Gavilan nabbing recruits away from West Valley College? A
multi-purpose stadium on campus? Improving Rams women’s sports
programs? Gavilan College Athletic Director Ron Hannon weighs in on
the state of Rams athletics as Free Lance staff writer Ana Patejdl
sits down with another impact player in South Valley athletics.
n By Ana Patejdl Staff writer
Free Lance: This year a lot of things happened: The new women’s volleyball program, women’s basketball was brought back, two new coaches. Do you view 2005-2006 as being a busy year for Gavilan?
Ron Hannon: Slightly (laughing). There was a lot going on this year. … I think in the five years that I’ve been here that this might be the most fun year. And people say, “Well, look at your win/loss record and tell me how that’s fun.” Yeah, that part of it wasn’t fun. But I think personnel-wise, we had some coaches turn corners and really connect with our student athletes. … And we’re starting to address different things within our department. Personnel-wise, project-wise, we’ve got a lot of construction, projects and plans that are going on right now.
FL: What are some of the things that can be expected for next year, either with the construction or different programs, things like that?
RH: Well, sport-wise, volleyball is going into its second year. (Head women’s volleyball coach) Stephanie (Pascucci) has had some time to recruit and she’s got some young people coming in that we’re excited about.
We’re coming off of a year where softball and baseball had, for different reasons, successful seasons. With softball, (Head coach) Nikki (Thompson) being named Coast Conference Coach of the Year and having three players named to the all-conference team was a major accomplishment, with all of the other road bumps and things that have gone on with the program. It was exciting to see the enthusiasm in that.
With baseball, having a full-time baseball coach this year is something long overdue. … People are excited to know that Neal’s (baseball head coach Neal Andrade) our guy and he’s going to be here long-term and full-time and so I think that’s really going to help baseball in this next year.
Football has just had a great recruiting season. We don’t expect anything less than winning a conference championship and going to a bowl game.
FL: Kind of going back to the recruiting, football and baseball have traditionally had strong roots in the area. But I’ve heard some complaints from supporters of other sports that Gavilan doesn’t recruit enough within the local schools. Is that something you see as a problem or something you feel these new coaches can pick up?
RH: When you bring in new coaches, obviously they bring in new connections from different areas and having two new coaches in men’s basketball and women’s soccer, a lot of their ties are to the San Jose/Santa Clara area. So you know there’s going to be some students from that area that are going to make the commute and come down this way.
Baseball and football have done a good job of staying local. And that’s something we feel really strongly about. That’s part of our philosophy as a department.
In talking with the two new coaches and finding out about their philosophies and their goals, they also believe that locally, they’ve got to be able to recruit. But they also know to take the programs to the next level, they’re going to have to bring other talent in.
Football is no different. So as much as we want local kids to come here, we also need people to know that to win and take the programs to the levels we want to be at, there’s not enough players in this area to be able to do that. And that’s not knocking our local talent, because we have some excellent local talent here and we want those kids here.
FL: What are your thoughts on what can help make women’s programs more stable here at Gavilan?
RH: The first thing that comes to mind is full-time coaches and that’s no secret. … When coaches are done teaching, they are here and their student-athletes have access to them all day long. Having those coaches here full-time is the key thing to have to one, stabilize the program. But two, you’ve got to have the right part-time coaches in place. It takes a special person, personality-wise, character-wise to go out and basically do what we’re asking them to do as a full-time job on part-time pay.
The other thing is our female student-athletes in particular need to know that if they’re going to come to Gavilan College there’s somewhere else they’re going to go afterward. Gavilan is just going to be a stepping stone.
The other thing is we’ve got to take a really good look at the programs we’re offering. We may not be offering the right athletic programs. Women’s basketball is one of those programs that in the last couple years has really opened our eyes to the fact that maybe the interest just isn’t there in women’s basketball. Right now, those students out there thinking of Gav are thinking, “The last two years they’ve canceled their season, I don’t want to go there.” You can put the best coach in place but that stigma is still there. But I don’t want to necessarily go away completely from women’s basketball.
FL: When you look back at your five years, what are you most proud of being a part of improving here at Gavilan College?
RH: Sometimes when you’re in the middle of it, you really don’t see what you’ve done. I think one of the things that I’m proud of and obviously, this is a team effort, is that we’ve gotten the foundation down. A lot of times when people are looking in, they’re looking for wins and losses, championships and all those types of things and they forget that there are other things that have to happen first. The (Gavilan athletic) program was broken for a long time and I think we’ve made strong headways in getting that turned around.
When I look at our budgets, across the board they’ve increased which is important because you’ve got to provide the resources. It’s not where we want it to be, but reaching out to the community and being able to make a connection with the community has been instrumental in allowing us to get there.
And facility improvement and the renovations that are currently underway – expanding the soccer complex so that we can put a permanent outfield fence and scoreboard on the softball field. Phases coming up down the road here include bleachers, a scoreboard, all those things for the soccer field. This facility here is going to be under renovation in the next few years and its going to be absolutely beautiful finally to have state-of-the-art facilities. Our weight room is going to increase to almost twice the size of what we’ve got now.
FL: I know you knew (women’s volleyball coach) Stephanie (Pascucci) from your days at San Jose State. Did you know (new men’s basketball coach) Tito (Addison) from there?
RH: Yes.
FL: So that’s been a nice pipeline for you.
RH: Yeah. And that’s not uncommon in this line of work. Obviously, you network. I finished up playing at San Jose State when we were recruiting Tito out of high school. So I remember being involved in the recruiting process as a player.
He was someone with very high integrity, cares a lot about the game of basketball, cares a lot about student athletes, was an excellent student himself, was a top-notch basketball player who played overseas professionally.
His enthusiasm and his network when it comes to basketball is ridiculous. He’s connected to everybody and everyone. The kids that he’s able recruit are kids that West Valley is hot after and we’ve created competition with West Valley and that’s exciting. I want the West Valley’s and the San Jose City’s and some of these other schools that have traditionally been the powerhouses, I want them upset with us because we’ve taken kids that they’ve wanted in their program. And Tito has that ability recruiting-wise.
People say, ‘Why all these San Jose State people?’ and I say, ‘Because San Jose State is able to attract great coaches.’ One of the challenges is keeping them because of the resources and the facilities. But they get quality people to come in.
FL: Where do you see Gavilan in another five years from now?
RH: I see a lot more banners in the gym. I see a couple more full-time coaches on staff, which I know is going to happen.
Facility-wise, I see all of our facilities upgraded. The gym is going to be absolutely beautiful. We haven’t seen color renderings; we’ve only seen blue prints. We’ve redesigned the entire facility with office space and locker room space. We’re going to have team rooms. The big project that is on the radar is a multi-use stadium (that would house football and soccer).
I see the college not only competing and having all its facilities on campus for once and for all, but I see us attracting high school all-star games because they’re going to want to use our facilities. I see us hosting state championship events for high school.
Part of the stadium (concept) is a track. Right now, there’s no plan to move forward with the track and field program, but that’s potentially something down the road. I see us tearing down the baseball field and starting over again, much like we did with the softball field.
Every aspect of what we do here is going to be improved and I see it being improved significantly. But the long-term goal is that every program has a full-time coach. That’s the driving thorn in my side.
