sports medicine

Hired in August The 49er student-athlete’s medical and injury needs are the 2007, Mark responsibility of a highly-qualified and diverse professional staff. The 2008-09 Pocinich MS, daily injury evaluation, management, treatment, rehabilitation, and Sports Medicine Staff ATC is the head first aid of our student-athletes is the responsibility of both, the Head athletic trainer for the 49ers. Pocinich Athletic Trainer, Mark Pocinich, and rest of the sports medicine staff. Head Athletic Trainer spent seven years Assisting Pocinich are Assistant Athletic Trainers Shauna Horton and Mark Pocinich as an assistant Jen Kawamoto along with three graduate students. There are also athletic trainer at numerous athletic training students who work under the guidance Assistant the University of of Pocinich, Horton and Kawamoto. Since 1987, Dr. Larry Drum has Athletic Trainers Mark Pocinich Southern . been acting as the team physician for all LBSU student-athletes and Dr. During his time Alexandra Chrysanthis joined in practice with Dr. Drum and assists him Shauna Horton* at USC, Pocinich in providing care. Since 1992, Dr. Peter Kurzweil has served as our Jen Kawamoto worked with the Trojan football, men’s basketball, , women’s water volunteer orthopaedic surgeon for all student-athletes. The physicians polo and crew squads. He collaborated attend many of our home competitions and are readily available for Certified with staff on the design and manage- first aid and diagnostic needs on site. There are various other Graduate Assistants ment of the new athletic training facility highly-skilled physicians, podiatrists, and dentists who regularly Scott Buzin in the Galen Center and he and his staff volunteer their services to our student-athletes. Theresa Reyes served as the host medical team for the Justin Shibel Pac 10 Men’s Basketball Tournament Certified Athletic Trainers (ATC) are on hand for all home practices (2003-07). Prior to his time at USC, he and competitions and, also, for many of the away competitions that spent two years as an assistant trainer *Baseball Trainer at Eastern Washington. A 1996 gradu- our student-athletes participate in to assist in treatments should a ate of San Diego State with a degree problem occur. Forty-Niner Athletics provides student-athletes with a in athletic training, Pocinich earned his state-of-the-art athletic training facility located adjacent to the Gold masters degree in sports medicine in Mine Gymnasium and an additional, smaller treatment facility located 1998 at the University of Oregon. on the playing floor of The . With well-equipped facilities and knowledgeable and capable personnel on staff, a sick or injured student-athlete at Long Beach State is assured of quality treatment. blair field

LBSU AT BLAIR FIELD 1993 20-9 1994 26-8 1995 23-14-1 1996 23-8 1997 17-11 1998 22-9-1 1999 21-11 2000 20-9 2001 16-8 2002 21-7 2003 25-10 2004 20-8 2005 25-9 2006 15-12 2007 21-11 2008 24-9 Home of the Dirtbags since 1993, Long Beach’s Blair field is a perfect 339-153-2 (.689) combination of tradition and modern function. Built on the site of the former Recreation Park, home at times to the and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Blair Field has hosted numerous teams and events such as the MTV Rock and Jock Softball Game and continues to receive state-of-the-art upgrades, including a brand-new scoreboard installed in 2009. by Bob Keisser, Special from the Press-Telegram Frank Blair would have loved the Dirtbags. He passed away before Long Beach State officially began playing college baseball in 1954, but one can imagine the former Long Beach Press-Telegram Sports Editor sitting in the stands behind the first-base home dugout, enjoying the young collegians who have become synonymous with dirty uniforms. It was Blair who campaigned hard and long for the city to turn the well-used Recre- ation Park field, in the same exact location, into a more modern stadium befitting all of the young ballplayers who had played ther. Recreation Park was a rickety wood shell of a stadium around a dusty patch of baseball heaven in Long Beach. It was used so often by youth and high school teams that the city in 1929 removed what was left of the shredded grass infield. As the years passed, it became harder and harder to find any green in the outfield. “Frank thought Long Beach deserved a big-time ballpark,’’ Harry Minor, the Long Beach native and former Wilson standout who is one of ’s most distinguished scouts, said. ``Recreation Park hosted a lot of good baseball, but it was a bit of a disgrace. There wasn’t a single blade of grass anywhere. It was basically a softball field that we played baseball on. They would hose down the field to control the dirt. Yet we had all these great players. The major leaguers would come back and play in the winter, Bob Lemon, Vern Stephens, Jack Graham, Bobby Sturgeon. Blair just got behind the idea that the city needed a ballpark worthy of the baseball being played here.’’ Blair began campaigning in earnest in the late ‘40s, when Long Beach’s impact in the major leagues was at its zenith with almost a dozen former area stars playing in the majors, including future Hall of Famer Lemon, pitching for the , •Ernie Banks and the Cubs (above) were some of the and slugging shortstop Vern Stephens. Rec Park had also become a popular stop for off-season barnstorming teams. ballplayers that called the corner of 10th and Park Blair, who supported the building of Veteran’s Stadium for football after World War II, home, before a new generation of players (below) believed Long Beach deserved a team in the Pacific Coast League, even though there were already two PCL teams in town, the Angels playing in the old and the came in to play at Blair Field. Hollywood Stars at Gilmore Field. The city began earnest talk of building a new stadium a year after Blair’s death. A bond issue was passed in 1956 and the park, named in Blair’s honor, opened in 1958. The irony is that was the same year the Dodgers came to Los Angeles, sending the Angels and Stars PCL franchises to other cities and ending hopes of landing a minor league franchise. That likely wouldn’t have bothered Blair too much, since it meant Blair Field would become ground zero for all youth baseball in the city. The first scheduled game was between Long Beach City College and Long Beach State on April 15, but Long Beach Poly High School needed a field to play a game against Huntington Beach, so the city’s sport supervisor opened the doors to the Jackrabbits on April 11. Poly won, 3-1. The 49ers and Vikings officially opened the park on April 15---the same day the Dodg- ers played their first game representing Los Angeles---the 49ers winning, 14-6. The formal dedication was on May 10. The first game featuring major leaguers was held on October 13 that year, featuring a bevy of Long Beach products who had made it to the majors---Lemon, Ron Fairly, Lou Berberet, George Witt, Rocky Bridges, Bud Daley and others. Fairly, the Jordan product and Dodger rookie, became the first pro to hit a at Blair. In between high school and youth games---the CIF regularly used Blair Field as site for its postseason and championship games---Blair would host major events. On April 9, 1961, the Dodgers played an exhibition game that drew 6,250 to the 3,000-seat stadium. In 1966, the Chicago Cubs, featuring future Hall of Famers Leo Durocher, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Fergie Jenkins, used Blair as its spring training site and hosted eight games there. The major league Angels and Indians played an exhibition in Blair in 1967, and the NFL’s made Blair their training facility soon after for 13 years. Long Beach State’s association began in 1992 when the city agreed to a $1.4 million renovation that included new seats, a new roof, upgraded lighting and a modern drainage system. The Dirtbags became Blair’s first full-time tenant in 1993 and on Feb. 5 hosted and beat Cal, 12-3. In 1998, Baseball America ranked Blair among the top 15 college baseball stadiums in the nation. A year later, new box seats and a new scoreboard were added. In addition to high school, American Legion and Connie Mack leagues, Blair also became home of the prestigious summer high school Area Code Games. In their 15 years at Blair, the Dirtbags have hosted major college powers like Florida, Tennessee, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Arkansas, LSU, Miami and Texas in addition to locals like USC and UCLA, bringing more nationally recognized college powers to town than any other sport in school history. Blair and the Dirtbags have also hosted NCAA postseason games four of the last five seasons. The annual series with Fullerton has regularly attracted record crowds, with 8,035 attending the 1996 series. Frank Blair was inducted into the Long Beach Baseball and Softball Hall of Fame last year, in a ceremony at the field bearing his name. Blair may have been humbled to have a stadium named in his honor, but there’s no doubt he would be proud of all the young ballplayers and Dirtbags that have called it home. building champions STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING ERIC BURKHARDT

During the summer of 2006, the Long Beach State strength and conditioning program moved into its new 5,500 square foot facility, which features 18 weightlifting platforms and 6,000 kilograms of free weights. Head strength and conditioning coach Eric Burkhardt (pictured at right) oversees the program along with his staff of Lindsay Bufkin, Robert Natzel and Nghlep Ding. The staff teaches athletes how to maximize their strength and explosive power by coaching them in exercises that relate biomechanically to their sport. Long Beach State’s speed and agility program is designed to reinforce and quicken optimal movement patterns. Each athlete also partakes in a metabolic conditioning program to develop game-specific endurance. graduating champions June 21, 2006 was the grand opening of the new Bickerstaff Student-Athlete Academic Center. Formerly known as the Center for Student-Athlete Academic Services, the new center nearly triples the size of the previous space. The center provides a top-of-the-line facility for our student-athletes to get the academic support and assistance they deserve.

The center is named after Glen and Debbie Bickerstaff of Los Alamitos (pictured at right), both loyal supporters of 49er athletics. The Bickerstaffs have been in- volved with Long Beach State for several years and have given nearly $1 million dollars in donations to the student-athlete scholarship program. They donated $625,000 for the legacy campaign which went towards the naming of the new center. Their second legacy commitment was for $250,000 to help with the completion of the student-athlete Strength and Conditioning Complex.

The Bickerstaff Academic Center provides quality academic services to 49er student-athletes. This includes advising, to ensure that each student-athlete is enrolled in the appropriate courses so they may earn their degrees while maintaining athletic eligibility. The Bickerstaff Academic Center is geared to maximize student-athletes’ chances for classroom success through a developmental advising program integrating academic, student, and athletic assistance. The opening of the center provides 49er student-athletes the best academic support facility in the .

Debbie and Glen Bickerstaff

• Directed by Gayle Fenton and assisted by Sandra Shirley, the purpose of the Center is ad- vising to enure that each student-athlete is enrolled in appropriate courses leading to a degree while maintaining their eligibility.

• The Bickerstaff Center for Student-Athlete Academic Services has established itself as a unique and important asset in the lives of 49er student-athletes.

• The center’s “Career Connection” program spotlights internships in the sports industry. They also offer a freshman mentoring program which connects freshmen with veteran student- athletes.

• Each student--athlete has a file created and their progress is monitored throughout their education. He or she is aided in choosing a degree, developing proper study habits and keeping a balance between personal, scholastic and athletic lives.

• Student-athletes can choose from a multitude of renowned academic schools and 81 undergraduate degree programs. Programs in the colleges of business, physical therapy, art Heather Hetzer and BAC Director Gayle Fenton and engineering are nationally recognized. The schools of communications, radio/television and education are also strong. long beach, ca

• California’s fifth largest city, Long Beach is situated about a half-hour south of Los Angeles. First settled in 1784 as part of a large Spanish land grant, this seaport city of over 450,000 is one of the most unique cities in the Southland. With 345 days of sunshine a year, Long Beach is the ideal location for the physically active. LONG BEACH This Southern California coastal city’s got it all: art districts, eclectic shopping, nightlife, attractions, and of course, the beach. Long Beach is home to a variety of outstanding cultural arts and music festivals and world- class sporting events. The city is centrally located from all the major Southern California attractions, making it an ideal location for a top-notch university. There’s always something to do.

BELMONT SHORE A trip down Second Street in Belmont Shore is like step- ping back in time. The quaint, tree-lined street has that old Main Street feel and is home to a variety of restau- rants, salons and speciality stores. It is also where the Belmont Car Show, the largest one-day car show in the West Coast, and the Belmont Shore Christmas Parade take place. This beachside shopper’s paradise is where many go to relax and enjoy the pace of a true coastal community.

LONG BEACH NIGHTLIFE It’s simply impossible to talk about the Long Beach nightlife without mentioning Pine Avenue. The four- block enclave of fine dining and nightclubs makes it a magnet for would be revellers. Roaming crowds, cafes and pulsating music adds to the energy that can only be experienced in this downtown area. It is a celebration of the world’s culture and ethnicity.

WWW.VISITLONGBEACH.COM the campus

• CSULB was named Among America’s Best Value Colleges by the Princeton Review (2007)

• CSULB was named Among Top Masters Universities in the West by US News and World Report (2007)

• Ranked first in the nation in awarding mathematics & statistics graduate degrees to minorities by Diverse Issues in Higher Education (July 2007)

• CSULB was the first campus to offer academic scholarships specifically to California High School valedictorians and National Merit scholars.

• CSULB is a member of the Long Beach Education Partnership, the national prototype of a seamless education from preschool through the Masters degree.

• CSULB’s FM radio station, KKJZ, is the official jazz radio station of the armed forces.

• The CSULB library, which is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation, hosts 1,411,920 volumes, 1,610 print periodical subscriptions and 37,139 electronic periodical titles.

QUICK FACTS SEVEN ACADEMIC COLLEGES TOTAL FACULTY • 84 permanent buildings on 323 Health & Human Services Full-time: 1,116 acres of land Liberal Arts Part-time: 1,034 • 190,772 baccalaureate and 39,971 Masters degrees awarded (1950- Business Administration 2006) Education ENROLLMENT: 35,574 • 1,962 students live on campus in 18 Engineering Undergraduate: 29,576 residence halls. The Arts M: 11,714; W: 17,862 • Over $119,080,000 was awarded in Natural Sciences & Mathematics aid in 2005-06. Graduate: 5,998 • 83 Baccalaureate degrees • 67 Masters Degrees M: 2,093, W:3,905 MAJORS Accountancy Hospitality Foodservice & American Studies Hotel Management American Indian Studies Human Development Anthropology Interdisciplinary Studies Art Italian Asian American Studies Japanese Biological Sciences Jewish Studies Black Studies Journalism Chemical Engineering Kinesiology Chemistry Liberal Studies Child Development Linguistics Chicano & Latino Studies Mathematics & Statistics Civil Engineering Mechanical Engineering Communicative Disorders Music Communication Studies Nursing Computer Engineering Nutrition & Dietetics Consumer Affairs Occupational Studies Dance Peace Studies Design Philosophy Economics Physical Therapy Education Physics & Astronomy Education Psychology Political Science Electronics Engineering Professional Studies Engineering Psychology Engineering Technology Public Policy & Administration English Recreation & Leisure Studies Family & Consumer Sciences Religious Studies Fashion Merchandising Russian Film & Electric Arts Science Education Food Science Social Work French Sociology Geography Spanish Geological Sciences Theatre Arts German Women’s Studies Gerontology Health Science History administration

Dr. F. King Alexander was named the sixth President of California State University, Long Beach in November of 2005 after serving as the President of Murray State University in Kentucky from 2001-2005. California State University, Long Beach is the nation’s 25th largest university and is recognized as a “university of choice” among students throughout California and the western United States.

Dr. Alexander is a well respected national expert in domestic and interna- tional higher education finance and public policy. His research on university revenue and expenditure patterns has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Boston Globe, The Australian, and The Christian Science Monitor. Dr. Alexander’s efforts to im- prove federal higher education policy has contributed to the development of Congressional legislation advancing the “net tuition concept” in order to enhance public accountability and future funding of higher education institutions.

Prior to serving as president of two public universities Dr. Alexander was a faculty member and director of the Higher Education Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1997-2001. In addition to being President of California State University, Long Beach he also serves as a faculty affili- ate at Cornell University’s Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI).

Dr. Alexander received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin--Madison in higher education finance and public policy, a Master’s of Science degree from Oxford University (England) in comparative educa- tion policy, and a Bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University in political science.

In two 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 fundraising and consolidated booster clubs into the 49er Ath- letic Club. The result has been a 39 percent increase in fiscal year 2007 and a 29 percent increase in fiscal year 2008 in the total dollars raised, while balancing the athletic budget in both his years at LBSU. In addition, Cegles has created a five-year strategic plan encompassing facilities, endowments, fundraising and staff en- hancements. He created a new governing body for athletics, while also initiating an athletics capital campaign seeking over $35 million for facility construction, renovations and scholarship endowments. Long Beach State has excelled both on the playing fields and in the classroom under Cegles’ leadership. Academically, all 18 NCAA intercollegiate teams at Long Beach State scored higher than 925 on the latest Academic Progress Rate, the only California State University and just one of three state institutions overall from California to achieve such a goal. The athletic department also received a national NCAA “Diversity Award” in 2008.

Competitively, Long Beach State won six conference championships and made six NCAA Tournament appearances during the 2007-08 season, a year after winning three league titles and making four NCAA Tournament appearances. Cegles not only reorganized the entire athletics administration staff, but he also negotiated new contracts for baseball coach Mike Weathers and vol- leyball coach Brian Gimmillaro while also hiring three new coaches including men’s basketball coach Dan Monson who has taken seven teams to the postseason, including leading Gonzaga to the Elite Eight during the 1998-99 season. From 2003-06 Cegles was at Temple University where he reorganized the athletic department’s fundraising endeavors, coordinated efforts between the department and the university’s development office and directed corporate sponsorships. 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 respon- sibilities, 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, who played baseball at Rutgers, and Casey, who is a junior on the football team at Towson University.