Dear Friend of Cal Athletics:
 
When last I wrote to you about a month ago, we were celebrating the end of an active and exciting year at Cal, one filled with everything from bowl games and national championships to the launching of a life-changing student-development institute. More than 250 student-athletes had earned their degrees at commencement ceremonies and began to head off for new adventures full of valuable lessons learned from their academic and athletic experiences.
 
While the summer months often allow for reflection and act as a transition into the next year, the world of intercollegiate athletics can change at the most unexpected times. About two weeks ago – on June 12 to be exact – we were preparing to announce Robyne Johnson as our new director of track & field/cross country. This was a real homecoming for Robyne, who graduated from Berkeley High and spent nine years as an assistant on our staff before serving the past 14 years as head coach at Boston University.
 
The press release about Robyne went forward as planned – and we couldn't be more thrilled to have her back – but nearly simultaneously, we had an unanticipated meeting with Lindsay Gottlieb, who informed us that morning that she was leaving as head women's basketball coach to take a position as an assistant coach with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. Lindsay contributed so much to our department and our community over her tenure, and we knew this was a tremendous – and groundbreaking – opportunity for her.
 
This turn of events gave us our own opportunity to find a new coach, and we got to work right away. After an intense and thorough national search over the following week, we found a perfect choice to lead our program in another person with deep Cal connections – Charmin Smith. Charmin spent 12 years with us as an assistant and associate head coach before leaving for a brief stint with the WNBA's New York Liberty as an assistant coach. In her interview, she impressed us with a well thought out and clear vision to support our student-athletes in all aspects of their lives, on and off the court. Charmin is well positioned to build upon the foundation we have in Berkeley and I believe she can take our program to even greater heights.
 
The Major League Baseball Draft had a strong Cal presence with two Bears taken in the first round for the first time in our history. Andrew Vaughn went third overall to the Chicago White Sox and Korey Lee was selected by the Houston Astros at the end of the round. Combined with Jaylen Brown (basketball, 2016) and Jared Goff (football, 2016), Cal is one of only two schools in the country to have a top-3 pick in the MLB, NBA and NFL drafts over the past 10 years.
 
Inside the athletic arena, Golden Bears captured two more national championships in early June to bring our total to one team and 11 individual/relay/boat titles this year. On June 2, our men's second varsity eight led from the start and won the IRA Championships crown on Lake Natoma just outside Sacramento. Four days later, sophomore Camryn Rogers set a school record when she earned the NCAA women's hammer throw title. We were able to celebrate both of these remarkable efforts by having Camryn and men's rowing coach Scott Frandsen talk about their experiences at our latest monthly staff meeting.
 
We also held our first head coaches retreat and packed our two-day agenda with peer-to-peer education, a roundtable discussion on mental health with our colleagues from University Health Services and a presentation on how to connect across different generations. The discussions these sessions generated further confirmed the high level of talent, knowledge and expertise we have within our coaching staff at Cal, and it was great to see and hear our coaches share so many of their best practices with each other.
 
We are currently visiting much of the State of California with our annual Coaches Caravan to meet and hear from many of our alumni and supporters. Earlier this month, we made stops before enthusiastic crowds in Los Angeles and Orange County with football coach Justin Wilcox and men's basketball coach Mark Fox (watch our video). Next week, we will be at Lake Tahoe, a visit that will include coaches Jack Clark (rugby), Mark Fox, Charmin Smith and Robyne Johnson.
 
Back here on campus, I continue to be energized by the process to create our strategic plan. In late April, we invited our coaches and staff to engage with us on building out our priorities, and I was excited to see that 85 members of our department volunteered their time to meet regularly to help create this vital document. To me, this signifies how passionate and committed our staff is to set the direction for Cal Athletics. We remain on track to have a final version before the start of the school year in August.
 
I'd like to welcome Tom Lowry has our new Chief Financial Officer. Tom brings a detailed understanding of the campus and the UC system after serving previously as the CFO with Student Affairs on campus. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank David Secor, who served in the role the past six years and retired after more than 25 years in the UC system. David has been an invaluable resource to help us navigate our budget and ensure that we use our resources as efficiently as possible. Thank you, David!!
 
I also want to say thank you again to Aaron Rodgers, who has made a seven-figure gift to renovate our football locker room and establish an endowment to support a football scholarship for a junior college transfer. We are enormously proud of what Aaron has accomplished in his NFL career and deeply appreciate his support of our football program. Dr. Paul F. White '68 also generously contributed a six-figure gift to the locker room project, and for that, we are grateful, as well.
 
As I look back over my first year as your Director of Athletics, I remain incredibly inspired by what I see and hear every day. We have great people, outstanding student-athletes, a supportive chancellor, and passionate alumni and fans. We have made great strides in many areas, from campus engagement and gender equity to improving the student-athlete experience and founding the Cameron Institute to developing a long-term sustainable financial model.
 
We still have a lot to do, and our strategic plan will help us focus as we move forward into the 2019-20 academic year and beyond. Thank you for your support as we strive to elevate Cal Athletics from good to great.
 
Go Bears,


Jim Knowlton
Director of Athletics