USD Magazine Fall 2019

sity’s Kennel Club is in its 34th season, and San Diego State’s The Show dates back to 2001. The challenge lies in creating a buzz that goes beyond the packed houses that come when top-ranked teams come to town. McGillis says. “We can do the same thing against Saint Mary’s and BYU and LMU and Pepper- dine — if we choose to as a campus community. But we’ve got to change the mindset.” McGillis hopes to transform the way the Torero community thinks about attending games in general. “It has to be about USD, it’s got to be about the Toreros. We’ve got to work to change that, and we are.” One strategy is to expand the scope and organization of the Bull Pit, through incentives and giveaways, and to be strategic about attracting students to games. “Next year, we’re forming an Associated Students Athletics Committee,” Hill says. It will include athletes, administrators and the Torero Program Board. And the Bull Pit has found a new place to cheer on Torero basketball: courtside, on the base- line, under the basket — a signifi- cant upgrade from their upper- level seating of previous years. It’s a change that displaced some season ticket holders, but McGillis believes the move was worth it. Of course, the burden of find- ing a way to get Toreros to attend games doesn’t fall solely on the Bull Pit. “School spirit starts with win- ning, and we have to do that at a higher level,” McGillis says. “More and more students want to contribute to increasing school spirit. We’re going to continue working at it every day.” “It can’t just be about the Gonzaga basketball game,”

ZACHARY BARRON

CREDENTIALS: In his fourth season as men’s head tennis coach this spring, Keckley’s team won its sixth consecutive West Coast Conference Tournament Championship, beat Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA tournament before losing to perennial powerhouse USC, and was ranked 25th in the country. “I think this team can make a run for the Sweet 16 in the coming year. It’s never been done before at USD and it’s always been one of our goals.” MATCH POINT: Keckley married Maine native Cortney Marsh in June, after dating for seven years as the two pursued their career goals. “East Coast humor, very down to earth” is how he describes his wife, who completed her nurse practitioner’s degree this summer before the two honeymooned in Greece. STYLE OF PLAY: Keckley was the 2002 Indiana state high schools singles champion before attending Notre Dame, where he enjoyed a successful undergraduate career, earning three All-Big East Tournament Team doubles honors. “I served and volleyed. I chipped and charged. I was an attacking player.” GIVING UP HIS DAY JOB: After earning Big East Academic All-Star status three times and a degree in marketing in 2007, he worked in sales for News America Marketing in Chicago but “it just wasn’t for me.” Keckley missed the constant excitement of athletics and has found his passion in coaching. “There’s never a day I dread going to the office.” DOUBLE TAKE: Perhaps surprisingly, the fresh-faced Midwesterner says he’s “a big Grateful Dead guy,” who attended a Dead and Company show in Los Angeles a week before his wedding. — Liz Harman G E T T I NG T O KNOW RY AN K E CK L E Y

A version of this stor y originally

appeared in The USD Vista .

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Fall 2019