Twenty sports. Twenty head coaches. More than 550 student-athletes. That’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears that need to be kept in check.
Managing Cal Poly’s athletic department seems almost too chaotic a task, but this year’s new Athletics Director Don Oberhelman handles it day by day, meeting by meeting. During his first year at Poly, the former San Diego State associate athletics director experienced a successful year that shaped the athletic department’s core values for the better.
The department had an eventful year with both highlights and challenges, said Oberhelman, who replaced retiree Alison Cone. Football, women’s basketball, men’s cross country and men’s tennis secured conference wins, and the department welcomed four new head coaches to replace those who left for a variety of reasons this year.
Some of Oberhelman’s favorite moments to happen this year were the men’s tennis team winning the regular season, Big West Conference Championship and the tournament post-season championship, he said. When the previous men’s tennis coach, Justin McGrath, left Cal Poly following an NCAA investigation of his scholarship practices, new head coach Nick Carless took over to lead the team’s successful season.
“I’m so proud of how (the tennis team) rebounded, how they reacted to the adversity,” Oberhelman said. “They accepted the challenge head on with great attitude and great enthusiasm. They decided they were going to win a championship together, and they went out and did exactly what they said they were going to.”
Carless describes the team’s year as “historic,” as there were many first-ever achievements to happen for Cal Poly. The team’s wins can be attributed to “persistence, working hard and strong dedication,” he said.
In particular, junior Andre Dome stood out and contributed greatly to the team’s success, Carless said. Dome was named Big West Conference Player of the Year; he won 22-7 matches overall, secured a 7-0 record in conference matches and defeated six nationally ranked players.
“I don’t think anybody had a better year than (Dome),” Carless said.
In addition to the men’s tennis team, three other sports had a memorable year, championship-wise.
The football team won the conference title its last year in the Great West, and will now upgrade to Big Sky Conference, the best conference in the Football Championship Subdivision, Oberhelman said. Moving up to the Big Sky will call for better competition, scheduling opportunities, TV opportunities, and ultimately, better revenue for the football program, he said.
Moving up to Big Sky will present a challenge, however, head coach Tim Walsh said.
“Instead of playing four teams for the championship, we’ll be playing eight teams,” he said. “And each week, each team’s pretty good. So the margin of error has definitely decreased.”
This week, Oberhelman organized for the players to receive their championship rings as a celebration of the season, where President Jeffrey Armstrong and the coaches spoke.
“I think (Oberhelman)’s just making a great statement,” Walsh said. “It’ll give the guys something to take for the rest of their lives. It’s emphasizing that it’s important to excel in everything that you do, and there’ll be rewards for excellence.”
In addition to the championship, former Cal Poly cornerback Asa Jackson was drafted in the fifth round by the Baltimore Ravens for the NFL. He recently signed a four-year contract, which Walsh said is another good thing for the football program in regards to recruiting.
Toward the top of campus in Mott Gym, the women’s basketball team also successfully completed their season, winning the regular season Big West title for the second year in a row.
Kristina Santiago, contributed majorly to the win as “one of the best student-athletes (Cal Poly’s) ever had,” Oberhelman said. She also picked up Cal Poly’s Female Athlete of the Year award for the second time. Boris Novachkov, who placed third at the NCAA Wrestling National Championships this year, claimed the award on the men’s side. He was a three-time All-American, four-time NCAA qualifier while posting a 121-33 record in his four years at Cal Poly.
“I think people understand who we are now,” Oberhelman said. “We’re good, and we’re going to stay good. All those things kind of help us when it comes to recruiting.”
Last but not least, the men’s cross country team snagged the 2011 Big West Conference Championship — its 11th team title in the past 14 seasons. The team had won seven consecutive championships until last year, but picked up this year right where they left off.
Head coach Mark Conover attributes the comeback to upperclassman leadership as well as the team’s passion for the sport.
“(The upperclassmen) decided to help everybody get better and get back to the top of the Big West,” he said. “And I think you have to keep in mind we live in a wonderful area for training. Running is a great therapeutic activity to balance out the stresses of life. I think these are people who really find the joy in running and really challenge themselves to achieve at the highest level.”
