Quick! Name a college that recently had a 37 game winning streak in football; was judged the nation’s strongest athletic program in its division; sent 16 of its teams to post-season play last year; and won two recent overall championships in basketball and tennis, all while maintaining an excellent record of advancing its student athletes. Surely these are achievements worthy of the Universities of Texas or Tennessee or Michigan. But in fact, they have all been achieved by Sierra College.
For better and worse, athletics have been a mainstream part of American
college life since Rutgers and Princeton first played football in 1869.
To be sure, college sports have sometimes been overemphasized. T. A.
D. Jones told his Yale team before a 1923 game: “Gentlemen, you are now
going out to play football against Harvard. Never again in your life
will you do anything so important.”
Community college athletics do not go to such extremes, but they are
seen as a worthwhile part of campus life. A Sierra College Board of
Trustees Policy declares that “The district shall maintain a
comprehensive program for men and women in intercollegiate athletics.” To that ends the school fields 18 teams and enrolls 343 student
athletes who also compete well in the classroom.
Much of the College’s recent athletic success can be credited to John
Volek, Sierra’s Athletic Director, who is the perfect embodiment of the
principle that an organization’s most important assets are its people.
John is a Sierra alum who has devoted his life to athletics. He is
perhaps best known in this region as the head football coach at
Sacramento State where, for a time he aspired to make Sac State “the
Florida State of the West.” Alas, the drive for national collegiate
football recognition is less in Sacramento than Tallahassee, and the
resources to make his dream a reality never materialized.
So John came home to Sierra where he doubtless has a lifetime gig if he
wishes. He brought his energy, enthusiasm, and drive to excel with
him. “Sierra is the number one academic institution in the foothills,
and it is very important to be good at everything here,” he says. But
integrity comes first. He tells the coaches who report to him to “be
impeccable with your word.”
Sierra’s athletic success has been accomplished using facilities that
are (to be very charitable) marginal. John bristles at the suggestion
that the cost of building a new football field was a misuse of scarce
college resources. He points out that $4 million of the total $6
million spent went to build a badly needed campus parking lot, that the
old bleachers had been condemned, and that the new all-weather surface
enables him to schedule physical education classes which return almost
$400 thousand per year in state allocation revenue. Even so, the
stadium is far from extravagant. There are no lights, concession
stands, or restrooms. John rents porta-potties on game day to meet the
needs of up to 1500 fans.
Nevertheless, at $5 a ticket, game day at Sierra College may be the best value in football in Northern California.
You are more likely to find John raising money to fix the venues than
complaining about them. He engineered a fund-raising program to add a
press box to the football facility. He is soliciting donations to add
a sixth tennis court so that team matches can be held on-campus. He
founded the Wolverine Athletic Association to help build an annual base
of donations and to provide a focus for loyal fans. Last year he
raised over $200,000 to support and improve the athletic programs.
His proudest accomplishments have more to do with improving students’
lives than they do with winning games. Together with the former coach
of the state champion women’s basketball team, Roz Goldenberg, the
department is sponsoring a wellness program designed to do its share to
combat the country’s obesity epidemic. Also, he proudly notes that, at
last count, 47 of his previous student athletes completed their studies
and entered the law enforcement profession.
John is a passionate believer in the value of the athletics and
physical education enterprise in higher education. His own life is a
reflection of the observation of the great English philosopher John
Locke who said, “A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full
description of a happy state in this world.”
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Bill Martin is a Sierra College Trustee. He can be reached at
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