With the unexpected announcement of Terry Tumey leaving his position as athletics director, an interim director needed to be installed in a short span of time. That interim is Teresa Gould, currently the chief revenue officer of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association and a well-qualified individual versed in all matters of collegiate sports. The Aggie was able to sit down with Gould and discuss what led her to this position as well as her goals for the future of the Athletics Department.

You grew up in Iowa and you received a journalism degree … what led you to make the transition from Iowa to California?

I made a couple stops before I got to California, working in college athletics. Especially early on until you’ve kind of paid your dues and put in your time, I was always kind of told that you’ve got to go where the opportunities are. I would have loved to have spent my entire career in Iowa. To be honest, I love it there and that’s where most of my family is, but that wasn’t realistic in terms of professional development and advancement opportunities in college athletics. So I initially came to California literally 20 years ago to be the senior associate commissioner at the West Coast Conference, a small Division I conference — it’s the conference where Gonzaga is in. Their conference office is located just outside of San Francisco, so I initially came for that job.

How will your time at Cal help you with this new job as Athletic Director?

I think it will help me a lot. I was fortunate enough to work for two different athletics directors during my time there, both of whom are phenomenal [and] very different: one of them came from a coaching background, and the other – Sandy Barbour, who is now the Athletic Director at Penn State – came up through the ranks as an administrator, so I learned from two of the best. So I feel prepared, having worked with them beside my side. They both mentored me and provided me with a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things.

One of the running jokes is that during my time at Cal, I literally did every job. Every single head coach reported to me at some point, other than football. I oversaw sports medicine, strength and conditioning, compliance, student services, development, media relations, you name it. I was there so long that I kind of did everything, and so I feel like it prepared me well, because whether you’re the interim or the permanent, you really want somebody in this chair that knows what Mike [Robles, assistant athletic director, athletics communications] does. You want somebody that actually knows what that job entails, and that has done that work. So I think that has served me really well.

I would also say that there are similarities between Berkeley and UC Davis, from the perspective [that] they are both world-class academic institutions and I think that when you’re in a rigorous academic environment and when you’re an internationally renowned public institution like UC Davis is, athletics has a place on the campus that sometimes looks different than what it would if you were at an institution that didn’t have the same kind of academic rigor. So I think that that experience at Cal prepared me really well on a lot of different fronts. Honestly, I feel really fortunate. I worked with some of the best coaches in the world. Just the last Olympics, I think two of my head coaches were head Olympic coaches, so I feel like I’ve been around college athletics, working with some of the brightest and best in the industry, both as administrators and as coaches, and I think it’s put me in a good position to come in on a temporary basis and help make us even better than we are here now.

Are there any new or unique challenges that come with this particular job here at Davis?

Honestly, I think part of the new and unique challenge is the fact that I’m the interim. One of the things on a daily basis that I wrestle with is that I know what I’ve been charged with doing, and I’ve been charged with coming in here and taking an inventory of where we are, what we are doing really well, where can we get better, how [we can move] the dial forward and provide our student-athletes with the best possible conditions we can to support their success. I know that’s my charge.

When you’re the interim and not the permanent person, and you know you’re not going to be the permanent person, there’s a little bit of “what do you bite off first.” What do you take on first? That’s what keeps me up every night; there is so much here that I want to do, and I have so much vision to help this department become even better than it already is. It’s like, how do I prioritize my time to make the greatest impact, and I was really honest with the Chancellor in that I didn’t want to come in here and just keep the boat afloat. I really wanted to come in here and move things forward and help push it along. That’s part of the inherent challenges of this role. As the interim, you have to gauge how much change … you really want to influence in a short period of time.

So why don’t you want to pursue a full-time position?

I think at this point in my life – I mean, I walked away from a hugely successful 25-year career that I enjoyed and loved, and am very proud of – when I made the decision to leave UC Berkeley and accept the job at the [Cal Aggie] Alumni Association and relocate from the Bay Area after more than 20 years, it was really a personal decision, and a personal decision focused on my family and quality of life. Being part of this campus community in a different way, as you can imagine, there are some inherent nuances with being married to a head football coach, and I just think it is in the best interest of my family, this department and candidly the university to have somebody else be in this chair.

That being said, I will be around and will help. The Chancellor and I have talked a lot about this. I’m not going away, I’m still going to be on this campus, I’m still going to be part of this community and part of this family. My expertise won’t be lost; we’ll just use it in a different way. I really do think that’s best not just for me, but for this department.

You mentioned potential difficulties with a husband as a head football coach. Is there a potential conflict of interest there?

I think that the model we have put together in this interim role avoids that. We have a sports supervisor – Josh Flushman, who is very capable – as an associate athletic director that will be the decision maker for football. He has the direct reporting line for those responsibilities to the Chancellor. We have a lot of involvement and a lot of support from Scott Carrell, our faculty athletic rep. I think the model during the interim period will be very effective. It’s not the ideal long term.

