Cal Sports Quarterly - Summer 2010

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SUMMER 2010 1

Double TroubleOn May 25, 2009, Golden Bears Mari Andersson and Jana Juri-

cova erased the bitter memories of a loss in the NCAA women’s tennis team final, cap-turing the national doubles championship over a tandem from Stanford. The triumph was just the latest chapter in a rich volume of successes by Cal women’s doubles pairs over the past dozen years.

Connection to CollegeJustin Jones is living a dream. While he is temporarily bypassing his goal of playing

professional baseball by going to school, the extremely talented freshman left-hander is fully realizing another vision – being a student-athlete at the University of California and taking advantage of opportunities at one of the leading academic institutions in the nation.

DEPARTMENTSLETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS .............................2

SIDELINE REPORT ..........................................4

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? ............................16

2009-10 SEASON REVIEWS ..........................18

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS .......................34

The Consummate CompetitorMany extol the best of both worlds experience that Cal of-

fers its student-athletes with top-notch aca-demics and nationally ranked athletics, and All-American Valerie Arioto brings a similar one-two punch to the perennial powerhouse that is the California softball team. Arioto’s position is listed as a utility, and one word could not more fittingly describe the junior All-American.

Hard-Luck HurdlerKimyon Broom, Cal’s record-holder in the 100-meter hurdles

and a two-time Pac-10 champion in the event, has rarely faced an opponent who could beat her down the straightaway dur-ing her Golden Bear career. Injuries and ac-cidents, though, have presented completely different obstacles, often bringing promising seasons to sudden and disappointing ends.

Shine Like the SonsinisLarry Sonsini and his son, Pete, both represented their Uni-

versity as members of the rugby program, gaining the experience and confidence to become successful long after their playing days were over. Responding in kind to the support they got from Cal, the Sonsinis have been committed supporters to the future of Intercollegiate Athletics.

SPORTSQUARTERLY

CONTENTS

SuMMER 2010

oN ThE covER The Meaning of Hard WorkWhen 21-year-old Eric Mina became only the second Cal men’s golfer in the 51-year history of

the Pac-10 Championships to win the conference’s individual medalist honors this spring, it is fair to say that this dream start-ed more than 80 years ago when his grandfather and great grandfather migrated to the United States.

FEATuRES

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14

22

8

28

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2 cal SpoRtS qUaRtERly

Dear Friend of Cal Athletics:

So often in our conversations about Intercollegiate Athletics, we talk about the Cal Athletics family, the wide-ranging commu-

nity of student-athletes, coaches, staff, alumni and other supporters who care so deeply about the teams and individuals that represent our University. Whether it concerns athletic success, academic achievement or personal triumph, we all feel a strong sense of gratification at the accomplishments of our Golden Bears.

Many of the features that appear on the following pages of the Cal Sports Quarterly demonstrate the benefits of having strong ties to each other and the campus. Eric Mina, who graces our cover after having captured the Pac-10 men’s golf championship, believes the roots of his recent victory can be traced to the dreams of his grandfather when he immigrated to the United States more than 80 years ago. The father-and-son duo of Larry and Pete Sonsini, both members of the Cal rugby program as under-graduates, formed a bond with the University and Cal Athletics that keeps them involved well after their graduation. And in women’s tennis, the experience that Amanda Augustus gained as a player in winning a pair of NCAA doubles titles clearly profited her pupils Mari Andersson and Jana Juricova during their national title run in 2009.

Of course, the list of the new members of our Cal Athletic Hall of Fame, found in the Sideline Report, embodies some of the best and brightest ever to wear the Blue & Gold.

The current generation of Golden Bears is also living up to the high standards set by their predecessors. Our graduation rates continue to rise steadily, and the latest Academic Progress Rate report cited four of our teams – men’s golf, women’s lacrosse, women’s rowing and women’s volleyball – for special recognition based on their high achievement compared to their peers.

In the athletic arena, we added to our long list of national championships when both our rugby program and men’s varsity 8 returned to their more customary spot atop the standings. Individually, men’s and women’s swimming combined for nine NCAA crowns, giving them an amazing 16 titles the past two years. As a result, Cal finished ninth in the 2009-10 Director’s Cup competition, our fifth consecutive top 10 finish, and seventh in the last eight years.

And let’s not forget the progress being made in Strawberry Canyon with the construc-tion of the Student-Athlete High Performance Center and the renovation of California Me-morial Stadium well underway. The progress will be clearly evident to all our fans during our games in Berkeley this fall. We can’t wait to welcome you and show off our progress!

None of us, though, can ever rest on our laurels. Our collective effort – student-athletes, coaches, staff and support-ers like you – is needed for us to continue to strive for the highest ideals of both our department and University. Your generosity and encouragement helps make all of it possible.

I hope you have an enjoyable summer and, as always, Go Bears!

Sandy Barbour

Director of Athletics

SUMMER 2010

ATHLETIC ADMINISTRATION

DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS:Sandy Barbour

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS:Steve Holton

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS/SWA:Teresa Kuehn Gould

SENIOR ASSOCIATE AD/INTERCOLLEGIATE SERVICES:Foti Mellis

HIGH PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR:Keith Power

EDITORIAL STAFF

349 Haas Pavilion Berkeley, CA 94720

EDITOR:Herb Benenson

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:Scott Ball, Dean Caparaz, Melissa Dudek,

Anton Malko, Kyle McRae, Tim Miguel, Anna Oleson-Wheeler, Jeremy Wu, Allison Yee

DESIGN:Evan Kerr

PHOTOGRAPHY:John Todd (goldenbearsports.com), Michael

Pimentel, Kelley Cox, John Dunbar, Evan Kerr, among others

ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

195 Haas Pavilion Berkeley, CA 94720

510-642-2427 [email protected]

ATHLETIC TICKET OFFICE

(800) GO BEARSFor daily updates on Cal Athletics, including

schedules, press releases and player profiles, visit the department’s official website

at CalBears.com.

ON THE COVER

Cal junior Eric Mina captured the 2010 Pac-10 men’s golf championship, becoming the second

Golden Bear to claim medalist honors. Photo by John Todd.

LETTER fRom DiREcToR of AThLETics sAnDy BARBouR

General Manager: Damon Dukakis(510) 643-4825

[email protected]

2010 Cal Football Tickets Available Now

Experience the final season in California Memorial Stadium before the venerable facility

undergoes its massive retrofit and renovation by becoming a season-ticket holder for 2010.

Benefits include a great seat for ev-ery home game, including the 113th Big Game versus Stanford, and the option to purchase parking, priority tickets for bowl games, single-game and away tickets, and much more.

A new feature for this fall will provide all season-ticket holders who purchase before July 19 a commemorative Me-morial Stadium collector’s pin.

All 2010 Cal football season-ticket holders are also guaranteed the oppor-tunity to buy season tickets in 2011 when the Golden Bears will play their home games at San Francisco’s AT&T Park.

For more information and to order your tickets, visit CalBears.com or call 800-GO BEARS (462-3277).

Men’s Varsity 8 Captures 16th IRA Crown

Single-game ticket and mini-plan on-sale dates are as follows:Wednesday, June 2 .........Donors/Season-ticket holders Pappy Waldorf & above ($7,800+)Monday, June 7 ................Donors/Season-ticket holders Coaches Club & above ($2,100+)

& Non-Season-ticket holders Pappy Waldorf & aboveMonday, June 14 ........................... Donors/Season-ticket holders Cal Club & above ($75+)

& Non-Season-ticket holders Coaches Club & aboveWednesday, June 23 ...................................................................... All season-ticket holdersTuesday, June 29 ....................................................Mini-plans on sale to the general publicMonday, July 19 ..............Non-Season-ticket holder donors at the Cal Club & above ($75+)Tuesday, July 20 ............................................... Cal Football Gameday E-News subscribersWednesday, July 21 ............................................Single-game on sale to the general public

All sales based on availability while supplies last.

As a benefit of being a Bear Backer and season-ticket holder, fans have

the opportunity to purchase single-game football tickets and newly introduced mini-plans before they go on sale to the general public.

Mini-plans run $135 each and include a ticket to the UCLA and Oregon games, as well as a choice between the Colorado or Washington contests.

siDELinE REPoRT


With a quarter-second victory over rival Washington in the Grand Final June 5, Cal’s varsity 8 won its 16th

IRA championship and first since 2006.The Bears, who were ranked second

to the Huskies all season, had lost to UW three previous times in 2010. But when it mattered most, Cal came through to cover the 2000-meter course in 5:23.89 to Wash-ington’s 5:24.16.

“It was another epic battle and a great race,” second-year head coach Mike Teti

said after the race. “I’m so proud of our guys. Both crews did well; they were racing at world-class speeds. We had the tailwind in our favor, and we executed well. We were 10 strokes behind, and then we were just able to get ahead of them at the end. It re-ally came down to the last 15.”

The Bears claimed their first IRA gold medal in 1928, and put together a streak of four in a row from 1999-2002 before win-ning again in 2006. Cal was the national runner-up last season.

Cal Football Single-Game Tickets and Mini-Plans

Rugby Earns 25th All-Time National Collegiate TitleWin over BYU Culminates First Undefeated Season since 2002

25th Hall of Fame Class Includes 8 New Members

The 25th Cal Athletic Hall of Fame class features eight new members who will be enshrined at a ceremony

on Friday, Oct. 22 at the Greek Orthodox Church convention center in Oakland. The group will then be introduced during halftime festivities during Cal’s home football game against Arizona State the following day.

The Class of 2010 consists of track & field’s Dave Archibald, one of the fin-est quarter-milers in school history; TomGioseffi, the first boxer to be elected to the Hall of Fame; Jack Hart, who served as co-captain of Cal’s 1959 Rose Bowl football team; Don James Jr., a four-time All-American in rugby; CourtneyJohnson, a member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team; basket-ball’s Teresa Palmisano, who scored more than 1,600 points in her career; Pam Reinoehl, an All-American softball player who set a host of school records that stood for more than a decade; and men’s swimming coach Nort Thornton, who di-rected the Golden Bears to a pair of NCAA team titles in his 33 years overseeing the program.

For more infor-mation on each of the new induct-ees, including a slideshow of action photos, see the Gen-eral Releases link un-der Inside Athletics at CalBears.com.

