Dear Friend of Cal Athletics,

I write today on a historic day, one that everyone at Cal Athletics has been eagerly anticipating for months. Today marks the 50^th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX, the historic legislation that prevented sex discrimination in educational programs, including sports. We plan on honoring and accelerating Title IX with a year-long celebration, beginning today with this educational and commemorative video to kick off our programming.

We have much planned over the next year to honor Title IX – features, videos, in-game activities, and much, much more. We look forward to celebrating together – as a Cal Family.

The final stretch of the 2021-22 athletic season gave us plenty to get excited about. Our men's rowing team – led by Pac-12 Coach of the Year Scott Frandsen – won its 18^th IRA National Championship, and in the process gave Cal Athletics its 100^th all-time team national title. We plan on celebrating this hallowed milestone later in the year. Furthermore, Camryn Rogers cemented her place as one of our all-time greats by winning her third consecutive NCAA championship in the hammer throw. Camryn has been an incredible representative for our department and university, and we wish her well as she now moves on having graduated in the spring. Earlier this month, Nikolaos Papanikolaou won the Cutino Award as the top player in NCAA water polo. The award is named after Peter J. Cutino, Cal's all-time winningest coach in men's water polo. Congrats to Papa! Kudos also to track & field head coach Robyne Johnson for being named the USTFCCCA West Region Women's Coach of the Year and Mohamad Saatara for earning Men's and Women's Assistant Coach of the Year accolades.

Our women's water polo team competed at the NCAA Championship at the University of Michigan and advanced to the semifinals – the team has now qualified for the NCAA Championship eight times since 2010 and reached at least the semifinals each time. Our women's tennis team advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen while our beach volleyball team went to the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history!

We continue to have wonderful news on the academic front. The latest NCAA Academic Progress Rate data that was released earlier this month showed that we had our second-best one-year score ever at 989. Overall, we matched a school record with 16 programs having perfect one-year scores of 1,000. We also had nine programs record multi-year scores of 1,000 – one off the school record. Men's basketball showed a 14-point improvement and matched its all-time high with a 97, while football improved by three points over the last set of data with a 975, four points off its record.

I am thrilled to welcome Markeisha Everett to our team as our Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. Markeisha has extensive experience in leadership roles at Power Five schools such as Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Missouri. She comes to us most recently from Saint Joseph's in Philadelphia, where she served as Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations. She will join our team at the end of this month.

It was wonderful to celebrate the achievements of our graduating Golden Bears last month, as we welcomed over 200 student-athletes to our alumni community - their experiences and opportunities as student-athletes were made possible because of the support of so many – coaches, administrators, donors, alumni and many more who have generously given of their time and treasure to support their journey.
 
Following general commencement, we hosted our annual Student-Athlete Graduation Reception in the University Club. This event is part of the official send-off from Cal Athletics, as we celebrate our student-athletes' achievements. It was a great opportunity for us to recognize the academic and athletic success achieved by our graduating senior student-athletes. I look forward to seeing them begin the next leg of their journey and return to campus next fall as part of our Golden Bear alumni network!
 
Last month, Coach Wilcox and I traveled down to Southern California for multiple engagement events and visits with passionate Cal Alumni! The majority of the conversations were centered around Cal Football and the state of college football. NIL, the transfer portal, football funding, the upcoming season, and graduation success rates were top of mind. Coach Wilcox continues to impress in these settings and we've received incredible feedback from our constituents. We are fully committed to having a presence in Southern California, and we will continue to visit the region as often as possible.
 
I'd also like to share that we were proud to honor Alex Morgan Carrasco with the Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alumni at the Berkeley Charter Gala! Head women's soccer coach Neil McGuire accepted the award in her absence as she is in season with the National Women's Soccer League!
 
We couldn't be more excited to start our Coaches Caravan in Sacramento on June 29th at Track 7 Brewing! We welcome you to join fellow Cal fans and supporters to hear from our head coaches and leadership while enjoying light bites and beverages. The Caravan is then heading to Lake Tahoe, Orange County, Los Angeles, and Lafayette. Space is limited, so make sure to RSVP if you are planning to attend. We can't wait to see you there! 

Also in May, we had over 20 student-athletes and staff attend the 2022 Black Student-Athlete Summit in Houston. Led by Associate Athletics Director for DEIBJ Dr. Ty-Ron Douglas and our DEIBJ Director of Operations & Engagement Bobby Thompson, our contingent participated in workshops, educational empowerment sessions, professional development activities and networking opportunities.  A special congratulations to Bobby for being named the Black Student-Athlete Summit Co-Administrator of the Year! Our group that attended was the second-most of any Pac-12 school. Dr. Douglas and his staff continue to engage every member of our department, and inclusiveness and belonging remains at the forefront of everything that we do.

I want to give a special nod to Herb Benenson, the longtime director of our athletic communications office who retired on May 27 after 32 years at Cal. Herb has been an absolute rock for our department and has helped us smoothly navigate the good times and the challenging ones. We wish him well as he enters this new chapter of his life. Thank you, Herb!

It was gratifying to see our women's basketball and women's soccer teams work with Urban Tilth to partner with other neighboring communities to beautify the nearby Richmond Greenway as part of an Earth Day celebration. Jessie Stewart, the Director of Community Engagement & Strategic Partnerships for the Cameron Institute, helped organize the event.

I'm also incredibly proud of our women's basketball program for winning the 2022 Pac-12 Sportsmanship Award. In a true sign of humanity, head coach Charmin Smith and the Bears agreed to allow Oregon State's Andrea Aquino to score an uncontested layup to begin their game on February 20. Aquino has a medical condition that prevented her from playing for the Beavers, and her basket against us were her only career points.

Have a great summer, and get ready for an incredible fall. Go Bears!



Jim Knowlton
Director of Athletics