You want your athletics director to have a huge level of involvement and a huge amount of influence over a sport that has the largest number of student-athletes, probably of any in the department, one that has a tremendous amount of influence over our success, and a sport that this community cares very deeply about. For the athletics director to have to separate himself or herself from that, in the long term is not in the best interest of the department. We’ll make it work for now, but I don’t think it’s something long-term that puts anybody in a position to have the kind of success that we want.

How long do you think the search for the new athletics director will take?

That’s a good question. I think in talking to the Chancellor there’s definitely a sense of urgency while at the same time she’s committed to doing it right. And what I mean by that is she’s been really consistent in saying that she doesn’t want to commit to a timeline until she gets the appropriate feedback from the right people in Athletics, the right people in the community, the Academic Senate [and] ASUCD. I think she really wants to make sure that she’s thoughtful about it, and that she gets appropriate feedback before she goes out of the gate and appoints a search committee, identifies the criteria she’s looking for and launches a search. I don’t know how long that’s going to take, but I know that she will be very deliberate about getting the appropriate feedback before she launches anything.

I know it’s only been a few days, so is it too early to ask what sort of progress you have made so far?

Honestly, what I have spent most of my time doing, and what I will continue to do for the next three weeks is to really spend time with our key stakeholders, getting feedback on the lay of the land. I am having one-on-ones with all of our head coaches, one-on-ones with all the people that report directly to the athletics director – so basically the Athletics Management team – one-on-ones with key student-athlete leadership, so the Sac Officers, and one of the most important groups: our campus partners. Really talking to different leaders and student leaders on the campus to talk about their perspective on athletics and what things we can do better. So really, until I take all that information in, it’s really hard for me to answer that question — but the whole goal of those conversations is to get feedback on how we can incrementally – whether I’m here for three months or four months or whatever – how [we can] incrementally start getting better, and where [the low-hanging fruit is that I can start to tackle.

In the past, there has been a sort of problem with attendance at sporting events that has been somewhat remedied with the success of the basketball team. Is that something that you might look in to?

I definitely think that attendance at sporting events is really, really important for a variety of reasons. Number one, in order for us to continue to provide the conditions for our student-athletes to be successful, you have to have financial resources to do that. So getting people to come and support our student-athletes and buy a ticket to come and watch them compete is important to our financial model, but I would also say that there is another element of why it is important.

These young people do such amazing things; they deserve to have an audience. Nobody likes working 20 hours a week to be competitive and juggling all the things that our student-athletes juggle, and then they show up and there’s no one in the stands. They get energy off of having people in the stands, so that’s the part of it that I think is important. You want them to feel supported, you want them to feel appreciated, you want them to feel like the community cares about what they’re doing. That’s why I think getting butts in the seats is a priority too.

Finally, what do you believe success looks like for UC Davis Athletics?

I think that for me, success is ensuring that the comprehensive excellence that is going on in Athletics is consistent with what is going on on this campus, meaning that at the end of the day this campus provides our students with a world-class education and does an amazing job of developing them to be their best so that they can go out into the world and make a difference and be leaders. Athletics has that same responsibility to our student-athletes. They have a little bit of a different vehicle and at the end of the day, whether you’re a tennis player or a field hockey player, or soccer player, the sport is just the vehicle to help develop the young person.

Graphic by Jennifer Wu.

Men’s sports action from April 13 to 19

Baseball (21-16-1):
UC Davis vs. University of San Francisco (L, 9-4)

UC Davis @ UC Irvine (W, L, L)

The slide continues for UC Davis baseball after a 1-4 week, having now won only three of its last 12 games. The first loss of the week came at home against the University of San Francisco. The game was tight for the first few innings, but the Dons brought in seven runs over the last four innings while holding the Aggies scoreless over that time. UC Davis had only four hits in the game.

After their loss to the Dons, the Aggies managed to steal the first matchup of a three-game road trip at UC Irvine. Senior Spencer Koopmans pitched his first career-complete game, allowing three runs and seven hits. The second game of the trio was also close, with the Anteaters sneaking by in extra innings after an Aggie error in the 12th. The final contest saw UC Davis once again fall to a late run, unable to answer a late point scored in the eighth inning.

Tennis (16-5):
UC Davis @ UC Riverside (7-0)
UC Davis @ UC Irvine (1-6)

After playing their final match at home, the Aggies set off to Southern California to face the Anteaters and Highlanders. The first matchup, against UC Riverside, was an easy warm-up for the Aggies as they lost just one match en route to a 7-0 victory. UC Davis lost one doubles match, but swept the rest.

With the win against UC Riverside, the Aggies clinched at least a share of the Big West Regular Season Championship, but needed to defeat UC Irvine for the outright crown. Instead, UC Davis struggled heavily and was able to capture one point due to sophomore Jesse Ross’ singles victory. The Aggies now hold the second seed in the Big West Championship Tournament because the Anteaters captured the tiebreaker.

