For the first time in 12 years, CSU East Bay Athletics has a new leader for its department.

Already a month into her tenure as Athletic Director, Sara Judd has made some large moves including hiring a new men’s basketball coach after the winningest coach in CSUEB history, Will Biggs, announced his retirement.

“It was pretty intense, exciting, it was kind of a full immersion experience,” said Judd who sorted through roughly a hundred applicants from all over the country. “There’s nothing quite like a men’s basketball hire. It really does take on a life of its own. We had a very, very, very qualified pool. This is a program that has tremendous long-term potential for success and we saw that in the applicant pool. It was a very competitive pool.”

Since June 1 Judd has taken over as head athletic director for CSUEB after Debby De Angelis held the position for 12 years before announcing her retirement this year.

Judd has worked for CSUEB for 16 years, starting as the women’s basketball coach before moving on to become the assistant athletic director in charge of compliance.

As the head coach of women’s basketball, Judd accumulated a school record 172 wins as well as winning the Coach of the Year Award. She has the highest winning percentage of any Pioneer women’s head coach and believes her “coaching” mentality did not stop when she left the court.

“I view myself now as I’m the head coach for this department and I have really high goals for all our teams,” said Judd in an interview with The Pioneer. “I have high aspirations for all of our sports to compete at the top of their respective conference.”

While assistant athletic director in charge of compliance, the Bay Area native helped transition CSUEB back to Division II and continues to always set her goals higher and higher.

“[M]y ultimate goal is that all of our sports are competing at the top of their respective conference and moving on to regional and national play,” said Judd. “That does not happen over night … I am going to set very high expectations and then it’s up to me to figure out how to provide the support and resources to support that vision and those goals.”

As assistant athletic director in charge of compliance, the Bay Area native was responsible in helping CSUEB Athletics transition back to Division II; a process that was started in May of 2008.

To become a Division II member, CSUEB had to meet certain conditions under NCAA rules such as sponsoring a minimum number of teams, full compliance with NCAA Division II rules and an increase in financial aid funding which all took place under Judd’s guidance. As a Division II member, CSUEB has the ability to compete for conference and NCAA championships as well as offer athletic scholarships.

Judd feels her previous experience plays a key role in her current position.

“I think it’s a great background for me,” said Judd in an interview with The Pioneer. “I think I have a really thorough understanding of Division II philosophy, the Division II mission, what it means to be a Division II institution.”

Division II members define themselves as having six main attributes – learning, service, passion, sportsmanship, resourcefulness and balance.

As a Rhodes Scholar candidate and former student athlete herself, Judd believes academics is, and needs to remain a priority.

“I want us to succeed athletically, but equally, if not more importantly, I want us to succeed in the classroom,” said Judd. “If anything I probably valued the academic and community service success more then the athletic success. We have a lot of academic success in our program and I expect that to continue.”

Looking forward, Judd thinks CSUEB athletics has tremendous potential and could be part of big things in the near future.

“I honestly feel like all of our sports are healthy and in a position to move towards a championship caliber play,” said Judd. “I think even our sports where the win loss column has not shown that the last year or two they are all been quite competitive and I believe ready to kind of make that next step. I am excited for all 15 of our sports to continue to excel.”

The plan to replace De Angelis with Judd was done through succession planning but was not something that had been planned in advance.

“It wasn’t the long term intended goal, but it did unfold that way in the last six months or so it sort of became a possibility to explore and I am really honored and humbled to be succeeding her,” said Judd. “I have a tremendous amount of respect and gratitude for her. Big shoes to fill.”