spring 2014 issue of the cal sports quarterly

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Go Bears!Don’t miss Post Games at the Paragon, your Cal Basketball Season home base.

at the Claremont

spring 2014 1

Can Magic Strike Twice? 13Perseverance and loyalty. No better words in the dictionary can describe the college baseball ca-reer of Cal senior first baseman Devon Rodriguez. Having experienced the high of perhaps the great-est clutch hit in program history to near career-end-ing injuries, Rodriguez’s love for Cal baseball has brought him back for his senior season in 2014.

Impact Performer 16From the moment Malaina Payton stepped onto the track for her first season as a Golden Bear in the spring of 2010, she has found a way to make an impact both as a sprinter and a record-setting long jumper. Payton can trace her roots in the sport to her father, Norbert, who possesses his own track legacy.

Welcome, Sand Volleyball 18Rich Feller is drawing a line in the sand. And his new players are following it. Cal’s volleyball coach of the last 15 years has a new sport to spear-head at Cal – sand volleyball. The athletic depart-ment added the sport to its roster of programs in January, which had its first intercollegiate season this spring.

Matching Gifts for Unmatched Excellence 20When The William and Grace Ford Undergraduate Scholarship Matching Program gave donors a chance to double their already priceless support of Cal Athletics with matching gifts, dollar for dollar, in $100,000 increments to create 10 new athletic scholarships at the University, the response from the Cal Athletics community was swift. One million dollars was raised in very short order.

FEATURES

CONTENTS

Back in Berkeley 8The Degree Completion Program at Cal is designed to assist former student-athletes finish their requirements after having their academic careers, for whatever reason, interrupted. The number of Golden Bears back on campus after some time away con-tinues to rise and includes some familiar faces who understand the importance a Cal degree carries for the rest of their lives.

ON THE COVER

spring 2014

SPORTSQUARTERLY

Seeking the Hard Road 28On the surface, the late Orlando Tafoya, who attended Cal during the days of Pappy Waldorf, and softball player Breana Kostreba may not ap-pear to have much in common. But the two are inextricably linked through the Orlando Tafoya Memorial Scholarship, which is presented to a stu-dent enrolled in engineering interested in sports.

Navigating the Rough Waters 30The waters haven’t always been smooth for senior rower Carter Crowe, but having lived through a life-altering experience, he has remained buoy-ant trying to find a way to come out on top. Most significantly, Crowe overcame a tennis ball-sized tumor in his brain to earn a place in Cal’s varsity eight boat.

DEPARTMENTSLetter from the Director of Athletics .......................................... 2

Sideline Report ........................................................................ 4

Roll on You Bear ..................................................................... 24

Academic Achievement ........................................................... 34

Home Events Calendar ............................................................ 36

2 cal sports quarterly

Dear Friend of Cal Athletics:

As we near the end of our spring semester and our student-athletes scheduled to fin-ish their degrees prepare for graduation, let us pause for a moment to reflect on the journey these gifted scholar-athletes have made during their time in Berkeley. We are extremely proud of the effort they have put forward to be successful in the classroom,

on the field of competition and in their community.

We are also proud of how they came together and perse-vered during the worst possible tragedy a family, athletic pro-gram, campus and community could ever experience – the loss of a fellow student-athlete. On Feb. 7, we lost a wonder-fully bright and talented student-athlete with the sudden and tragic death of Ted Agu. The way Ted lived his life and the positive impact he made on everyone he touched will change Cal Football and Cal Athletics forever. We will always honor number #35 and he will always hold a special place in our hearts. You should know the tremendous outpouring of sup-port from our Cal Family, the Pac-12 Conference and so many more from around the country made a difference.

Academically, we witnessed the outstanding performance of several of our teams, including women’s golf, which led the way with a 3.54 GPA in the fall, while field hockey was at 3.34

and lacrosse and volleyball had 3.26 GPAs.Athletically, our winter and spring sports captured four conference titles (as of our publica-

tion date) in women’s tennis, men’s indoor track & field, and men’s and women’s swimming & diving. Led by head coach Dave Durden and his staff, our men’s swimming & diving team also won its third NCAA Championship in four years, while Teri McKeever guided our women’s swimming & diving program to a third-place NCAA finish. Our women’s basketball team made the NCAA Tournament for a third straight year under the direction of Lindsay Gottlieb, and our women’s gymnastics team enjoyed its best season in 20 years, capped by a third-place result at the Pac-12 meet.

Transition and change also impacted us this spring. Our 30th sport, sand volleyball, was in-troduced at Cal. And after reaching the quarterfinals of the National Invitational Tournament and six consecutive seasons of success at the helm of our men’s basketball team, our iconic head coach Mike Montgomery announced his retirement from the game to which he devoted more than four decades of his life. A short time later, we welcomed the arrival of new head coach Cuonzo Martin, who joins us most recently from the University of Tennessee.

Finally, we are very excited about the return to campus of several of our former student-ath-letes. These individuals all enjoyed success at the professional level in their respective sports, but since retiring, have all made the decision to come back to Berkeley to finish their degrees. They are the focus of our cover story, and we hope you enjoy read-ing about how truly special they are, as much as we are honored to have them back on campus.

Our student-athletes at this institution are incredibly gifted. Your support empowers us to strive for what is expected at the world’s No. 1 public university. Together, we will continue to work toward helping them achieve greatness.Go Bears!

LETTERfrom Director of Athletics sandy Barbour SPORTSQUARTERLY

Issue 47 – sprIng 2014

ATHLETIC ADMINISTRATION

DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS:Sandy Barbour

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS/ CHIEF OF STAFF:

Teresa Kuehn Gould

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS/COO:Solly Fulp

EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE AD/ DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT:

Phil Esten

SENIOR ASSOCIATE AD/ INTERCOLLEGIATE SERVICES:

Foti Mellis

SENIOR ASSOCIATE AD/CFO:David Secor

EDITORIAL STAFF349 Haas Pavilion

Berkeley, CA 94720

EDITOR:Herb Benenson

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:Scott Ball, Dean Caparaz, Doug Drabik, Miquel

Jacobs, Nicole Loscavio, Anton Malko, Wes Mallett, Kyle McRae, Tim Miguel, Jonathan

Okanes, Mara Rudolph, Jordan Stepp

DESIGN:Evan Kerr

PHOTOGRAPHY:John Todd (GoldenBearSports.com), Michael

Pimentel, Michael Burns, Richard Ersted, Evan Kerr, Don Feria, Zach Edmonds, Tim Binning, Jason McClain and KLC fotos among others

ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICE195 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 COVERJahvid Best, Tully Banta-Cain and J.J.

Arrington are among a host of former stu-dent-athletes back on campus to finish their requirements through the Degree Completion Program, which is overseen by Athletic Study

Center Director Derek Van Rheenen (far right). Photo by Don Feria.

General Manager: Mike Kohler (510) 643-4825

[email protected]

The Cal Sports Quarterly is published four times per year by the University of California

Athletic Department.

Sandy BarbourDirector of Athletics

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Alicia Asturias

A Special Season for Women’s Gymnastics

The Cal women’s gymnastics program completed its most successful campaign in more than two decades, a season that included the team’s highest-ever finish at the Pac-12

Championships (third). In addition, Justin Howell was tabbed the NCAA regional coach of the Year and senior Alicia Asturias was named the women’s gymnastics Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

The Bears were ranked 16th in the final standings, up a re-markable 33 places from just two years ago. Overall, Cal posted team meet scores of 196.00 or higher during the season – an unprecedented total in school history. At the individual level, As-turias and Dallas Crawford both qualified for the NCAA national meet, with Asturias becoming a second-team All-American.

Cuonzo Martin Chosen to Lead Men’s Basketball Program

Two weeks and a day after Mike Montgomery an-nounced his retirement after six years at the helm of the Cal men’s basketball team, the Golden Bears found

his successor – Cuonzo Martin.A star player at Purdue and a winning head coach at both

Missouri State and most recently at Tennessee, Martin pos-sesses all of the attributes necessary for the position. But what made him rise above among all others was the com-mitment he has shown over the course of his career to the development of the young men in his programs, as well as deep involvement into the local community.

“One of the things that stood out about Cuonzo Martin is his record – his record of success, his record of winning … and the comments every step of the way about who he is as a man and who he is as a coach,” Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour said. “Throughout the course of our conversations, community and family kept coming up. This is a man along with his wonderful wife and family, who is going to come to this community and really dive in.”

An All-Big Ten player at Purdue, Martin helped the Boiler-makers to a pair of conference titles and to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 1994. Following a four-year pro-fessional career, he returned to his alma mater as an assis-tant under Gene Keady and later under Matt Painter before taking the Missouri State position in 2008. Three years and a conference championship later, Martin moved to Tennes-see, where his win total increased each of the past three seasons, culminating with a Sweet 16 berth this past March.

“This is a wonderful place and we’ll continue to build on the success of Coach Montgomery,” said Martin, whose first name is pronounced KAHN-zo. “I think the biggest thing we are going to do is certainly reach out to the community, as well as the campus. But we’ve got to get out to the commu-nity. I take pride in that and it’s big for our program.

