This month Nona Richardson completes her first year as UC Davis' senior associate athletics director. She is only the second person to hold the position, having replaced Pam Gill-Fisher, who retired after more than four decades with UC Davis athletics. A former Ball State University associate athletics director, Richardson is responsible for sports supervision and oversight of Title IX compliance, student services and the sports medicine program.

Richardson brings to UC Davis' newly sanctioned Division I program a wealth of Division I experience: as a student-athlete (starring in volleyball at Michigan State), as coach (including assistant coach appointments at University of Kentucky and the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival, as well as head coach positions at Eastern Michigan and Valparaiso) and as athletics administrator (as associate director of athletics and senior woman administrator for Valparaiso before joining Ball State in 1999).

In her characteristic style — equally affable and adroit — Richardson offers her outlook on UC Davis athletics and provides a glimpse of what she expects for the future.

What drew you to the administrative side of the athletics world?

I grew up as an athlete. I coached. Administration was something I was looking at for the long term. Compliance was the initial draw for me — the rules and regulations. It's what runs the programs, because everyone has to make sure they abide by them. So I had my hands in everything, which gave me a fuller picture.

How has your philosophy about collegiate athletics changed as you've made the transition from coach to administrator?

Today there is a lot more stress on the student-athletes, ranging from class demands, practice demands, pressure from peers, coaches and parents, as well as the pressure of "what am I going to do once I graduate?" As a coach, you know there has to be balance, but you get selfish. You want your team in there training all of the time so you can get things accomplished. But you also know that your athletes are there to get their education.

As an administrator, you're working on both sides. You work with the coaches and with the student-athletes, and you've got to find the common ground so that everyone realizes what their purpose is.

Here we're really pushing heavily on academics and Academic Progress Rate compliance (meeting the NCAA's requirements for athlete graduation rates). That has opened some eyes for individuals who, in the past, really did not care. With the ramifications of losing scholarships, coaches are recruiting those individuals who are more likely to find success at the collegiate level.

And student-athletes have to realize that they won't have a purposeful tomorrow if they don't complete the work today. If they aren't ready to come into a four-year institution, then possibly the junior college route is the way they should go until they develop the skills that they need to be successful.

When you were a student-athlete, it was a foregone conclusion that you were expected to succeed in both academics and athletics. Here we are, years later, with many mechanisms put in place to remind schools to accomplish this. Do you find that troubling?

What are prevalent today compared with yesterday are the outside influences that are in play. The marketing, the TV — we didn't have the media spotlighting you at every turn, for good or bad. The coaches who are making the multimillion dollar salaries did not exist. The win-at-all-cost philosophy was not prevalent.

Now, UC Davis is known for its academics, but it's also known for its athletics, due to the number of championships and awards it has won. It's a program that has been balanced from the very beginning.

What are the biggest challenges UC Davis faces in its move to Division I?

When you transition to Division I you do not necessarily have all of the components in place at one time. The transition comes in phases. We have worked on getting our grants-in-aid to where we can be competitive, our facilities are very competitive overall, and our coaching staff is increasing in numbers to the NCAA maximums. We are working to increase our support services (sports medicine, strength and conditioning, compliance, academic support services and communications), but we have to realize that challenges will always be around us and that we will be measured by what others within the conference are doing. The Big West Conference is our immediate measuring stick.

In Division I, will we find the same success that we had at Division II? Not necessarily. Will we make inroads to success at Division I? Most definitely. With the infusion of grants-in-aid and the affiliation with the Big West Conference, along with UC Davis' academic reputation, we will move up the Division I scale more quickly than a lot of other transitional schools.

Is there a misconception that Division I has less stringent admittance and retention requirements for athletes than Division II?

I think that misconception is out there because of the media spotlighting those individuals who are academic casualties. In reality, the NCAA admissions requirements are a lot more stringent at the Division I level compared with the Division II level. On our campus, Admissions makes the final call. Other campuses that otherwise have high standards for admission will allow a limited number of athletes in with lower admittance requirements.

You have said Division III's balance of academics and athletics is a model you admire. How does UC Davis stack up?

Student-athletes choose Division III because of the balance. There are limits to how much they practice, to how many events they compete in. They have their academics and their life skills. UC Davis has the same thing. We've got that balance. You've got the academics, the athletics and the life skills experiences that we're affording all of our student-athletes here. Our student-athletes will be allowed to miss practice if they have an exam they have to prepare for.

For most of the kids here, competitive athletics will last only for their time here. Academics is their lifeline. It's what their careers will be, what their professional status will be. Life skills will help them be more successful in what they do for the rest of their lives. All three are key components for the four- or five-year span a student is on campus.

You've replaced retired Senior Associate Athletics Director Pam Gill-Fisher — someone who has a legacy around here, particularly in gender equity. What are your thoughts about her contributions?

I knew Pam before I got here. She and I were on the NACWAA (National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators) board of directors together. I knew of UC Davis because of the success it has had, especially on the women's side. Every time you turned around, you would see something with "Aggie" on it. That is a definite tribute to Pam and what she did for the student-athletes here at UC Davis. She assisted in ensuring that they were provided equitable and ongoing opportunities.

We are all thankful that she has positioned us to be where we are today. One of my goals is to keep going on that path. Her shoes are a little larger, so I may need to take more steps, but it is a mission that moves on.

Being from the Midwest, what attracted you to California and, specifically, to UC Davis?

I've had the Division I background my entire life, so hopefully I can bring things to UC Davis Athletics that might be new, inspiring and challenging. The elevation to Division I, the affiliation with the Big West Conference and the academic reputation of the institution were big sellers in my decision to come to UC Davis. The timing was right.

Mike Robles, assistant athletics director and director for media relations, and Mark Honbo, assistant media relations director, wrote this story for UC Davis Magazine's spring 2008 issue.