As a fan, sometimes I hate sound bites. It’s always been illuminating for me to hear entire, unedited press conferences in context. In that spirit, here is the entirety of the press conference held on Sunday night at Cal Poly. In it, Don Oberhelman fielded questions about what he’s looking for in the next men’s basketball coach, his meeting with players on Sunday, and what his plans are moving forward to find a coach. 

After a summer hiatus, I sat down with Don Oberhelman last week. We had the recording scheduled for a week or two. On the day before, a Tribune article came out with video, showing an Cal Poly wrestler whose scholarship was rescinded after he used homophobic slurs during a rally. 

Unfortunately, this was not something Oberhelman could comment on when we talked. We did talk about the upcoming Fall season, the football, men’s basketball, and volleyball programs at-length. For me, the most interesting part of the conversation was when I asked Don how his job had changed over the past year or so. 

Cal Poly Athletic Director Don Oberhelman joined the podcast on this edition. Oberhelman talked about some of the projects going on at Cal Poly, reflected on the 2016-17 school year, and was pretty straightforward when posed questions about conference expansion and conferences in general. 

At the helm of Cal Poly athletics since 2011, Don Oberhelman’s time at Cal Poly has included both the women’s and men’s basketball teams’ first respective trips to the NCAA tournament, the first NCAA baseball regional that Cal Poly has hosted, and a number of other successes.

Don took a chunk of time out of his schedule to sit down with me and talk about what he values in a head coach, what it’s like to be an athletic director at Cal Poly, and what some of his priorities are now. I know I learned a lot on a lot of fronts. It’s an hour-plus podcast, but I had a lot to ask him about and, frankly, Don had a lot to say. Hope you enjoy!

A former national team coach, Steve Sampson instantly becomes the highest profile coach in the Cal Poly athletic department. By Owen Main

Cal Poly athletics made a big splash on Thursday afternoon, when they announced the signing of former United States Men’s National Team and LA Galaxy head coach, Steve Sampson, to be their men’s soccer coach.

In a press conference held in the President’s Suite at Alex G. Spanos Stadium, Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman announced Sampson in front of media, fans, and a group of players from this past season’s Cal Poly team.

“I absolutely am so excited,” said Sampson. “I can’t emphasize that enough. Everything you see with respect to the Mustang Way — all those things I stand for. All those things I want to help to grow and develop at Cal Poly… . ”

For his players, he will have a high expectation coming out of the gate.

“We have an incredible group of young men coming back,” said Sampson. “We expect to raise the standards”

Sampson, who has spent the last few years directing the Steve Sampson Soccer Academy at the Global Sports Institute in Southern California, said that it wasn’t a decision that required a ton of consternation.

“When I was approached with the opportunity of coaching here at Cal Poly, I think it took about five seconds for me to respond with my high level of interest,” said Sampson.

Sampson last coached in 2006 in MLS. His LA Galaxy won both the MLS Cup and the US Open cup in 2005. His influence in the soccer world since then has been felt mostly through his academy but his connection to Cal Poly is an easy one to dissect. Paul Holocher, who resigned as Cal Poly’s coach just days prior to the start of last season’s training camp, played on Sampson’s 1989 co-national champion team at Santa Clara, where Sampson coached for eight years before becoming a national team assistant and eventually the head coach.

Cal Poly has other connections. Google “Steve Sampson Cal Poly” and you’ll find that Sampson played a role in Chase Minter’s decision to come to Cal Poly. GSI, which his academy was a part of, has a local component, including holding sessions in Arroyo Grande. Matt LaGrassa and many other players on the team have trained together at his academy during past off-seasons as well, so there is a definite familiarity and the move for Sampson to San Luis Obispo might not be quite as drastic as some would think.

He told the story on Thursday about how his son graduated from the school of architecture at Cal Poly, and of how he fell in love with the area years ago.

“During his junior year, when we were going around and visiting schools, we came to Cal Poly,” said Sampson

“We actually came to Cal Poly on WOW week, and I thought, ‘WOW,’ what does that mean?… We actually had the opportunity to sit-in on a speech by the then-president of the university. The president spoke, students spoke, and he turned to me and said ‘I love this place, this is where I want to be.’ … We fell in love over those six years of following my son and his progress here at the Univeristy. We fell in love with the school. We fell in love with the student body. We fell in love with the soccer program. We fell in love with the community.”

Don Oberhelman recognized a number of people in the athletic department for their role in search for a new coach and eventual decision to hire Sampson, but also included a number of past players in his opening remarks including former Mustangs Mackenzie Pridham, George Malki, Patrick Siegler, and Anthony Grillo.

“It is clear, in my opinion, that we have some of the best soccer fans in the United States,” said Oberhelman. “So, why shouldn’t we have one of the most accomplished head coaches in the history of the United States lead our program?”

Sampson has big goals when it comes to continuing to raise interest in the program not just on-campus, but around the community as well.

“We have some of the best fan base in the country,” said Sampson. “We’re not only going to try to get 11,000 [fans] here for the Santa Barbara game. We’re going to work with the community to get lots of people out here — not just from the student body, but we’re going to dive into that community. We’re going to embrace the Hispanic community, we’re going to embrace the soccer community, the Anglo community, and we’re going to make them know what this soccer program is all about. We want to embrace them such that they come out and support this team all throughout the Fall season.”

Details of Sampson’s contract were not disclosed pending final review.