Games Are More Fun with a Group

SUMMER 2010 5

An emotional 128th season of California rugby ended with tears of joy May 1 at Stanford’s

Steuber Rugby Stadium, where the Golden Bears took back the national collegiate championship with a 19-7 win over Brigham Young. Cal’s victory over the Cougars in their fifth straight championship showdown capped a 26-0 season to give the program its first undefeated season since 2002, when the Bears went 19-0.Cal rugby has now won 25 of the 31

national title games played in the United States since 1980, when the modern national collegiate champion-ship was inaugurated by USA Rugby. Lock Eric Fry was named the final’s Most Valuable Player as he and fel-low tri-captains Keegan Engelbrecht and Colin Hawley helped to bring the championship back to Berkeley. Head coach Jack Clark notched his 21st title to close out his 27th year at the helm and now has a career coaching record of 496-68-5.

Cal football games are an exciting time for any Golden Bear or college football fan, and group

tickets offer a great opportunity to entertain clients, take an office outing, reward employees for their hard work or plan a family reunion.

Fans who purchase a minimum of 25 tick-ets receive a significant discount on most

home games*, and the chance to receive benefits including a group salute on the video board, special experiences and more.

For more information, visit CalBears.com/groups or contact Kevin Holman, as-sistant director of ticket sales, at (510) 642-8131 or [email protected].

*Group tickets are not available for the Cal vs. Stanford game.

2010 Hall of fame Inductees Courtney Johnson (above) and Jack Hart

Student-Athletes Recognized at Annual Honors Luncheon

Golden Bear Team Award

Men’s Golf (highest GPA, 3.36)

Big C Most Improved Team Award

Men’s Golf (improvement in team GPA)

Pac-10 Postgraduate Scholarships

Sophia Hocini (women’s gymnastics)Kellan Patterson (men’s track & field)

Shay Seager (women’s crew)

Oscar Geballe Postgraduate Scholarships

Anthony Ervin (men’s swimming)Laurel Kuhn (women’s crew)

Neufeld Scholar-Athlete Awards

(senior with highest GPA)Mark Boskovich (football)

Theresa Raub (women’s track & field)

Lauren Greif and Theo Robertson


siDE

Lin

E REPoRT

Cancer Claims Jill Costello

Cal coxswain Jill Costello, the 2010 Pac-10 Women’s Rowing Athlete of the Year who led the

Bears to a runner-up NCAA finish this past May, lost her year-long battle with lung cancer June 24.

“Jill was a wonderful per-son in every way, and we were blessed to have had her in our lives,” head coach Dave O’Neill said. “Back when Jill

was diagnosed, she wrote, ‘Life is all about how we handle the challenges we are given.’ Jill faced this chal-lenge with absolute courage, grace and dignity, and was an inspiration for so many people, especially our team. As much as everyone tried to lend a hand, Jill was the one inspiring all of us. The core of `Team Jill’ was her parents, Mary and Jim, and aunt, Kathy. Our hearts go out to them.”

Costello, a non-smoker, was diag-nosed with stage IV lung cancer – the most advance form of the disease – just after the 2009 NCAA Champion-ships. She received her bachelor’s de-gree in political economy in May and was voted to the second-team Pac-10 All-Academic squad. Costello, who was featured in the spring issue of the Cal Sports Quarterly, also received the 2010 Joseph McDonnell Kavana-gh Award as Cal’s most inspirational student-athlete.

Jill Costello

More than 200 student-athletes with a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher were recognized for their

achievements at the annual Academic Honors Luncheon in early May.

The occasion provides a forum for Cal Athletics to pay tribute to classroom achievements of the Golden Bears. The event is co-sponsored by the Athletic Study Center and the Big C Society.

Among the awards presented were the Pac-10 Medals, which go to the outstanding

senior student-athletes for men and women. This year’s recipients both earned Pac-10 Player of the Year notice in their respective sports – Jerome Randle in men’s basketball and Hana Cutura in volleyball.

Offensive lineman Mark Boskovich be-came the second straight football player – following Alex Mack in 2009 – to claim the men’s Neufeld Scholar-Athlete Award for having the highest GPA among graduating student-athletes. The women’s honor went to track & field pole vaulter Theresa Raub.

19 Sports Post Gains in Latest APR Scores

Pac-10 Medal(outstanding senior student-athlete)Jerome Randle (men’s basketball)

Hana Cutura (volleyball)

Jake Gimbel Award

(Golden Bear spirit)Theo Robertson (men’s basketball)

Anna Espenschade Award

(Golden Bear spirit)Lauren Greif (women’s basketball)

Joseph McDonnell Kavanagh Award

(most inspirational)Jill Costello (women’s crew)

Walter A. Haas Jr. Community Service AwardSophia Hocini (women’s gymnastics)

Cal’s NCAA-sponsored intercollegiate athletic programs continue to show steady improvements in their

Academic Progress Rate (APR) results, with 19 teams increasing their multiyear scores from last year, according the most recent data released by the NCAA in early June.

Developed by member institutions as the centerpiece of its academic reform pack-age, the APR provides a real-time view of a team’s academic success by tracking the progress of each student-athlete dur-ing the school year. By measuring eligibility and retention each term, the APR provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport.

The averages, which are current through the 2008-09 academic year, show that eight of Cal’s teams saw their rates rise

by at least 10 points. Men’s basketball had the largest increase, going from 944 to 967, while women’s water polo’s score climbed 19 points higher to 990, and both men’s golf and men’s gymnastics had their scores grow by 18 points apiece. Football remained second in the conference among all Pac-10 schools.

Earlier in the spring, four of Cal’s pro-grams – men’s golf, women’s lacrosse, women’s rowing and volleyball – received special recognition from the NCAA for their exceptional work in the classroom. Each of them posted APR scores in the top 10 per-cent compared to all squads in their particu-lar sports. Men’s golf, women’s rowing and women’s lacrosse all had APRs of 1,000, which is the highest score possible. Volley-ball’s score was 995.

Pending final WASC approval.


The Meaning of

Hard WorkFamily Ethic Plays Key Role in Helping Golf’s Eric Mina Capture Pac-10 Title

FEATURE

When 21-year-old Eric Mina became only the second Cal men’s golfer in the 51-year

history of the Pac-10 Championships to win the conference’s individual medalist honors this spring, it is fair to say that this dream started more than 80 years ago.

That’s when Mina’s grandfather and great grandfather migrated to the United States. Although the earlier generations may not have known specifically what op-portunities they were creating for their de-scendants, the foundation of hard work they established is one of the primary reasons Mina has accomplished what he has today.

“Eric is a product of something that was planned by previous generations,” explained his father, Erwin. “They had an idea that the sacrifices they made would help their children and their children’s chil-dren to make a better life. The whole at-titude that they brought was all about hard work, and Eric is a prime example. He makes no excuses, and he’s worked really hard at what he does. Anything he gets, he’s earned.”

In addition to now having his name on a list of Pac-10 champions that includes golf greats such as Cal’s own Charlie Wi, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, what Mina has today is every intention and plenty of good reasons to believe that he will be able to continue living his dream for many years to come as a member of the PGA Tour.

“My ultimate goal is to be a professional golfer, be successful and to stay on the PGA Tour year-in and year-out,” said Mina.

A lot has happened in the last 80 years to make this dream a realistic possibility.

Generations of Minas toiled as farm laborers in the hot and dusty fields near Delano, Calif., picking grapes in the agri-cultural community located approximately 30 miles to the northwest of Bakersfield in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Erwin Mina grew up as one of six children in a farm labor camp, where his father was a contractor and foreman for the workers and his mother served as a cook.

“We’ve lived that life, but all of us gradu-ated with college degrees,” said Erwin.

Erwin left that life in Delano in 1977 to pursue a college education at San Jose State and met his wife, Corie, who had grown up in a similar setting in Stockton. Although Erwin and Corie did not grow up in families of great means, both credit their successful professional careers to family environments that stressed hard work and education as roads to success.

More than 30 years and lots of hard work later, Erwin is a successful businessman involved in new product introduction in the high-tech industry and Corie has a thriving career as a pharmaceutical rep.By Kyle McRae


SUMMER 2010 9

“It’s been a long, long journey,” Erwin emphasized.

Although Erwin and Corie have been able to provide greater means for Eric and his younger brother, Cameron, the concept of hard work and education as a path to success has certainly carried on to the next generation.

Eric began working on his golf game at the age of five and hasn’t stopped since. Al-though he took to the sport immediately and seemed to be a natural right from the start, his path wasn’t the same as it has been for many in what is often considered a sport for the elite.

Mina’s humble beginning started when he would tag along with his father just about ev-erywhere he went, including to lessons from a local golf pro. When the pro told Erwin how interested Eric looked in what they were do-ing, he decided to get his son a club.

That’s right, not a set of clubs, but a club.“We got him an old Wilson Pro Staff sev-

en iron that we cut in half and put a grip on,” recalled Erwin. “The cut-down club was still pretty much the same length as Eric, but he loved it. He played with it that whole day and wanted to sleep with it that night.”

Eric’s golf career was underway and his set of clubs soon expanded to four. When he was nine, Erwin inadvertently entered him into a premiere junior tournament for Eric’s first competitive event and he took fourth place, still without a full set of clubs.

“I don’t know why I only had four clubs,” said Eric. “But I saw a lot of kids at that age have the best technology right from the get go. They all outdrove me, but I feel like that hurt their swings. I learned how to hit shots, but most of them never developed.”

Although Eric’s game was already seri-ous at the age of nine, he was still a little more interested in having fun.

“I asked him if he liked playing in the tournament, and he said ‘I liked the food and the root beer,’” Erwin said. “That was a good start.”

But golf started to take precedence over the refreshments in junior high school when Erwin and his friend Dean Fortino took Eric to Augusta to watch The Masters.

“Going to The Masters was a really spe-cial thing for Eric,” Erwin said. “He saw all his superheroes.”

“The Masters was certainly one of the most memorable experiences in my golf ca-reer,” confirmed Eric. “I was able to watch the best players in the world practice and compete. This further inspired me to strive

to become a pro and I definitely admired their work ethics. One thing that I practice now that I learned then was the rhythm of their swings. Their tempos are the same on every shot. Also, because Augusta was ba-sically a domed golf course, the noise and atmosphere was amplified no matter where you were on the course. That experience motivated me to work extremely hard so that one day I would be able to compete in The Masters.”

Mina has been serious about the game since, constantly fine-tuning his craft and making steady improvements.

