Lipold to head up new conference

Former Saddleback Athletic Director Tony Lipold has been hired as the commissioner of the newly formed Inland Empire Athletic Conference.  Lipold served as the athletic director at Saddleback for a total of 18 years.

The Inland Empire Athletic Conference is set to start in the fall of 2019 and will initially have 11 programs from Southern California.  Mt. San Jacinto College, Cerro Coso College, Copper Mountain College, Norco College, Chaffey College, Barstow College, Victor Valley College, College of the Desert, San Bernardino Valley College, Crafton Hills College and Palo Verde College are all scheduled to compete in the IEAC in 2019-2020. 

"I want to thank Jerry White for laying the foundation for the IEAC as well as the athletic directors in the conference who worked on the constitution and sport supplements, as well as those who served on the IEAC hiring committee," Lipold said.  "There is much to be done in the next several months to get the conference up and running for the 2019-2020 year, and I welcome the challenge and this new chapter in my life.   I plan on meeting with each conference college president and athletic director on their respective campus in the next 100 days.  "

Lipold most recently served as the Interim Athletic Director at Saddleback while the school performed a search for his replacement.  Previous to that he was the full time athletic director from 2000-2017, also serving as the Dean of Kinesiology and Athletics.

Preceding his time at Saddleback, Lipold worked in student services at Long Beach City College from 1989-1999, also serving as a basketball coach for the Vikings.  Previous to LBCC, he worked in the high school ranks at Edison High School (1987-89) and Bolsa Grande High School (1975-87).