“I’m a young man that comes from East St. Louis, Ill., and now I have the opportunity to coach at the No. 1 public in-stitution in the world and that is very humbling,” Martin added. “There were a lot of great, qualified candidates and they chose me, so I don’t take that lightly.”

spring 2014 5

Men’s Swimming & Diving Claims 5th NCAA Title with Big Surge on Final Day

Women’s Swimming & Diving Earns Pac-12 Crown with 8 Individual and Relay Victories

Led by freshman Missy Franklin’s three victories in the 100, 200 and 500

free – all in meet-record times – Cal secured its third women’s swimming & diving Pac-12 title in school history March 1. The Bears prevailed in the 400 and 800 free relay and the 400 med-ley relay, while sophomores Ra-chel Bootsma (100 back) and Elizabeth Pelton (200 back) defended their crowns from a year ago.

Franklin picked up Pac-12 Swimmer of the Meet honors, the first of several individual recognitions during the month of March. At the NCAA Cham-pionships, she set an American record in winning the 200 free and brought Cal’s 800 free relay back from a 2.5-second deficit with a blistering anchor leg for the win, helping the Bears to a third-place national team finish.

Tabbed the Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year, Franklin received perhaps her most distinguished award

March 26 – the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year – during a ceremony in Malaysia for her outstanding 2013 ac-complishments, which included six gold medals at the World Championships.

Led by record-setting fresh-man Ryan Murphy and an inspired 1650-yard free-

style swim from senior Jeremy Bagshaw, the Cal men’s swim-ming & diving team captured the 2014 NCAA Championship with an inspired performance on the meet’s final day.

Trailing host Texas by six points after the first two sets of finals, the Golden Bears roared out of the gate when Bagshaw smashed the Cal record by 10 seconds on his way to a run-ner-up finish in his distance free event. Virtually all of the Bears improved from their morning prelims on the last night, in-cluding Murphy, who won the 200 back crown in a meet-re-cord 1:37.35 to complement his 100 back title a day earlier.

“I felt if we were within 20 (points), we were going to be in good shape,” head coach David Durden said after the final night. “We were going to be in good shape within six. That felt good. We felt like we just had to outscore Texas in every swimming event.”

In addition to Murphy, Cal earned its place atop the platform with three relay victories over the course of the meet – the 200 and 400 medley relays and the 200 free relay. The results

helped the Bears to a more than 50-point final advantage over Texas, 468.5-417.5.

With victories in both 2011 and 2012, Cal has won three of the last four NCAA championships and five in its history (also 1979 and ’80). Durden was named NCAA Coach of the Meet and Pac-12 Coach of the Year, and Murphy picked up the Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year honor.

The Golden Bears celebrate their third NCAA crown in the past four years.

Cal’s jubilant squad points out who is No. 1 in Pac-12 women’s swimming & diving.


Bear Backers Honored At Annual Luncheon

Kelly, Fellow Bears Help USA into World Cup

Adding to his already historic col-legiate legacy while representing his country on the international

stage, Cal rugby captain Seamus Kelly joined alumni Eric Fry, Blaine Scully and Louis Stanfill as all four started for the U.S. National Team in a must-have win over Uruguay on March 29 to qualify for the next Rugby World Cup.

Kelly, his three fellow Bears and their teammates hunkered down for the 32-13 victory in Marietta, Ga., to lock up a spot at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England, where the Americans will be seeded be-hind South Africa, Samoa, Scotland and a final Asia qualifier in Pool B of the four-pool, 20-team tournament. The Rugby World Cup is the third-most-watched sporting event in the world behind two other quadrennial events, the Summer Olympics and FIFA World Cup.

This latest international appearance with the national team for Kelly was his eighth, joining those made by Fry (22), Scully (16) and Stanfill (45) to increase the number of national team 15s appear-ances by Cal players to 615 all-time.

The first three-time captain in the his-tory of the oldest intercollegiate sport at the University, Kelly graduates this spring with a degree in political econ-omy. Stanfill, Fry and Scully have all played professionally overseas, with the latter two currently under contract in the English Premiership.

Cal Crew Celebrates 50th Anniversary of 1964 Championship

The annual Alumni Day for Cal men’s and women’s crew featured some special guests during the event on March 8 at the T. Gary Rogers Rowing Center.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1964 men’s Varsity 8 that captured the national championship, and 16 members of the varsity and junior varsity boats made the trip to the Oakland Estuary for the day’s ceremonies.

The 1964 team decided to honor its accomplishment with a $40,000 donation to Cal crew for the purchase of a boat that will benefit the program for years to come. The boat, named “The Brother of ’64,” was christened with the customary bottle of champagne in front of the large gathering of alumni and their families.

Former rowers Steve Johnson and Jim Libien spoke to the group and shared some of their experiences as mem-bers of the team, as well as their excitement for Cal Crew as a whole. Libien said it best when he stated that “the brotherhood between these guys is really something to cherish.”

Cal Athletics offered its heartfelt best to its most avid supporters during the annual Bear Backer Luncheon

held Feb. 18 at the Claremont Hotel.“You are essential members of our

Cal family,” Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour told the crowd. “You pick us up when we’re down. You encourage us to be resilient. And you show your grati-tude to our student-athletes for how they represent this university by contributing your time and money to support their pursuit of excellence.”

The annual luncheon is a way for the Cal athletic community to express its gratitude for those alumni, fans and community members who support the 30 sports teams on campus. Coaches and student-athletes from different teams were on hand, as well as several mem-bers of the department’s administration and staff.

The highlights of the day are the

awards, given to a handful of Bear Backers in dif-ferent categories for their special contributions to Cal’s athletic de-partment. This year’s recipients were:

David Eckles – Bear of the Year (for outstanding contributions toward the continuing excellence of Cal Athletics)

Nick Brereton – Golden Bear of the Year (for volunteer service)

Andy Rogers – Cub of the Year (to a young alumnus for volunteer service)

Bob Calonico – Cal Spirit RecognitionThank you to the award winners, ev-

eryone in attendance at the luncheon and to all of those who enable Cal Ath-letics to support its 30 teams and more than 850 student-athletes every day.

Members of the 1964 Cal crew donated a new racing boat on the 50th anniversary of their national title.

Seamus Kelly

VARsiTY BoATMalcolm Thornley

Alan MooersJohn SellersMike Page

Ed BradburyScott GreggGus Schilling

Steve JohnsonJim Libien

JUnioR VARsiTYHal EastmanDon WiesnerRon Sellers

Eric Van de WaterFrank Brown

John McConnellJohn GregoryBob Cross

Dan Phillips

Nick Brereton

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Strolling through Berkeley nearly 12 seasons since he last suited up for the Golden Bears, Tully Banta-Cain recalls the familiar sights

and sounds of the University of California campus and the surrounding area.

The view from the Lawrence Hall of Science high above the bay, the boats docked at the Berkeley Marina on the waterfront and even certain smells trigger memories from his days as a Golden Bear more than a decade ago when he prowled the gridiron as an All-Pac-10 defensive end on the football team.

But Banta-Cain is back at Cal for more than just reminiscing. He is here to finish something he started when he first enrolled in the fall of 1998. Following an eight-year NFL career that net-ted two Super Bowl championship rings while with the New England Patriots, Banta-Cain wants to earn his college degree.

“I felt like it was something I had to finish,” Banta-Cain said. “Leaving early for the NFL was an opportunity for me. I felt like it was something that was lingering on my to-do list. Why not get it done while I’m still young and in a mode of transitioning careers from the NFL to whatever I do next? I felt like it would be a perfect opportunity to get back in and finish.”

Banta-Cain is not alone as a former student-athlete in the classroom. He, along with dozens of others, is taking advan-tage of Cal’s Degree Completion Program (DCP), a coordinated effort that includes support from the Athletic Study Center, Cal Athletics, the Office of the Registrar, college and major advi-sors, and, of course, the student-athletes themselves.

The focus of the program is the conclusion of the degree pro-cess for former student-athletes who, for one reason or anoth-er, had their academic careers interrupted.

“I fully believe from a moral and ethical standpoint that we need to commit ourselves institutionally back to them,” said Derek Van Rheenen, the director of the Athletic Study Cen-ter who oversees the Degree Completion Program. “Not in the short run, not just while they’re participating in sports,

Back in Berkeley

but in the long run. If someone is not ultimately graduating while they’re here and eligible, that offer continues to remain throughout their lives. They decide when it’s the right time to come back.”

Among those currently on track to finish after time away are more than half a dozen football players. Besides Banta-Cain,

the list includes former running backs Jahvid Best and J.J. Arrington, as well as receiver Nyan Boateng and linebackers Ryan Davis and Devin Bishop.

Beyond football, many others are taking ad-vantage of the opportunity to earn their degrees years after leaving Berkeley. Former soccer star Megan Jesolva and former basketball Pac-10 Play-er of the Year Sean Lampley, for example, are also close to completing their requirements.

