First-year head coach Mallori Gibson-Rossi has the Stanislaus State volleyball team off to its best start since becoming a scholarship program in 1998.
The baseball team’s top reliever is not starting in goal for the men’s soccer team, and the All-American distance runner is not about to don the libero jersey and step on the volleyball court.
But in the grand scheme of California State University, Stanislaus athletics, that’s exactly the kind of cross-program support driving the Warriors’ unprecedented early-semester success.
The men’s soccer team is 5-0, its best start since the University joined the California Collegiate Athletic Association in 1998. The same is true for the volleyball team, at 7-0 under first-year head coach Mallori Gibson-Rossi. And the women’s soccer team, the defending NCAA West Region champion and the athletic department’s cornerstone program, is off to another fast start at 4-1.
“The more success we all have, the more fun it is,” said Director of Athletics Mike Matoso. “We go from good to great the moment everybody in this entire department is truly happy for the successes of every other team, as well as being there to pick up another team when it’s down. If we can get to that point, we can be a top-10 department nationally.”
Fielding 14 athletic teams can mean there are 14 head coaches and 14 sets of student-athletes in the building all trying to make certain they get the most attention in an effort to assume the role of departmental lead-dog. But what Matoso has stressed since stepping on campus three years ago is that the brightest light is the one that illuminates the entire department.
“We’ve done a lot of team building across the sports,” Matoso said. “To me, it’s always amazing to see athletic departments that don’t function as a cohesive unit, while as a coach you’d never allow that to happen within your own team. The more the athletes and coaches from our 14 teams support each other, the more success we’re going to have across the board.”
In that effort, every fall begins with an athletic department barbeque, bringing together coaches, administrators and the roughly 275 Warriors student-athletes to mix, mingle and build cross-program bonds. As a result, you will see a large contingent of athletes and coaches from other sports in the stands at soccer, basketball and baseball games, supporting fellow Warriors.
The attendance is encouraged but not mandatory. It’s a choice, and harkens back to a word Matoso uses a lot within his department.
“We talk all the time about volition,” Matoso said. “It’s the power to choose, and every day I tell the staff that they have the power to be positive or negative, or even to be here — it’s their choice. And we’ve all chosen to be here.”
And this fall, at least so far, the teams have made the decision to make the sacrifices necessary for success.
Gibson-Rossi has taken a volleyball team that went 28-84 over the past four seasons and instilled the power of a winning attitude.
“The kids wanted to have success and we already had the talent,” Matoso said. “So much of having success is simply having the mindset that you can go out and win. I watched the volleyball team the other day and they lost the first set before they turned it around. They were down 2-0 to Dominican, and a year ago this team would have folded the tents. But Mallori made some adjustments and the kids all listened.”
Men’s soccer coach Dana Taylor has been pointing toward this season, believing he had the necessary combination of senior leadership and youth to make another run at a California Collegiate Athletic Association title, which the program last won in 2012.
“Dana is a great example of everybody being on the same page,” Matoso said. “The longer he’s been here, the more active he’s become within the department and it’s brought everybody closer. He really found the space where his program fits within the department and it’s all for the positive.”
The women’s soccer team, under Gabe Bolton, not only has been a national power for several years but a leader in the area of cross-program support. And because the Warrior women’s soccer team can be seen en masse at other sports, those athletes gladly return the favor and fill the stands at Warrior Stadium.
“I talk to all the teams before the year starts and my message to women’s soccer was that they’ve been the leader of all of this success — that they’re the model for what we want to be throughout the entire department — for all the other programs,” Matoso said. “And a lot of it is that they go out and support the other teams trying to get where they already are.”
The effect of seeing and hearing fellow student-athletes in the stands might be difficult to measure, but there’s no question in Matoso’s mind of the positive impact of such support.
“It’s a change of culture and attitude, and changing the culture of this whole department has been huge. I feel we have all the pieces in place and you can see and feel the difference in our entire athletic program.”
Schedules, statistics, rosters and results for all Warrior athletic teams can be found at www.warriorathletics.com