Dear Friend of Cal Athletics:
 
I typically like to start these notes with an upbeat message about what is happening in our department, but I would be remiss if I didn't begin with thoughts of condolence for the family, friends and teammates of Bryce Turner after his tragic passing during a workout near his home in Lakewood over winter break. The news was truly heartbreaking and we are all wrestling with it as Bryce was far too young to incur such a fate.
 
Bryce was a member of our Cal family, and as a department, we have been working hard to take care of all those affected. Several of our coaches traveled to Southern California to be with Bryce and his family in the hospital as soon as we learned of his medical emergency, and we have been in communication with his family throughout their hours of need to offer our support. We have also connected our student-athletes and staff with campus resources to help them through the grieving process. Coach Wilcox, his staff and many of our student-athletes joined me at a memorial for Bryce in Inglewood this past Saturday, and we plan to have our own remembrance on campus when our students return for the start of the spring semester. We will communicate those details once they are set.
 
I know that many of you have reached out asking how you can help. Anyone who would like to support Bryce's family can do so through a GoFundMe.com account. Either go to GoFundMe.com and search for Bryce Turner or go directly to https://www.gofundme.com/bryce-turner-cal-berkeley
 
As our team turns the page on 2018 and begins preparing for next season, we will continue to keep Bryce in our thoughts and use his memory as an inspiration. The start of spring practice is only a few weeks away, which will culminate with our annual spring game on Saturday, March 16. We had a tremendous experience in Phoenix for the Cheez-It Bowl, and while the outcome wasn't how we planned, our entire program enjoyed the warm hospitality from our hosts. I was also impressed – though not surprised – at the turnout at the pregame tailgate and game by our fans and alumni. Your support was noticed and appreciated. Thank you!
 
Our next football event will be Feb. 6 when we celebrate with our coaches the 2019 recruiting class. Coach Wilcox announced the signing of 25 new Golden Bears in mid-December, and we can't wait for them to join us in Berkeley.
 
For the entire department, I have nine priorities that will guide us for the 2019 calendar year, and you will hear much more about them as we move forward through the succeeding days and months.

• Create a vision and strategic plan for our department.
• Enhance our student-athlete development services.
• Be exceptional in our performance in the classroom and in competition - graduating student-athletes and winning championships
• Develop a sustainable long-term financial plan.
• We will create a plan to become compliant with Prong I of Title IX (proportionality among genders) from our current compliance through Prong III (fulfilling the interest and abilities of the underrepresented gender). To gain a better understanding of Title IX, I suggest listening to a recent podcast featuring Senior Associate Athletic Director Jenny Simon-O'Neill, campus Title IX officer Denise Oldham and beach volleyball coach Meagan Owusu. Spencer Bowen, our men's basketball public address announcer and current graduate student in the Goldman School of Public Policy, hosted the interviews.
• Focus on fundraising for and building new facilities for our softball and beach volleyball. I want to extend a huge thank you to Bill Ausfahl, Brad Brian and Lynda Brothers for their fundraising efforts for these two, long-overdue projects. We are $2.5 million toward our goal of $8 million.
• Executing Listening Days action plans for our 30 teams and 15 administrative units. After discussion and analysis, each plan features five priorities per program that we will aggregate and prioritize for implementing in a deliberate manner.
• Develop the execution plan for the comprehensive campaign for Cal Athletics. Our priorities for the plan include: endowing scholarships and head coach positions; enhancing student-athlete development support; and raising funds for a basketball practice facility.
• Continue to integrate the athletic department with campus and further develop relationships with faculty, students, staff and the greater Berkeley community.

Investing in our development office in order to grow our philanthropy will help us achieve many of these goals. To help us reach that end, we announced earlier this week that Brian Mann will join us as Senior Associate Athletic Director and Chief Development Officer and that Beth Voetsch has been promoted to Associate Athletic Director for Development. With Brian and Beth, we have two people with an impactful combination of skills that will help us move into the next chapter of Cal Athletics and be exceptional in our philanthropic endeavors. You can read more about both of them in our news release.
 
Last month, we made another significant addition to Cal Athletics with the hiring of Sam Crosson as our new volleyball coach. Sam served as an assistant coach when we reached the NCAA title match in 2010 and has most recently built Cal Poly into a national power. I'm also pleased to note that he has retained Jenn Dorr, who served as our interim coach this past season, as associate head coach, and I look forward to Sam and Jenn returning our volleyball program to prominence.
 
We have also had several events over the past few weeks that exemplify our commitment to leadership, education and morale. First, we hosted A Chat with Champions on Dec. 21 in the University Club, an outstanding event featuring Warriors coach Steve Kerr and UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma on a panel moderated by our own women's basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb. I want to give a big thank you to Lindsay for coming up with the idea, and you can get a sample of the event from our CalBears.com story and video. And what a vibrant atmosphere we had the next day when nearly 11,000 fans came out to Haas Pavilion to watch Cal take on UConn – the largest home crowd in our history!
 
After the New Year, we sought a way we could bring together all of our teams that are practicing on campus while classes are out of session. The result was a luncheon for nearly 400 student-athletes and their coaches in the Field Club. Not only did this give us an opportunity to thank them for their hard work over the holiday period, but it also provided them a chance to spend time with one another and mingle with other teams.
 
And for our first staff meeting of 2019 yesterday, we invited Kimberly Dickman to lead an engaging discussion on sexual assault prevention and response. Our goal is to continuously develop the people in our department and bring an education element to each of our staff meetings with a purpose to find ways to continue to make our team better.
 
I hope everyone had a great New Year and is ready for 2019. As you can tell, we have a lot to accomplish and we want you along for the ride. As always, thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming games, meets and matches in Berkeley and around the country.
 
Go Bears,
 
 
Jim Knowlton
Director of Athletics