Greetings Highlander fans!
 
It's an exciting time for our Highlander Athletics Department as we move through the spring season! We have a host of fresh faces with tremendous experience joining our team who are ready to help lead our program into a new era of success.
 
There's a lot to cover this month, so let's begin with a few introductions:

New Faces

David Patrick, Men's Basketball Head Coach
As many of you have probably heard, David Patrick has arrived on campus as our new men's head basketball coach. Also, a number of you had the chance to meet David in person at a welcome event earlier this month. I couldn't be more excited to have a coach of David's pedigree, passion, and character to lead our student-athletes into the future.
 
As a Division I assistant coach at perennial powerhouse programs LSU and Texas Christian University (TCU), David is known in college basketball as a stellar recruiter, having brought No. 1 NBA draft pick Ben Simmons to LSU.
 
In fact, his recruiting work has already begun in earnest. Having played professionally in Australia, England, and Spain, David has tremendous international connections in the basketball community and recently UCR secured the commitment of Dragan Elkaz, a 6'5 shooting guard from Sydney, Australia, to a National Letter of Intent. Dragan is a highly touted prospect who is a starting guard on the Australian U/17 National Team. In addition, center Callum McRae (a 7-foot-1 center and the number one prospect out of Palmerston North, New Zealand) and nationally-ranked forward, Zac Watson (a 6-foot-7 forward from Frisco, Texas and the number 14 ranked prospect by 247Sports Rating) have both signed national letters of intent. Finally, Coach Patrick has added assistant coaches Mike Magpayo and Liam Simmons to his staff. The two veteran coaches will join associate head coach, Justin Bell, who returns for his sixth year with the program. We are making great strides quickly and we are excited about the trajectory of our men's basketball program!
 
David is also no stranger to California, and he knows the Inland Empire region well from his time as an assistant coach at St. Mary's College. David's two young girls, Bailey and Madison, were born in California, and he said at a press conference last week that the family was thrilled to come back.
 
Having won an NCAA championship as a student-athlete with Syracuse in 1996 and worked under coaches such as Randy Bennett of St. Mary's and TCU's Jamie Dixon, David brings a championship pedigree to UCR that he's eager to instill in our student-athletes – both on and off the court.
 
Here are some comments from David's press conference:
 
"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't about trying to compete and win Big West championships … What you're getting is a coach with integrity that's a relentless worker and a passion to lead young men. In no particular order, my job is to get the most out of them as young men, as students, and then on the basketball floor. It doesn't start until we get ourselves prepared in the classroom, and we've done that from day one. Our pillars will be sacrifice, trust, passion, and unity."
 
And what will that look like on the court?
 
"We'll be fundamentally sound; we'll take care of the basketball on the offensive end of the floor, but we'll start with defense. Defense will be our staple. We're going to lead the league in rebounding, and the way we do that is by playing hard and getting after it every possession. Once we get stops, we'll push it on offense, and it'll be a fun brand of basketball to play and to watch."
 
David is excited to meet all of our Alumni Association family too, and he invites you to come on down to a practice next season and see what his brand of Highlander basketball is all about. I hope you'll join me in welcoming him to UCR!
 
 
Wes Mallette, Senior Associate Athletics Director, External Relations
Also joining the UCR Athletics team is veteran strategic communications and external relations executive Wes Mallette, who has been named senior associate athletics director, external relations, for the Highlanders.
 
Wes brings extensive experience as a senior administrator in college athletics at the Division I level. He made a tremendous impact for UC Berkeley's Intercollegiate Athletics program during his tenure as associate athletics director, strategic communications. Immediately prior to joining UC Riverside, he served as vice president of communications for Pac-12 Networks.
 
At UCR, Wes will be the primary liaison between myself and all revenue operations within Athletics. In addition, he will oversee the department's strategic communications; digital and emerging media; marketing; community and fan engagement; sponsorships; and ticket sales.
 
Wes has also served in senior corporate and brand communications capacities for BET, L-Brands' Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, MTV Networks, and public relations and advertising agencies. He earned his B.A. from James Madison University where he was a football and track student-athlete, and received his M.A. in Journalism from the University of Maryland at College Park.
 
 
Brandon Mulder, Senior Director of Development
Yet another new Highlander is Brandon Mulder, UCR's senior director of development for Athletics.
 
Brandon joins us from the University of Redlands, where he most recently served as director of major gifts. Brandon led a $15 million fundraising effort for athletics facilities improvements and endowments as part of the University's $200 million comprehensive campaign. Before athletics, Brandon oversaw Redlands' annual giving program.
 
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Point Loma Nazarene University, focusing on kinesiology and exercise science. He brings a keen understanding of development, a passion for athletics, and an appreciation for community engagement in fundraising.
 
 
Athletics Development
We are pleased to announce the launch of an online crowdfunding platform! Crowdfunding uses the internet, email, text messages and social media to raise gifts of varying amounts from a large number of people. The new crowdfunding – or as what we like to call it, 'fanfunding' – platform, can be found at https://supportrathletes.ucr.edu/.

UCR teams and departments have leveraged and integrated their own digital fundraising projects to tell a story and highlight an opportunity for their team of supporters to raise immediate and necessary funds for tangible projects/items that will have a direct impact on the program and student-athletes.

To date, we have launched fundraising pages for Men's Soccer and Track & Field. And, we expect to activate the following fundraising pages in the very near future: Men's Basketball, Volleyball, Sports Medicine, Women's Soccer, Strength & Conditioning, and Men's Golf.

Collectively, our department is using this platform to really grow support for UCR Athletics and help recruit 1,000 members to the Athletics Association.

We are asking you to help us do this by sharing and forwarding your team's page!
 
Staff Departure
 
Congratulations are in order for Executive Associate AD, Janet Lucas, who after more than a decade of serving UCR Athletics will be leaving the university to assume the role of athletics director at the University of the Pacific on May 7.
 
During her 12-year tenure at UCR, Janet provided tremendous leadership and management of UCR Athletics. Her responsibilities have included (among others) overseeing the day-to-day operations, supervising academic services, business operations, compliance, event management and sports medicine. She managed the athletic scholarship program and at times supervised external areas such as marketing, fundraising and media relations.

She also served on various Big West Conference committees and the NCAA Division I Leadership Council and the Legislative Review and Interpretations Committee. She was named the 2015 Administrator of the Year for NCAA Division I by National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators, now the Women Leaders in College Sport. She served as the interim athletics director at UCR and also in her previous position at Cal State Northridge.
 
Janet has worked long and hard toward this moment in her career, and our team here at UCR wishes her nothing but continued success with her new Tiger teammates. Congratulations, Janet!
 
 
Professional and Student Development
 
In other news, I had the opportunity to attend the 2018 Pursuit Financial Excellence Weekend in Los Angeles from Feb. 15-18. I had the honor of serving as a panelist during this four-day conference which recognized financial excellence and illustrated the importance of making prudent financial decisions.
 
Junior men's soccer player Antonio Lokossou attended as well. Antonio, who has a passion for finance and volunteers with the Athletic Business Office, had the chance to network with attorneys, accountants, firms such as Citigroup, and entertainment professionals including music producers for Kendrick Lamar and John Legend.
 
Antonio said the experience helped build up his appreciation for starting smart fiscal habits early in life.
 
"I learned a tremendous amount at this event," Antonio said. "We learned why it is important to save and what it means when you receive money. Also, we talked about the feelings and urges that can come up. This event taught us that financial discipline is a key to success in achieving financial freedom."
 
Our Highlander staff also took part in some professional development over the last few months.
 
A contingent attended the 2018 NCAA APPLE Conference in San Diego to discover how our athletics department can enhance alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention efforts. The APPLE model, developed by the APPLE Training Institute, helps us examine "slices" of the APPLE in order to assess our department's strengths and weaknesses in wellness and substance abuse. 
 
Attending the conference were Tony Ontiveros, associate athletics director, sports medicine and performance; Michelle Almazan, director of student-athlete Services; Nate Brown, director of cross country and track and field; and Marisol Torres, health educator at The WELL.
 
Joining them were two Highlander student-athletes: Jonathan Lee, a freshman on the cross-country and track teams, and Leanne Newell, a junior women's volleyball player.
 
The group spent the weekend collaborating and devising a plan to pilot an educational program entitled R' Talks with the goal of bringing our athletes, coaches, and community together via educational sessions on health, wellness, and the risks of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.  
 
Program Highlights
 
Let's take a look at what's shaping up to be an impressive winter/spring sports season!
 
Women's Soccer
- Quinley Quezada became the first player in program history to make a World Cup qualifying roster, competing and starting in the midfield for the Philippines at the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup. The Philippines finished in sixth place, just one win away from qualifying for the 2019 World Cup.
 
Baseball
- Began Big West play 2-0 for only the third time.
- Shattered conference opening-day records for runs (16), hits (20) and RBI (14) in 16-10 win over UC Davis.
- Following opening weekend, led the conference in runs (27), hits (41), RBI (25), batting average (.383), and slugging percentage (.607).
- Jared Morton moved into the program's top-10 all-time for saves (9) after picking up four saves in his last six appearances in March. He is currently tied for eighth.
- Freshman Nathan Webb has been on a tear, recording a hit in each of his first nine career conference games and leading the Big West in batting average (.472) and doubles (6).
- Freshman pitcher Cole Percival is out to a 5-1 start to his career, and ranks fourth in the conference in ERA (2.34).
 
Track and Field
- Had two successful home meets over the past month in the UCR Spring Classic Invitational and Highlander Twilight, making excellent progress on qualifying marks, lifetime bests, and improving every week.
- Camille Deadwiler, Tayler Fleming, Destiny Mitchell and Kenady Jackson set the school record in the 4x200 Relay (1:38.46).
- Took first place in 11 events at the Highlander Twilight, including eight on the women's side and three on the men's.
- Hana Johnson's Triple Jump of 40-11.00 was the third-best in school history, qualifying her for the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships.
- Michael Kojin (200m, 20.94s) and Tayler Fleming (Long Jump, 20-04.50) both qualified for Regionals.
 
Men's Golf
- Competed at the GCU Intercollegiate last month, taking fifth place out of 15 teams thanks to a strong second round which saw them shoot 278 as a team, tied for the sixth-best round in program history and the best round yet under Head Coach Rick Todd.
- Tyler Moore led the way in eighth place overall with a score of 1-under par (212).
- The team is currently competing at the UCSB Invitational (April 16-17), the final competition ahead of the Big West Championship (April 29-May 1).
 
Women's Golf
- Senior Hannah Facchini has been on fire, leading the Highlanders in each of their last two competitions. Heading into the Big West Championship (April 15-17), she earned her first career Big West Golfer of the Month Award. Facchini finished as runner-up at the Bobcat Desert Invitational, shooting a -7 over the final two rounds to move up four spots on the final day. Her efforts helped push UCR to its third top-three finish of the year.
- The Highlanders finished in sixth place at the Big West Championship in Irvine.
                       
Softball
- Went 23-10 during nonconference play, the program's second-best start through 33 games.
- The hot start has carried through to conference play, with the team enjoying its best Big West opening weekend since 2010.
- Hailey Dolcini threw the first no-hitter of the Nikki Palmer-era in a 6-0 win over CSUN on April 14.
- The record-breaking year continues. Jenna Curtan is one double away from tying the program's all-time record (36, Jessica Mead, 1997-00).
 
Women's Tennis
- Had a three-match winning streak in mid-March, defeating Bradley 7-0, Drake 4-3, and Westmont 5-2.
- Also defeated Chaminade 9-0.
- For the second-straight year, the team has recorded its most wins since 2010-11.
 
Men's Tennis
- Broke the program's Division I single-season wins record with a 7-0 win over Hope International on April 11.
- Ended a very successful month of March by winning 10 of their last 12 matches, including an impressive 5-1 stretch during a weeklong east coast road trip (March 26-30).
- Have had three Big West Players of the Week this season: Kyle McCann (April 4), Pawel Jankowiak (March 14) and Nabil Abdallah (Jan. 31).
 
We are very excited about the future of Highlander Athletics and thank you for your support.

Until next month, Go Highlanders!

- Tamica Smith Jones