“It’s more than a year,” quipped the coach. “More than two years.”

On the field over the past few seasons, Cal Poly has expressed an emphasis on a controlled, possession-oriented style of play. While they’ve been successful at establishing their style and scoring more goals overall, success in the Big West Conference has not come as easily. Last season, Cal Poly failed to make the conference tournament, finishing in last place in the Big West’s northern division.

Sampson talked about the possibility of being a little more direct and La Grassa concurred.

“I think all three coaches have been slightly different, maybe, on styles of play and that kind of thing, but for the most part they all want to play good socccer  and they’re smart enough coaches to know that your style of play should enhance your players and the type of players we have are built for a possession-type game. I think it will be interesting, there will definitely be changes, but it’s exciting.”

La Grassa anticipates training sessions ramping up in the presence of their new coach as well.

“Any coaching change is going to bring a lot of new energy, spots are open, training sessions are intense,” said LaGrassa. “But then to have somebody of his quality… I think knowing that if you can impress Steve on a daily basis and he thinks you’re a professional player, then you’ve got a really good shot of becoming a professional player, and that’s what we all aspire to be. That’s really something special that brings a different type of life to a training session.”

Sampson seems to have some energy after his hiatus from being a coach.

Sampson’s coaching experience has led him to a pair of national championships — one with UCLA as an assistant and one at Santa Clara as a head coach.

“When you’ve done it all, you want to do it again,” he said. “It’s quite a challenge. I would love to [win a national title] on three different campuses. There is so much opportunity here and like I said earlier, I love nothing more than being on that soccer player with these players.”

“I took a little bit of time off after I left the Galaxy. To be honest, my president passed away for the LA Galaxy and that was very difficult for me, and I took a little bit of time off and I wanted to reconnect with family and reconnect with the community. But I have this incredible, burning desire right now to get on that field and start winning.”

Ed. Note – The entirety of the comments from Sampson and players Matt LaGrassa and Kip Colvey following the press conference will be available via a podcast, scheduled to post on Friday. 

Don Oberhelman has been at the helm of Cal Poly Athletics for nearly two years. Photo courtesy of gopoly.com

This week, Cal Poly Athletic Director Don Oberhelman was kind enough to join the podcast. Oberhelman has been

We talked about Cal Poly athletic facilities, academic standards for athletes, the importance of Big West basketball continuing to get better, and his show of emotion after the football team’s playoff loss to Sam Houston State.

In their first year in the Big Sky, can Cal Poly’s program prove it belongs?

How will the Mustangs’ new players fare this season?

How is head coach Tim Walsh feeling about his team’s first practice day of the Fall?

But, in the wake of defensive backs coach Randy Hanson’s arrest Sunday morning and subsequent suspension, the storyline from the from the first day was how the Mustangs plan to deal with the loss of Hanson. J.D. Scroggin (as usual) has the team well-covered and wrote this article in The Tribune describing Hanson’s arrest and suspension.

Remember, Hanson was the guy who was allegedly beaten up by former Raiders coach Tom Cable. Here are some details of Hanson’s arrest, also from The Tribune.

Hanson’s arrest could not have possibly come at a worse time. By getting in trouble when he did he gave his head coach, Tim Walsh, less than 48 hours to come up with a back-up plan. That back-up plan, according to the Tribune article, is to have Walsh coach the defensive backs for now. I don’t know what Walsh had planned to do during most of Monday’s first practice, but I would imagine it probably wasn’t spending the whole time with the DB’s.

On the Fansmanship Podcast last week, Scroggin talked about the defensive backfield as being a potential area of strength for this year’s Mustangs. It will be interesting to see how the defensive secondary, which will have four new starters, develops over the course of the season.

The Big Sky Conference was already going to make Cal Poly’s schedule more challenging than in past years. With one swing of a bottle, things just got even tougher.

The addition of SDSU should have fans in San Luis Obispo excited for a few reasons. San Diego State brings notoriety for basketball prowess — their Steve Fisher led basketball team made it to the Sweet 16 a year ago — but for Mustangs baseball fans, it also means seeing Tony Gwynn’s baseball team in San Luis Obispo every other year. Incidentally, Gwynn’s Aztecs will be in San Luis Obispo for a four-game series March 23-25, 2012.

In Monday’s news conference, Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman, a former member of the San Diego State athletic department had some interesting comments.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cj9Y8IvpJE

Video courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics

Head Basketball Coach Joe Callero also said he was excited at the prospect of having SDSU in the mix. He also discussed the success of Matt Titchenal. Best quote of the night – “He might have earned himself a starting spot.”

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPC_2gGi6HU

Video courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics

Road Trippin

While the men’s team has a few home games in December, Faith Mimnaugh’s women’s team is in the midst of a month-long road trip, playing six straight games on the road (including a road game at San Diego State December 21). The Mustang women next play at home on New Year’s Eve against rival UC Santa Barbara in their Big West opener.

SIDE NOTE – Who in the Big West scheduled a rivalry game on New Year’s Eve? And then “they” schedule the men’s UCSB home game on Tuesday the 2nd. The women don’t even get to play their UCSB game when there are students around and the men get to play on a Monday night the day after the New Year. Maybe with another year of success Cal Poly will get a less-raw deal in Big West scheduling.

The Cal Poly men next play tomorrow (Wednesday) night at home vs. NAIA Menlo College before a road trip to Fresno State and DePaul (Chicago).