Iowa football’s new Director of Football Administration takes on role after years with the program

IOWA CITY — There’s one small photo taped to the doorway of Ireland Hostetler’s office in Hansen Football Performance Center. It was taken maybe 20 years ago, with Ireland wearing a bright yellow Hawkeye visor covering her then-bright blonde hair at a lemonade stand during an Iowa football tailgate.

Her grandparents were steps away from Kinnick Stadium, so it wasn’t uncommon to see a young Hostetler selling the summery beverage before watching the Hawkeyes play.

Good luck convincing Hostetler she’d end up anywhere but with Iowa football.

“When you live in this area, especially if you live this close to Iowa City, you're a Hawkeye,” Hostetler told The Gazette. “It's just how it works, but you're happy to do so.”

With a football Barbie doll set tucked in the top shelf of her office, standing out among the Citrus Bowl Cheez-It box and plethora of other game day memorabilia, Hostetler’s been with the program for four seasons — all as a student assistant for recruiting and operations. This year is her first with her own office, her own support staff and her own role.

Hostetler grew up 20 minutes away from University of Iowa’s campus. She had a job as a student receptionist with the Hawkeyes two weeks before her freshman classes began. She earned her undergraduate degree with the black and gold in sports management.

Now, she’s halfway through her first season as Iowa’s new Director of Football Administration, handling everything from recruiting, event planning and game day operations, while finishing her master’s degree with Iowa in business administration.

She’s also one of two female directors on Iowa football’s support staff.

It’s a role she stepped into after longtime director of operations, Paul Federici, retired in the offseason. Federici spent 20 years with Iowa football, working in his final role for 16 seasons. Hostetler worked with Federici while as a student assistant, and as a coordinator for recruiting and special events operations from 2022-24.

“Through her actions and ambition and passion,” Federici said, “her growth has really been accelerated because of the approach that she's taken and in the passion that she has shown, really from a pretty early stage.”

It’s why her office whiteboard is a never-ending checklist. Color-coordinated and all, Hostetler keeps track of every detail needed to make a football game run smoothly.

She knows the number of Powerade bags needed, how many pounds the equipment staff needs allocated to bring everything onto a plane. She keeps track of the meals catered at hotels during road trips.

All the recruiting visits done on Saturdays, and the special events for Homecoming and Family Weekend are all on her lengthy list of responsibilities, too.

“This is kind of the high level stuff that I just need to make sure that I hit, and then I have a more detailed version of that list in a spreadsheet,” Hostetler said. “Then I buzz down everything every single week. I can edit things, depending on if it's an evening game versus if we leave here earlier than not, too.”

Essentially, she does all the prep work ahead of kickoff.

“You get to those moments where it's actually game time and they say, ‘Well, what do you do?’” Hostetler said. “It's like, ‘I'm not doing anything during the game,’ if all things have gone well.”

The job involves hundreds of emails and text messages sent back-and-forth through the season. It’s where the outgoing, relationship side of operations comes into the picture. The job changes every day, but it’s a healthy mix of operations, recruiting and internal administration.

Federici’s lengthy tenure, along with now-Director of Player Operations Ben Hansen’s 10 years of experience, helped Hostetler integrate into the well-oiled machine the former-director of ops created. Federici and Hansen have known Hostetler since she was a freshman, and slowly brought her into the world she now leads.

It started with her having them both as mentors. She sat in on meetings and Zoom calls to see what it takes to get a team ready for every weekend. Then, it turned into her getting the responsibility to handle those tasks herself.

Hostetler, now in this larger role herself, still follows most of what Federici laid out before his retirement. She knows that she’s one of the only women in the room, but isn’t phased by it.

“Having been here since I was 18, these gentlemen have watched me grow up,” she said. “They've seen me come into my own and build my confidence and figure out who I am. So I appreciate that a lot of them respect the growth that I've had here, as well.”

And she’s happy to help other women understand what it takes to enter this field too, just like she did years ago.

“I think that it drives you more than anything,” Hostetler said, “and it definitely inspires me to kind of show other young women that they can definitely forge that space for themselves no matter what.”

She’ll graduate with her MBA in Business Administration in December, becoming a double-Hawkeye while balancing her new title. To celebrate her upcoming achievement, Hostetler took her graduation photos inside Iowa’s visiting locker rooms.

Maybe it’s the pastel pink that gives the pristine energy to the photos, or the red lipstick on the bathroom mirrors. She wanted to embrace the dichotomy, but also celebrate that she’s living the life that little girl selling lemonade could only dream of.

“Knowing that even though sometimes what I do is challenging in certain ways, it's so respected and I can be proud of myself,” Hostetler said. “My family is proud of me, and hopefully the people that I work with and work for are proud of the work that I do, too.”

Comments: madison.hricik@thegazette.com, sign up for my weekly newsletter, Hawk Off the Press, at thegazette.com/hawks.