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By Bill Shumard, Athletic Director, Long Beach State University

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It�s a long way from OSU and FSU and the other immense Division 1-A marquee athletic programs to the unassuming Division 3 and NAIA programs (where reason and sanity reign, everybody knows everybody and athletics are just another part of the college mosaic).

I run a Division 1-AAA program that falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Long Beach State and some 200 other institutions populate the NCAA�s Division 1-AA and 1-AAA classifications; we are one rung down the college athletics totem pole from the major league 1-A classification.� Our programs have much of the same hype and hoopla as those of the giants: dozens of scholarship athletes, big man on campus aura, high level competition, pro sports possibilities for our athletes, etc.� Many schools in these divisions have 30,000 (and more) students.� Division 1-AA and 1-AAA are not small college athletics by any means.

However large our programs might be, we are indeed a noticeable level removed from the titans of college athletics.� Division 1-A�s giants enjoy (and are sometimes cursed with) relentless media attention in major metro areas, states and sometimes entire regions of the country, plus major TV network and cable outlets.� Further, they enjoy the adulation of their alumni armies; mega budgets; and the pick of the litter from the country�s �and the world�s- preeminent high school athletes.

For nearly a decade I have been Athletic Director of the �big fish� program that Long Beach State has become.� It is often a daunting challenge to swim in the big pond of Southern California, sharing the waters with the whales of UCLA and USC, not to mention substantial programs like UC-Irvine, Pepperdine and Cal State Fullerton and other �big fish� 1-AA and 1-AAA programs.� Navigating the Long Beach program through such choppy and turbulent waters often presents a distracting and disconcerting challenge.� However, I learned long ago (philosophic platitude here) that it is far better to channel my energy toward the positive -aspiring to be the best we can be with what we have and who we are- rather than toward the negative (i.e.- �look how much bigger, faster, more popular those guys are!�).�

People are drawn to work in sports because of their competitive nature.� I am proud to say that everyone around me at Long Beach State strives to be the very best they can be, just like their counterparts at the big-time institutions.

It is against this backdrop that we have steadfastly solidified our niche in the Southern California college athletics marketplace.� We have studiously refrained from trying to be what we�re not; and we strive to be the best we can be at what we are.� Our goal is simply to be the best in Division 1-AAA.

And the results have been very gratifying.� Five of our 18 varsity teams were ranked in the national top 10 last year.� Our unique 18-story Pyramid physical education and athletics events center is a showpiece of versatility.� Our elite women�s volleyball team has earned national recognition.� Then there�s our renowned �Dirtbag� baseball program.� And Long Beach State�s prominence in hosting NCAA events.� The list goes on and on . . .

Not bad for playing in the shadow of giants.

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[Bill Shumard was a hapless 3rd string quarterback for a woeful 2-7 Compton (CA) Junior College team in the 70�s when a visionary journalism instructor persuaded him to become the best he could be in something else.� Football�s loss, Athletic Directorship�s gain.]

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