Matt Sayre enters his 15th year as Athletic Director at SOU in 2024-25.
After 18 months as Interim Athletic Director, Sayre was named SOU's Director of Athletics on May 12, 2010.
The SOU Athletic Department has seen unprecedented success under Sayre's leadership. The 2022-23 school year saw the Raiders finished 13th in the NAIA Director's Cup Standings. Each of SOU's seven best finishes in Directors' Cup history have been recorded over the last 11 years. During that stretch, the Raiders have placed sixth, eighth, 13th on four occasions, 16th and 18th.
Prior to Sayre taking over in 2010, SOU had never placed higher than 22nd since the Directors' Cup was introduced at the NAIA level in 1995.
The Raiders have also claimed NAIA Championships in Cross Country (2010 and 2016), Football (2014), Softball (2019, 2021 and 2023) and Women's Wrestling (2023) during Sayre's time as AD.
The Raiders also won four-straight Cascade Conference All-Sports Trophies as the top athletic department in the conference.
Sayre was named in the Cascade Conference Athletic Director of the Year following the 2014-15 season and then again following the 2015-16 season. The 2023-24 school year saw Sayre again being named as the Conference's top Athletic Director.
The Athletic Department has also turned in record fundraising campaigns and is known for many of the Character initiatives that Sayre started upon taking over the reigns.
Sayre was also instrumental in the remodel of Raider Stadium, which added a multi-use turf, new track, locker rooms for football and track and offices for football and track and also the new Lithia Motors Pavilion - which will house a new gym, athletic offices, training room and locker rooms. Sayre has also overseen record fundraising efforts, including a $1.5 million dollar gift for the new Lithia Motors Pavilion and record-setting scholarship fundraising years.
Prior to being named Interim Athletic Director, Sayre spent three years as Assistant and Associate Athletic Director and has been a long-standing instructor for Health and Physical Education.
Sayre first came to SOU in 1995 as an offensive assistant and then spent six years as the Raiders' Offensive Coordinator. Between 1998 and 2003, the Raider offense averaged 382 yards and 33 points.
In 2004, Sayre was named Head Football Coach at College of the Siskiyous, where he led the Screamin' Eagles to a 5-5 record. After one year in Weed, Calif., he returned to SOU as Offensive Coordinator in 2005 and then turned to administration in 2006.
He began his collegiate coaching career at COS in a graduate assistant role in 1993, the same year the Lacey, Wash. native served as a player/coach for the Graz Giants in the Austrian League. Two years later, he went on to earn offensive MVP honors on the 1995 national championship squad.
Collegiately, Sayre played two seasons as a quarterback at Eastern Washington before transferring to Western Washington in 1990. He passed for 1,490 yards as a senior and finished sixth on the Viking career passing yardage list with 2,421. He received an English degree from WWU, and he earned a master’s from SOU in 2001.
Matt and Kouba Sayre have two children: Rieger and Koura.
