David Salley enters his 10th year as a member of Henderson State's administrative team in 2025-26 and his fourth as the Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs.
Salley oversees all external facets of the department, including corporate partnerships, marketing activation, the sports information staff, game day operations, live video streaming, social media, radio broadcasts, and brand licensing through CLC. In addition to his daily roles, Salley is also in charge of multiple large annual events, including Hall of Honor balloting and the fall induction ceremony, the Reddies' Turn Up for Tip-Off basketball night, and the Redspys Student-Athlete Award Show in the spring.
Henderson State's corporate partnership program has grown exponentially under Salley's direction. Since taking over the program in 2021, Salley has increased revenue in partner giving by over 300% and tripled the amount of local businesses working with Henderson State Athletics. The growth in partners has allowed the department to add new branding at the football, basketball, baseball and softball facilities, much of which has been designed internally and has been used to enhance the look of Henderson's home venues.
Prior to his role as Associate Athletics Director, Salley was the Sports Information Director and statistician for football, volleyball, men's and women's basketball, softball and baseball. In this role, he organized the recording and cataloging of all statistics, photos and video for Reddie Athletics. He remains a member of CoSIDA and currently serves as the Super Region 3 Coordinator for Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) football voting. As SID, Salley took on the majority of the creative content for the department and has personally designed Henderson State's schedule posters, game day graphics, and creative video during his tenure, as well as the annual Reddie Club donation brochure. He continues to assist the sports information office by writing press releases, creating graphic content, and serving as public address announcer for basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball.
In 2024-25, Salley led a corporate partnership push that resulted in over $50,000 new dollars in revenue for the department during the school year and over $115,000 for Reddie Athletics over the life of the agreements. This included a first-time partnership for the university with Oaklawn Hot Springs, who agreed to serve as official sponsor of the Henderson State Sports Network broadcasts on YouTube. Salley also led his second re-design of the HSUsports.com athletics website and designed updated signage and dugout banners for the baseball program at Clyde Berry Field.
During the summer of 2023, Salley initiated and helped put into action Henderson State Athletics' partnership with the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) company Influxer, which allowed Reddie student-athletes to opt-in and receive NIL funds on sales of co-branded apparel. Henderson was the first school in the state of Arkansas, the first school in the Great American Conference, and one of the first NCAA Division II schools in the country to partner with Influxer.
In 2022, he oversaw and directed the promotion of Henderson's Military and First Responders Appreciation Day, which was recognized by the NCAA as a national finalist for Division II Award of Excellence. He also personally designed and had installed new large banners inside of Carpenter-Haygood Stadium for the first time in more than a decade. In previous years, Salley has handled the publicity efforts for the Reddies' nationally-ranked football team and the campaigns of multiple Harlon Hill nominees, as well as Henderson's GAC Champion men's basketball and baseball programs. In the summer and fall of 2019, he played a key role in directing Sport's Illustrated's lead-up and on-site coverage of the 93rd annual Battle of the Ravine, which produced a four-page spread featuring Henderson State in the magazine's weekly and online publications.
During his first year on the job in 2018, Salley oversaw the redesign of Henderson State's athletics website, hsusports.com, headed-up Henderson's Homecoming Golf Tournament at Lake DeGray State Park, participated on the voting pool for the Central Region in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, and served as the media director for the 2019 Men's NCAA Central/Midwest Golf Regional at Hot Springs Country Club.
Prior to earning a full-time title at Henderson and becoming one of the youngest SIDs in the country at any level, Salley was the Reddies' graduate assistant for sports information from 2016-18. During his two years as a GA, Salley played multiple roles for the Reddies, including head graphic designer for the department, as well as primary contact for volleyball, cross country, women's basketball, tennis and softball.
A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Salley received his bachelor's degree in Journalism from Harding University in 2016 and his master's degree in Sports Administration from Henderson State in 2018. He and his wife Rachel reside in Bryant, Arkansas with their son, Campbell.
