CSUN On Point

CSUN athletics are on the rise, due in part to the success of the women’s basketball team, who won the Big West title last year. But this and other achievements often go unnoticed. Campuses like USC and UCLA have a reputation of bringing in tons of support from students and alumni at their games, but CSUN sports does not.

“I do believe there’s lack of school spirit on CSUN’s campus,” one CSUN student said. “Not everybody gets involved with what sports activity are going on. I personally don’t know when the volleyball season is or anything, so there’s no way for me to attend the games. I just feel there needs to be more advertisement for it.”

While UCLA may be defeating CSUN when it comes to attendance at games, the Matadors men’s soccer team defeated the #10 ranked Bruins on the soccer field this season. CSUN Athletic department officials say they hope the huge win might lead to a boost in attendance.

“I think students should be excited about anything that has the school name associated with it,” CSUN’s Women Basketball Coach Jason Flowers said. “We talk with our kids all the time about not only representing themselves well, but representing our University, every time they step on the floor and compete.”

Flowers said it is important for the athletes to build relationships with students on campus in order to see more fans in the stands. To build these connections, the women’s basketball team invited students to join them at a pool party where fans and students were able to meet players and staff. The Athletic Department is hoping to create a welcoming environment for students to attend games.

“We need to focus inwardly on who we are,” said CSUN Athletic Director Michael Izzi, “and where we can best create opportunities to be significant, and significant within our conference, as well as owning the area that we live in, and that’s the Valley.”

Flowers said he likes the new ideas Izzi is bringing to CSUN. Izzi spent the last 20 years at UC Irvine in the same position. “He has a clear plan of what he wants [CSUN Athletics Department] to be, what he wants it to look like, and what he wants it to do. Obviously with his history, with given time, we will get those things done,” Flowers said.

The women’s basketball coach says the athletic program is moving in the right direction.

“There are a lot of good things going on in our department,” he said. “I would like to see continued growth, and [I’d like to see us] continuing to shed light on the things going on at this University, whether it be academic research, or beautifully-run productions by students on campus. Hopefully we continue to grow and get better, and when people think of CSUN, they think excellence and a high level of performance.”

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CSUN’s student athletes are still recovering from the NCAA penalization of their men’s basketball team, after the former director of basketball operations allegedly committed academic fraud. The NCAA found that the director, Lior Schwartzberg, was doing online classwork for some of the players.

The incident highlights the challenges for student athletes, and many would agree that, at times, academics take a back seat when it comes to student athletes. This can lead to conflict between faculty members and athletic departments. That’s where Ed Jackiewicz, CSUN’s NCAA Faculty Representative, comes in to ease the conflict.

“A lot of faculty think [athletic] students are on a free ride and getting all these benefits, when, in fact, a lot of them don’t get any money, or much money, at all,” Jackiewicz said.

This assumption is only one of the stigmas athletes face; others are that their lives are easy because they get special privileges as athletes, that they’re not graded as hard as other students so they don’t have to try as hard in class, or that they’re lazy when it comes to their schoolwork in general.

“The myth is that student athletes aren’t good students, when, in fact, there are a lot of successful [athletic] students,” Jackiewicz said.

CSUN’s Athletic Director Dr. Brandon Martin said a lot of misunderstanding exists about the day-to-day life of student athletes.

“I mean, they essentially have two jobs,” Martin said. “They have to be students and athletes.”

In order to keep this balance, student athletes have to be good time-managers.

“Unlike a non-athlete, they have schedules that they have to follow, and they have to have an inordinate amount of discipline to follow that schedule,” Martin said. “That schedule really propels them to the success that we want them to have, both academically and athletically.”

Another pressure on student athletes is being the face of their universities.

“I feel like there’s more expectation for us, being student athletes,” said Carl Brown, a member of CSUN’s men’s basketball team. “We represent the program. We have to represent ourselves in a good way, on and off the court, because we’re representing not just ourselves, but the school too.”

Some student athletes have  commitments besides their sport and their school work. Track & Cross Country runner Manny Vargas is not only a student athlete. He also works part-time, and is in a fraternity. “It’s been a very tough process … [to be]… a student athlete; you’re working and in a fraternity; it’s a lot sometimes,” Vargas said.

CSUN has been working on providing resources to ease the busy lives of student athletes, and prevent another penalization.

“It was a chance for us to create a place, the Matador Achievement Center,” Martin said, “a place where our student athletes could really feel like [they] get the love and support and encouragement that they need to be successful.”

With these resources, and better relationships between faculty and the athletic department, student athletes are starting to prove the stigmas wrong.

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When it comes to college sports, most people are more familiar with USC and UCLA than Cal State Northridge. UCLA athletes make it on to the cover of national magazines like Sports Illustrated, and USC is famous for its tailgating parties and its NCAA sanctions.

CSUN sports have never gotten that kind of national or even local media coverage, but now, under the leadership of new director Dr. Brandon Martin and with the support of new President Dianne Harrison, the University Athletic Department is pushing to create a successful sports culture on campus, and create a new brand for the university.

“I do think that athletics is a wonderful avenue to get awareness and interest in the university,” CSUN Marketing Professor Tina Kiesler said.

It’s not only important to make that brand known on campus, but also to spread it beyond the university’s borders, Kiesler said. “I think the student athletes are trying to get out across campus and make their presence known, but we also have the athletics department as a crack marketing team that Dr. Martin has, in part, brought in.”

Martin, a former USC basketball star who has years of experience in intercollegiate sports administration, has been the athletics director at CSUN for less than a year, you can take a look at this link to learn all about basketball heaight systems. “I think we have one of the best marketing teams,” Martin said. “They really work long hours, they are in tune with my vision, but most importantly, they are in tune with our student athletes.”

Martin said he has taken a new approach to bringing awareness to the athletic program among students and faculty, using social media, events, and activities before and during games.

This month, the athletic department entered a multi-year partnership with Sport Chalet. The sporting goods retailer will team up with the university, supplying merchandise and offering deals.

But not all resources come so easily. In a public university, where money can be tight, it can be difficult to decide where to allocate limited funds.

Martin doesn’t think it has to be an issue.

“We don’t have to choose between academics and athletics,” he said. “We can optimize and maximize both.”

And students committed to that balance are exactly what the university is looking for.

“That’s the type of student-athlete that I’m trying to recruit,” said Women’s Volleyball Head Coach Jeff Stork. “I want kids who want to excel, and who want to come to CSUN.”

But in the end, marketing and sports culture are just one part of a successful athletics program.

“You gotta win,” Stork said. “That tends to bring more people out.”

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