Search continues for new athletic director

GAMINO Sports Editor @fgamino13

As the Fall semester kicks off and sports teams begin their journeys to make lasting memories, Pierce College has been unable to find an athletic director to fill the vacant position.

The job was previously held by Moriah Van Norman, who announced she was stepping down in May, ending a tenure that lasted two years.

Pierce President Alexis Montevirgen said they are working closely with human resources to identify an ideal candidate.

"There is progress in the sense of we're continuing to move forward with posting the position and trying to get in that pool in order to be able to bring someone on board as soon as possible," Montevirgen said. "I know we would have already wanted them onboard already, but I think at this point it's just getting them identified and onboard."

Bob Lofrano, who was the athletic director from 2007 to

2017, said he is frustrated with the current situation.

“To someone who played sports here and had some great moments, like the hall of fame dinner where we inducted some great coaches and incredible athletes, it is embarrassing to realize that a college that is still running an athletic program to not have a face of the department. A leader is inexcusable,” Lofrano said.

Lofrano also stressed why having an AD in place is important.

“What high school coach would want to send their athletes to Pierce in this situation? It is kind of a mess,” Lofrano said. “That is why it is so important to have an athletic director because who is going to sit in the meetings? There are 17 colleges in the Western State Conference and they'll be asking where is the Pierce person.”

Genice Sarcedo-Magruder, dean of Athletics and Title IX coordinator, talked about the reasoning there hasn’t been anyone named as the new AD.

“We are held to the district policies. In the faculty contract we have to open the position internally and we didn't have enough of a candidate poll,” Sarcedo-Magruder said. “We opened up to the district and it's the same situation.”

Sarcedo-Magruder said they couldn't interview some of the candidates because they were not internal, full-time faculty members, or just didn’t qualify. If they don't have someone within the district, they will open the position externally and will have the posting for six weeks, according to Sarcedo-Magruder.

Dao explained he was hoping the Los Angeles Promise Program would come to his aid, but it's still fairly new to the college and it would only apply to the students coming from a LAUSD high school.

Dao also mentioned most high level athletes are going to want to look at the facilities they will be using, and the tennis courts are past due for renovations.

“Last season, I lost a recruit that ended up being the best player in the conference due to the court conditions,” Dao said.

Another budding issue is if a sports team does end up getting the necessary number of players, they now have to get the newcomers up to speed to the level of the athletes who have been practicing during the pre-season.

Swim and Water Polo Head Coach Judi Terhar explained how latecomers are affected in the teams she manages.

“A number of the athletes that are coming to us now at the beginning of school have missed an entire summer of training, we started back in June,” Terhar said. “Our late-comers coming to us in the first week from other schools not knowing that we already had our orientation, physicals, form ones. Everything that is required had already taken place.”