Oberhelman agrees the team has a lot of heart behind the sport.
“Everybody’s talented,” he said of the student-athletes. “It’s just about who wants it more. That sport is just all about mental toughness. And the fact that those young men won the conference title and branched into the NCAA reveals the content of their character; it shows how tough they are, and it shows their will to compete.”
Besides the excitement of winning national titles, the athletic department also had a very rewarding year in academics, Oberhelman said.
Cal Poly student-athletes currently graduate at a higher rate than the campus as a whole, he said — a statistic few other universities can claim. Many universities tend to have a clustering of majors where the majority of athletes major in subjects thought to be easier to get through as a student-athlete. At Cal Poly, however, the athletic department is diverse in majors. Its highest major of representation is the College of Business, with about 15 percent of the student-athletes, he said.
“I don’t think anybody at Cal Poly would think business is an easy major by any stretch,” he added.
One team in particular shone in their academic achievement; men’s basketball pulled off a cumulative GPA of 3.0.
“That’s just sheer insanity,” Oberhelman said. “I can’t even begin to tell you how difficult that is to achieve.”
The team’s success, although mainly due to individual hard work and dedication, is also attributed to help from the coaching staff and the department’s two academic advisers, Shannon Stevens and Carly Head.
Aside from the year’s highlights, the department overcame the challenge of replacing four head coaches.
Only one of the coaching changes was expected; Hugh Bream, women’s tennis coach, retired last April when Oberhelman first took over. Then former wrestling co-head coach Mark Perry’s unexpectedly resigned to become an assistant in Illinois. Following that, men’s tennis coach Justin McGrath left Cal Poly after an NCAA investigation of his scholarship practices and volleyball coach Jon Stevenson was relieved of his position when accusations of harassment, sexual and otherwise, went public.
“For me personally,” Oberhelman said, “the coaching changes that have transpired … they were hard, they were challenging and they hurt.”
The process of finding new coaches that fit perfectly at Cal Poly was very time consuming, but a worthwhile enterprise, he said. He hired Nick Carless as the new men’s tennis coach, Damon Coupe for women’s tennis, Sam Crosson for volleyball and Brendan Buckley for wrestling.
“In every single case, I don’t think we could have a better fit for who Cal Poly is and who our student-athletes are,” he said. “These coaches understand what it means to be a Cal Poly athlete here in that we honor academics first and foremost.”
Although he has been athletics director for only a year, Oberhelman has seen the department’s core values strengthen throughout this time. His initial goal was simple, he said — to hand out more diplomas and more championship rings, and this vision is unwavering to this day.
This year, he established The Mustang Way, a set of 12 principles written by many contributors to help inspire and unite student-athletes. He took the role of meticulously editing the honor code after taking the time to understand what made Cal Poly’s athletic programs unique.
“The privilege of being a Cal Poly Mustang must be earned daily and celebrated for a lifetime,” an excerpt from The Mustang Way reads. “As student-athletes, we take pride in achieving athletic and academic excellence.”
Oberhelman said he will continue to do his best in getting students and coaches the resources needed to be successful, he said.
“My calendar seems to be pretty full these days,” Oberhelman said. “It changes from day to day; the days are full, but very fun.”
To begin the day, Oberhelman has a daily morning routine of reading the paper and checking the athletic department’s website to stay up to date. The rest of the day can consist of workshops, evaluations to meetings with boosters, students and staff. He’s made it know he has an open door for students to come talk to him about any concerns they have, he said.
Walsh said Oberhelman has contributed to a positive atmosphere in the athletic department.
“He wants to win championships, and he’s excited about those things,” Walsh said. “But he wants the student-athletes to know that he’s behind them and he believes in college athletics. He wants them to have a good feeling of who he is as a leader.”
The new athletics director’s efforts have also made for a more unified department, Conover said.
“He’s brought a lot of cohesiveness to each team and the entire department as a whole,” Conover said.