Now in his 12th year as an Athletic Director and eighth at Harford Community College, Ken Krsolovic brings over 30 total years of experience in collegiate athletics and coaching to the Harford athletics and baseball staff. He previously served in a variety of roles while also coaching baseball at four NCAA institutions. His extensive background includes a progression of administrative positions, including 12 as an AD, while also maintaining significant tracks in coaching baseball and sports broadcasting.
At Harford, he had an important hand in the direction of the $28 million APG Federal Credit Union Arena addition and renovation of the college’s indoor athletic facilities. He has also overseen various upgrades to the Harford Sports Complex outdoor facilities during his tenure. The baseball park was completely rebuilt and the softball and stadium venues, as well as the recreation fields, have been dramatically improved. A cross country course was added and the tennis complex rebuilt and relocated.
He has led a total revision of athletic department structure, adding full-time positions in facilities, sports information and academic support, while creating positions for managers of equipment, marketing/promotions and intramurals/recreation. In addition to operating a program that now offers 13 varsity sports, the department has expanded its offerings in intramurals and student recreation during his tenure.
Also, the responsibility and direction of the former Thomas Run Park adult recreation program has been brought within the auspices of the athletic department under his direction. Meanwhile, student-athletes at Harford have registered record academic success and the team has led its 16-team league and 26-team region in academic honorees over the past five years. He takes an active roll beyond his primary duties, currently in his third year as on the administrative board for the MD JUCO Conference, chair, the NJCAA Region 20 sport committee for women’s basketball, and a member of the College’s Cultural Diversity and Social Media Committees.
Before arriving at Harford late in 2007, he spent the previous four years as the athletic director and head baseball coach at NCAA Division III Lake Erie College in Ohio, where he oversaw a transformation of the athletic program. During his time at Lake Erie, its 10-team intercollegiate sport program showed steady improvement from a cumulative record of just 24-127-1 (.162) in the year prior to his arrival to 97-97-3 (.500) in his final year at the institution. That season marked the first overall record of .500 in the school’s 29-year history of varsity athletics and is still a program record. Also, Lake Erie earned its first-ever postseason bids and conference championships during that span, including back-to-back men’s basketball crowns and NCAA Tournament berths in his final two years there. He brought stability to the program during his tenure, as those final two years marked the first time in program history that every head coach returned for the following year.
Krsolovic also oversaw the completion, opening and transition to a new, $9.5 million Athletic & Wellness Center while at Lake Erie. His final year there was marked by the beginning of a reclassification of the program to NCAA Division II status as well as preparation for the addition of a football program. The number of varsity athletes in the established 10 sports at Lake Erie increased from 87 to 140 under his direction. Meanwhile, his baseball teams improved from a total of just five wins in the team’s two years of existence prior to his arrival, to a total of 31 wins in his final two years at the helm. His 2006 diamond squad was the ninth most improved team in the NCAA.
Before taking over as athletic director at Lake Erie, he spent 17 years at NCAA Division I Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. He handled a variety of administrative roles there, first as director of sports media relations and later working in areas of marketing, development, licensing and broadcasting. His Philadelphia days also included a 16-year run as the commissioner of the Philadelphia Intercollegiate Soccer League, commonly known as the Philadelphia Soccer Seven.
Also at Saint Joseph’s, he first served as assistant baseball coach and later as associate head coach. In addition to his on-field responsibilities, he administered team operations, including the founding of the Hawk Baseball Boosters and establishment the Saint Joseph’s Baseball Hall of Fame. He also proposed and worked in conjunction with the Philadelphia Phillies to establish the annual Liberty Bell Classic college baseball tournament at Veterans Stadium. In 2003, his final season at Saint Joseph’s, he was named as an AFLAC Assistant Coach of the Year honoree by Coach and Athletic Director Magazine. While at Saint Joseph’s, he doubled as the head coach of the national team of Croatia from 1996-98, winning the Mid-European Cup in 1997. His 1998 Croatian team toured the U.S.A., a trip which included four exhibition games against American professional teams, a first for any European national team.
Before his long tenure at SJU, he spent five seasons as sports information director and assistant baseball coach at John Carroll University in Ohio. He helped the John Carroll baseball team to four straight conference championships and a trip to the 1984 NCAA Tournament, just one of two tourney bids in team history. He also served as a coach of the Cleveland College All-Stars that same year in a game against the U.S.A. Olympic team at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, one of just three defeats suffered by the star-studded Olympians during their nationwide tour. Overall in his coaching career, Krsolovic has seen eleven of his former players move on to sign professional contracts. Before moving to John Carroll, his career had begun as an assistant SID at Cleveland State University.
During his media relations/sports information days at John Carroll and Saint Joseph’s, over 30 of his publications were honored for excellence, including several which were named as “Best in the Nation.” In the highly-competitive Division I men’s basketball contests, his Saint Joseph's guides were twice named “Best in the District.”
As a broadcaster, he spent 15 years at Saint Joseph’s as the “Voice of the Hawks,” handling the play-by-play duties for major college basketball in the nation’s #4-ranked media market, and later filled in on various Saint Joseph’s broadcasts. He brought the Hawks broadcast operation in-house, overseeing the establishment and growth of the Saint Joseph’s Sports Network. He has called numerous NCAA and NIT tournament games over the years. Additionally, he created and produced the “HawkTalk” TV coaches show, which was named as the best coaches show in the nation by The Sporting News in 2001. He also hosted a radio version of the show for many years. His broadcasting career also includes a wide assortment of other sports on both radio and TV, ranging from professional baseball and basketball to high school football and Little League baseball. He has also broadcast baseball games for the Trenton Thunder and Reading Phillies, along with a year handling pregame duties for the Lake County Captains.
Krsolovic is a past president of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and was a longtime voter on the NCBWA Division I national poll. In 2006, he was honored by the American Baseball Coaches Association for his 25 years of collegiate coaching at the ABCA convention in Chicago. He has also taught a slate of undergraduate classes as an adjunct professor in sports management. Krsolovic co-authored a book, League Park, Historic Home of Cleveland Baseball, which was published by McFarland in 2013. He was honored as the 2015 Harry Booth Award winner for his contributions to Saint Joseph’s University baseball.
A native of Euclid, Ohio, he is a graduate of The University of Toledo and Lakeland Community College and also holds a master’s degree in education from Lake Erie College. He was inducted into the Lakeland Alumni Hall of Fame in 2015. His wife Lisa, an elementary school teacher, is a former college athlete and coach. They have a son, Ronnie, who is a freshman on the Harford baseball team, and a daughter, Jenny, who is a high school volleyball player.
