Moving Forward: Dr. Micah Parker
A lot was accomplished by California Baptist University Athletics in 2013-14, our first season as a fully-fledged NCAA member. However, there is no such thing as satisfaction in athletics when a new season is waiting right around the corner.
The new season officially kicks off on Thursday when men’s soccer hosts the University of La Verne at 1 p.m., giving us another opportunity to leave a mark on the NCAA and build on our inaugural campaign.
We set the bar high for ourselves last season. Twelve of our teams qualified for the NCAA playoffs, we won four conference championships, our second PacWest Commissioner’s Cup and took 26th out of 311 Division II institutions in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Standings.
Like it has always been at CBU, success was measured by more than just athletics last year. A total of 190 of our athletes received academic all-conference honors, our student athletes are graduating at an 80% rate and the 2013-14 graduating class graduated with a 3.2 cumulative grade-point average.
While we accomplished great things together, we know it is only the beginning. We are proud of what our department has accomplished so far, but we are not content. There are a lot of exciting things on the horizon and plenty to watch for this upcoming year.
Men’s cross country is looking to win its fourth PacWest Championship in a row, while men’s basketball, women’s swimming/diving and softball aim at repeating as conference champs this season. Legendary aquatics coach Rick Rowland is four wins away from his 500th with CBU, as he completes his 16th and final season as the Lancers men’s water polo and swimming/diving coach before focusing on swim/dive in 2015-16. CBU cheer is aiming to complete its third straight undefeated season and to claim its third consecutive National Cheerleaders Association Championship.
Of course, it is impossible to predict what highlights await us this year. We will just have to wait and see.