Charleston Southern University Athletics

Chris French joined the Charleston Southern athletic staff in March 2025 as the Assistant Athletic Director for Facilities/Events. Since arriving, he has helped revitalize the department in terms of facility rentals as well as the student-athlete experience at the Gary Clark Banks Sr. Tennis Center with the additional of benches and signage for the program's Big South Championships.
 
He joined Charleston Southern after working as the Assistant Director of Facilities and Events Operations at Drake (2024-2025). During his time there, he was a primary contact for the century-old Drake Stadium, home of the Drake Relays and the Pioneer League powerhouse, Drake Bulldog Football program. In addition, he was the primary contact for Ron Buel Softball Field as well as the liaison for Mediacom Stadium for Des Moines Public Schools.

Also, he has spent time working at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville as a graduate assistant of facilities operations from 2022-2024. His first experience in the world of facility and event management came in the summers of 2020 and 2021 with the Macon Bacon of the Coastal Plain League. In 2020, the Bacon were one of the first organizations in the world to begin hosting fans following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic with French playing a key role in the planning and execution of this in the months leading up to the season.

French got his first dose of college athletics as a four-year member of the Mercer Cross Country team where he helped lead the Bears to a third-place finish in the Southern Conference Championships his senior year. At the time of his graduation from the university, he ranked as third-fastest in program history in the 1500m and his other top ten ranking coming in the 5K.

He graduated from Mercer University in May of 2022 with a Bachelor of Business Administarion - Economics and Marketing. French received his Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Project Management from SIUE in May of 2024. 

Currently, he resides in Summerville, S.C. His parents have two cats that he considers his own named Molly and Misty in Boca Raton, Florida. In his free time, he enjoys keeping up with the Northern Irish Football Team, the Carrick Rangers, that he is a part owner of cherring them to one day lift the trophy of the Champions League.