Colorado University Athletics
Throwin' You A Bohn
By Mike Bohn, Athletic Director
The New Year is upon us, and with the winter sports in full stride, it is one of the busiest times of the year at Colorado, with plenty of work also going on behind-the-scenes.
First let’s look at the highlights our fall sport programs. We enjoyed an incredible run beginning in mid-October, led off by the women’s volleyball team reeling off seven straight wins, starting with an upset of No. 20 Kansas State and following with a win over No. 24 Texas A&M. We emerged at the end of that streak as a ranked program ourselves and Pi’i Aiu had his team hitting on all cylinders. The team earned its 14th NCAA tournament appearance in 15 seasons, but lost in the first round at Colorado State.
The men’s and women’s cross country teams posted their seventh straight sweep of the Big 12 Conference championships, and soon followed with a sweep at the Mountain Regionals as Mark Wetmore again earned coach of the year honors. His youthful teams may not have defended their 2004 NCAA team titles, but the women finished as the national runner-up while the men placed fifth, solid results nonetheless.
The women’s soccer team won eight of 10 games at one point and pushed Texas A&M to the brink in the league championship contest. Bill Hempen’s team earned a third straight NCAA tournament bid in the process, advancing to the second round before losing to eventual national runner-up UCLA.
The sad note of the fall was the loss of a great Buffalo, men’s golf coach Mark Simpson. Our leader for almost three decades, Mark was one of the most popular members of our department, and there is a definite void around here. He was true team player and a great ambassador for not only the golf team and the athletic department, but for the university. Mark has spent his entire adult life contributing to the success of Buffalo athletics, often wearing other hats while dedicating his professional life to coaching young men.
We intend to name Brad Neher as the interim golf coach as early as this week, and I hope all of you support him in this challenging time as he must take over the coaching chores in the toughest of circumstances.
Football. On the field, the team won its fourth Big 12 North Division title in five seasons and then lost to eventual national champion Texas in the league’s title game. We ended the regular season with a decision to move the program in a different direction under a new head football coach.
It was well documented that I said that we wanted to hit a home run with the new coach, and we did just that in our estimation with the hiring of Dan Hawkins. He has assembled an impressive staff, including two holdovers, former CU players Brian Cabral and Darian Hagan, and brought back a familiar face to many in the area in Greg Brown. ?Hawk” brought four assistants with him from Boise State, where he was 53-11 in five seasons, and looked to Arizona State and California for his other two hires. We will formally announce all seven of the new assistants in the near future once the university hiring process is complete.
Attendance was up in football, as several new programs were successful. Ralphie’s Kids Roundup has proven to be as popular, if not more so, than we had hoped, and almost 4,000 Boy Scouts attended the Missouri game, and they had a full day, beginning with a Bill McCartney speech and culminating with displaying an American Flag at halftime, one that covered the entire field.
Turning attention to the winter sports, the basketball teams entered conference play last week.
Ricardo Patton’s men enjoyed some nice success in non-league games, going 10-1 that included a nine-game winning streak. The women under first-year coach Kathy McConnell-Miller were bitten by the injury bug but have battled hard, and were 5-7 entering league play.
The YOUR TEAM campaign encompassed all of our programs at CU, not just football. We tried many new things in this regard, and the Downtown Stampede on Pearl Street, thanks to the hard work of the Golden Buffalo Marching Band, was popular from its inception. Banners around town have also helped build community spirit.
We are working hard to increase attendance at basketball games, with students a main focus, as well as an overall effort to build support as these young men and women deserve to play before bigger crowds at the Coors Events Center.
Indoor track will soon be in full swing, as will indoor competition for both tennis programs. The ski team christened its 2006 season in Utah over the weekend, as Richard Rokos has his Buffaloes geared for a national title run in two months at Steamboat Springs. For the first time in 13 years, the NCAA awarded the championships to the state of Colorado, and Richard believes his coaching staff has assembled a team that will contend for CU’s first title since 1999.
Moving to happenings out of the limelight, we have finished a rough draft of a business plan with collaboration from campus, spearheaded by Jeff Lipton. The best way to sum up the document might be to call it half mission statement, half Athletics 2010, the department’s future blueprint program in place upon my arrival. This is a perfect example of the kind of teamwork we are engaging in around campus.
Another new program we have begun is the Buff Club Cabinet, an aggressive fundraising effort in which 33 donors have been secured that pledged $2.2 million to athletics over the next three years. Annual memberships to join the cabinet are $25,000, with members to receive reward benefits that include special access to coaches, tickets, parking, apparel, field passes, travel opportunities and roundtable discussions with select staff members.
The day we announced ?Hawk’ as our 23rd football coach, President Hank Brown was on hand to help announce a significant gift of $1.5 million from Tom and Cydney Marsico. That is well over half of the funds needed to build a multi-use indoor training complex that not only will serve most of CU’s 17 intercollegiate athletic programs, but several university programs through the recreation center as well as for special events.
We are extremely excited about this gift, and the timing was impeccable. As we start off anew on several fronts, the Marsicos have given the university a huge head start in raising funds for this facility that students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community will enjoy for years to come.
Gifts like the Marsico donation have helped continue the tremendous momentum we have right now, and we need to seize upon this to move forward and secure our future. We will work hard to do our part, but we invite CU fans out there to answer the call for involvement and continue to support our goals and initiatives and become an active part of the YOUR TEAM campaign.