In four seasons as the Director of Athletics at Long Beach State Vic Cegles has overhauled the 49er athletic department and provided a new path for the department to follow. Cegles, who was hired as the school's 12th Director of Athletics in April 2006, has already made an impact in the athletic department's ability to fundraise which is key to his goal of making Long Beach State, not only the premiere school in the Big West Conference, but a player on the national stage when it comes to both athletics and academics. Since coming to Long Beach State, Cegles has restructured the annual fund establishing the 49er Athletic Club. The centralized fundraising approach recognizes both sport specific gifts and scholarship contributions supporting all 18 intercollegiate teams. The result has been dramatic with double-digit increases in the annual fund in fiscal years 2007 and 2008, and strong 2009 and 2010 campaigns during challenging financial times. Letterwinners and parents' contributions have also climbed through phone-a-thon activities. In addition, Cegles continues on the five-year strategic plan focused on facility improvements, endowments and staff enhancements, while the athletic board continues to grow and provide critical leadership, planning for the $25 million athletics capital campaign has become a major priority. A facilities master play was completed in 2010 focusing on construction and renovation of softball, soccer, and track stadiums with enhancements to locker rooms and the sports medicine and weight training centers. In addition, under Cegles' leadership the university has finalized a long-term, 55-year, lease with the city of Long Beach to operate Blair Field allowing ICA in future years to renovate and improve the home of the Dirtbags. Long Beach State has excelled both on the playing fields and in the classroom under Cegles' leadership. Academically, for the third consecutive year all NCAA sponsored teams at Long Beach State scored above the required 925 on the Academic Progress Rate (APR), the only California State University to do so three straight years, and 235 student athletes were recognized as "academic all-stars" by achieving a 3.0 grade point average for the fall or spring semesters. Twenty-eight student athletes earned a 4.0 GPA and 49 earned a place on the President's List with a 3.75 GPA or better, with 47 placing on the Dean's List with a GPA between 3.5 and 3.74. Diversity in the coaching and administrative staff is a fundamental goal and the athletics department was recognized under Cegles' leadership in 2008 as a national NCAA Diversity winner. Competitively, in his four seasons at the helm of the Long Beach State athletic department, the 49ers have won 14 conference championships, with 16 LBSU teams advancing to the NCAA Tournament. The 49ers women's volleyball team won a league championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2009 to mark the latest LBSU team to claim a title and play in the postseason. In 2008-09, Long Beach State won the Big West's Commissioners Cup, awarded to the conference's most successful athletic department. LBSU teams won four league championships during the 2008-09 competition year with five teams making NCAA Tournament appearances. That success came on the heels of the 2007-08 season where Long Beach State had six teams win conference championships and six teams advance to the NCAA Tournament, a year after winning three league titles and making four NCAA Tournament appearances in 2006-07. Cegles has reorganized and refocused the entire administrative staff, and also negotiated new contract extensions for men's basketball coach Dan Monson and volleyball coach Brian Gimmillaro. During his tenure, Cegles has also hired eight new head coaches in softball, water polo, men's and women's golf, men's and women's basketball, and baseball with Troy Buckley being the newest head coach hired. From 2003-06 Cegles was the associate athletics director at Temple University where he directed athletics fundraising, marketing and promotions, sponsorship and ticket sales while planning an athletics capital campaign with university development. Previously he was vice president of business development for Gaylord Sports Management in Scottsdale, Ariz., after serving 16 years at Arizona State University in athletic development and external affairs. He ultimately served as the lead senior associate athletic director for external affairs in his final two years at ASU. While at Arizona State he led the athletics department's $25 million capital campaign to enhance facilities and endowments and, among other responsibilities, supervised baseball, men's and women's golf and women's gymnastics. He also was the assistant athletic director for development at Rutgers University for five years. Cegles served as assistant basketball coach at Carnegie Mellon University and as an assistant basketball and baseball coach at West Virginia Wesleyan College and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He holds a degree in business administration from Bucknell and a master's in counseling and student personnel services from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Cegles and his wife, Bonnie, have two sons, Vic a graduate of Rutgers University and a baseball standout who currently works in the athletics department at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Casey who played wide receiver on the Towson University football team and now works at VCU as well. |
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