Degree Complete Program Helps Former Student-Athletes Return to Campus to Earn their Degrees

By Herb Benenson

“One of the most important things we do in our pro-gram is to welcome former players back and make them feel at home. It’s a credit to them for wanting to come back, and it’s a credit to our administration for

encouraging them to come back.”– football coach Sonny Dykes

Derek Van Rheenen (standing) oversees the Degree Complet ion Program that is assist ing such former student-athletes as ( f rom lef t ) J.J. Arr ington, Tul ly Banta-Cain and Jahvid Best earn their Cal degrees.

spring 2014 9

Back in Berkeley

In recent years, three of the more high profile student-ath-letes to pass through the DCP are Shareef Abdur-Rahm (bas-ketball), Todd Steussie (football) and Anthony Ervin (swim-ming). All fulfilled their requirements more than 10 years after departing from Cal and enjoying long careers in sports. Today, Abdur-Rahim serves as director of player personnel for the Sacramento Kings and general manager of the Kings’ Develop-mental League team in Reno, while Steussie is a management consultant in St. Louis after earning an MBA at Northwestern. Ervin is back in the pool after a period out of the water and earned a spot on the 2012 USA Olympic team in the 50 free-style.

But for every well-known student-athlete, there are many more lesser-known individuals who more quietly return to school. The reasons why they left early vary widely and not all were to play professionally.

“Some of these students have already had successful careers,” Van Rheenen said. “They are ultimately transitioning from one profession, and they’ve decided now that it’s time to ultimately get done what they weren’t able to get done.”

Once back on campus, the former student-athletes often have a fresh perspective on their studies. Older, more mature and unburdened from the commitment to train and compete, they often find more satisfaction the second time around.

“Your time management is better,” said Arrington, who led the nation in rushing in 2004 and was a second-round draft pick by the Arizona Cardinals before a series of knee surgeries ended his playing career. “This is my first time going to school without playing a sport. Part of the reason I signed (with Cal) was for the education. Like the NFL was a dream, to finish school was a big dream, too. I’m going to be the only male in my family to graduate from a four-year college.”

From the moment Sonny Dykes took over leadership of the Cal football program in December 2012, improving the cul-ture around academics has been a major focus. Results for the present players can be seen in significantly higher GPAs and Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores over the past year. But part of his philosophy extends to former student-athletes, offering them an invitation to be a valuable part of the Cal football family.

“One of the most important things we do in our program is to welcome former players back and make them feel at home,” Dykes said. “They’ve invested a lot into this program and this university. It’s a credit to them for wanting to come back, and it’s a credit to our administration for encouraging them to come back.”

With the average NFL career about 3 1/2 years, many play-ers who first earn their place in the professional league are on the outside by the time they’ve reached their mid-20s.

“What are you going to do for the next 50 years?” Dykes said. “That’s why it’s so critical in today’s day and age to get that degree.”

Take Jahvid Best, for example. A first-round draft pick after a record-setting career at Cal, Best left school following his ju-nior year for the NFL. But after parts of two seasons with the Detroit Lions, injuries ended his playing days and by January of 2014 – just before he turned 25 – Best was re-enrolled at Cal and working on his degree requirements.

“The first couple of weeks were the toughest, just waking up and getting back into the routine of going to class and taking notes,” Best admitted. “I kind of forgot what that was like. I came back to finish my degree. That was the first thing I want-ed to do after my football days were over.”

In addition to his schoolwork, Best is also giving back to the football program, working with the coaches as a student assis-tant. Banta-Cain and Arrington are also helping as mentors to the players in the program, offering advice on how to handle


themselves and setting expectations for their careers after college.

“The message really radiates with our players,” said Ron Coccimiglio, di-rector of career development for Cal football. “It’s great when somebody has walked in the path previous to them. To see them come back really confirms the importance of getting the degree.”

That sentiment certainly extends throughout Cal’s 30 intercollegiate programs. Jesolva was an All-Pac-10 performer for the Bears’ women’s soccer team in 2010, then left school during the spring of her senior year to try her hand at the pro game, a chance of a lifetime, she said. But by the next fall, the league had folded and she came back to school to take care of her degree requirements.

“Soccer had been a big deal for me – it got me into Berkeley – but my educa-tion is what is going to get me through the rest of my life,” said Jesolva, who is now working as a personal trainer and manager of a sportswear shop in Man-hattan Beach.

Similarly, Demetrius Omphroy had a choice to make after his senior soccer season in 2011 when he was drafted into Major League Soccer. Over the next couple of years, he played for Toronto and DC United, as well as for the Filipino National Team. In 2013, he had a chance to return to Cal with a scholarship to help defray the costs, and he took full advantage of the op-portunity.

“One of my bigger goals was to get my degree,” Omphroy said. “Play-ing professional soccer and traveling around was a huge accomplishment, but getting a degree from UC Berkeley is worth a lot more in my opinion. You hear so many stories about guys who leave to play pro and never go back. I didn’t want to be one of those kids.”

Under the Degree Completion Program, which was created with a gift in memory of David Paul Ross (Class of 1984) and continues to receive financial support from the Ross family, the number of “those kids” has the potential to drop dramatically over the upcoming years. Through improved tracking, partly as a result of recent NCAA academic reforms, advisors, coach-es and athletic department administrators have a better idea where each student-athlete stands in relation to their degree requirements every semester. The athletic department also helps with outreach and financial resources to encourage for-mer student-athletes to return to school.

As a result, it has become easier to work with students to finish their final steps – whether it’s a full semester in Berkeley,

a specific class or assignment or even an online course. Van Rheenen and his staff at the Athletic Study Center are ready to help navigate the terrain to ensure all of the necessary measures are taken. The list includes such areas as registration, advising, tutoring, ca-reer counseling and simply learning how to fit in again on campus. Addi-tionally, a supportive team culture within each sport program is import-ant to let the former student-athletes know that they are welcome any time they want to return.

“A lot of these individuals will nev-er count in terms of graduation rates,” said Van Rheenen, noting the six-year window student-athletes have to fin-ish their degrees in order to be con-sidered in NCAA graduation rate data. “Is it the right thing to do? Yes. Is it important that we’re still here to sup-port them? Absolutely. It’s a matter of doing what should be done.”

Given that they possess more life ex-periences than the typical college stu-dent, those in the completion program often make time to help guide current student-athletes through the difficul-ties and decision-making process that come with being an undergraduate at the world’s No. 1 public university.

“What has been most successful is when they find their place back on campus, how incredibly valuable they can be as mentors to young stu-dent-athletes, regardless of what they went on to do, whether they had suc-cessful career in the pros, whether they took a break because of finan-cial reasons or family issues,” Van Rheenen said. “They come back and they’re more mature. They’re coming

back with a different engagement level oftentimes into their institutional academic work. They become very good role models and are respected by young student-athletes.”

Banta-Cain, as with many of the former student-athletes on campus, fits that precise description. Not only has he stood be-fore the Cal football team to offer his perspective on life in the NFL with all the pressures and obligations that come with it, but he has found that he enjoys school far more than he did the first time around.

“I’m a lot older now, so some of the things that are going on in class are a lot more relevant to me than they were just af-ter high school,” Banta-Cain said. “I’m enjoying all my classes. I’m sitting in the front. I’m answering questions. It’s good to be more interactive with the whole educational process.”

Through the Degree Completion Program, more and more former student-athletes are getting the opportunity to expe-rience just that.

Megan Jesolva

“Soccer had been a big deal for me – it got me into Berkeley – but my educa-tion is what is going to get me through the rest of my life.”

– former Cal soccer star Megan Jesolva

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spring 2014 13

Perseverance and loyalty.No better words in the dictionary can describe the

college baseball career of Cal senior first baseman Devon Rodriguez.

During his time in Berkeley, the Gold-en Bears’ slugger from Newhall has ex-perienced the exhilaration of producing what many consider the greatest clutch hit in the history of Cal baseball. He also suffered a series of injuries that not only could have ended his baseball career, but included one that was potentially life threatening.

Through it all, the love of his team and the Cal pro-gram has brought Rodriguez back for his senior sea-son in 2014.

“I finally feel normal,” Rodriguez said. “I know peo-ple were going to be doubting me entering this sea-son after coming off injuries the past two years. That’s where it’s been fun. Having the opportunity to prove people wrong and have some fun out there. I’m finally healthy and feeling good.”

It has been more than two years since Rodriguez has felt completely healthy and good. To understand the Cal slugger’s odyssey that has put him where he stands now, a step back in time is in order.

First, the good times for Rodriguez. On June 5, 2011, in Houston, the Bears were playing Baylor in the NCAA Regional championship game at Rice’s Reckling Park. Baylor had opened up a 7-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but Cal came back with two runs in the bottom of the frame, and Rodriquez smacked a two-run homer in the eighth inning to set the score at 7-5. Baylor padded its lead with a run in the top of the ninth inning for an 8-5 advantage, but the Golden Bears were not finished, especially with all they had gone through during the 2011 campaign.

