UC DAVIS ATHLETICS GREG WARZECKA
Director of Athletics
On August 1, 1995, Greg Warzecka became the 11th director of athletics at UC Davis. In the decade-plus since, the Aggie athletics program has enjoyed unprecedented success under his guidance. Warzecka’s penchant for progress began from his first year as director when he was charged with the task of fully engaging the campus in dicussions regarding whether or not UC Davis would offer athletics-related financial aid. One year later, the campus announced the launch of its first-ever grant-in-aid program. Warzecka has also overseen UC Davis’ transition into two conferences in his short tenure. In 1998, the Aggies moved from the now-defunct Northern California Athletic Conference to the powerful California Collegiate Athletic Association. Then in 2003, the UC Davis program announced that it would join the Big West Conference and thus reclassify from NCAA Division II to Division I status. Under Warzecka’s guidance, the Aggie athletics program increased its grant-inaid allocation nearly tenfold to approximately $5 million. During this period, he also engineered a substantial upgrade in athletics facilities, most notably the Schaal Aquatics Center (2004), the Marya Welch Tennis Center (2005) and the multi-use Aggie Stadium (2007).
NONA RICHARDSON
Senior Associate Director of Athletics/Senior Woman Administator
Nona Richardson was named Senior Associate Athletics Director at UC Davis in March 2007. She brings extensive experience to her role at UC Davis which includes overseeing compliance, student services and sports medicine programs, as well as sport supervision. Richardson has experienced intercollegiate athletics from a variety of roles, most recently during her tenure at Ball State, where she served as the senior woman administrator. There she oversaw daily operations for sports medicine, and strength and conditioning while also supervising seven sports, including women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.Her contributions at Ball State also included studentathlete services, community outreach programming, career development education, student-athlete awards, and other related areas while also serving as a Title IX and gender equity resource. Prior to Ball State, Richardson was Associate Director of Athletics and SWA at Valparaiso University for seven years, where she served in similar capacities while also serving as Compliance Coordinator for the 18-sport athletics program. Her duties also involved student-athlete eligibility, event management and other key administrative responsibilities. Richardson has served on numerous committees throughout her distinguished career, including the NCAA
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During Warzecka’s tenure, UC Davis captured six NACDA Division II Directors’ Cups as the most outstanding overall program in the country. For his part, NACDA selected Warzecka as its A.D. of the year for the D-II West Region in 2001-02. Furthermore, the editors of Sports Illustrated magazine lauded the Aggie program on three different occasions. In 1999 and 2000, Sports Illustrated For Women named UC Davis as the top Division II school for women athletics. One year later, SI selected UC Davis as its top D-II school for the 2001-02 year. Before turning to administration, Warzecka had been a successful baseball coach, first as an assistant at his alma mater, California. He then served as head coach at San Francisco State, then at the University of Chicago, where he also served his first post as men’s athletics director. Warzecka returned to California in 1989 to become the A.D. at the University of Redlands, where he remained until he joined the Aggie athletics staff. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education from Cal in 1975 and his Master of Science with an emphasis in athletic administration from Cal State Hayward in 1983.
Division I Volleyball Committee (2000-02) and Volleyball Officials Sub-Committee (2001-02). She has also been a member of committees for the Mid-Continent Conference and the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA), the latter for which she also served as a board member. Richardson has presented at several national conferences, is a member of NACWAA and the National Association of Girls and Women in Sports, and has won several awards including NACWAA’s Dr. Nell Jackson Award (2000). Her athletics administrative tenure was preceded by a volleyball coaching career that was highlighted by head coaching positions at Eastern Michigan (1987-95) and Valparaiso (1996-99) and an assistant coaching assignment at Kentucky (1984-87). Richardson was also an assistant coach at the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival in 1991. Richardson was a standout volleyball player at Michigan State (1978-81) where she was a team co-captain, MVP and a member of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) All-State team. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from Michigan State in 1983 and her Master of Arts and Liberal Studies in Human Behavior and Society from Valparaiso University in 1999.