Coaches and Athletes glad but skeptical about merits of a cup compared to team progress
By Jeff Trousdale
The WCC has announced that the University of Portland is currently in first place in the conference's annual competition for best overall sports program, beating out the likes of San Diego, Santa Clara and other perennial WCC powerhouses with the completion of the winter sports season. The question is though -- does anybody care?
The commissioner of the WCC, Jamie Zaninovich, certainly hopes so.
"It's a big deal because it awards a school for their all around excellence as an athletic program," Zaninovich said. "We take pride in all 13 of the sports we sponsor, and it signifies excellence in all sports.
Most UP students, however, athletes included, don't seem to be aware of the competition.
"I didn't even know it existed," said sophomore volleyball player Danielle Dupar, who was echoed by junior volleyball player Jessica Baty.
The contest, known as the Commissioner's Cup, has been awarded for seven years now, and is calculated using a points system that reflects the place finish of each team in conference play.
UP traditionally does poorly in the contest. Last year the school finished in seventh place, only beating out Gonzaga, and the two prior years saw UP finish dead last. The Pilots usually lead the competition after the fall sports season, due to powerhouses like the cross country program and women's soccer team, but the school loses its standing in the weaker winter and spring sports seasons.
The success of this year's basketball teams, the women finished second in conference play and the men finished in third, have helped UP maintain their lead over the other schools. But Pilots' Athletic Director Larry Williams said he doesn't place much importance in winning the Commissioner's Cup.
"I'm not a big fan of the Commissioner's Cup," Williams said. "I'm more concerned about how each of the programs are developing independent of the other programs. Each one has a different measuring stick."
Williams also said that the Pilots are typically hurt because they don't sponsor all of the sports that are supported by the WCC, specifically women's crew. However, he said that their current lead in the standings shows that the athletic department is making good progress.
"The plans that we put in place a couple of years ago are now starting to get traction," Williams said. "We're right on course; this is where we wanted to be but we're not far enough along yet."
Williams acknowledged that the Cup is probably meant as more of a tool for administration than it is for student-athletes, which may be why so few student-athletes know about the cup. But Zaninovich disagreed.
"If they don't know what (the Commissioner's Cup) is, that's probably something that we need to improve on," Zaninovich said. "Student-athletes should know what it is and take pride in it."
But some student-athletes are the exception to the rule. Junior soccer player Logan Emory knew about the Cup, but he said it isn't often talked about by his peers.
"From a pride standpoint, I might go home and brag about it to guys from Santa Clara or Gonzaga," Emory said. "But I think it's not nearly as important as how my team does."
Emory guessed that most of the guys on his team probably knew nothing about it, but what about players from the stronger programs at UP, such as the women's soccer team?
"I've never even heard of it," said freshman soccer player Kassi McCluskie.
McCluskie said that she might be out of the loop because she's a freshman, but she had never heard anyone on her team mention it.
It could be that so few Pilot athletes know about the cup because the school has don so poorly in the competition in past years. Enrique Lopez, a senior student media member at the University of San Diego, said that few people at his school knew about the contest until they won it last year.
"They made a big deal of it last year, and the people who do follow sports were pretty proud of it," Lopez said. "Now, people pay more attention to sports like tennis and baseball because they all factor into the competition, so its increased awareness of all the programs over here."
If UP ends up winning the competition, it will receive a trophy and a plaque from the conference in some sort of press conference or media event. But no matter the results, Williams said that the athletic program will continue to build on its successes from this year.
"It's going to take a continued commitment to each individual plan," Williams said. "I think that focus is now becoming part of the culture of who we are as an athletic department ... Success matters."