From left: Eric’s grandfather, Silveno Mina, who immigrated to the United States from the Philippines more than 80 years ago; Eric playing golf at age 9; the Mina family today: Corie, Eric, Cameron and Erwin.

Erica Mina credits head coach Steve Desimone with improving his game since his arrival at Cal in 2007.

He was a strong high school golfer, played well in amateur events throughout his youth and was moderately successful in his first two campaigns at Cal, but the hard work he has put in over the years has paid off more than ever during the 2009-10 season. He won his first two individual collegiate crowns, posted the team’s lowest stroke average,

was its top finisher in seven of 14 tour-naments and led the Bears back to the NCAA Champion-ships for the first time since 2004.

“Eric has made great strides because of his passion and work ethic,” said Cal head coach Steve Desimone. “A lot of what we’re seeing now, we saw bits and pieces of a year ago.”

Mina is also quick to shower prais-es on Desimone, associate head coach Walter Chun and the Cal golf program.

“Cal golf has been everything for my golf experience,” said Mina. “Coming here I learned a lot more about golf, about myself and about how I can improve. With the expe-rience that coach Des and Walter have, they have influenced me in a lot of shots and in a lot of the ways I practice that have helped me improve and become the player I am right now. Hopefully, I will continue to improve.”

Mina said that winning the Spartan Golf Classic early during the 2009-10 campaign was the turning point of his collegiate career.

“Winning that tournament showed me that I have the ability to win a college event,” he said. “It definitely motivated me and in-spired me to work hard to put myself in that position again. During the Pac-10 Cham-pionship, I thought back to how I handled everything in Michigan.”

It still hasn’t quite sunk in yet for Erwin that the little boy with the cut-off seven iron is now the Pac-10 champion, but he has certainly realized the man that his little boy has become.

“My wife and I woke up the other morning and said ‘Can you believe he actually won the Pac-10?’” said Erwin. “But my biggest goal in life was for him to become a good man and the pride I feel for him winning the Pac-10 title is on top of the pride that I al-ready had for him. For him to be the best makes me understand the kind of person he is, and the resolve and staying power he has to work really hard at what he does.”

Whether it’s picking grapes, develop-ing successful professional careers or hit-ting golf balls better than anyone else, the Minas have been working hard at what they do for years.

SUMMER 2010 9


TheConsummate Competitor

Arioto is listed as a utility player, and one word could not more fittingly describe the

junior for she has played in the outfield, in the infield and as a pitcher for the Golden Bears, filling in wherever her team needs her. On the other side of the ball, Arioto is an offensive juggernaut who tied the Cal season record for home runs this past year with 19 round trippers and earned a confer-ence-leading 81 walks. It was Arioto’s dual-pronged talent package that first drew head coach Diane Ninemire to the Pleasanton, Calif., product.

“When we were looking at her, we were thrilled to see that she was not just a one-dimensional player,” Ninemire noted. “We knew she would be a great addition to the program, whether we had her in the in-field, outfield, pitching or hitting. She is the quality of player that we needed to get our

FEATURE

Versatile Valerie Arioto Helps Cal Remain

a National Contender

By Anna Oleson-Wheeler

team back to the Women’s College World Series.”

Along with her athletic abilities, Arioto possesses an innate competitive fire. Both Arioto and her teammates will tell you that when Arioto is in the circle, she is not to be disturbed. While she can be seen joking with her fellow Bears prior to the game, the euphemism of being in the zone aptly de-scribes the 5-7 hurler who zeroes in on the task at hand once she steps onto the field.

“She’s a competitor in the truest sense of the word, which can actually get in the way,” Cal pitching coach John Reeves said with a slight chuckle. “She used to get frustrated when things would not go her way, but she is much calmer nowadays. One of the great things about Val is that she is coachable because she knows what she wants – she wants to be good, and she is.”

Good does not begin to describe it. In 2010, Arioto was second among the Bears

Valerie Arioto

Many extol the best of both worlds experience that Cal offers its student-athletes with top-notch academics and nationally ranked athletics, and All-American

Valerie Arioto brings a similar one-two punch to the perennial powerhouse that is the California softball team.

SUMMER 2010 13

with a .355 batting average and led Cal with 19 homers and 60 RBI coupled with her astonishing .819 slugging percentage and .590 on-base percentage. She also boasted a 21-9 record and 1.43 ERA in 205 innings of work, fanning 264 batters. Dur-ing the regular season, Arioto was third in the Pac-10 with her 1.31 ERA, limiting her opponents to a .168 batting average, which also ranked her third in the conference.

Arioto helped lead the Bears to their 11th NCAA regional title in the past 12 seasons, hitting .571 at the Columbus, Ohio, site and homering in each of the three games. Thanks to her 1.857 slugging percentage and team-high seven RBI, Cal advanced to Super Regionals for the fifth time since the format was adopted six years ago.

For her successes, Arioto was heralded as a Louisville Slugger/NFCA first-team All-American after being lauded as a third-team choice in 2009. She was placed on the All-Pac-10 first team as well as the All-Region squad. Even more notably, Arioto was named as one the top-10 contenders for the USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year Award, the most presti-gious honor in collegiate softball.

“Val only knows one speed – all out, all the time,” Ninemire said. “She isn’t a person that you can hold back or slow down. That’s what drives her to be a passionate player and al-lows her to go out and perform at a high level.”

Ninemire and her coaching staff did not have to look far to find Arioto, who starred at Foothill High School, a short jaunt down the freeway from the Bears’ home at Levine-Fricke Field. Cal was the first school to ap-proach Arioto, and she was immediately sold, much to the surprise of her family.

“When I came on the unofficial visit, they offered me a full ride, and I jumped at it,” Arioto recalled. “My dad, always the busi-ness man, wanted to consider all of our options but I knew right away that Cal was a perfect fit for me. Coach knew what she

wanted and how confident she was in me and she believed in me.”

From the school’s academic reputation to the success of the softball program, which was just three years removed from its 2002 Women’s College World Series title at the time, the pairing of Arioto and Cal seemed ideal. Selecting a college close to home also weighed into the decision.

“I love the family support that playing close to home affords me,” said Arioto, who is majoring in American studies with an em-phasis in media, entertainment and tech-nology. “My grandparents also come to my home games, which is incredibly important to me. My parents come to all of my games both here and on the road.”

Arioto’s parents even accompanied her to Japan last summer when Arioto led the U.S. delegation to a gold medal at the Ja-pan Cup, with the Americans winning all four of their games in the tournament. Ari-oto had an RBI in the first meeting against Japan, getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in the first run. Arioto also hit a solo home run against Chinese Taipei.

In January of this year, USA Softball in-vited Arioto to its training camp and named her an alternate to the Senior National team. Arioto and her Cal coaches alike have noticed the difference in her game af-ter she returned to Berkeley following her

national team travels.“The entire process from Japan to the

camp was a big learning experience for me,” Arioto said. “I played with people from different generations who I really looked up to. I think it matured me as a player and a person and that I was able to bring some of the things I learned back to the team.”

Arioto will have the opportunity to further her softball education this summer playing with the USA Softball Women’s Futures National team. The squad will square off in exhibition games against the U.S. Senior National team in Ohio in mid-June before competing against the national teams of Canada, Japan and the USA at the 2010 World Cup of Softball.

Additionally, Arioto and the 19 other players will play at the Canadian Open Fast Pitch International Championship from July 7-11 in Surrey, British Colum-bia. And in August, they will make a return to Japan for the Japan Cup Aug. 3-9 in Sendai City.

Already thinking about next season, Arioto hopes to return to Berkeley in the fall even more prepared to cap off her Cal career with a trip to the Women’s College World Series, a feat which has eluded her thus far as a Bear. With her softball prow-ess and driving competitiveness, Arioto looks poised for success.

“Val only knows one speed – all out, all the time. She isn’t a person that you can hold back or slow down. That’s what drives her to be a passionate player and allows her to go

out and perform at a high level.”– head coach Diane Ninemire

From left: Valerie Arioto starred at Foothill High School before joining the Golden Bears; Arioto flanked by her grandparents, Carlee and Bud Arioto; Arioto with her parents, Lee and Barbara, and her brother, Tim.

Hard-Luck HurdlerInjuries Slow,

But Don’t Stall

Cal Record-Holder

Kimyon Broom

FEATURE

14 Cal sPoRTs quaRTERly

By Herb Benenson

after petitioning the NCAA this summer for a medical hardship.

“I’ve been amazed at her optimism and her willingness to go through all this,” San-doval said. “I’m just hoping that when she leaves here, she can walk out with an indi-vidual All-American certificate.”

Hurdling has been Broom’s focus in track & field since she was competing at the age-group level as an 11-year-old. From the moment her coach suggested she try the hurdles, Broom was hooked. Not to men-tion, she turned out to have a natural ability in the event that led to quick success.

By the time she finished at Junipero Ser-ra High School, Broom had won three CIF Division IV titles in the 100 hurdles and was the 2005 state runner-up.

Once at Cal, she posted the Bears’ best time in the 100 hurdles her freshman sea-son with a mark of 13.77 seconds. Then

with the arrival of Mike Gipson as Cal’s new hurdles coach, her times began to drop considerably.

“She’s a student of the event,” said Gip-son, who just completed his third year with the Bears. “She’s very easy to coach be-cause of her willingness to learn. We now see the same things. I’ll see something that she’s doing wrong. And before I can say it, she’ll come back and say she knew what she did. It makes my job a lot easier.”

Added Broom: “Coach and I can have ca-sual conversations about hurdling and how we can improve on this or change that. Ba-sically, it’s like perfecting a craft. I pick up on things. I’m an easy learner.”

To the uninformed observer, hurdling can seem like a simple event – run 100 meters down the track and jump over ten 33-inch high barriers. The reality is that it contains a degree of complexity that requires disci-pline and control.

“Hurdling is very technical,” Gipson said. “At Cal, we are very technical across the board. With the intellect at Cal, the athletes are smart. They are hungry and they want to learn more about the sport and their event. Where Kimyon is concerned, she brings a lot of tools and an eagerness to learn. She has a fair amount of speed, but she’s an exceptional technician. That’s why she’s close to the top of the NCAA.”

One of the primary methods Gipson uses to increase athletes’ knowledge is Internet study because of the vast amount of infor-mation available online. He encourages them to read as much as possible about their particular event, even if it is counter to Cal’s

training plan because he believes it can help solidify what is being done currently.

