BEAUMONT — Marco Born, all 6-feet-9 of him, won an NCAA championship in doubles tennis 11 years ago and became known as a successful fundraiser at alma mater Middle Tennessee State and Louisiana Tech.

“I think being a national champion is nice and great,” he said. “It’s something I’m very proud of, obviously. If I had to go back to my experience, if I wasn’t a national champion, I still had a great experience in my four years as a student-athlete at Middle Tennessee, and so did my wife. I go back to the experience I had as a student-athlete. I want all of our student-athletes to have that same experience, getting to travel across the country and getting to play in places not everybody gets to travel to, being able to spend time with your teammates and coaches and make friends for life and at the same time, get a first-class education.”

That’s why he journeyed from his native Hannover, Germany, to Murfreesboro, Tennessee for college.

Born’s goal now is to parlay his championship and business acumen into a successful stint as Lamar’s athletic director. His introductory press conference was held Wednesday, six days after Lamar announced his hire.

“I won’t take this opportunity for granted,” Born said, his wife Emily and 5-year-old daughter Scarlett also in attendance. “I will work hard to make sure that we are moving forward.”

Emily Born also played tennis at MTSU.

Marco Born comes to Jefferson County with a reputation of helping universities see increases in fundraising and improvements in athletic facilities. He began his career at MTSU as a group sales and marketing representative before becoming its director of ticketing. As associate athletic director there in the 2013-14 school year, MTSU increased overall ticket sales by 25 percent, and the women’s basketball team set a school record for attendance by averaging nearly 5,000 fans per game. MTSU also underwent a $1.4-million football surface improvement, an $11-million basketball arena renovation and unveiled a softball hitting facility.

He went to Louisiana Tech in August 2014 and became executive associate AD last July. Under his watch, LaTech opened the Davison Athletics Complex, a $22-million facility in the south end zone of football’s Joe Aillet Stadium and unveiled plans for an $18.6-million press box and guest suit renovation there.

Louisiana Tech AD Tommy McClelland and associate AD Adam McGuirt surprised Born with a visit to his press conference.

“I remember telling Tommy this was something I wanted to look into more,” Born said. “I knew I was ready to be an AD. I heard so many good things about Lamar and Beaumont and the potential it has, so I knew I wanted to get involved. I always refer to it as a sleeping giant, the athletic department. I’m ready to wake up that sleeping giant and work together. I told the staff this morning when we met at 10 o’clock that we’re going to be a family and do this together. We’re in this together. We’re going to win together, we’re going celebrate wins and we’re going to cry in defeat, but we’re going to be in this together. We’re going to support each other.”

Born is taking a three-pronged attack to invigorating an athletic department that has struggled to draw fans to games in its major sports but has won Southland Conference championships in women’s basketball, women’s soccer and men’s tennis in the past calendar year: “creating champions” in the classroom, “creating champions” on the playing surface and in life and preparing student-athletes for postgraduate success.

“We want them to walk across the stage on graduation and receive a diploma in one hand and wear a championship ring in the other,” Born said.

When Born graduated from Middle Tennessee in 2007, he had just become a champion along with Andreas Siljestrom in men’s doubles. The two also won the 2005 All-American Doubles national championship.

Siljestrom turned professional and has been ranked as high as 57th in world tennis rankings, according to the duo’s Middle Tennessee Blue Raider Hall of Fame biography.

Mike Schultz believes Born’s hire will further energize his football program at Lamar, one that hasn’t had a winning season since 2014.

“The fundraising part is going to be huge,” Schultz said. “With fundraising comes improvement to facilities. With facilities come, probably, bigger and better athletes. Bigger and better athletes usually mean bigger, better wins. It all builds into each other.”

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews