A Note from the Director of Athletics

Since 1979, the Occidental Tiger Club has supported the Athletics Department to advance the College’s mission of excellence, equity, community and service. Consisting of former athletes, family, friends, faculty, administration and staff, the Tiger Club works in concert with Occidental Athletics in providing programs which emphasize competitive intercollegiate teams, focusing on a century-old winning tradition. 

Occidental Athletics is taking great strides. Due in large part to donor dollars, during the 2009-10 year we have been able to:

§         Hire outstanding new coaches and staff, including Heidi VanDerveer for women's basketball; Mike Talamantes for volleyball; Jodie Cox for softball; Alberto Martin for men's tennis; Tracy Maple, sports information director; and Sae Woon Jo, coordinator of recreation sports.

§         Announce the addition of two new women’s sports: golf (2009) and lacrosse (2010).

§         Enhance our recruiting efforts by retaining Dan Tudor of Selling for Coaches.

§         Launch a comprehensive planning process for athletics facilities by retaining Hastings & Chivetta, the St. Louis architectural firm renowned for working with elite colleges.

§         Sign a three year agreement with Adidas.

§         Begin the renovation of Rush Gym.

§         Upgrade Spencer Field house.

§         Launch a new Athletics website and logo.

In addition to these major efforts, The Tiger Club helps fund team travel, purchase new equipment and gear, add to coaching staffs and makes possible a variety of other projects that ultimately enhance the experience of all student-athletes.

Occidental’s commitment to excellence in both men’s and women’s athletics has recently produced a marked change in Oxy’s overall success in SCIAC competition. This past year, the success of the women’s soccer team and the SCIAC championship women’s cross country and basketball teams created a new buzz around Occidental women athletes. At the same time, men’s teams continue to thrive. As a result, we now have more student-athletes than at any other point in Occidental history.

In this coming year the goal is to not only maintain our momentum but to grow on a variety of other levels. We want to:

§         Build a new Tiger Club Board that is representative of all sports.

§         Invest in enhanced assistant coaching stipends to allow for better teaching and mentoring across all programs.

§         Improve recruiting for all sports with technology upgrades.

§         Improve SCIAC results in all programs

All of the progress and goal setting stems from the commitment to and by our student-athletes.  Thank you for doing your part in contributing to the quality of experience that each Occidental Tiger enjoys.

Io Triumphe!

Best,

Jaime Hoffman
Director of Athletics

*Additionally, if a donor should want money given to a specific athletic program, please indicate that sport in the comment section.**

Welcome to the members of the

2008-09 Tiger Club Board!

Shira Blatt

Carl Botterud

Gary Cox

Arman Davtyan

Jim Dietle

Hector De La Torre

Wendy Gobar

Dan Harding

Jaime Hoffman

John Hoffman

Sonia Huizar

Bob Ike

Janet Ito

Steve Jone

Glen Johnson ^

Bernie Leon

Megan MacDonald

John McGrath

Brian Murphy

Scott Shannon

Talia Starkey

John Sweet

Tom Tomlinson

Anne Wells

Mike Zugsmith *

Rachel Zugsmith

* Current President
^ President Emeritu