Track and Field:
Azusa Pacific Bryan Clay Invitational
Mt. Sac Relays

Long Beach State Beach Invitational

With three events stretched over three days, Aggies’ track and field divided and conquered. The Azusa Pacific Bryan Clay Invitational did not bring a lot of positive results for UC Davis as junior Cody Nguyen was the top finisher at No. 70. At the Long Beach State Beach Invitational, only senior Nathan Strum was able to finish within the top-10 of his respective event, garnering a No. 3 place in the 800-meter. Sophomore Marc Toney added a No. 13 place finish in the pole vault.

Several Aggies found success at the Mt. Sac Relays. Toney added to his successful week, grabbing a second-place finish in the pole vault. Junior Trevor Halstead finished No. 6 in the 5000-meter, while junior Jason Chandler completed the 400-meter hurdles in 52.62 seconds for ninth place. After a busy week, the Aggies have six days off before heading to Berkeley for a two-day meet.

Graphic by Andrew Li.

Women’s sports action from April 13 to 19

Lacrosse (3-12):

UC Davis vs. USC (L, 15-5)
UC Davis vs. San Diego State (L, 12-9)

With a recent two game winning streak on their minds and four straight games at home, the Aggies looked to turn around a poor start to the season with a few victories. The results, however, were not there and UC Davis has now lost three straight games at home. The Aggies started off strong against USC, jumping out to a 4-1 lead. By halftime, however, the Trojans were up 7-4 and never looked back en route to a 15-5 victory. Junior Ellie Delich and sophomore Courtney Neff finished with two goals each in the game.

After the loss against USC, the Aggies were faced with a must-win situation against San Diego State if they wanted to make the Conference tournament. UC Davis, however, came out flat and allowed their opponent to rack up a 10-4 halftime lead. The second half comeback fell short for the Aggies despite four goals in the game by Neff. UC Davis will have its last home game on Wednesday against Stanford.

Softball (17-22):

UC Davis @ UC Santa Barbara (W, W, W)

Things are looking up for UC Davis softball after winning four of their last five games. The Aggies faced off against the Gauchos on a Picnic Day double header and won each. The first matchup was tight until the last inning when UC Davis batted in six runs and a UCSB comeback fell far short. The second game of the day told a similar story as the Aggies used a four-run sixth inning to jump ahead for the one point victory.

Six runs in the first four innings of the final game was all that it took for UC Davis to take home a sweep of the Gauchos. The Aggies finished with 10 hits in the game and sophomore Andrea Reynolds finished with the win, bringing her to a 4-1 record this season. The team has four more games on the road before returning home to face CSU Fullerton on May 2.

Tennis (11-11):

UC Davis vs. UC Santa Cruz (W, 7-0)

The Aggies used a dominant performance against the visiting Banana Slugs to finish the season at .500. The team won every set played against UC Santa Cruz, losing a total of 13 games between nine matches played. The team also honored senior Layla Sanders who played her last day at the Marya Welch Tennis Center.

With the win, the Aggies now move on to the Big West Conference Championships at Indian Wells. The matches start on April 24 with UC Davis facing off against UC Santa Barbara first. These two teams last faced one another on March 8, with the Aggies losing 3-4 at home.

Track and Field:

Azusa Pacific Bryan Clay Invitational
Mt. Sac Relays

Long Beach State Beach Invitational

At the Azusa Pacific Bryan Clay Invitational, the Aggies were unable to make a dent on the leaderboards as no participant finished within the top 15 of their respective event. At Mt. Sac, several seniors owned the day. Senior sprinter Ashley Marshall won the 200 meter sprint while senior Raquel Lambdin finished in first in the 800 meter. Junior Erika Barr added a sixth place finish in the 400 meter hurdle and senior Katie Barber grabbed an eighth place spot in the high jump.

At the Beach Invitational, only Barber was able to finish within the top-25 of her event. The senior finished in a tie for ninth place in the high jump. After a hectic week, UC Davis track and field will have six days off before competing in the Brutus Hamilton Invitational.

Water Polo (18-12):

UC Davis vs. Sonoma State (W, 10-1)

UC Davis vs. CSU Monterey Bay (W, 10-6)

With the Big West Championships closing in, UC Davis women’s water polo finished their regular season with two victories in a Picnic Day double header. The No. 9 ranked Aggies faced off against Sonoma State in the first bout, easily winning 10-1. Eight Aggies scored in the game, allowing just one goal that came in the final period.

The second game of the day, against CSU Monterey Bay, was much closer as the teams headed into halftime tied at four apiece. After the break, the Aggies didn’t look back as they outscored their opponent 3-0 in the third quarter. With the two wins, UC Davis finished the season 11-2 at home and in fourth place in the Big West. The Championships begin on Fri., April 24 in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

Graphic by Andrew Li.