for apparel, and with VIP Sports Charters for HPU’s athletic travel. And within the local community, he led HPU’s efforts on the marketing front, revamping the athletic department’s “marketing and promotions strategies to help yield nearly double-digit increases in community sponsorships,” according to his HPU bio.
But just as important, Sims made a significant impact on the coaches who came through Brownwood during his tenure as Director of Athletics. In an in-depth piece from Dave Campbell’s Texas Football in September 2024, Cory Hogue wrote about the unique HPU-to-D1 coaching pipeline that had taken place in Sims’ first seven years in Brownwood. At the time of writing, 14 former HPU coaches—including head football coaches Braxton Harris and Jason Bachtel—had gone from HPU to Division I opportunities, a sign of the exceptional leadership and platform that Sims and Associate Director of Athletics for Operations Troy Drummond built. Whatever a coach’s “dream” was, as Sims put it in the piece, he and Drummond looked to help that coach accomplish it. That meant different things to different coaches as goals varied, but the constant was the support Sims and Drummond provided to help their coaches achieve success, both in the short-term and long-term .
“We tell the coaches that it’s their job to help our student-athletes reach their dreams, and it’s the job of Troy and I to help them reach their dreams,” Sims said in the DCTF feature.
And as Sims also noted in Hogue’s article, that support went beyond just helping HPU’s coaches succeed in long-term endeavors. It also meant finding ways to help the coaching staffs give their student-athletes the best experience possible, and being open to different ideas and perspectives.
“My job is to serve the head coaches at Howard Payne, and work alongside them to provide the best student-athlete experience,” Sims said. “If something can positively affect the student-athlete experience and help recruit our current and new students, let’s find a way to make it happen. When a coach brings an idea, we try to do it — if we can’t fully, at least partially.”
A three-year letterwinner as a quarterback at McMurry, Sims began his career on the sidelines as a football coach, moving into the Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator role at HPU in 2012. After four years in that capacity with the Yellow Jackets, he took over as head coach in 2016, assuming the Director of Athletics position just three months later. He transitioned into full-time athletic administration as HPU’s AD in 2017, a position he has held ever since.
Aside from a brief time spent overseas playing and coaching football professionally and a stint as a graduate assistant at D2 Angelo State, Sims has spent his entire career within the ASC, gaining valuable experience that will benefit him in his new role at UMHB.
Keep an eye out for more coverage over the summer months, including an interview with Dr. Sims. To read Wednesday’s full press release from UMHB, click here.