Cal scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth in-ning to get within, 8-7, but was down to its final out with Rodriguez at the plate. Facing a two-strike count, he lined a shot into right field, scoring Austin Booker and Tony Renda with the winning run, causing pan-demonium (with KALX announcer Danny Freisinger’s frantic call later being aired on ESPN) and sending the Bears to their first-ever Super Regional and an even-tual berth in the 2011 College World Series.

This was all amidst the backdrop of the announce-ment the previous fall that Cal baseball would be dropped at the end of the campaign due to athletic department budget cuts, thus making Rodriguez’s

Can

Strike Twice?Senior Devon Rodriguez Wants to Help Bears Return to College World Series

spring 2014 13

Devon Rodriguez


hit that much more poignant. The issue of the program’s demise has since been thor-oughly resolved through impressive fund-raising spearheaded by the Cal Baseball Foundation.

“So much emotion came into that final at-bat in Houston,” said Rodriguez. “It wasn’t just for me; it was for all the donors and people who had supported us.”

Rodriguez was part of a strong returning nucleus in 2012 that had head coach David Esquer optimistic his program could make a return trip to Omaha. But on a rainy day of practice before the start of the season, Rodriguez made a diving attempt at a ball and came down hard on the ground. He suf-fered a knee injury that originally was sup-posed to keep him out of action 4-6 weeks. However during his rehabilitation, he de-veloped a blood clot and got into just four games before being forced to shut down for the year.

“It was one of the most serious things I’ve ever dealt with,” Rodriguez said. “I had heard of blood clots but I didn’t really know the significance of them. I couldn’t do any-thing. I couldn’t get hit by anything. That kind of put everything in perspective. Now, I don’t really take it for granted. Every day that goes by I try to live to the fullest.”

Rodriguez recovered and was playing as well as he had in his entire career that next fall, according to Esquer. But during the Bears’ final scrimmage before the spring, Rodriguez hurt his shoulder sliding back into first base as a ball was thrown in be-hind him from the outfield.

“I knew as soon as it happened something was wrong,” Rodriguez said. “I couldn’t even get up off the ground.”

Rodriguez probably should have had sur-gery, but that would have put him out again for an extended period of time. He had enough of sitting out and decided that his team needed him too badly, electing to play the entire season through the pain.

“He played on one arm essentially be-cause of his loyalty to the team,” Esquer said. “You’d see him swing and miss, and he would wince in pain. He’d have to go days without taking batting practice just to make sure he could make it to the weekend and play in the game. At the end of the year, I just said thank you.”

Despite his physical limitations in 2013, Rodriguez was still productive. He batted .277, was ninth in the Pac-12 with seven home runs and had 40 RBI. But everyone watching knew he wasn’t himself.

“At any point in time, Devon could have had surgery and taken himself out for the season,” said Esquer. “He just wouldn’t do that.”

During those rough days in 2012 and 2013, Rodriguez always had something that would help motivate him.

“I would just go on YouTube and watch my hit against Baylor,” said the Cal first baseman. “Those rough days you have coming back from surgery, those days where you’re wondering if you’re ever go-ing to get back to your old self, those are the kind of days you go look at that video and it kind of serves as motivation. I kept telling myself, ‘Let’s keep pushing through it so once I get healthy, I can get anoth-er situation like that and hopefully come through again.’

“I remember the Baylor game like it was yesterday,” Rodriguez continued. “I can walk through that whole inning and ev-erything I was thinking from the start of the inning to when I got on the on-deck circle to when I was up to bat. I remember the pitches he threw me, the count, every-thing.

“It’s just awesome to know I was able to be a part of something so special - just that whole year from the team coming back after getting cut. I felt like I had the whole year on my back the entire at-bat. It’s just how special that team was, that season. It brings back all the good memo-ries that I have with all the guys.”

Now in 2014, Rodriguez shares his Hous-ton Regional, Super Regional and College World Series memories with teammates Kyle Porter, Vince Bruno, Michael Theo-fanopoulos and Derek Campbell – all members of the 2011 squad – with hopes of again returning to the postseason and making all his trials and tribulations worth it. He would also like to share that champi-onship feeling with all of his current team-mates.

“I just want to get us back to the top,” said Rodriguez. “Whatever it takes, I am going to do all I can to get us there.”


“I remember the Baylor game like it was yesterday … It’s just awesome to know I was able to be a part of something so special.”

– Devon Rodriguez

Video st i l ls f rom the 2011 NCAA Regional f inal show Devon Rodriguez’s big hi t against Baylor and the ensuing celebrat ion.

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From the moment Malaina Payton stepped onto the track at Edwards Stadium for

her first season as a Golden Bear in the spring of 2010, she has found a way to make an impact.

A sprinter and long jumper in high school, she immediately put both of those skills to use for Cal. During that freshman year, Payton ran the leadoff leg on the Bears’ 4x100-meter relay that qualified for the NCAA Championships, and she es-tablished a school freshman record in the long jump, breaking the mark of 20-0.25 set by Hall of Famer Sheila Hudson nearly 25 years prior.

Over the seasons since, Payton has con-tinued to establish herself as one of the top sprinter-jumpers in Cal history. She has qualified for both the NCAA indoor and outdoor meet in the long jump multiple times and this past February, earned the indoor conference title at the MPSF Cham-pionships.

The fact that Payton has excelled in track & field should come as no surprise to those who know her family history. In particular, her father, Norbert, has had the greatest influence on her competitive career.

Impact performerMalaina Payton Makes Her Presence Known on the Track and in the Field

In the early 1970s, Norbert Payton was a long jumper and ran track at Washington State, similar to what his daughter does to-day. He is entrenched in the Cougars’ record books in the 100-meter dash, with his best time coming in 1971 when he was clocked in 10.40, which to this day stands as the 10th-best mark in WSU history. He then went on to the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1972 in Eugene, Ore., competing with some of the best athletes in the country.

Norbert’s background in track & field led him into coaching, which quickly developed into a passion. Nobody felt and experienced that fervency more than his own children, Malaina especially.

“My Dad is the one who actually got me started running track because he long jumped and ran the 100 meters when he was young and throughout college,” Malaina said. “It was definitely his dream to have all of us become successful track athletes.”

At an early age, Malaina sought out other athletic outlets, desiring to participate in ac-tivities such as gymnastics and cheerleading. Even still, the drive to have his daughter be-

come successful in track & field was a priority for Norbert. “I think I was the most successful out of all of us, but try-

ing to live up to what he has accomplished and expected was tough,” Malaina recounted. “Even though I was participating

By Jordan Stepp

spring 2014 17

in other sports, I always was go-ing to track practice afterwards.”

Malaina’s path to Berkeley started to take shape during her high school years. Before her se-nior year, she transferred to Fre-mont High School in Oakland in order to reunite with her father, who served as the school’s track & field coach. Together, they be-lieved the move could pay divi-dends as far as her future in the sport was concerned.

The two were a team again, and as a result, they saw one clear path to an elite university to pursue her higher education.

“Having gone to school (in Oakland), where the academ-ics weren’t necessarily a high priority in some cases, my Dad and I knew that if I wanted to go to a great school like Cal, I would probably have to do so by earning an athletic scholarship,” Malaina recalled.

Once at Fremont, Malaina’s performances gained notice, with bests of 19-9.50 in the long jump and 12.10 in the 100-me-ters. However, the coach-pupil dynamic soon threatened to force a wedge between father and daughter.

“I think in high school, he approached certain things from the point of view of my track coach, rather than just simply as my father,” said Malaina, who noted that their bond has now fully mended. “I think today there is much more of a balance between the two.

“He’ll try to calm me down and provide good advice,” she added. “I am happy that we can have that type of relationship now. During high school, at times it was more of a coach-ath-lete relationship. Even at home, he was still coaching me at the dinner table and there were some times that I had even wanted to quit, because it got to be overwhelming.”

Now, Malaina is thriving on the track & field team at Cal. She ranks among the top 10 performers in the long jump in school history and has earned the right to compete at the highest

collegiate stage at the NCAA Championships.

Last year’s Big Meet at Stan-ford provided a perfect exam-ple of Malaina’s capabilities. She captured the long jump with a mark of 21-1.50 while also establishing a new personal best in the 100-meter dash, running an 11.92.

Not only has Malaina shined in her chosen sport, she has also leant her time to working within Cal Athletics as a valued member of the events management stu-dent staff.

“Malaina has worked dili-gently during her time at Cal to become an outstanding stu-dent-athlete,” director of track & field Tony Sandoval said. “She’s

seized the opportunity to attend Cal and utilized all the re-sources both academically and athletically to her advantage. She’s an All-American in the long jump, has run the lead off leg on the 4x100 and the 100 meters in most of our meets. We are so proud of her time with us, and she is a great leader and valuable Golden Bear.”

With the outdoor season in full swing, Payton has her sights set on several lofty objectives before her collegiate career ends in June. At the top of the list is Hudson’s school record of 22-1 in the long jump, a mark that dates back to the 1990 campaign and stands as one of the oldest standards in the Cal record book. If Malaina is able to reach her target at the NCAA meet, it could put her in line for a coveted national title.