“It’s like being in school doing your re-search,” Broom said.

Broom believes her breakthrough came at the 2008 Pac-10 meet when she cap-tured her first conference crown, defeating Arizona State’s Jackie Johnson, 13.26 to 13.39, on Johnson’s home track in Tempe.

Despite missing out on the opportunity to reach NCAA’s later that year, Broom used her victory as a springboard. Over the en-suing two seasons, she ran 12 races under the previous Cal record time of 13.43 sec-onds. In addition, she set a school indoor record this past winter, covering the 60-me-ter race in 8.30 seconds.

An easy-going person off the track, Broom’s demeanor doesn’t change much in the moments leading up to competition. Just before a race, she can often be heard

singing a song or laughing with her fellow hurdlers. But, according to Gipson, she’s fierce when it matters.

“Once I’m in the blocks, I’m ready,” Broom said. “I say the same thing every time be-fore I run – thank God, thank my mom, stay low over the hurdles and run.”

Broom can also thank her mother, Pamela, for introducing her to an organization that will very likely shape her post-Cal career. United Peace Officers Against Crime (UPAC), which provides leadership and education opportuni-ties for at-risk youth, was founded by Sgt. An-thony Campbell, a close friend of the Brooms who worked alongside Pamela at the Los An-geles County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m a social welfare major, so I’m all about helping others and the well-being of others,” said Kimyon, who rose from junior counselor to counselor to mentor during UPAC sum-mer camps. “It’s a great program for expos-ing inner-city kids to different opportunities besides the street life. I can say, ‘I grew up with you. I know how it is. I made it to college and I am a Division I athlete.’ It’s basically showing them another alternative.”

Just as the children Broom helps through UPAC face hardships every day, Broom her-self has had to overcome her own set of chal-lenges as Golden Bear. And given the resolve she had demonstrated to return to the track each time, Broom can speak from experi-ence that she knows how to battle through circumstances that could have defeated a person with less determination to succeed.

Kimyon Broom, Cal’s record-holder in the 100-meter hurdles and a two-time Pac-10 champion

in the event, has rarely faced an opponent who could beat her down the straightaway during her Golden Bear career.

From the middle of 2008 until the Pac-10 Championships this past May, Broom lost only one hurdles race to a collegiate runner – and that was by a mere one-hundredth of a second during a meet in April 2009 at UCLA.

Injuries and accidents, though, have pre-sented completely different obstacles. For the senior from Inglewood, Calif., setbacks just seemed to crop up at the most inop-portune times, and in each case, promising seasons came to sudden and disappointing ends.

“I can’t tell you how disheartening it is to have her each year get some kind of injury along the way,” director of track & field Tony Sandoval said. “There’s no question she could have been top eight indoors and out-doors the last two or three years.”

As sophomore in 2008, a disc injury in Broom’s back that began radiating pain into her hamstring slowed her early train-ing. She recovered in time to break the Cal mark in the hurdles in the semifinals at the Pac-10 meet, running 13.17, before captur-ing the title with a time of 13.26 seconds. At NCAA regionals, she appeared to be headed towards nationals with a big lead in the 100 hurdles final, but she took a hard fall and missed the opportunity.

A year later, Broom was diagnosed with a femoral stress fracture in her leg, which cut short her indoor season. Once outdoors, Broom was healthy again and peaked at the Pac-10 meet when she lowered her school record to 13.02 seconds, resulting in another league crown. Then at regionals, her hamstring injury resurfaced and she was unable to finish her race.

As a senior this past spring, Broom post-ed the fastest time in the conference – 13.18 seconds – heading into the Pac-10 Cham-pionships at Cal’s Edwards Stadium, where she was primed to run under 13 seconds and become just the third Cal woman to win three Pac-10 titles in a career. Although she had been nursing a sore knee much of the year, at the conference meet the pain be-came unbearable and she slowed consider-ably in the final to 14.00 seconds. Less than two weeks later, she underwent surgery re-pair cartilage in her knee.

“I feel like I’ve been robbed every year,” Broom said.

All is not gloom and doom for Broom, however. Throughout her ordeals, Broom has continued to come back stronger and faster each time. And she still hopes to have one more season to compete indoors

SUMMER 2010 15

Kimyon Broom is the fastest hurdler in Cal history, running 13.02 over 100 meters outdoors and 8.30 over 60 meters indoors.

Kimyon Broom


“He was a great racing coxswain. The one gift he had as a coxswain, he was able to almost slow everything down. If something was wrong with the crew, he was able to gather the crew, make adjustments mid-race and

still win. I don’t think we would’ve won without him.”Cipollone was pleased when his former coach took the reigns of

his alma mater.“I totally encouraged him to take the job,” Cipollone said. “Not just

for selfish alum reasons. Mike is a teacher, and the lessons he will teach young people wind up being valuable in the rest of your life.”

A member of Cal’s team that won the Pac-10 title in 1994, his final season as a Bear, Cipollone also earned All-Pac-10 honors that year.

Mostly retired from competition, Cipollone now works for an e-commerce company in Palo Alto. He is still connected to the sport – he has been a member of the USRowing Board of Directors

for five years and gives clin-ics, he said, “to make a better generation of coxswains.”

The 39-yeard-old still com-petes on occasion, most re-cently last summer ahead of the 2009 Henley Royal Regatta when he joined some Brown University alumni for a race against the English National team.

“Conditions were horren-dous,” Cipollone recalled. “They won, but we gave those guys a run for their money. For me, that centered around getting to spend time with all my friends, who I don’t see often enough. That was a fun time.”

For Pete Cipollone, rowing now provides a way to get together with old friends. That was the case this past March 20 when the California crew alumnus reunited with

several of his buddies during their induction into the National Rowing Hall of Fame in Mystic Seaport, Conn.

Cipollone was enshrined with his teammates from the U.S. men’s 8+ that captured the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, a group that included current Golden Bears assistant coach Wyatt Allen, a rower on the boat, as well as former U.S. and current Cal head coach Mike Teti.

“It’s not that often we get together, all together,” Cipollone said. “That was great to go and see all these really cool people and have one more way to remember what we did.”

A decorated member of the National team, Cipollone began his tenure as the coxswain for the U.S. men’s 4+, winning a sil-ver medal in the 1994 World Championships and a gold medal a year later. He served as a U.S. assistant coach for the men’s sin-gle scull in the 1996 Olympics before eventually earning the U.S. 8+ coxswain job, which he held from 1997-2004. Cipollone helped the United States win three golds, a sil-ver and a bronze at the World Championships. In 2000, he coxed the fifth-place 8+ in the Sydney Olympics, then retired after the 2004 Olympics.

“Pete evolved into probably the greatest coxswain we’ve ever had,” said Teti, a former coach of the U.S. National team. “He was with me from 1995-2004 – a long time. He’s cerebral, and he was helpful in organizational things with the whole team.

By Dean Caparaz ’90

Pete Cipollone

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Longtime U.S. Coxswain Pete Cipollone Enjoys Reuniting with Old Friends

Pete Cipollone (far left) and his Cal teammates captured the 1994 Pac-10 championship.

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2009-2010

Jerome Randle

Mark Canha

Alexis Gray-Lawson

Nareg Guregian

Steve Sodaro

Debra Maier

Natalie Nurnberg Tyson Alualu

sports reviews

Kara Kohler


BasEBall

Record: 29-25Pac-10 Finish: T5thNCAA Finish: RegionalCal qualified for an NCAA regional, marking the second time in the last three years that the program has advanced to the postseason. Four Cal players earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors – junior first baseman Mark Canha, sophomore catcher Chadd Krist, freshman left-hander Justin Jones and freshman des-ignated hitter Tony Renda. Both Jones and Renda were also selected as Fresh-man All-Americans. In addition, Cal’s ju-nior second baseman Brian Guinn was named Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Five Bears – pitchers Dixon Ander-son, Daniel Wolford and Brian Diemer, as well as Canha and Guinn – were taken in the Major League draft.

MEn’s BasKETBall

Record: 24-11Pac-10 Finish: 1stNCAA Finish: 2nd RoundAfter capturing its first conference cham-pionship in 50 years, Cal advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a decisive 77-62 win over Louis-ville before falling to eventual champion Duke. The Bears were led by a quartet of seniors – Jerome Randle, Patrick Christopher, Theo Robertson and Jamal Boykin – with each receiving either first- or second-team All-Pac-10 recognition. Jerome Randle was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year and became Cal’s all-time leading scorer with 1,835 points. In addition, sophomore Jorge Gutierrez was honored by the conference with a spot on the all-defensive team and the all-academic second team.

WoMEn’s BasKETBall

Record: 24-13Pac-10 Finish: 4thWNIT Finish: ChampionsWith a starting lineup that featured four freshmen, Cal earned a postseason berth in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. The Bears went on to win six games to earn the WNIT title, capped by a dramatic 73-61 triumph over Miami in the final at Haas Pavilion. Senior guard Alexis Gray-Lawson, the third most prolific scorer in program history, was named WNIT MVP. Forward DeNesha Stallworth was chosen for the Pac-10

All-Freshman team, while Gray-Lawson picked up All-Pac-10 notice for the third time and was a member of the Pac-10 All-Defensive squad along with freshman guard Eliza Pierre.

MEn’s CREW

Pac-10 Finish: 2ndIRA National Finish: 2ndCal won its 16th IRA national champi-onship when the varsity 8+ edged past Washington by 0.263 seconds in the Grand Final to capture the title. The vic-tory gave the Bears their first IRA crown in four years. Cal, which was ranked sec-ond nationally most of the season, took second at the Pac-10 Championships just behind UW. Nareg Guregian was named the Pac-10 Athlete of the Year, while Guregian and teammate Zach-ary Vlahos were chosen for the U.S. Un-der-23 National Team Selection Camp.

WoMEn’s CREW

Pac-10 Finish: 1stNCAA Finish: 2ndCal won its third straight Pac-10 cham-pionship in 2010 by half of a point over Stanford. Then at the NCAA Champion-ships on Lake Natoma outside Sacra-mento, the Bears finished as the national runner-up for the second year in a row and among the country’s top four for the eighth time in the last 12 years. Senior coxswain Jill Costello was named the Pac-10 Athlete of the Year, Kara Kohler garnered Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year honors, and Dave O’Neill was tabbed the Pac-10 Coach of the Year.

