From the Desk of Athletics Director Ron Prettyman . . .
The "Big Time" Is Where I Am
Perspectives on the Toros Athletic Department
March 4, 2005

Ron Prettyman began his tenure as Athletics Director at Cal State Dominguez Hills in April, 1995, coming to the Toros from Vanguard University. During his administration, Prettyman has expanded the department from eight to eleven sponsored sports, and he oversaw and coordinated the acquisition of the Hughes Education and Athletic Center. Ron is a graduate of Southern California College and has a master's degree from Cal State Stanislaus.

From the 2004-05 Desk, Issue #1 From the 2004-05 Desk, Issue #2 From the 2004-05 Desk, Issue #3 From the 2004-05 Desk, Farewell Issue Issues From the 2003-04 Desk

I once asked a wise friend who is currently an NCAA Division IA Athletics Director, “What is it like at the ‘BIG TIME’”? He had been an Athletics Director at various levels earlier in his career. His response to my question was “The BIG TIME is where you are”. I thought for a moment about his response and realized that he is exactly correct.

We’ve created a monster in the guise of intercollegiate athletics. While at various schools across the nation budgets exceed 75 million dollars, some of us are making an effort to survive on a very small percentage of that amount. Is the tail wagging the dog? Many would say yes. However, for every high dollar program in the nation, there are fifty programs struggling to provide a great opportunity for young men and women to compete and fulfill their educational and athletic goals. The vast majority of colleges and universities have vital but unassuming athletics programs that are important pieces in the brilliant jigsaw puzzle of quality institutions.

I am the Athletics Director of a quality NCAA Division II program that works to represent our university in a quality way day in and day out. We are not on TV or on the radio every day. We are rarely the main topic of sports talk radio. We do get pretty good coverage from the local newspapers. But we are an important component to the success of our university. We attempt to create the same kind of atmosphere as the giant USC’s and the UCLA’s of the world. We raise money to provide scholarships for many student-athletes. Our student-athletes are recognizable and visible in class and across campus. We compete in most of our sports with the very best at any level. We love it when one of our student-athletes gets a chance to play at the professional level (we have had several). We are doing the same things that everyone else in the country that is associated with intercollegiate athletics is doing. It is valuable, it is fun and it is “THE BIG TIME”.

While not as visible nationally as some of our counterparts are across town and across the nation, we continue to strive to do our part to move our program and our university forward. We don’t deal with the masses of alumni camping out so that they can buy a basketball ticket to next weeks game, or arranging for flyovers during the national anthem (although often the local Goodyear blimp will be in the right place at the right time displaying it’s awesome power), or turning high school All-Americans away because we already have full rosters.

We deal with many other types of challenges such as: Will the grass be mowed prior to game day, will we get the check for our meal money before we leave so that the coaches don’t have to pay for it out of their pocket; will our student workers show up to take tickets tonight; since we don’t have an equipment manager, I hope the players don’t wash their white uniforms with their red socks; and I hope we have enough garbage bags for our staff to pick up after the game?

These are different challenges than some other larger programs face, but they are vital concerns just the same. Because the bottom line is we want our university, our alumni, our faculty and staff, our students, our community and our student-athletes to have an outstanding collegiate experience of which athletics is a major part.

I have been honored to be the Athletics Director at “BIG TIME” Cal State Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), Home of the TOROS for ten years. It is mind boggling to think that I share the Los Angeles umbrella with UCLA, USC, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount and several other quality DII, DIII, NAIA and Community Colleges. Every once in a while I feel like people are trying to push me out from under that umbrella into the harsh storm. At times I even feel like that push is coming from within our own university that we have worked so hard to represent well.

However, I am proud of what has been accomplished in the Athletics Department at CSUDH. For every negative someone can identify about what is wrong with athletics, I can point you to 30 positive things about what is right with athletics. For every time a student-athlete makes a poor decision, exercises bad judgment or becomes a discipline problem, I can show you 25 model citizen student-athletes that are outstanding representatives of our university every day.

Would I like to have more money to work with? Would I like to be able to match a scholarship offer to a blue chip prospective Student-Athlete that has gotten a more lucrative offer from our across town rival? Would I like for my programs to be on the front page of the newspaper every day and the lead story on the sports news every night? Sure I would. But reality is that our program rewards and successes will continue to come by virtue of hard work, good people and a strong resolve to do what is good and right for our student-athletes and our university.

I am fortunate to have a group of professionals in my office that I get to work with every day, that are just as committed to the success of the CSUDH Athletics Department as I am if not more so. They see the resources that other schools have to operate, and yet they rarely get discouraged. They rarely say it can’t be done. They are always ready to take on a new and exciting challenge. Our goal is to be the best that we are capable of becoming from an academic and athletic perspective.

The results of the hard work and never say die attitude have been impressive. This year we will have either 6 or 7 of our 11 sports participate in NCAA postseason play. Our facilities, in cooperation with Home Depot Center are among the finest outdoor facilities in the nation. We still have a long way to go, but just look around and see how far we have come.

Not bad for sharing our umbrella with all of those other schools that think they have it better than we do. I love being an Athletics Director at the “BIG TIME”.

Ron Prettyman
Athletics Director
GO TOROS