“I was able to break her freshman record, so hopefully I’ll be able to break her overall record as well,” Malaina said. “That will then lead to going professional afterwards, which is also one of my goals.”

Having conquered the challenges of being a student-athlete at Cal, the interdisciplinary studies major has grown to be-come comfortable in her role with the Bears and is on track for her degree, which will complete her old high school aspiration of graduating from a highly regarded institution.

“I think trying to balance athletics and academics is the most difficult aspect of being a student-athlete,” Malaina said. “It was a big challenge in both my freshman and sophomore years, but once you get the hang of it, you understand what you have to do and if you want it, you will achieve it.”

As Malaina Payton prepares to enter the post-collegiate world, she does so with full confidence and knowing that the will to succeed instilled by her father has paid many dividends in the long run.

Malaina Payton excels in the long jump, as her father, Norbert, did before her at Washington State.

Malaina Peyton Norbert Peyton

“I think trying to balance athletics and academics is the most difficult aspect of being a student-athlete ... But once you get the hang of it, you understand what you have to do and if you want it, you will achieve it.”– Malaina Payton


Rich Feller is drawing a line in the sand.And his new players are following it.Cal’s volleyball coach of the last 15 years has a

new sport to spearhead at Cal – sand volleyball. The athletic department added the sport to its roster of programs in January and is having its first intercol-legiate season this spring. Feller serves as the head coach and the roster is made up of almost exclusive-ly players from the Bears’ indoor team in the fall.

Sand volleyball is the fastest-growing sport in Division I athletics, according to the NCAA’s most recent participation survey. Around 40 programs across the country now sponsor sand volleyball, in-cluding eight in the Pac-12 Conference.

The addition of sand volleyball now gives Cal Ath-letics 30 sports. It came as a way to allow the Uni-versity to continue to comply with Title IX require-ments by accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented gender on campus (also known as Prong III).

“I am very excited for the beginning of sand vol-leyball here at Cal,” Feller said. “The sport of sand volleyball has grown so much in just four years or so that it’s been in existence in the college realm. It’s just growing and growing and growing.”

The excitement surrounding the growth of sand volleyball has been ev-ident at the Clark Kerr Sand Courts this season. Crowds have come out on sun-splashed after-noons to watch each of the Bears’ doubles

teams wage battles against their opponents. With only two matches taking place at once, players who aren’t participating at the time line up to watch along with fans, creating a festive, intimate environ-ment.

In collegiate sand volleyball, teams play five dou-bles matches against each other, with the school winning three or more earning the overall victory. Matches are a best-of-three format, with the first two sets being played to 21 and the if-necessary third set going to 15.

And while there are some similarities between sand volleyball and the indoor game, they are two distinctly different sports.

“You have to be a good all-around player,” said for-mer Cal star setter Holly McPeak, who went on to be-come one of the United States’ most decorated sand volleyball players ever and a three-time Olympian. “If you can’t pass, forget about it. You’re done. If you can’t set, you’ll never win. You have to do everything.”

Indeed, in some ways sand volleyball is more de-manding than the indoor game in that it requires participants to perform every skill in the sport. In indoor college volleyball, athletes that play in every rotation and therefore are called upon to master every aspect of the game are becoming more of an exception than a rule. Most players perform only in the front row or back row. The libero plays defense only. Some teams use two setters so they are always in the back row, thus not forcing them to block taller players.

“These days, girls are getting bigger and bigger and it’s becoming very specialized,” McPeak said.

Welcome Sand VolleyballCal Adds Fast-Growing Sport to Intercollegiate LineupBy Jonathan Okanes


spring 2014 19

“You might be a fantastic hitter and blocker but play just in the front row. There’s no hiding in sand volleyball. Even if you are a huge hitter, you have to pass the ball. They may serve your partner and see if you can set the ball. You have to play defense. You have to perform every skill. It’s a huge physical challenge.”

The differences with sand volleyball affect Feller and the coaching staff as well. Feller has sought in-sights from some of the sport’s greats like McPeak and Barbara Fontana, who helps McPeak run a sand volleyball club in Southern California. Feller also hired volunteer assistant coach Nicole Walthall, a AAA-rated competitor in the California Beach Vol-leyball Association who has been a fixture at the Clark Kerr Sand Courts for years, coaching numer-ous CBVA players to prepare them for competition.

“There are a lot of little things that the coaches are doing,” Feller said. “It’s great because you can draw a line in the sand. There are a lot of things where you are drawing a line in the sand and saying this is the direction you want to get off the net, this is the direction you want to come back. It’s a totally different involvement, but there is a lot of coaching in the practices.”

Feller said the introduction of sand volleyball has rejuvenated him as a coach. With only two players on the court at one time, more focus is on team dynamics and managing personalities. And coaches aren’t al-lowed much interaction with players during matches, so there is an even greater emphasis on preparation.

Feller also now attends club tournaments to re-cruit sand-only players.

“The sand is a challenge, and it makes me look at coaching a little bit differently,” Feller said. “A lot more of just managing personalities is part of the sand game because there are only two people out there on the court. It’s much more how you directly relate to just one other person. For me, it’s figuring out who can relate best to one other person. I’m excited. I’m enjoying some of the chal-lenge of it.”

The university was able to add sand volleyball at a minimal cost. There are no new paid coaches or new scholarships, and all of the Bears’ opponents in 2014 reside in Northern California, keeping travel costs low. Schools like Saint Mary’s, Stanford, San-ta Clara, USF and San Jose State are on Cal’s 2014 schedule.

Many other schools are expected to add sand volleyball in the coming years, and an NCAA Championship event is likely a year or two away. McPeak, who has seen it all in the sport, says it has never been this popular. She said she expects there to be over 100 college programs in three years.

“It’s the biggest grass roots effort in junior beach volleyball I have ever seen,” McPeak said. “The amount of young players playing in clubs is unbelievable. When I grew up, I couldn’t find any high school kids to play with me. Now a lot of kids playing in-door are trying sand and finding out that they love it.”

Welcome Sand VolleyballCal Adds Fast-Growing Sport to Intercollegiate LineupBy Jonathan Okanes

The Clark Kerr Sand Courts have been bust l ing wi th act iv i ty th is spr ing wi th the addi t ion of sand vol leybal l as an intercol legiate sport .

spring 2014 19

Matching Gifts for Unmatched ExcellenceDonations Double Through The William and Grace Ford Athletic Scholarship Matching Program

By Anton Malko


When The William and Grace Ford Athletic Scholarship Match-ing Program gave donors a chance to double their already substantial sup-port of Cal Athletics with matching gifts, dollar for dollar, in $100,000 increments to create 10 new athletic scholarships at the University, the response from the Cal Athletics community was swift.

One million dollars was raised in very short order.

The results – 10 new endowed athlet-ic scholarships – will have an exponen-tial impact on the programs involved, as well as on the lives and families of the student-athletes who receive them.

Cal was a long-lasting love for the Fords. Grace Haldeman grew up in Oakland and earned a degree in art from the University in 1937 before meet-ing her future husband, Bill Ford, two years later. After successful careers and a nearly 60-year marriage that included loyal attendance together at Cal football games for almost as long, the Fords in-cluded a significant bequest to benefit the University in their estate plan.

After Grace passed away, in appre-ciation of the University and to honor Grace’s memory, Bill generously sup-ported the California Memorial Stadium renovation project, among other activ-ities on campus. Upon Bill’s death, the athletic scholarship matching program was established with a portion of the Ford’s bequest. Although neither is alive now to appreciate the results of their matching program in person, Grace and Bill would clearly be overjoyed to pro-vide such priceless educational oppor-tunities to Golden Bear student-athletes.

Continued on page 22

spring 2014 21

Jill Costello Memorial Athletic Scholarship

Like Jim McManus, Jill Costello holds an important place in the history of Cal Athletics. Costello, a coxswain from San Fran-cisco, guided her boats in three Pac-10 and NCAA Champion-ships before succumbing to lung cancer just after her senior year in 2010. Her courage and determination in the face of death made her the conference Rower of the Year and hero to all in the fight against her disease.

Glenn and Bettina Duval of Santa Monica were profoundly moved by Costello’s life. When they heard about this scholar-ship matching opportunity, it was a perfect chance to double the value behind a plan they already had to create a scholar-ship in Jill’s memory.

Now, with the Duvals’ generosity matched by The William and Grace Ford Athletic Scholarship Matching Program, anoth-er women’s rower will get an opportunity to attend the Uni-versity in Costello’s name through the Jill Costello Memorial Athletic Scholarship Fund.

“Ultimately, it’s about the kids,” said Bettina Duval (nee Scott Baig), who earned her BA in Rhetoric from Cal in 1982. “We’re people donors who want people to achieve their dreams.” Her husband, Glenn, is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara and their family’s support of education extends elsewhere in the UC sys-tem.

