May 12, 2008

What a fabulous month of April we had here on the Hilltop! We celebrated two major events and West Coast Conference Coach and Player of the Year honors were all announced this month.

On Monday, April 14, 2008 we announced Coach Rex Walters as our next head coach of the men's basketball program. For those of you who were able to attend the press conference I hope you were impressed with Coach Walters' presence and enthusiasm for USF Basketball.

I want to also thank the committee members who worked so diligently on my behalf. The committee members were all people of integrity, credibility and good judgment - who brought diverse opinions to the process. The committee was chaired by Chuck Smith, vice chair of the USF Board of Trustees, and former president and CEO of AT&T West; included Jim Brovelli, USF Hall-of-Fame player and former head coach of USF basketball, Dr. Walt Gmelch, dean of the USF School of Education, and Mario Prietto, S.J., Rector of the USF Jesuit Community and member of the USF Board of Trustees. The search process allowed me the opportunity to step out of the Bay Area and view USF basketball from a national perspective. It was very gratifying for me to hear and validate that the University of San Francisco has a strong academic and athletic reputation among the national basketball community. The process allowed us the ability to truly scrutinize and evaluate many candidates to find the very best fit for USF basketball and, most importantly, our USF community.

As I stated at the press conference, Coach Walters possesses the qualities and qualifications we were looking for to guide this program in a successful direction. His professional reputation, knowledge and experience in the game of basketball, and his focus on student-athletes make him the perfect fit to lead the Dons.

We will be hosting several events to introduce Coach Walters to USF and I hope you can join us at one or two of these upcoming events. Or if you are on campus, please stop by the basketball offices to introduce yourself and to meet the new staff.

Then on April 21, 2008, I joined a group of USF football alumni and supporters to attend the 29th Annual Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame Enshrinement Banquet that inducted our very own, Burl Toler, Sr. This evening was an extraordinary celebration of five notable Bay Area sport figures that have enriched our sports lives over the years.

In addition to Mr. Toler, Roger Craig, Ray Guy, Rich DeMont and Eddie DeBartolo, Jr were also inducted. As you can see from this 2008 enshrinement class, this was a very football-centric event, which brought out so many football legends from both the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raider organizations. A few notable names in attendance were Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright, Keena Turner, Jamie Williams, Jim Plunkett and John Madden just to name a few. USF had a strong support for the Toler family with about 30 guests in attendance including family members.

The induction speeches were so heartfelt and I always leave these events with an appreciation for the real brotherhood (and I do mean brotherhood) that competing in sports can create.

Burl Toler was introduced by Kevin Anderson, the Athletic Director from Army (who is the first African American A.D. of any military academy). It was good to see Kevin again as we were colleagues in the Pacific-10 some year ago when I was at Stanford and he was at Cal. Kevin shared the poem "It Couldn't Be Done" by Edgar Guest that speaks to achieving challenges in the face of naysayers. He also shared with us that Burl Toler Sr was a pioneer and a role model for so many of us including Kevin himself. Lastly, it was shared that Burl always liked to say over the years, "If I do my best, my best will be good enough". Certainly it was. It was a very proud moment for USF Athletics.

I have to share one of the funniest moments of the evening. The introduction speeches for Eddie DeBartolo were made by Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott. Each sports legend spoke warmly about Mr. DeBartolo but it was Jerry Rice who thanked Mr. DeBartolo for the tremendous opportunity to join the 49er organization from his small school of Mississippi Valley State University. Jerry Rice said for him it was an opportunity to join a first class organization but for Joe Montana (from Notre Dame) and Ronnie Lott (from USC) both those players had to take a pay cut to join the Niners. Needless to say, that brought a tremendous roar of laughter from the crowd.

On April 23, 2008, Hilary Somers our women's tennis head coach was named Co-Head Coach of the Year by the West Coast Conference along side her student-athlete, Jenni Heinser who was named both Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year. Jenni was the first netter in USF program history to receive either the Player or Freshman of the Year honors for women's tennis. Congratulations to both of them for their accomplishments.

Then on Saturday, April 26, The Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative (BAWSI) and the Giants teamed up to inspire girls and women to pursue their goals in sports. The Giants and this BAWSI initiative created a day at AT&T Park just prior to the Cincinnati Reds game to honor Bay Area women athletes and sports administrators to encourage young girls and women to pursue their goals.

The pre-game panel discussion featured Brandi Chastain, BAWSI co-founder and Olympic, World Cup soccer star, Monica Abbott and Vicky Galindo, USA Softball members, Dawn Riley, captain of the first all-female ship in the America's Cup, Susan Armenta, U.S. women's record holder in race-walking, Sissi, Brazilian soccer star and 1999 World Cup Golden Boot winner, Chelsea Spencer, National Pro Fastpitch and University of California Berkeley alumna, and Sharon Kelleher, former top ranked women's paraplegic tennis player. Women in sports administration included Anne Cribbs and myself.

A bit about Anne Cribbs who in my mind is a true American hero. At the 1960 Olympic games, Ms. Cribbs and her teammates won the gold medal for the 400 meter medley relay and she placed 5th in the world in the 200 meters breast stroke. Because of the preferential treatment of male athletes in 1960, the U.S. men's swimming team was invited to tour Europe, but the women's team had to return home. At home, Anne stopped competitive swimming because at that time there was no women's swim team at the college of her choice, Stanford University. Unbeknownst to Anne at the time, experiencing the inequities between the treatment of male and female athletes, even at the world class level, helped shape her current perspectives. Anne is always at the forefront of issues regarding the equal opportunity for women in sports.

She is currently serving as a City Council appointed member of the Parks and Recreation Commission. Anne combined her love of sports with her organizing skills, she and several partners developed a bid proposing the Bay Area as a future Olympic venue. The momentum was contagious and the supporting network was world class. As president of Anne Cribbs and Company, Anne is currently leading the Bay Area Senior Olympic Committee (BASOC) in their quest to get the Senior (50+) Olympic Games here in our backyard." (Palo Alto Midtown Residents Association, Midtown History: Anne Cribbs, Written by Hillary Freeman). I met and worked with Anne on the BASOC initiative while I was working at Stanford and I am fortunate to call her a friend. Then evening was capped off when we were all honored on the field in a homeplate ceremony. Again, what a wonderful month of April USF Athletics had and I hope you can share in our collective enthusiasm that is building on the Hilltop.

Go Dons!

Debi Gore-Mann

Athletic Director Debi Gore-Mann's Comments Corner

Previous Entries

• May 12, 2008
• Feb. 18, 2008
• Dec. 1, 2007
• Nov. 1, 2007
• Sept. 28, 2007