Feb. 15, 2010
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -
By Brent Schrotenboer, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Countless times over the last few decades, the San Diego State athletic department has been referred to as a "sleeping giant."
The theory behind it is simple: Largely because of its attractive location and climate, it's considered to be an underachieving program that could be great someday, if only it could get the right leadership.
Monday, SDSU introduced its latest attempt to find it: new athletic director Jim Sterk, who formerly served as the AD at Washington State since 2000 and was recently inducted into the Western Washington Athletics Hall of Fame.
"With all of your help, we want to transform and awake the sleeping giant," Sterk told supporters. "And I'm going to have a lot of fun doing that."
The question is whether he can succeed where so many others have failed -- especially as the university faces a critical crossroads in resources and direction. Sterk, whose hiring was announced Monday, is SDSU's fourth permanent athletic director since 2003, including two who resigned amid scandal. SDSU also has fired three head football coaches since 2001 and has relied on university and state subsidies to cover roughly half of its $31 million in annual athletic department expenses.
To change this course, SDSU hired Sterk, 53, who is giving up a more high-profile job in his home state to come to San Diego and continue what he views as signs of upward mobility on Montezuma Mesa. He said those include improvements to facilities, academics and personnel, such as second-year football coach Brady Hoke.
"With this hire, all the key ingredients are in place: outstanding leadership and coaches, incredible facilities and great student-athletes, and a top university located in one of the most attractive and innovative cities in America," SDSU President Stephen Weber said.
Sterk made about $300,000 annually at WSU and is expected get an increase from that at SDSU, where he will get a five-year deal. Details of his contract were still being worked out. Sterk replaces Jeff Schemmel, who made $257,000 annually and resigned in November after irregularities were reported in his travel reimbursement requests.
Sterk's hiring comes at a key juncture for SDSU. Weber said this hire is critical for "many reasons," one of which is his desire to leave the department with momentum when he retires after June 2011. Additionally, SDSU is enduring harsh cutbacks stemming from the state budget crisis, forcing workers to take two furlough days a month, plus a 5-percent reduction in enrollment and 350 fewer classes.
If that's not challenging enough, SDSU also faces a longer-term quandary with the Chargers stadium situation. If the NFL team leaves for another city, the city of San Diego probably would have to decide what to do with city-owned Qualcomm Stadium. Possibilities include razing it and redeveloping the site, but not likely continuing to pay millions in maintenance costs per year to keep the stadium open in its current state with SDSU as its primary tenant. Attendance at SDSU football games has shrunk from 28,336 per game in 2004 to 17,622 in 2009, according to turnstile counts.
Amid those shifting sands, Sterk said he received assurance that California State University Chancellor Charles Reed is committed to SDSU athletics in the long term.
"Chancellor Reed understands where athletics fits in the strategic planning of San Diego State University," Sterk said. "I wouldn't have come here if there were any indecision on that at all."
So why did he come here?
A native of Bellingham, Wash., Sterk has spent most of his life in the Pacific Northwest. He had a job as an established athletic director in the Pac-10 Conference, a league with much more revenue and media exposure than SDSU's Mountain West Conference. Some Washington and Oregon media suggested Sterk was leaving to escape mounting problems at WSU, including two less-than-exciting recent football coach hires and a struggle to raise funds to renovate the football stadium there.
Sterk and WSU President Elson Floyd said he was not forced out.
"Our athletic programs are stronger because of his leadership," Floyd said in a statement.
Said Sterk: "We had the opportunity to stay. I think we could have, but this opportunity presented itself, and we decided to accept it."
Sterk had two years left on his WSU contract and said Floyd offered him a contract extension about two weeks ago. He said he had previously talked to his family about leaving and felt the time was right for a change, especially with one of his two daughters soon to be graduating from high school.
Sterk outlined five areas of emphasis at his new job: 1. Enhancing the "student-athlete experience, on and off the field." 2. Personnel. "Without a great staff and coaches, I can do nothing," he said. 3. Generating excitement in the community about the Aztecs. 4. Facilities and remaining competitive with those in relation with the competition. 5. Improving resources and fundraising.
"Let me tell you why we hired Jim Sterk," Weber said. "He is a person of unqualified integrity. He has been successful with a budget similar to ours. Washington State has sent 13 teams to NCAA postseason competition in the last three years. He increased fundraising at Washington State from $3 million in 2000 to $13 million in 2008 (Sterk's WSU bio says it was $8 million in 2008). In the last 10 years, 92 percent of Washington State student-athletes who exhausted their eligibility graduated."
THE STERK FILE
Position: New athletic director at SDSU
Past positions: Washington State AD, 2000-2010; Portland State AD, 1995-2000; Tulane, senior associate AD, 1991-95; Seattle Pacific, associate AD, 1990-91; Maine, assistant AD for finance, 1987-90.
Education: Western Washington University (BA, P.E. and business education); Ohio University (masters, sports administration).
Personal; Born June 10, 1956, Bellingham, Wash; married, three children.
Sterk's departure could have a ripple effect in Pullman
The decision of Washington State University athletic director Jim Sterk to take a job at San Diego State could have interesting ramifications in the Palouse as the Cougars move into a new era.
Sterk was formally announced at SDSU today and WSU president Elson Floyd promoted Anne McCoy to an interim AD position in place of Sterk over the weekend in Pullman.
What will it mean for the WSU athletic program?
As ESPN.com blogger Ted Miller notes, football coach Paul Wulff will be losing his biggest ally as he heads into his third season with a program that has gone 3-22 since he replaced Bill Doba.
Wulff already needed a big step forward for the Cougs next season to solidify his position, but Sterk's departure surely makes that even more critical as the next athletic director won't be as invested in him and likely will already have his own connections and possible candidates in mind if things aren't going well.
Nick Daschel of Buster Sports writes that Sterk faced considerable challenges in fund raising for a Martin Stadium makeover and hadn't wowed anyone with his football hirings of Doba and Wulff, thus perhaps is leaving Pullman before the window slammed on his fingers.
Sterk will be taking a job at San Diego State that opened under interesting circumstances, with former AD Jeff Schemmel resigning in November amid reports of improperly using state funds to pay for personal travel.
Schemmel apparently traveled to Alabama to meet with a woman and then billed the trip as part of his university duties, according to this story in the San Diego Union Tribune.
One of the leading candidates at WSU should be Bill Moos, a former Cougar administrator who did an excellent job at Oregon before being pushed out in 2006 after a fallout with Phil Knight.
Moos now lives in Eastern Washington and would be a natural fit back at WSU, if not for the remaining $1.4 million buyout on his departure deal with Oregon. That money already prevented Moos from getting the AD job at UNLV earlier this year, as outlined by Ron Bellamy of the Eugene Register-Guard.
Would WSU be willing to come up with the cash to buy out that buyout? Hard to imagine, given the school is already stretched thin with budget difficulties and boosters are being asked already to dig deep for the Martin Stadium project.
Sterk, who has been the AD at WSU since 2000 and was earning $300,000 a year, has done an admirable job in upgrading Martin Stadium in a tough financial environment and did well with the basketball program in bringing both the Bennetts as well as current coach Ken Bone aboard.
But football is the driving force for any major college program and the Cougs have been hurting there the past few years, so its not surprising that Sterk -- a Northwest native from Nooksack Valley and Western Washington University -- saw some writing on the wall and took this time to seek a sunnier future.