MEn’s CRoss CounTRy

Pac-10 Finish: 7thNCAA Regional Finish: 8thWith a young group that featured no se-niors on the active roster, Cal finished seventh at the Pac-10 Championships and eighth at NCAA regionals. Junior Steve Sodaro emerged as the Bears’ top runner, leading the team in four of his five races, including an 18th-place finish at the Pac-10 meet and a 16th-place show-ing at regionals. Junior Kari Karlsson took 21st at regionals, as he and Sod-aro were named to the NCAA All-Region team. Cal won the season-opening USF Invitational and finished second at the competitive Stanford Invitational in late September.

WoMEn’s CRoss CounTRy

Pac-10 Finish: 5thNCAA Regional Finish: 8thIn one of its most successful seasons in many years, Cal took fifth at the Pac-10 meet – the program’s highest since the Bears were third in 1988. Deborah Maier was sixth at the conference champion-ships to become the first Cal woman to earn first-team All-Pac-10 honors. Maier went on to take 14th at NCAA regionals to gain mention on the all-region squad. As a team, the Bears were ranked among the nation’s top 30 much of the season and were the runner-up in each of their first three races.

FiEld HoCKEy

Record: 8-11MPSF Finish: 2ndCal finished second in the NorPac Con-ference, losing to Stanford in the final of the league tournament. Senior Natalie Nurnberg was named the NorPac West Offensive Player of the Year after scor-ing a team-best 25 points (8 goals, 9 as-sists). Erin Magill and Deanna Kennedy earned second-team league honors, while Magill and Nurnberg were also se-lected to the All-West Region team. Ma-gill had a team-high three game-winning goals among her scores on the year, and Lisa Lohre paced the Bears in defensive saves with six on the campaign.

FooTBall

Record: 8-5Pac-10 Finish: 5th-TCal extended a school record by reach-ing a bowl game for the seventh consec-utive year with a berth in the Poinsettia Bowl. With the Bears’ win at Stanford in the Big Game, head coach Jeff Ted-ford tied the legendary Pappy Waldorf for most victories in the Big Game (7) and in the modern era (67) at Cal. Four players who led the team in a major sta-tistical category will return this fall – LB Mike Mohamed (112 tackles), TB Shane Vereen (952 rushing yards), WR Mar-vin Jones (651 receiving yards) and QB Kevin Riley (2,850 passing yards) – while two players who completed their Cal ca-reers – Tyson Alualu and Jahvid Best – were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.

Michael Weaver Joanne Lee Glen Ishino

Alyse Kennedy

Eric Fry

Andrew Wiedeman

Alex Morgan

Shannon Thomas

SpRING 2009 19

Avery GeeMEn’s soCCER

Record: 9-8-1Pac-10 Finish: 6thCal upset No. 13 Stanford in its season fi-nale, 1-0, to post a winning record during an injury-plagued season, but it wasn’t enough to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Junior forward Andrew Wiedeman, who ended the year as Cal’s leader in goals (11) and game-winning goals (5), claimed Academic All-America status. After the season, he was selected by FC Dallas in the second round of the MLS SuperDraft. Cal had seven players earn spots on the All-Pac-10 squad, with Wiedeman, A.J. Soares and midfielder Hector Jimenez on the first unit.

WoMEn’s soCCER

Record: 11-9-1Pac-10 Finish: T6thNCAA Finish: 2nd roundCal earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the sec-ond round for the first time in three years thanks to a 2-1 overtime win over Auburn. Forward Alex Morgan led the Bears with 14 goals, while forward Lisa Kevorkian was second with eight scores and a team-high five game-winners. Gina Pellegrini spent the majority of time in goal for the Bears and owned a 1.62 goals-against average. Morgan and Megan Jesolva participated in a training camp with the U.S. Under-23 National team in the spring.

soFTBall

Record: 44-19Pac-10 Finish: T4thNCAA Finish: Super RegionalAs the 11th seed in the NCAA Tourna-ment, Cal swept the Columbus Regional to win its 11th title in the past 12 sea-sons. However, the Bears could not get past No. 6 Georgia in their effort to reach the Women’s College World Series. Left fielder Jamia Reid paced the team with a .380 batting average and set a school record with 48 stolen bases, and junior Valerie Arioto, who won 21 games as a pitcher and tied the Cal season mark for home runs (19), was named a first-team All-American. In April, Diane Ninemire won her 1,000th game as coach of the Bears.

SPORTSQUARTERLY

WoMEn’s GyMnasTiCs

Record: 1-20Pac-10 Finish: 6thCal closed out the 2010 season on a win-ning note, passing Arizona State at the Pac-10 Championships for the team’s first victory of the season. Junior Avery Gee scored 9.800 on floor at Pac-10’s, marking the third time she reached the mark during the year. Freshman Mariesah Pierce earned 9.800s or higher for her final four floor routines, including a 9.800 at the Pac-10 meet. Gee earned second-team All-Pac-10 honors for her efforts.

laCRossE

Record: 8-10MPSF Finish: 3rdA young Golden Bear squad struggled with consistency early but found its rhythm late, taking a season-high four-game winning streak into its MPSF Tournament semifinal with Stanford. Cal ended its season with a 9-7 loss to the Cardinal. Sophomore midfielder Vail Horn tied a school record in scoring sev-en goals in a 20-11 win over Saint Mary’s in the first round. Cal placed Horn, de-fender DennaFaye Herald, midfielder Alex Tickner and attacker Alyse Ken-nedy on the All-MPSF first team and Allie Shropshire and attacker Allie Welsh on the All-MPSF second unit.

RuGBy

Record: 26-0NorCal League Finish: 1stUSAR Finish: ChampionsCal defeated BYU, 19-7, to win the 25th national championship in program histo-ry and notch its first perfect season since 2002. Graduating senior lock Eric Fry was named the final’s MVP. Cal rugby has now won 25 of the 31 national title games played in the United States since 1980, when the modern national colle-giate championship was inaugurated by USA Rugby. Jack Clark notched his 21st title as Cal’s head coach to close out his 27th year at the helm. The Bears had 11 ruggers recognized as All-Americans by at least one outlet.

MEn’s GolF

Pac-10 Finish: 6th-TNCAA Finish: 23rdCal returned to the NCAA Champion-ships for the first time since winning the national title in 2004. The Bears qualified by tying for third at the NCAA Southwest Regional, then placed 23rd at NCAA’s. At the Pac-10 Championships, Eric Mina became only the second player from Cal to win the tournament in its 51-year history, coming back from four shots off the lead on the final day. Michael Weaver also had a strong performance at Pac-10’s by tying for sixth and then led the Bears at both the NCAA Southwest Regional (8th) and NCAA Champion-ships (41st-T).

WoMEn’s GolF

Pac-10 Finish: 6thNCAA Finish: West RegionalCal had two team victories during the 2009-10 season, winning at the Sahalee Golf Course in Sammamish, Wash., in the fall and then logging a victory at the Juli Inkster Invitational in the spring. The Bears, a top-25 squad all season, earned their 11th consecutive NCAA Regional bid. Despite a strong start to the tour-nament, Cal finished in 11th place with just the top eight teams advancing to the NCAA Championships. Sophomore Joanne Lee, a second-team All-Pac-10 honoree, led the squad with a 73.7 stroke average. She was the individual medal-ist at the Peg Barnard Invitational held at Stanford during the spring.

MEn’s GyMnasTiCs

Record: 11-13MPSF Finish: 2ndNCAA Finish: 5thCal captured fifth place at NCAA Cham-pionships behind a fourth-place finish in the all-around from Bryan del Castillo, with Glen Ishino taking fifth. In the indi-vidual championships, six Bears – del Castillo, Christian Monteclaro, Jim Kerry and Ishino – earned All-America sta-tus on their events. Barry Weiner was named the MPSF Coach of the Year for the sixth time, and Ishino was lauded as the MPSF Gymnast of the Year. The Bears took second at the MPSF Cham-pionships, edged by just .100 of a point, 354.550-354.450, by Oklahoma.

Liv Jensen

Pedro Zerbini

Mari Andersson

Hana Cutura Spencer Warden Emily Csikos

Alima Kamara

Tom Shields


Mark Matusak

MEn’s sWiMMinG & divinG

Record: 5-2Pac-10 Finish: 2ndNCAA Finish: 2ndBolstered by three individual national titles and four relay crowns, Cal finished as the runner-up at the NCAA Champi-onships, its best showing in almost 25 years. Juniors Nathan Adrian and Damir Dugonjic were repeat champions in the 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, re-spectively, while freshman Tom Shields won the NCAA title in the 100 butterfly. Cal also captured national titles in the 200 and 400 free relays and 200 and 400 medley relays. Dave Durden was named the NCAA and Pac-10 Coach of the Year, and Shields was the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year.

WoMEn’s sWiMMinG & divinG

Record: 5-2Pac-10 Finish: 2ndNCAA Finish: 3rdCal followed up its 2009 NCAA title with a third-place showing at the 2010 national meet, marking the third time in the last four years the Bears have placed among the top three in the country. At the NCAA Championships, Liv Jensen won the 50 freestyle and Cal posted seven addition-al top-three finishes. At the Pac-10 meet, the Bears took home titles from Lauren Boyle in the 500 free and Hannah Wilson in the 100 free, taking second in the team competition. Caitlin Leverenz, who set a school-record time of 4:06.61 in the 400 individual medley, was named the Pac-10 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year.

MEn’s TEnnis

Record: 13-8Pac-10 Finish: 4thNCAA Finish: 2nd RoundThe Bears received their school-record 11th consecutive selection to the NCAA Championships this year and advanced to the second round for the 10th time un-der head coach Peter Wright. Cal earned the No. 18 ranking in the final ITA poll after rising as high as No. 10 during the season. Junior Pedro Zerbini finished as the No. 21-ranked singles player in the country and received first-team All-Pac-10 honors, while freshman Christof-fer Konigsfeldt was voted to the second team. Zerbini and junior Jonathan Dahan completed the season as the nation’s No. 34-ranked doubles tandem, and sophomore Nick Andrews and Konigs-feldt were rated 64th.

