No?l Couch

Learn more below about No?l Couch, assistant director of championships and alliances, as part of our NCAA Life Series. The series highlights staff members who have been a student-athlete or administrator within the NCAA membership. Each week, we’ll feature a different staff member to learn more about how their membership experience has shaped them and their work at the NCAA national office.

Name and Title:

No?l Couch, and I’m an assistant director of the championships and alliances department.

Student-Athlete:

I was a gymnast at the University of Georgia.

NCAA membership experience:

I served as the Director of Compliance at the Sacred Heart University Athletics department, as well as a legal intern at the University of Georgia Athletics department.

What life lessons did you take away from your time as a student-athlete?

As a gymnast at the University of Georgia I learned to compete under pressure with confidence and grace. I then learned to transfer that same intensity to the classroom and my career pursuits off the competition floor.

I am proud of my college athletics journey and thankful to have had the opportunity to compete as an NCAA student-athlete with the support of many incredible leaders. College athletics was a means by which I developed life-long values of integrity, loyalty, and resilience to become the highest-quality version of myself today.

How does your membership experience impact your work at the national office?

As the Director of Compliance at Sacred Heart University Athletics, I developed a sound understanding of NCAA rules and regulations and a recognition of the relationship between institutions, conferences, and the national office.

As a legal intern at the University of Georgia Athletics, I established a network of professionals and industry leaders who provided guidance that ultimately pointed me in the direction of a career at the national office.