Bio

Shane Larson enters his fifth year overseeing the Iowa Western Athletic Department for the 2025-26 season. 

Last season, the Reivers brought home NJCAA National Championships in men's half marathon, men's soccer, men's bowling, and women's indoor and outdoor track & field.  Additionally, shotgun sports, dance, and cheer all brought national championships back to the Bluffs.

In 2024, Larson was one of 28 winners of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) AD of the Year Award.

After being named Iowa Western's Athletic Director in June of 2021, Larson has overseen the completion of the Dr. John & Jean Marshall Baseball and Softball Complex and the completion of the new John and Harriet Wiebe Football and Soccer Complex, opening in the Fall of 2024. Larson has also championed the addition of Iowa Western ESports just three months into the job and Men's and Women's Swimming, which was announced in February 2024, bringing the department to 26 men's and women's sports.

In addition to his duties on campus, Larson also sits on five NJCAA Committees and is the Chair of the Track & Field Committee, overseeing a number of responsibilities throughout the year. These duties include the oversight of national rankings, All-America selections, postseason seeding, and at-large selections as well as national championship obligations, including hosting the NJCAA Wrestling Championships at the Mid-American Center in Council Bluffs.

Before Iowa Western, Larson had served as Director of Athletics at Cowley College for seven years, where he was a member of the president's leadership team and had direct oversight of 18 sports programs and 26 staff members. From 2018 to 2021, he represented Cowley as Women's Region Director for NJCAA Region VI and was previously Assistant Men's Region Director for three years.

Prior to Cowley, Larson was head women's basketball coach at Kaskaskia (IL.) College and also served as an assistant women's basketball coach and assistant registrar at Midland University in Fremont, NE. He was the head women's basketball coach and coordinator of the Sports Management Program at Dana College in Blair, NE., from 2008 to 2010.

Larson has a Master of Science in Health Education from Fort Hays State (Kansas) University and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science from Bethany (Kansas) College. He earned an Associate's Degree from Cloud County (Kansas) Community College in 1997.

Larson and his wife, Jennie, have one son, Cash. Larson is a native of Waterville, Kansas.