Their daughter, Anne, is a current junior on the women’s rowing team, and it was Costello who taught Annie to row when she attended a Cal Women’s Crew Camp. Most important to the Duvals, Bettina said, is that “Jill’s legacy lives on. She was an amazing young woman.”

Bettina Duval calls the matching structure “a wonderful way to set up a donation program, and you can’t miss the chance to take advantage of such a great opportunity to double your money and make an impact on a young rower.”

The James McManus Scholarship

Among the 10 new athletic scholarships is one in memory of James McManus, a two-time tennis All-American who reached the NCAA doubles final in 1961 and graduated from the Uni-versity in 1963.

Also a two-time U.S. Hardcourt champion, 1968 Olympian and fourth-round singles player at Wimbledon in 1972, the same year he co-founded the Association of Tennis Profession-als, McManus will be further remembered thanks to his widow, Carole, and brother, Tom, who teamed with the Fords to create The James McManus Scholarship for men’s tennis.

“My husband loved being a Cal Bear,” said Mrs. MacManus, who credits to her brother-in-law for helping to guide the process. “It’s a wonderful way to honor Jim’s life and what Cal meant to him.”

On April 12 at the annual McManus Legends Day, which be-gan in 2010, the Cal tennis family celebrated Jim’s legacy and this new scholarship for members of the men’s tennis program.

“I know how excited Jim would be to see the Cal tennis fam-ily grow through a matching opportunity like this to create a scholarship that helps another family,” men’s tennis coach Pe-ter Wright said. “A matching opportunity challenges people.”

Continued from page 20

“I know how excited Jim would be to see the Cal tennis family grow through a matching

opportunity like this to create a scholarship that helps another family. A matching

opportunity challenges people.”

– men’s tennis coach Peter Wright


The Newmark Women’s Golf Scholarship

Adding to their array of gifts to Cal Athletics, Kent and Pat Newmark have further underscored their passion for academic and athletic achievement by joining forces with The William and Grace Ford Athletic Scholarship Matching Program to create a scholarship for women’s golf.

“Knowing there was an extra $100,000 out there to match my gift made a big difference,” said Kent. “It triggered the tim-ing to do it this year rather than several years in the future.”

The Newmarks’ latest act of generosity adds to their lega-cy, the tangible results of which can be seen in the short-game facility for the golf programs, the capital improvements to tennis facilities and the annual Newmark Award for best and most-improved team GPAs.

Mr. Newmark is member of the Benjamin Ide Wheeler Soci-ety and the Big C Society who lettered in tennis for three years, threw the javelin for one year and graduated from Cal in 1960 with a degree in philosophy. He returned to Berkeley after his military service to earn his MBA in 1964.

“These monies were earmarked in my will but I’ve taken them out in my lifetime,” said Kent, who added that he and Pat have been gratified to the impact of their gifts. “It makes it a little more fun.”

Henry S. Barbour Family Athletic Scholarship

In addition to the unrestricted athletic scholarship she has created in tandem with The William and Grace Ford Athletic Scholarship Matching Program, Sandy Barbour has committed to many areas of support, many of them privately, over more than nine years as the Director of Athletics.

As she has guided the 30-sport department at Cal through some challenging times, Barbour has remained most commit-ted to the nearly 850 student-athletes whom the department serves, and the Henry S. Barbour Family Athletic Scholarship she and her family created in her father’s name is just one more example of that commitment. “I believe very deeply that athletics is a mirror of the comprehensive excellence that ex-ists across campus, and we support that as individuals and col-lectively in any way we can,” Barbour said.

A four-year letterwinner and captain of her field hockey team at Wake Forest, where she also played varsity basketball, Barbour sees a special value in the doubling effect of a match-ing opportunity to create a scholarship. “Credit to the Ford family and credit to our development office for putting togeth-er a very compelling program that has successfully matched up these families,” she said.

Matching challenges across the Cal campus have consistently shown to be extremely effective motivators for giving, with recent examples including the Hewlett Challenge and the New Alumni Challenge. Like other matching programs, the structure of The William and Grace Ford Athletic Scholarship Matching Program has proven itself as a surefire method to inspire others to give.

Additional donors and families who have created scholar-ships for Intercollegiate Athletics through The William and Grace Ford Athletic Scholarship Matching Program will be fea-tured in the next issue of Cal Sports Quarterly. For more infor-mation about matching gifts and other ways to support the De-partment of Intercollegiate visit www.CalBears.com/donate.

“Knowing there was an extra $100,000 out there to match my gift made a big difference. It

triggered the timing to do it this year rather than several years in the future.”

– Kent Newmark

spring 2014 23

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Tennis players employ all their skills sets, physical and otherwise, to achieve success under pressure. But suc-cess, measured easily on the court, can be much harder to

experience, much less enjoy, everywhere else.Sure, it can be easy – if you know how.Since her collegiate career ended after four trips to the

NCAA Championships and a 1989 All-America selection, for-mer Golden Bear Alissa Finerman has continued to excel both between the lines as a player and off the court as a business/life coach, helping others with her know-how to a lead a life of success and enjoyment.

Finerman has remained a winner, ranked No. 1 by the U.S. Tennis Association in the Women’s 40 Doubles division three times, and No. 1 in Women’s 45 Doubles in 2013. In April, she

competed for the USA at the World Championships in Florida. Outside the lines, the Scarsdale, N.Y., native took her bache-

lor’s in social sciences from Cal and moved to New York City, where she worked in commercial real estate for five years be-fore entering the Wharton School of Business, receiving her MBA in 1998.

Finerman served in the finance sector for nine more years until she decided to change her grip, so to speak, and become a business/life coach, earning credentials from New York Uni-versity and the International Coach Federation. In 2009, she returned to California and launched her career as a writer, speaker and motivational coach.

Her book, “Living in Your Top 1%,” published in 2011, is a template for others to identify their best lives and succeed at living them.

In an interview, Finerman explained the meaning of “Your

Top 1%” by say-ing, “It’s not about living for your résumé or other externalities of your life. Do you feel alive? Do you feel engaged, do you feel passion-ate and are you doing meaningful work? By doing those things, you are living in your top 1%.”

Finerman has become a sought-after speaker across multi-ple industries with clients including the Milken Institute and Prostate Cancer Foundation, both created by fellow Cal and

Wharton graduate Mike Milken.In his endorsement of the book, Milk-

en said, “Everyone has the capacity for greatness. Alissa’s book provides an au-thentic and realistic path toward that goal – a way of life and a choice we can all make. She delivers her uplifting mes-sage with passion and clarity, and shares key insights to help others reach their highest potential.”

That praise comes as no surprise to Finerman’s head coach at Cal.

“Alissa was one of the best athletes and smartest players on the team,” said Jan Brogan, who helmed the women’s ten-nis team at Cal from 1978-2006. “’Fine,’ as we called her, was the definition of a student-athlete, striving for excellence in the classroom as well as on the court. I was not surprised by her success in the business world nor her turn to mo-tivational speaking and life coaching. It’s something that she is very passionate

about sharing with others.”Finerman said that the University of California as a whole

represents “a quality group of people. When I tell people I went to Cal, it gives me instant credibility and carries a lot of weight.”

It’s been 25 years since her Berkeley days and Finerman is still “like family” with her former teammates, including Jean-Marie Lozanom Karen Shin and Caroline Scherman (now Nelson).

The rituals Finerman recommends in her book resonate par-ticularly well with everyone in the Cal Athletics family. Among them are “Embrace a Can-Do Mindset,” “Go for the Goal” and “Think Without Obstacles.”

Words like those make it clear that throughout her journey back to California, Alissa Finerman has always had Cal with-in her, and always will. To learn more about her work, visit AlissaFinerman.com.

Alissa Finerman Serves Ace in ‘Your Top 1%’

By Anton Malko

ROLL ON yOU bEAR

Former Cal All-American Alissa Finerman competed in April at the World Championships.

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through years of youth basketball and baseball. He suffered a stroke in 2005, and passed away in 2011.

“Toward the end of his life, we tried to think of all the things that were important to him,” Wilma said. “I knew that engi-neering was, and he’d loved track & field and he was a Bear booster.”

And so the Tafoyas – Wilma, son Matthew, and daughters Meg, Julie and Michele – created a scholarship in his honor, with the same stipulations. Preference would be given to a stu-dent enrolled in engineering interested in sports and, if possi-ble, a track & field student-athlete.

“He would have wanted to share that you can both be an athlete and a professional,” Wilma said. “He was an athlete his whole life, and sports were really his life outside of his profession.”

It goes without saying that at one of the world’s top univer-sities, admittance into the engineering program is challenging. Within the last three years, less than 20 percent of the College of Engineering’s roughly 9,500 freshman applicants were ad-mitted. It’s even rarer to find a student-athlete who can man-age the time commitment of such a demanding engineering major on top of exhausting practices, games and travel.

For Kostreba, it was a worthy commitment. Growing up, Kostreba was more into Legos than Barbie dolls, and en-joyed designing roller coasters and theme parks with the Roller Coaster Tycoon computer game. She made model cars, even a racing car, and once helped her dad build a re-taining wall.