WoMEn’s TEnnis

Record: 20-6Pac-10 Finish: 3rdNCAA Finish: Round of 16Cal reached at least the Round of 16 at the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year as the Bears registered their fourth straight 20-win season. Cal was rated 12th in the final ITA poll and had three singles players in the top 30 of the final collegiate rankings – No. 2 Jana Juricova, No. 17 Marina Cossou and No. 26 Mari Andersson. Juricova finished as the NCAA singles runner-up. Andersson and Juricova completed the season as the No. 12-ranked doubles team in the nation and were named to the ITA Na-tional Team Indoor Championship all-tournament team.

MEn’s TRaCK & FiEld

Pac-10 Finish: 8thNCAA Finish: 21stCal posted a pair of Top 25 finishes in 2010, taking 17th at the NCAA indoor meet and tying for 21st at the NCAA outdoor championships. Mark Matusak broke a 31-year-old school record in the 1500 meters when he ran 3:39.59, while Steve Sodaro became Cal’s first-ever Pac-10 champion in the 3000-me-ter steeplechase before taking sixth at nationals. In addition, Mike Morrison scored 7,801 points to place second in the decathlon at NCAA’s. During the in-door season, Matusak set a Cal mark in the mile (3:58.36) and Morrison finished third nationally in the heptathlon.

WoMEn’s TRaCK & FiEld

Pac-10 Finish: 7thNCAA Finish: NAThe Golden Bears qualified two individu-als – Deborah Maier in the 5000 meters and Alima Kamara in the 400 meters – as well as two relays for the NCAA Cham-pionships. Maier finished just out of the scoring by taking ninth, although she did earn All-America recognition. Kamara reached the national meet after running 52.75, which was the second fastest in school history. However, she injured her hamstring and didn’t advance to the NCAA final. Maier set a pair of indoor re-cords in the 3000 and 5000 meters and captured the MPSF 3000 title.

vollEyBall

Record: 21-11Pac-10 Finish: 4thNCAA Finish: Regional FinalCal gained the No. 9 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Gainesville Regional final before falling to three-time defending champion Penn State. The Bears are one of just four teams – also Nebraska, Texas and Penn State – to reach at least the regional title match each of the last three years. Head coach Rich Feller earned his 200th vic-tory with the Bears. Senior outside hit-ter Hana Cutura was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year and received her third selection to the All-America team, where she was joined by junior setter Carli Lloyd in her second appearance.

MEn’s WaTER Polo

Record: 22-6MPSF Finish: 3rdLed by first-team All-American Spencer Warden, Cal reached the final of the MPSF Tournament with a 12-11 OT deci-sion over Stanford in the semifinals be-fore falling to UCLA, 10-7. Although the Bears did not receive an at-large berth to the four-team NCAA Tournament, they ended the year third in the final national rankings. In addition to Warden, who concluded his career with 135 goals and was instrumental in Cal winning NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, sophomore Ivan Rackov, Cal’s leading scorer with 55 goals, and junior Zach White, who tallied 36 goals, were selected third-team All-Americans.

WoMEn’s WaTER Polo

Record: 26-9MPSF Finish: 3rdNCAA Finish: 3rdCal had arguably its best season as the Bears qualified for the NCAA Tourna-ment for the first time in school history, placing third at the national champion-ships with an 11-7 victory over Loyola Marymount in the consolation match. Cal was led by Emily Csikos’ 69 goals and goalie Stephanie Peckham’s 311 saves, plus outstanding senior leader-ship from Stephanie Schnugg, Meghan Corso and Camille Hewko. Csikos and Hewko were named first-team All-MPSF, and Dana Ochsner was a member of the MPSF All-Freshman Team. Hewko was chosen first-team All-NCAA Tournament, and Ochsner was voted second-team All-NCAA Tournament, as well.

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larry Sonsini earned his BA in political science from Cal in 1963 and his JD from the Boalt School of Law in 1966, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

He has helped take many Bay Area startups public and been a board member on companies such as Pixar Ani-mation Studios as well as the onetime chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.

Currently the chairman of the law firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati, lo-cated in Palo Alto, Sonsini has been iden-tifying worthy business ideas for almost 40 years. But not all of the entities he endorses are startups.

Take, for example, Cal Athletics, the chal-lenging and nurturing environment in which Sonsini and his son, Pete, both represented their University as members of the rugby program, gaining the experience and confi-dence to become successful long after their playing days as student-athletes were over.

Responding in kind to the support they got from Cal, the Sonsinis have been com-mitted supporters to the future of Intercol-legiate Athletics at the University, helping to ensure that today’s and tomorrow’s stu-dent-athletes are afforded the same oppor-tunities they had to shine.

Larry Sonsini entered the University with football credentials from Van Nuys High School as a quarterback, but became a defensive back and running back for the Golden Bears under freshman-team head coach Mike White.

“I remember a key game against UCLA down in the LA Coliseum, and there was a particular play we had where I had to block a defensive end,” Sonsini recalled. “All dur-ing the week I was unable to make that block, but Mike kept drilling me and drilling me and drilling me. When game time came, he said, ‘OK, you’re going to run this play.’

“We ran it three straight times, I made three straight blocks and we scored a touchdown. I just remember that hard work and commitment, never giving up – they all stick with me today. Because of that, I’ve been a big fan of Cal sports and do every-thing I can to build that program.”

In between his freshman and sophomore years of foot-ball, Sonsini became a mem-ber of the rugby program and “fell in love with the game of rugby.”

Later, when he was en-rolled at law school and had gotten married, Sonsini need-ed to earn money and the Athletic Department helped him, putting him to work wa-

tering the end zone in Memorial Stadium every Sunday morning and painting the stadium steps over one summer with Craig Morton.

One of the most acclaimed quarterbacks in Golden Bear history, Morton called Son-sini “probably the most successful of my college mates. Larry really steps up for something he believes in, and he has cer-tainly done that for Cal.”

In these turbulent times, said Morton, Sonsini’s support “is the most reassuring part for everyone associated with the pro-gram. Larry has been right there.”

Sonsini’s son Pete, who graduated in 1990, emulated his father as a member of the Cal rugby team, putting them in the com-pany of great father-son tandems who have played on the pitch for Bears, including the Guests, Don and Don Jr.; Loren and Colin Hawley; Bruce and Mike MacDonald; and

aTHlETiC dEvEloPMEnT Bear Backer Spotlight

shine like the

SonsiniS

By Anton Malko

Giving Back to Cal Athletics Is Serious Business for Larry Sonsini

Larry Sonsini suited up for football (left) and rugby as an undergraduate at Cal.

SUMMER 2010 23

“We’ve needed to make some chang-es,” Larry said of the renovation. “Memo-rial Stadium is old but probably one of the most unique stadiums in all of college football and if you play on that field, it is an unbelievable experience. The renova-

tion is critical not only to recruiting, but to the history of the school, the future of bringing to-gether athletic and aca-demic excellence. And the Endowment Seating Program is all part of that. That’s why I’m very excited to pass it on to my children and grand-children, and create that culture of excellence.”

Sonsini said that the Student-Athlete High Performance Center is going to be critical, too.

“As a businessman, I understand the impor-tance of infrastructure to building high-quality excellence and how student-athletes are af-fected,” he said. ”How they train and commu-nicate with each other is very important to their development, and the facility is an impor-tant part of that. Cal’s recognition of that is really critical. It’s im-portant that all alums really see the merit of what this is. It’s more than just a facility. It’s part of instilling a qual-ity and a culture of excellence.

“A key to any suc-cessful business is the ability to adapt to change, and the uniqueness is to main-tain a culture and yet adapt to changing en-

vironments. And so when I think long term about the University, its heritage of excellence both from an academic and athletic side, this is just a step in that di-rection. It indicates that we are adapting to changes in the demands of the mar-ket and the demands of the fans and the alums, students, university in total to be competitive.”

It certainly means a lot that the Sonsinis credit Cal for their excellence, an excel-lence that Larry, Pete and everyone as-sociated with Cal Athletics is committed to providing to generations of student-athletes yet to come.

the Witters, 14 of whom – fathers, sons and uncles – have played rugby for the Bears.

Larry played for the legendary Miles “Doc” Hudson, after whom the team’s field-house is named. When Pete joined the team, he played under current head coach Jack Clark.

“Pete was an im-portant member of our team, a starter and good player,” said Clark. “I always sensed play-ing rugby at Cal meant more to him because he was following in his fa-ther’s footsteps.”

“Coach Clark made it really clear that if you’re going to put on that jersey you have to really earn it, carry on that tradition or go home. That was a big part of the experience, similar to my dad’s ex-perience with ‘Doc’ Hud-son,” Pete said.

Pete has reaped some of the same ben-efits in his professional life that his father did from the student-athlete experience.

“The commitment, the teamwork, the dedica-tion and overall level of the program to achieve success has helped me throughout my career, no doubt, by just know-ing that through com-mitment and teamwork you can achieve suc-cess,” he said.

Larry said it meant a lot “to see your son on the field where I played and he grew up know-ing about. It was a very special thing and it still is to both of us today.”

“I think my dad still feels indebted to Cal and Cal Athletics, given the chance that they gave him,” Pete opined. “He’s a loy-al guy and he wants to make sure he re-turns that and continue to drive the benefits that he had. That just fosters tremendous amounts of loyalty, wanting to support and continue that tradition for other people who come through Cal Athletics and go on to do great things in the world.”

Pete continued to follow in his father’s path to support entrepreneurial initiatives and is currently a partner at New Enterprise Associates, which has funded more than 650 companies in the information and en-ergy technologies, and healthcare sectors.

Larry has maintained close ties to his alma mater while excelling in the private sector, teaching at Boalt for 20 years and seeing his other son, Matthew, also attend the law school, while his daughter, Alison, graduated from the University.

His presence on campus has also been felt on the UC President’s Board on Science and Innovation since 2004, in the Benjamin Ide Wheeler Society since 2006, the Boalt Hall Campaign for Leadership since 2007 and as a member of the Berkeley Fellows since 2006.

Larry’s wife, Barbara, chose Stanford for her graduate studies, but according to Larry, she opts to wear blue and gold to all the Big Games.

A football season-ticket holder since 2004, Sonsini has invested in six tickets in the Endowment Seating Program to seal his family’s presence in the renovated California Memorial Stadium.

Pete, who graduated in 1990, emulated his father as a student-athlete on the Cal rugby team, putting them in the company of great father-son tandems who have played on the pitch for the Bears.

Head rugby coach Jack Clark called Pete Sonsini “an important member of our team.”

