Our View: Director should
clean up Beach sports
Cal State Long Beach needs some help. Our volleyball-throwing, basketball-wielding
student-athletes, as well as the other sports, are in dire need for a strong
individual to support their efforts.
CSULB needs a new athletic director, one who can ultimately raise the level of
prestige for the university, improve the basketball program and provide a bold
new vision for Beach sports. He or she must be a person who can organize for
CSULB some serious beach cleanup.
Bill Shumard, CSULB’s former athletic director, left rather suddenly to
take a job with the Special Olympics. The search for a replacement has been uneasy,
especially in conjunction with President Robert. C Maxson’s retirement.
Two of our university’s major players have set sail away from The Beach,
bound for different harbors.
And while we wish them well, unfortunately the university has only been able
to replace one of the two positions as of now. The search for CSULB’s new
athletic director is an important one. In many ways, it is an office second only
in importance to the university presidency.
Why is the athletic director so important? He or she is a driving force to bring
a sense of integrity and prestige to Beach athletics, to be the single connector
for university sports to the surrounding community. The athletic director can
bring in money to keep the programs alive and well. The director can also raise
alumni support.
If CSULB has strong athletic programs, it adds not only a few more winning seasons
to the campus’ belt, but also more nationwide recognition to a deserving
school. For American universities, the stronger an athletic program is, the more
television notice it gets from all around, which boosts the academics of the
university as a result.
In other words, winning seasons lead to notoriety, which lead to the best and
brightest wanting to come here, on and off the field.
It is an odd pairing that sports can increase academics which, largely, have
nothing to do with athletics. It’s the American way.
According to Bob Keisser, a writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram who frequently
covers Beach sports, the new athletic director has some serious hurdles ahead.
It’s not hard to agree with many of his points.
The second hurdle the new athletic director must jump is the basketball problem.
A strong basketball program is crucial for CSULB, especially considering it lacks
a football team.
Beach volleyball gets bigger crowds than basketball. How many schools can claim
that? Plaudits go to the volleyball teams and CSULB for probably being the only
school in the nation with this kind of volleyball attendance.
Unfortunately, the rest of the country does not share Southern California’s
enthusiasm for volleyball, so without more nationwide savvy and popular support,
CSULB’s reputation stays only local.
This is where the new athletic director would come in. If he or she can improve
the basketball program, a sport with more potential to make The Beach stand out
on a national level, then all things can only get better.
There will be more attendance at games, more revenue coming in, more athletic
supporters and alumni donations streaming in and most of all, more prestige for
CSULB.
In addition to providing a strong Beach basketball presence, the new athletic
director must have a bold, new vision. Keyword: new.
This means choosing an outsider to take over despite using the qualified candidates
from within. CSULB needs an outsider unaware and unaccustomed to the things going
wrong with athletics here, someone who can take a fresh look at the programs
here and know how to make them better.
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