Seeking the Hard Roadorlando Tafoya Memorial scholarship Encourages softball’s

Breana Kostreba to Pursue both sports and Professional Career

Breana Kostreba

On the surface, the late Orlando Ta-foya and Cal softball player Bre-ana Kostreba may not appear to have much in common.

For starters, Tafoya was 80 when he passed away in 2011. Kostreba, a junior, is younger than even Tafoya’s youngest daughter, Michele, known by many for her broadcast work on the NFL sidelines.

Orlando Tafoya was a track & field athlete for the Golden Bears, while Kostreba hates running. Instead, she prefers a bat and a glove as a starting utility player.

How then could someone who attend-ed Cal in the days of Pappy Waldorf and a 21-year-old young woman be kindred spirits?

The answer lies in complicated math equations, in efficient and functional designs and in a pas-sion for engineering. When it came to choosing a recipient for

the Orlando Tafoya Memorial Scholarship, Kostreba was the perfect fit.

A longtime Bay Area sports fan, Tafoya support-ed the Golden Bears, 49ers and Giants through and through, even after moving to Manhattan Beach after graduation. That included in times of crisis. Wilma, his wife of 56 years and college sweetheart, re-called a time when their house caught fire, and one of his main priorities was securing his season tickets.

“He made a mad dash to his desk and brought out his 49er season tickets,” she said.

He was especially fond of the Cal track & field pro-gram, despite only participating as a freshman at Cal in the late 1940s.

“One of his greatest memories was competing in the Big Meet against Stanford’s great pole vaulter at the time,” Wilma said. “He didn’t win anything great, and at the time he wasn’t very proud of his track record, but he did earn his letter. It was just the fun of being there competing, running sprints and hurdles.”

Equally as great to his love for sports was his love for engineering.

“He found engineering a challenging major and worked very hard on it,” Wilma said.

After graduation, Orlando Tafoya found a job in aeronauti-cal engineering, working with Douglas Aircraft and Lockheed Martin while still supporting his beloved Golden Bears and remaining involved in amateur sports, even coaching his kids

By Mara Rudolph

“It is nice to be able to walk up to a professor and say ‘I’m an athlete’ and they say, ‘Wow. In this major?’ It feels nice to have people without even knowing you, respect you.”

– Breana Kostreba

spring 2014 29

Kostreba was a perfect fit for the Orlando Tafoya Memorial Scholarship after excelling on the field and in her mechanical engineering classes.

“It’s not exactly my major now, but I found that I’ve always enjoyed building stuff,” she said.

At Aptos High School, Kostreba was a two-year member of the Aptos Robotic Club, where her team built underwater ro-bots and qualified for national contests twice. In her senior year, Aptos claimed first place in the international Marine Ad-vance Technology competition held at the NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab. The team built a model of a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, that could stop the oil gush-ing from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident, and beat out students from 28 schools and nine different countries, includ-ing China, Russia and Scotland.

Kostreba even found her interest in math, science and en-gineering creeping its way into her softball swing, picking up a new style her Sorceror Softball club team coach suggested based on a double pendulum.

“It was based on physics. I found an interest in that,” she said. “It was backed by science, and it made sense to me. That was easier for me to understand than it was for most people.”

Kostreba even based her college entrance essay on it, which was fitting because she could not imagine a college career without softball. She saw Cal as the perfect fit for her journey, ready to rise to the challenge when head coach Diane Ninemire told Kostreba that she would be the softball program’s first en-gineering major.

“Being in the softball community, I definitely knew that I had a high standard of education for myself,” Kostreba said. “I knew going into it that it wasn’t a common thing to go into and do a ‘hard’ major, especially in college when it’s even more of a time commitment than high school travel ball.”

So far, Kostreba’s two-pronged commitments are paying off. On the diamond, she’s one of Cal’s leading power-hitters, bat-ting over .320 as of the end of April. In the classroom, where she’s pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, her ded-ication has earned her the respect of classmates and profes-sors alike.

“My classmates think me being a student-athlete and engi-neering major is cool, but they don’t understand the commit-ment as much,” Kostreba said. “But it is nice to be able to walk up to a professor and say ‘I’m an athlete’ and they say, ‘Wow. In this major?’ It feels nice to have people without even knowing you, respect you.”

Tafoya’s legacy lives on in Kostreba and keeps her motivated.“Sometimes, it’s tough and I wish I’d picked an easier major,

but in the end I remind myself that it will all pay off,” Kostreba said. “I would not be happy doing something else. My parents have always pushed me to do everything my best. If I had a different major or took the ‘easy’ path -- a less time-consum-ing major -- I wouldn’t have been happy. I wouldn’t have been proud.”


Navigating the Rough Waters

Carter Crowe’s Path to Redemption Courtesy of Cal

By Nicole Loscavio

The waters haven’t always been smooth for senior rower Carter Crowe, but having lived through a life-altering experience, he has remained buoyant

trying to find a way to come out on top. Crowe grew up the middle child of three boys and

has always been competitive. When he was a kid, that meant constantly trying to one-up his brothers and friends, whether on the playground or seeing who would practice violin the longest.

Crowe took that same drive to Santa Barbara High School, where he was determined to prove himself in the classroom and on the water polo and swim teams. But in the fall of 2007, during his junior year, Crowe’s world changed dramatically.

“I was having trouble getting work done and focus-ing, and then it progressed to having headaches, these throbbing headaches that felt like a pressure change in my brain any time I would go from laying down to sitting up,” Crowe said.

Doctors wrote it off at first, telling Crowe he was eating too much sugar. So he cut sugar from his diet, but the headaches returned. Crowe was playing wa-ter polo at the time and noticed he couldn’t throw or catch the ball properly.

“One day in mid-December, I was swimming and someone pushed me under, and I went to swim up but hit the bottom of the pool,” Crowe recalled. “I opened my eyes and thought to myself, ‘Gosh, there’s some-thing seriously wrong with me.’”

The next day, Crowe underwent an MRI and was shocked to find out he had a tumor about the size of a tennis ball in his left cerebellum. The cerebellum is the part of the brain that controls motor skills, thus explaining why he struggled with his athletic perfor-mance.

Luckily for Crowe, the tumor was benign and en-cased in a cyst, so it did not spider into his brain. He was immediately sent to Children’s Hospital LA to have it removed and was determined to not let it dic-tate his life.

Within two weeks of his surgery, Crowe was back in the pool and back to his studies. He started slow, swimming one lap a day and attending one class a day, building up to full swim workouts within five weeks. “I


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was just trying to make sure I didn’t fall behind with my athlet-ics and my school work,” Crowe said. “There had been so much hard work put into everything that I didn’t want to let anything keep me back.”

Crowe decided not to play sports his senior year and got in-volved in theater. He had always been interested in musicals and enjoyed singing, so he jumped right into the new environ-ment and figured out how to work with people in a different way. Crowe fit right in, starring in the school’s spring produc-tion of Footloose as Ren MacCormack.

“It was my first real introduction to true functional team-work and having to count on other people to make what I was trying to achieve work out well,” Crowe said. “I think I gained a lot of skills from it, especially skills that apply now to rowing, as we’re so dependent on everybody else in the boat.”

Crowe was accepted to Cal based on academic merit and moved to Berkeley for his freshman year of college. As it was the first real time Crowe had spent away from home, he struggled finding his identity. While dealing with some of the emotional distress the brain tumor had caused, he felt like he wasn’t achieving much outside of the classroom and became discouraged.

Ready for a chance to get out of that funk, Crowe decided to follow the example of his older brother who attended USC and transferred there, which allowed him to be closer to his family.

Crowe was now determined to find something to be passion-ate about. During a summer job packing ice cream in Wiscon-sin, he did. One of his co-workers owned a bike shop and got Crowe into cycling. He realized how much he enjoyed it, came home and joined the USC club cycling team and began devoting 20+ hours a week to training and competing.

It was at that point that Crowe met James Long-Lerno, the USC men’s crew coach, at a club fair on campus. Long-Lerno, a Cal crew alum, got one look at 6-4 Crowe and told him that he was in the wrong sport and needed to become a rower.

Always ready for the next adventure, Crowe’s response was, ‘I’d love to try rowing!’ and just like that he changed disci-plines. Right away, Crowe excelled on the ergometer, or indoor

rowing machine, because of his physical fitness. Learning how to transfer his skills from the erg to the water took more time, but it was clear to Long-Lerno that Crowe was a natural in the sport.

After Crowe met the national team standard of 19:30 on a 6k-ergometer test, Long-Lenro sent him to the USRow-ing Men’s Identification Camp, which was hosted at Cal’s Ky Ebright Boathouse. The camp made a huge impression on Crowe and put him under the eyes of Cal’s coach-ing staff.

Once the opportunity to transfer back to Cal and join Cal crew presented itself, Crowe was sold and Long-Lernoe was supportive of the move.