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Flashback: May 25, 2009. California women’s tennis sophomore Mari Andersson watches her teammate

and then-freshman Jana Juricova pull back her racket and hit a soft lob under the hot Texas sun. The ball edges past an outstretched racket of their opponent – a duo from Stanford – on the opposite side of the net for match point.

Just six days after a heartbreaking loss to Duke in the final of the national team competi-tion, the Golden Bear tandem achieved a form of redemption in earning an NCAA doubles championship.

The triumph was just the latest chapter in a rich volume of successes by Cal women’s doubles pairs over the past dozen years.

Since 1998, the Bears have racked up more NCAA championships in doubles (five, includ-

ing the title in 2009 by Andersson and Juricova) than any other women’s ten-nis program in the country. The streak began in 1998 when Amanda Augus-tus and Amy Jensen teamed together. A year later, they became the first-ever tandem to win back-to-back NCAA titles.

Jensen earned a third straight crown with new partner Claire Curran in 2000, while the duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and Christina Fusano captured the 2003 NCAA title.

Despite the Bears’ history of suc-cess, their doubles teams have a ten-dency to sneak up on people. Last sea-son, Andersson and Juricova entered the 32-team draw as the No. 7 seed. The pair faced a quarterfinal matchup with the top-seeded team of Renata Kucerkova and An-astasia Petukhova of Fresno State, a duo they had never faced.

“I was expecting some really amazing shots from them and for-mations or something I had never seen before,” recalled Ander-sson. “They were very consistent, but they didn’t have anything outstanding. That really gave me confidence, and I think for Jana,

too. We knew we had the exact same skills, if not more, than everyone else.”

After upsetting the Fresno State pair, Cal took out the No. 13 seed in the semifinals to set up highly-anticipated matchup for the national crown against Hilary Barte and Lindsey Burdette, Stan-ford’s top doubles team.

“Mari and I decided before that we didn’t want any more silver trophies,” said Juricova. “No way were we going home with two silver trophies. That helped to push us. We were all tired, but we

didn’t really care. We gave our best. It was a great match, espe-cially against Stanford.”

Cal’s first national-title tandem began the underdog tradition – Augustus and Jensen became the first unseeded team to win the national crown in NCAA history.

These days, Augustus and Jensen are a doubles team of a dif-ferent sort. Augustus just finished her third season as Cal’s head

Mari Andersson

Jana Juricova

FEATURE

Double TroubleCal’s Prowess in Women’s Doubles Can Spell Doom for Unsuspecting Opponents

By Melissa DuDek

After Cal lost in the NCAA team final in 2009, Mari Anderson was determined to bring home the doubles championship to Berkeley.

Two-time NCAA doubles champions Amanda Augustus and Amy Jensen with their Cal coaches, Kathy Toon (left) and head coach Jan Brogan. Claire Curran & Amy Jensen

SUMMER 2010 29

it into a team format,” said Jensen. “As a player, doubles was the time when I felt the most connection to my team, since I was play-ing as a team.”

The other difference comes in the scoring. During the team dual matches, the three doubles matches that precede singles play use an eight-game pro-set scoring format, where the first doubles team to eight wins, as opposed to a best two-out-of-three sets used in singles play.

“There is a lot at stake in that short amount of time,” Kolbovic said. “You really don’t feel you have a lot of room to work your way in, so you have to get ready to go and be really specific about what you are trying to do.”

The overall weighted scoring of doubles during team compe-titions also varies from singles. In singles, each of the matches counts one point in the team score. In doubles, the three matches combine for one point. The first team that wins twice earns the early one-point lead heading into singles play. A team that wins the doubles point only needs to win three of the six singles matches to claim a team victory.

“The doubles point is just critical,” Augustus said. “Going into the NCAA’s against better schools, it is really hard to win four singles matches, so that doubles point is very important.”

It takes a certain set of skills to be successful in doubles play, talents that are sometimes overlooked and under emphasized in the junior rankings system which emphasizes singles play and singles results.

“Doubles is a lot more ‘first strike’,” explained Jensen. “The points are aggressive sooner. Physically, you are more explosive and more powerful. You have to get a volley or get an overhead. In singles, points can go a little longer and develop a little bit more slowly. In doubles, there is always something happening in the point. It is fast with quick exchanges at the net.”

Training successful doubles tandems means working with the players to overcome the instinct to play back. It involves pushing a forward mentality where the player comes toward the net to attack the point instead of sitting on the baseline. Most importantly, it takes communication and a good deal of chemistry.

“When I put Mari and Jana together as a doubles team last season, I felt like they both complemented each other well,” said Augustus. “I also felt if we added some skills to their game, we could take them to a whole other level. It was a work in progress. We helped them define roles for each other and then focused on building them up.”

Some duos, like the pairing of Kolbovic and Augustus, worked well because their style of play was very similar. Other success-ful teams, such as Andersson and Juricova, have different styles

that complement one another on the court. It is impossible to figure out on paper whether a doubles team is going to be successful. It is the on-court chemistry that makes the final determination.

Jensen suggests there is one more element to doubles play that might be the secret to Cal’s history of success.

“Creating a goal is very important,” she explained. “I think that one of the keys to the success of our program is that we take the time to look at the non-tennis piece, the sports psychol-ogy side of tennis. For most of tennis, you are not actually playing a point, so

looking at defining how we move on the court, how we commu-nicate, what we like to hear, what we don’t like to hear and what each of us needs individually is a big key to a doubles team’s success.”

With five national championship doubles trophies with “Califor-nia” inscriptions, the Bears seem to know many of the secrets to the doubles game.

coach and Jensen concluded her first year as a volunteer assistant for the Bears. Also on the Cal coaching staff is assistant coach Re-nata Kolbovic, with whom Augustus won an All-American doubles title in the fall of 1995.

All three have a great love for doubles, not just because of their success, but because of its unique aspects.

“In college, you are taking tennis, an individual sport, and turning

Golden Bear NCAA Women’s Doubles Champions1998 ..................................... Amanda Augustus & Amy Jensen1999 ..................................... Amanda Augustus & Amy Jensen2000 ............................................. Claire Curran & Amy Jensen2003 .......................... Christina Fusano & Raquel Kops-Jones 2009 .......................................Jana Juricova & Mari Andersson

Jana Juricova nearly added an NCAA singles title to her doubles crown, reaching the 2010 individual final before losing.

Christina Fusano & Raquel Kops-Jones Jana Juricova & Mari Andersson


Justin Jones is living a dream.While Jones is temporarily bypassing his

goal of playing professional baseball by go-ing to school, the extremely talented fresh-man left-hander from Oakdale is fully realiz-ing another vision – being a student-athlete at the University of California.

But the Justin Jones story is more than just the virtues of going to college over sign-ing a pro contract out of high school. Jones’ tale is about taking advantage of and enjoy-ing opportunities at one of the leading aca-demic institutions in the nation.

“I had expectations that college was go-ing to be really hard and challenging,” said Jones, who was home-schooled by his parents, Stanley and Rosemarie, through the eighth grade before attending Oakdale High School in Stanislaus County. “When I got to Cal, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. I guess I was expecting the worst. The teaching and the subject matter of my classes is what has turned me on to college.”

FEATURE

Connection

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SUMMER 2010 33

A dilemma for Jones arose after he was selected in the seventh round of the June 2009 Major League Amateur Draft by the Chicago White Sox: Should he sign a pro-fessional contract or make a commitment to college?

What helped turned Jones onto college, and what has assisted many students tran-sition into life at Cal for nearly 40 years, is the university’s Summer Bridge Pro-gram. Developed in 1973 in part to assist first-generation college students, Summer Bridge is available to all students looking to get a head start on both the academic and social aspects of Cal. Directed by the

Student Learning Center and highly en-dorsed by Cal’s Athletic Study Center, Sum-mer Bridge students attend two summer session courses (six credits), as well as go to workshops designed to help improve academic skills and provide peer support.

“I had no clue what Summer Bridge was or what to expect,” said Jones. “Coach [Dan] Hubbs called me and told me about a program that would help me get a head start on school. He explained to me that if I wanted to sign with the White Sox that would be fine, but if I wasn’t sure about signing, the Summer Bridge Program would give me a taste of what college life would be like. So, I decided to go for it.”

It is rare for a baseball player of Jones’ ability to take time away from summer base-ball to start attending college ahead of time. After a phenomenal high school career in which he was 22-1 with 242 strikeouts in his last two years, was the 2009 Modesto Bee Player of the Year and was a two-time all-state honoree, Jones could have done what most high draft picks do – wait until the last minute to decide. Once a baseball player steps into the college classroom, he must

commit to school for three years or until the age of 21.

In Jones’ case, he could have attended Summer Bridge and still signed with the White Sox, but he was enthralled with his Berkeley experience.

“I just saw attending Summer Bridge as an opportunity to see how I would like col-lege,” said Jones. “I couldn’t really pass it up because I realized an education at Cal is a pretty amazing opportunity.”

Jones thoroughly enjoyed the two class-es he took over the summer, Chicano Stud-ies and College Writing, and bonded with the other members of the Summer Bridge

Program, including freshman outfielder Darrel Matthews, now Jones’ roommate.

“The Summer Bridge program was a great opportunity for Justin to see what school and college life was like,” said Hubbs, Cal’s pitching coach. “He always knew he loved Berkeley and had told me Cal was his dream school.

“We always say our recruits who decide to sign professional contracts don’t know what they are missing. I know that sounds self-serving in the recruiting process, but it is true. With the help of Summer Bridge, they can see that school is manageable. They discover subjects that they are inter-ested in and realize they are going to do great. We wish players knew what they were giving up when they sign professional contracts.”

There is little doubt that attending Sum-mer Bridge was the impetus to Jones’ con-

tinued success in both the classroom and on the playing field at Cal. He is thriving in his new environment that is considerably different than the Central Valley town of Oakdale (20,000). Academically, he is do-ing well and is leaning towards majoring in either English or history.

Jones’ decision to come to Cal has also benefitted him on the field. One of the most polished freshman pitchers Hubbs has seen in his 11 years coaching the Bears, Jones was among the Pac-10’s top hurlers in wins (10), innings pitched (98.0), strike-outs (73) and strikeouts looking (30). He was part of two shutouts and tossed two complete games.

