USD Magazine, Winter 2004

Two Heads Are Better Than One

tennis player to compete in the championships since Jose Luis Noriega won the event in 1992. • Junior T iffanie Marley became the first Torero cross-country runner to win a West Coast Conference individual tide, posting a time of 18:04 in the SK run at Crystal Springs in Belmont, Calif. , the eighth-fas test time in conference history. Marley finished the race more than 11 seconds ahead of her closest competition. • The volleyball ream went 17-12 and earned a third consecutive berth to the NCAA Tournament, d1e ream's seventh NCAA appearance in d1e past eight years. Head coach Jennifer Perrie celebrated her 100th coaching victory at USD in only her fifth year

Teamwork usually is associated with the players on the fields and courts, bur USD is raking rhe concept ro a new level in rhe arhlerics depart– ment front office. In a departure from rhe collegiate tradition that vests authority in a single director of athletics, USD has added a sec– ond position that reflects the chang– ing real ity of college spores. After naming Jo-Ann Nester as USD's director of athletics last September, the university began searching for an executive director of athletics and tabbed Ky Snyder, former president of rhe San Diego International Sports Council , for rhe post in December. Nester, for the past year US D's associate director of athletics and a former associate athletics director at Dartmouth College, replaced the retired Tom Iannacone as USD's director of athletics. In her current post, she will be responsi ble for the day-to-day operations of the univer– sity's NCAA Division I ptogram, while Snyder is charged with long– term strategic planning and fund raJS1ng. "We're giving Jo-Ann the full authority to run the program," says Bob Pastoor, USD's vice president for student affairs, who oversees ath– letics, "and Ky will focus on raising the money it takes to be competitive in the current envitonment." The reason for the change? Pastoor ticks off a list of the routine expenses of athletic departments, which have skyrocketed in recent years. "Travel coses, equipment, insurance premiums, Jo-Ann Nester recruitment costs... rhe university's budget sim– ply does not have the ability to absorb these kind of hits year in and year out," Pastoor says. "If USD is going to continue to be a successful Division I program, the funding has to come from somewhere."

Ky Snyder Snyder, 41, who served as USD's director of athletic development from 1990-96, worked at the San Diego Internacional Sporn Council to bring such events as Super Bowl XXXVII and the 1997 and 1998 ESPN Summer X Games to rhe region. He says USD's new organiza– tional concept is unique now, but may nor be in the near future. "The challenges faced by USD and universities like ir require a new way of chinking," he says. "This allows us to devote Jo-Ann's talents to being rhe athletic director and still be able to develop and execute a long-term game plan. Ir makes sense on many levels for USO to proceed in this way." Nester says ocher schools will be watching to see how the USO experiment goes. "] think this arrangement will work for us," she says, "and I'm sure other schools our size will be monitoring us very closely to see how successful we are. Thjs is a new era in collegiate athletics, and I'm ptoud to be part of a university that isn't afraid to meet its challenges head on." Good Sports The fall was a great time to be a Torero fan, as USD teams and indi– viduals reached new milestones and notched unprecedented achieve– ments. Among the highlights: • Sophomore tennis player Pierrick Ysern reached the quarterfi– nals of the Intercollegiate Tenn is Associaton's National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, held Nov. 6-9 at the University of Michigan. He eventually lost to Mississippi State's Romain Amber, the 11 ch– ranked player in the nation. Ysern, who held a preseason ranking of No. 59, was the first USD men's

round game versus C reighron University in Torero Stadium, battling ro a 1-1 tie before losing the match on penalty kicks. • The football team's 8-2 overall record and 3-1 mark in rhe Pioneer Football League was good for a share of the PFL North Division title. One of the USD losses was to co-champion Valparasio, which eliminated the Toreros from rhe championship game, bur rhe season was nevertheless memorable. Quarterback Eric Rasmussen fin– ished as rhe rop passer in Division I-AA for second straight year and played in rhe I-AA All-Star game in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He also was named ro rhe American Football Coaches Association Division I-AA All-America team.

ar the helm, six Toreros were named to the All-West Coast Conference team and sophomore Jackie Bernardin was named rhe WCC Co-Defender of rhe Year. • Women's soccer, under first-year head coach Ada Greenwood, earned its fifth straight invitation to the NCAA tournament. Senior Brenna Mullen and juniors Kaitlyn Pruitt and Marie Claude-Henry were named second-team AII-WCC. Senior Libby Bassett and junior Brooke Roby earned honorable mention. • The men's soccer ream, nation– ally ranked ar No. 17, set a school record with 11 straight wins and garnered irs sixth straight invitation to the NCAA postseason. Senior Scott Burcar earned the WCC Defender of the Year award for the second straight season. After a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament, USO hosted a second-

Sophomore running back Evan Harney set single-season team records for rushing attempts (253), rushing yards (1,360), rushing rouchdowns (17), points scored (122) and rouchdowns (19).

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WINTER 2004