“He said that’s the kind of place where you’re going to be dropped into an ex-tremely competitive and talented group of people,” Crowe recalled. “He said being on the Cal rowing team was one of the best

experiences of his life, and I wanted that for myself.”“I had always regretted leaving Cal in a major way because

I left the best public institution in the world, and I was very aware of that,” Crowe added. “I had left behind a lot of great opportunities, so it was a chance to redeem myself in a way.”

Now a junior and back at Cal, Crowe began to thrive. He ex-celled in school and was committed to proving himself to his teammates and coaches. Crowe admits that he was intimat-ed at first and that it took some time to feel like he belonged. “They are some of the best guys in the world at our age, so it felt insane,” Crowe said. “Everyday when I’d get in the boat I was so nervous.”

By what he refers to as “sheer dumb luck” but the coaches see as hard work, Crowe ended up in Cal’s top boat last year, the varsity eight.

“Our track with Carter was to move him into the top boat right from the beginning, even though he might not have felt ready,” head coach Mike Teti said. “When you take a driver’s ed course, sooner or later you have to get out on the highway and drive by yourself. We took that approach with him.”

The approach seemed to work. Following his first spring sea-son with Cal, Crowe qualified to represent the United States at the U23 World Rowing Championships in Austria, alongside seven of his teammates who were also competing for their countries.

Crowe attributes his much of his success to the structure and intensity of Cal’s program. “I think it drives you to be your best,” Crowe said. “One thing you really learn is that hard work pays off. I’ve learned to invest myself honestly in things and that’s been rewarded and enhanced in my time back at Cal.”

Instead of letting his past define him, Crowe has matured and learned to look forward, towards the next adventure. “I had to trip and fall on my face a couple times and the scars are definitely there,” Crowe said. “But I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Cal has been able to set me straight, put me on a good course and provide me with growth, both mentally and physically.”

Crowe earned a spot in Cal’s top boat, the varsity eight, in his first season with the Bears.


Whether Engineering or Medical School, Duranteau Has Lofty Goals

By Dean Caparaz ’90

An aspiring surgeon at the age of 16, Duranteau was attract-ed to pediatric surgery after working tennis camps.

“One of the things I like most about medicine is working with kids and being able to help them,” she said. “At first I was thinking it would be too hard for me to be a pediatric surgeon, because to me it’s worse to see a child suffer than an adult. But then I did tennis camps, and I realized how much I like inter-acting with kids. It was so fun to be with kids, so then I realized I’d like to save the lives of kids more than adults.”

She still bears an interest in engineering, which she might also pursue after Cal.

“My biggest plans are going to med school back home or go-ing to engineering school back there,” she said. “I might even do both – get an engineering diploma and then go to med school. I could do both, in case I’m not really sure what I want to do, since there are so many things I like.”

And then there is her love of tennis. Duranteau put off deal-ing with graduate school of whatever kind to focus on collegiate tennis this spring, “so then I could just have an idea of what it is like to just have tennis in your life, and see if it’s something that I can’t live without. Or maybe it’s an opportunity for me to close the door on tennis, and tell myself, ‘I did everything I wanted with tennis – I played as much as I could – and now I’m ready to move on.’”

Alice Duranteau

Aptly nicknamed Doc, Alice Duranteau has her sights set on medical school after her Cal career.

Coming from a family of doctors, Alice Duranteau’s first intended course of study at California was, of course … engineering.

A member of the Cal women’s tennis team, the Golden Bear was initially at-tracted to mechanical and then bio en-gineering, as the latter combined her in-terest in engineering with her interest in biology.

Plans change, and Duranteau, now a se-nior, is instead majoring in integrative bi-ology with thoughts of becoming a doctor.

One of the brightest minds on one of Cal’s academically strongest teams, the Paris, France, native sports a 3.31 grade-point average, which ranks third highest on her team. Duran-teau – pronounced uh-LEECE du-RAN-tow – has claimed Pac-12 All-Academic honors the past two years.

Whether she lives up to her “Doc” nickname, pursues archi-tecture or another engineering-related field, or continues to play tennis at a high level, Duranteau will tackle her post-Cal life with the same poise she’s displayed during her career in Berkeley.

“One of the things I look for when recruiting is student-ath-letes who can manage their times well, be on top of deadlines and get things turned in,” head coach Amanda Augustus said. “From the get go, Alice was open to finding out about things, ask-ing a lot of questions and just figuring out Cal well. It can take international students a couple of semesters to adjust, but she made the transition quickly and easily.”

Duranteau is on pace to graduate in December. If she contin-ues with her medicine path, Duranteau plans to become a pe-diatric surgeon. Both of her parents are doctors – her mother is an endocrinologist and gynecologist, while her father works in intensive care.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

spring 2014 35

Since she was a child, Nicole Beck has wanted a career in neuroscience.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

if you look at Nicole Beck’s fifth grade yearbook, you’ll see the word “neurosurgeon” written under what she wanted to be when she grew up.

A sophomore on the California lacrosse team, Beck has been motivated to enter the medical field since she was a child. Her de-sire was fueled even more after her moth-er was diagnosed with breast cancer when Beck was in high school. Beck’s fascination with how doctors successfully treat people combined with her mother’s experience was all the inspiration she needed.

“I was always intrigued by doctors and how their work could actually save lives,” Beck said. “That was always so surreal to me - that a team of people could put their skills together and save the life of someone else - it is just so powerful. Then when I was in high school, my mother got sick with breast cancer. I remember her going to the doctor’s office every week and hav-ing multiple surgeries. This experience made me realize what a strong purpose in life that doctors have. They get up every day and make such a difference.”

Beck decided she wanted to major in integrative biology after spending her high school senior project shadowing her mother’s reconstructive surgeon Dr. Brian Buinewicz. Then last summer after her freshman year at Cal, she researched pediatric lung transplants at the Children’s Hospital of Phil-adelphia. A native of Horsham in eastern Pennsylvania, Beck also worked with an oral and maxillofacial surgeon – Dr. Rus-sel Bleiler – studying treatment of issues related to the head, face, jaws and mouth. The undertaking convinced her that she should pursue dental school in the hopes of becoming an oral surgeon.

Beck credits both doctors she worked with for inspiring her. “I really have to thank both of them for being such wonderful

role models and mentoring me as a young student trying to figure out what path to take,” Beck said. “They both have been instrumental in guiding and encouraging me.”

Lacrosse head coach Ginger Miles has seen Beck flourish in just one year with the program. She’s aware of Beck’s academic and athletic demands, and she been impressed with how well Beck manages everything.

Nicole Beck

“It’s certainly not easy being a student-athlete at Cal, but Ni-cole is proving that not only can you do both, but you can do both incredibly well,” Miles said. “She hasn’t let the academic challenges dissuade her from her high career aspirations and continues to push herself academically. Nicole is a testament to what one can achieve and gain from the academic opportu-nities at Cal.”

Beck admits it is very challenging and demanding juggling academics and athletics at Cal, but she gets plenty of help from teammates - particularly Brynn Gasparino, Michele DeVincent and Lizz Lavie – who motivate and push her to succeed.

While she considers the decision to attend Cal and join the lacrosse team the best choice she’s made in her life, following her lofty goals beyond Cal may be the best decision she could make for others.

Beck Inspired to Become a Surgeon

By Tim Miguel

36 cal sports quarterly36 cal sports quarterly

A P R I L1 BAS vs. Stanford

3 LAX vs. Oregon

4 WTN vs. USC SB vs. Arizona State

5 WTN vs. UCLA SB vs. Arizona State

6 SB vs. Arizona State LAX vs. USC

11 MTN vs. Oregon SB vs. Arizona

12 T&F vs. Stanford SVB vs. Sacramento State SB vs. Arizona MTN vs Washington SVB vs. Cal Poly

13 SB vs. Arizona

15 LAX vs. Fresno State SB vs. Santa Clara

17 BAS vs. Washington WTN vs. Sacramento State

18 SVB vs. Santa Clara BAS vs. Washington

19 BAS vs. Washington MTN vs. Stanford

23 SB vs. Sacramento State

25 T&F Brutus Hamilton Open SB vs. UCLA

26 T&F Brutus Hamilton Challenge CRW vs. Washington FB Spring Football Game SB vs. UCLA

27 SB vs. UCLA

29 BAS vs. San Francisco

M A y 2 BAS vs. Oregon State

3 BAS vs. Oregon State CRW vs. Stanford

4 Bas vs. Oregon State

8 SB vs. Washington

9 SB vs. Washington

10 SB vs. Washington

16 BAS vs. Arizona

17 BAS vs. Arizona

18 BAS vs. Arizona

BAS Baseball (Evans Diamond) CRW Crew (Redwood Shores) FB Football (Memorial Stadium)LAX Lacrosse (Memorial Stadium)SB Softball (Levine-Fricke Field)SVB Sand Volleyball (Clark Kerr Campus)MTN Men’s Tennis (Hellman Tennis Complex)WTN Women’s Tennis (Hellman Tennis Complex)T&F Track & Field (Edwards Stadium)

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