Jones’ performances on the mound were so strong that there was talk of the young, crafty left-hander with a sharp breaking curveball being a National Freshman of the Year candidate. He ended up earning first-team All-Pac-10 and Freshman All-America honors. What caught the nation’s attention early on was Jones’ complete-game at No. 9-ranked Rice (six hits, five strikeouts) in a 6-4 Bears’ win March 12. Late in the sea-son, he earned a victory in a 4-3 verdict at Oregon, an outcome that helped secure Cal’s spot in the NCAA Tournament.

“I really, really liked throwing that com-plete game against Rice,” said Jones. “Growing up, my dad would be in the liv-ing room, and he would say, ‘Justin, Rice is on TV, come watch them play.’ Rice was always in a regional or the College World Series, and my dad would call me in and have me watch their pitchers because they were so good.”

So far, Jones has made the best of the

social, academic and athletic elements of college life. Yet even with the strong pros-pects of a career in pro baseball, the Cal freshman has educational plans away from the diamond to help others less fortunate.

“I would like to be a special education teacher,” explained Jones. “My sister, Lac-ey, is a substitute in an autistic classroom and it was cool to visit her during my junior and senior years in high school. Also, dur-ing my senior year I was a teaching assis-tant for my high school pitching coach, Nate Gregory, for two periods in a special educa-tion classes. I developed a passion for that type of teaching.”

Justin Jones has a passion for baseball, a passion for learning and a passion for help-ing others. Even as a freshman, this young student-athlete has already proven to be a pretty good role model for the University of California and its baseball program.

“I just saw attending Summer Bridge as an opportunity to see how I would like college. I couldn’t really pass it up because I realized an education at Cal is a pretty amazing opportunity.”

– Justin Jones

Justin Jones signs autographs for young fans at Evans Diamond during the spring.


From his three Olympic medals and seven NCAA titles to the tattoos covering both of his arms,

there is no doubt that Anthony Ervin is highly decorated.

One of the most successful swimmers in Cal history, Ervin has taken an unconven-tional journey to earning his degree and discovering his career interests, but the lessons and experiences along the way have helped him realize his future as an educator.

Ervin entered Cal in the fall of 1999 and immediately made an impact on the swim-ming & diving team. As a freshman, Ervin became the first Bear swimmer since Matt Biondi to win multiple NCAA individual ti-tles, capturing the 50 and 100 freestyle at the 2000 NCAA Championships. He also swam a leg on the national championship 400 free relay team.

That summer, Ervin made history as the first swimmer of African American descent to both make the U.S. Olympic team and medal. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Syd-ney, Ervin tied for gold in the 50 free, was part of the winning 400 medley relay and captured silver in the 400 free relay. In the 50 free race, Ervin touched the wall at the same time as American teammate Gary Hall Jr., marking just the second gold-medal tie in Olympic history.

His tag as an African American swimmer came with various expectations, yet Ervin did not anticipate them in the months lead-ing up to the Games.

“I didn’t even know there had been no African American swimmers on the U.S. team until six or seven months before the Olympic Games,” said Ervin, whose fa-

ther’s parents were of African American and American Indian heritage.

“During the course of the spring semes-ter, someone approached me and said, ‘Did you know you could be the first?’”

After the Games, Ervin felt that people re-lated to him differently. “I felt another level of otherness that I wasn’t sure how to deal with,” he said. “I couldn’t just be a swimmer.”

Although Ervin received numerous en-dorsement offers following his Olympic success, he chose not to turn professional, believing in an obligation to his Cal team. “I just really liked my team,” he said. “I wanted to do something as a team. The national team is different from the guys you sweat with every day.”

Ervin captured four more NCAA titles after his return from Sydney. With his eligi-bility exhausted in 2003, Ervin decided he needed a break from Cal and from competi-tive swimming.

“I still didn’t have a clue what my primary academic discipline would be,” he said.

From Olympic Games to Graduate SchoolFormer Cal Swimmer Anthony Ervin Finds His Calling in Education

“I took classes all over the map. I hadn’t moved towards anything in four years. I was doing things my way.”

Given the opportunity to work with a for-mer Cal teammate and teach swimming to children, Ervin packed a bag and moved to New York City.

While in the Big Apple, Ervin discovered his purpose as educator. “To a certain de-gree, I was always an educator,” he said, “But I felt like I was trying to relay an experi-ence rather than teach anything.”

Doug Stern, a lifelong educator and re-spected swimming coach, introduced the concept of teaching to Ervin.

“He talked about impact and how build-ing upon the future was an investment that builds character in yourself,” said Ervin. “It was inspiring to me. I wanted to be like him.”

Ervin’s desire to have a positive impact on people should come as no surprise. In 2005, he auctioned his Olympic gold medal on eBay for $17,000, with all the proceeds going to Asian tsunami relief.

By Allison Yee

Seven years after exhausting his eligibility, Anthony Ervin earned his degree in English and now plans on attending graduate school.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

SUMMER 2010 35

English. I always had a love for literature anyway, but never gave much credence to studying it formally.”

Those who worked with Ervin during his first time at Cal have praised his commit-ment to his academics and himself.

“I’ve seen considerably more focus in his return,” said Nort Thornton, Cal head men’s swimming coach emeritus. “He has

taken an usual path, but to his credit, he came around and got his education. He is a gifted individual.”

As a result of his hard work, Ervin graduated this spring with his bachelor’s degree. Walking across the stage at commencement still does not mark the end of his academic career.

Ervin will begin graduate studies in the UC Berkeley College of Education this fall, pursuing a master’s degree in Cultural Studies of Sport in Education.

To help him continue his academic pursuits, Ervin has been selected as a recipient of an Oscar Geballe Post-graduate Scholarship. The award recognizes Geballe’s strong belief in the value of combining scholarship and intercollegiate athletics.

Ervin intends to emphasize the two values in his work at the graduate school and be-yond. He hopes to become an academic advisor and mentor for student-athletes. Ervin already has experience working with student-athletes as a tutor with the Athletic Study Center.

“I want to continue to work with student-athletes and foster the educational mis-sion,” he said.

Thornton sees a bright future for Ervin in academic services. “He has a tre-mendous background and a wealth of experience,” Thornton said. “He can point

people in the direction where they can dis-cover things.”

Ervin also plans to become more involved in community development within swim-ming. He is enthusiastic about continuing to work with diversity outreach programs and hopes to assist USA Swimming with its di-versity initiatives.

“The sky is the limit,” said Ervin.Ervin’s path may be unconventional,

but his experiences and dedication will no doubt make him an influential educator.

With his goal of becoming an educator ignited, Ervin realized he needed to com-plete his degree. So in the fall of 2007, Ervin returned to Berkeley and enrolled in the Degree Completion Program, where he found a stronger focus and dedication to academics than he had exhibited in his first four years at Cal.

“I had a love for learning, even then. I just did not set it as a priority,” he said. “There was pressure going both ways [between academics and athletics]. I certainly erred

on the side of not helping my academics and instead giving myself more time for ev-erything else.”

His experiences away from Berkeley and returning to school as an older undergradu-ate allowed Ervin to reflect on his goals of higher education.

“School is stigmatized in different ways at different ages,” said Ervin. “I stigmatized it

one way in the first time at college. When I returned, I could do it again with prior knowledge. I certainly had the upper hand this time to learn in a way that I felt was more fruitful for me now.”

With his swimming career behind him, Ervin could focus solely on his studies.

A self-professed “math and science guy,” Ervin decided to major in English, wanting to improve his writing skills.

“My writing was terribly weak,” he said. “In order to improve it, I decided to stick to

A snapshot of some of Anthony Ervin’s achieve-ments during his swimming career at Cal: (top right) Ervin with the 2000 Pac-10 champion 200 and 400 free relay members Matt Macedo, Scott Greenwood and Bart Kizierowski; (middle) Ervin and Duje Draganja celebrating their first- and second-place finishes in the 100 free at the 2002 NCAA Championships; (bottom) Ervin ex-ulting after tying Gary Hall Jr. for the gold medal in the 50-meter free at the 2000 Olympics..


Award. In 2008, she published her first research paper in the Berkeley Scientific on invasive spe-cies for rangeland biology.

“What fulfills me about research is that I get to ask a question about our infinitely complex world

and rationalize a finite answer,” Seager said. “I love to know how things work. Biology and research give me the space to be creative with my inquisitiveness such that I am able to solve global prob-lems, and hopefully one day, contribute to a better world.”

Following graduation, Seager will be moving to Princeton, N.J., to row for the U.S. National team in the hopes of one day competing in the Olympics. The recipient of a Pac-10 Postgraduate Scholarship, Seager also plans on applying to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

It is her ultimate goal to work in the sports medicine field, combining her two passions of athletics and science. Sea-ger hopes to find a way to help athletes heal faster from injuries, as she herself has had to battle through shin splints and rib dysfunction.

“This world is complex, and for each of us, there are a million choices we can make every day,” Seager said. “The smart choices are simple. They are the ones that place another stepping stone in front of us so that we can continue along our path to realize our dreams. I am lucky that here at Cal, and on the crew team, everyday is a dream come true.”

Seager knows there is a still a long way to go to accomplish her dreams, but obstacles and drawbacks have not slowed her down yet.

There was a time in middle school when Shauna “Shay” Seager would finish last when running a mile, but now, the senior on the California women’s rowing

team regularly outruns her teammates.

Determination to ExcelRowing’s Shay Seager Pushes Herself to the Top

There was a time when Seager’s high school biology teacher told her she would nev-er get into college, but now, she’s at the top of her class in chemistry and biology.

Not known as much of an athlete before col-lege, Seager’s athletic career took off once she arrived in Berkeley. While par-ticipating on a triathlon team, she was spotted by Cal women’s crew coach Dave O’Neill, who asked her to try out for rowing. Seager loved every minute of her first season with the Golden Bears in 2009. In addition to competing on the second varsity eight, she also rowed for the USA Pre Elite team last summer, winning two silver medals.

Besides athletics, Seager, a conser-vation and resource studies major from Lake Tahoe, Calif., was also deter-mined to excel in the classroom, where biology and chemistry most captured her attention.

“Since my first year, I have been on the honor roll,” Seager said. “I have made the intentional effort to make the most of every day. I want to learn. I love to learn, and it is even more exciting to apply what I studied in the classroom to the real world and see its effect.”

Last year, she won the CRCA Nation-al Scholar-Athlete Division I Coaches

By Tim Miguel

Shay Seager

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Shay Seager has her sights set on joining the U.S. National team and attending medical school.

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Cal Sports Quarterly - Summer 2010

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