Naples Daily News staff report

The athletic director at Florida Gulf Coast University, who helped build the program from infancy to Division I and has been subject of gender discrimination allegations, has announced that he is retiring.

FGCU president Wilson Bradshaw announced Carl McAloose’s retirement. McAloose, who came to FGCU in 2000, is credited for the university making major leaps in the ranks of collegiate athletics. He also has been the focus of a lawsuit by two former female coaches which was settled last week for $3.4 million.

Bradshaw named Dr. JoAnn Nester as interim athletic director. Nester joined FGCU as Associate Athletic Director for Compliance in 2006. McAloose’s last day will be Oct. 31.

“I know JoAnn will do a great job keeping FGCU Athletics moving forward while we conduct the national search,” Bradshaw said.

Under McAloose, FGCU student-athletes’ grade-point average has been 3.0 to 3.2 each semester since the program’s inception. The program dealt with a nationwide membership moratorium by the NCAA when it was trying to gain membership into NCAA Division II, and was briefly part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

FGCU left the NAIA when it instituted a rule making schools with pending NCAA membership ineligible for the postseason. After the NCAA’s membership moratorium was lifted, FGCU officially joined NCAA Division II. It made the jump to NCAA Division I and joined the Atlantic Sun Conference last year.

McAloose was commissioner of NCAA Division II’s Great Lakes Valley Conference prior to coming to FGCU. He was 38 and received a $75,000 per year contract when he was named on May 18, 2000.

Bradshaw said that $30 million of athletic facilities also were built under McAloose.

“FGCU’s successful entry into the NCAA came in unprecedented time with the NCAA’s recognition of the high quality of FGCU’s athletics program and its administration and operations,” Bradshaw said. “On a personal note, I have come to know Carl as a person who cares deeply about FGCU and its students. This was evident when the FGCU Student Government named Carl as its 2007-08 FGCU Staff Member of the Year for ‘his continuous support and dedication to the student body at FGCU.'”

Bradshaw said a national search will be launched for McAloose’s replacement.