Former De Anza AD Kulwant Singh Named to 2026 NACDA Hall of Fame Class

Cleveland, Ohio - Former De Anza College Athletics Director and current Central Valley Conference Commissioner Kulwant Singh has been named to the 2026 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) 2026 Hall of Fame Class, announced Wednesday.

The 2026 class will be honored in conjunction with the 61st Annual NACDA & Affiliates Convention at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nev., at the beginning of the Association-Wide Featured Session on Monday, June 8 at 4 p.m.

Singh retired as athletics director at De Anza College in August 2021 after 17 years leading the athletics department, a tenure that followed a 17-year Hall of Fame soccer coaching career. Singh is a highly-regarded administrator not only in the California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) but at the national level as well.

Under Singh's leadership, De Anza enjoyed unprecedented success in the highly-regarded Coast Conference, claiming the All-Sports Championship Trophy numerous times and staking claim as one of the premier community colleges in the Golden State.

Singh served as NATYCAA President in 2015-16 and was recognized as a NACDA Athletics Director of the Year (ADOY) that same year. He was a member of the NACDA Executive Committee from 2013-17 and in 2020 was named the NATYCAA L. William Miller Award recipient.

As a coach, Singh brought De Anza College soccer to the pinnacle of success on four occasions, capturing a women's title in 1993 and a men's banner in 1997. But it was what he accomplished in 1994 that cements his legacy in 3C2A soccer history. While serving as head coach of both the men's and women's teams, Singh led them both to state championships – on the same day.

That level of achievement helped define his 17-year coaching career – seven of them while simultaneously coaching both programs – that saw him win nearly 80 percent of his games with a 375-70-73 record. Fourteen of his players went on to earn All-America honors, more than 100 transferred with athletics scholarships to four-year schools, and two of his teams earned Scholar Team honors from the 3C2A. Additionally, Singh has another National Championship and Gold Medal with the National and Olympic Teams Program in Amateur Women's Soccer where 15 of those players went on to play professional soccer in the W-USA League. He was named Community College National Coach of the Year in 1993 and 1995.

Following his retirement as AD, Singh stepped into the role of commissioner at the Central Valley Conference, a position he still holds today. Singh also currently serves on the California Community College Athletics Association (3C2A) Board of Directors. The 3C2A is comprised of 112 member colleges with 28,000 student-athletes across California.

Singh has now been inducted into eight Halls of Fame.

Singh joins Al Bean (University of Southern Maine), Jeff Bourne (James Madison University), Peggy Davis (Virginia State University), Earl Edwards (UC San Diego), John Jackson (Dean College), John Parry (Brown University, and Fran Reidy (Saint Leo University) in this year's class.

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About NACDA: Now in its 61st year, NACDA is the professional and educational Association for more than 24,000 college athletics administrators at more than 2,300 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. NACDA manages 19 professional associations and four foundations. In addition to virtual programming, NACDA hosts and/or has a presence at seven major professional development events in-person annually. The NACDA & Affiliates Convention is the largest gathering of collegiate athletics administrators in the country. For more information, visit www.nacda.com.