Dominican's move up to Div. II puts heat on SSU

It was a tempting offer — how could it not be? Julianna Bratsberg of Windsor was going to get a free education. Eastern Washington University in Spokane had offered her a soccer scholarship. She had visited Spokane, liked the place but then started to get cold feet when Bratsberg was told she would have to be there 11 months of the year.

Why not look into Dominican University, it was suggested. OK, she said, fine, I’ll do it. But there was one problem.

“I didn’t know where it was,” Bratsberg said.

Forty-minutes down the road, she was told. Right off the freeway in San Rafael.

Huh?

You might as well have told Bratsberg the Loch Ness Monster also was getting a latte at the neighborhood Peet’s, as disbelieving as she was.

Then Bratsberg visited the campus. It was leafy, mellow, and had only 2,000 students and a solid academic reputation.

She was impressed. Dominican athletes weren’t all thumbs and knees; they could compete, and they did win. And then a little piece of information sealed the deal.

Dominican, an NAIA school in athletics, was going to step up to NCAA Division II. Dominican was going to join the Pacific West Conference, with four member schools in Hawaii, another one in Arizona, one in Utah. A week in Hawaii, when Dominican athletes would play the four Pac West schools? Playing NCAA teams? Yes, that was a hook all right, a hook about the size of a ship’s anchor. No one was sure when it would happen but the rumor had it soon.

Wednesday, eight months after Bratsberg enrolled at Dominican, the school announced it indeed was going NCAA Division II. Next school year would be the beginning. Next school year would be when, odd as this may read, when Sonoma State should officially take notice of Dominican University.

Why? In the nine intercollegiate sports that both Dominican and SSU share for comparison, Dominican has more Sonoma County athletes playing for its teams than SSU, which is also an NCAA Division II school. If you’re keeping score at home, it’s 20-17, Dominican. And that’s with Dominican playing in the NAIA, not playing in the NCAA and certainly not going to Hawaii for a week to play four teams.

“I’m excited to go there and come back with a tan,” said Raquel Gomes, a sophomore basketball player who prepped at Montgomery.

Don’t discount the value of a tan, especially if it’s an NCAA tan, especially an NCAA tan acquired not in Arizona, bless its scorched earth, but in Hawaii.

Or, as Pac West Commissioner Bob Hogue put it: “The Pac West is recognized as the most beautiful destination conference in America.”

All of which is not to demean SSU but rather to make special note that college options for Sonoma County athletes have increased, and SSU also should take note that Dominican is providing that option boldly. Jumping up to NCAA Division II, said Dominican President Joseph Fink, will require “over half million dollars a year” more than the school spent competing annually in the NAIA.

Dominican is taking on that added financial load in an economic downturn that resembles more of an economic nose dive. And going to Dominican is not cheap. It’s $35,000 a year. Yes, there are academic and athletic scholarships offered to lighten that load. Nonetheless, the school is not slow-stepping, it’s going to the NCAA while pushing hard its $3.25 million project, “The Field of Dreams,” a playing field to accommodate both soccer and softball.

“Bold” or “stupid” seem to be the only cogent opinions about that, and Fink is in the “bold” camp, the one that says you have to spend money to make money.

“If you’re not going to be bold,” Fink said, “you are not going to succeed. It is the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s a visibility issue for the university, and a research study claimed that 80 percent of any university’s visibility results from athletics.”

Inappropriate as that number might appear to those who see universities first as a seat of learning, video clips and newspaper and online headlines about My Favorite University playing a sport nonetheless increases exposure. Extending that concept, increased exposure leads to increased interest and more students and, ultimately, rising revenues. Universities are businesses as much as they are academic engines to power minds.

“Our school is ready to take the next step,” said Jill Rizzo, the 19-year-old Windsor graduate who plays soccer and softball for Dominican.

“I have been playing both sports since I was 4, and all that time and effort commitment is paying off. Thinking about playing in the NCAA is very exciting.”

Should SSU feel embarrassed that another university in another county has more Sonoma County athletes in it than Sonoma State does? That’s a column and another strong opinion for another day.

What both do share, however, is what to do about King Football.

“Mr. President,” I said to President Fink, “if you really want to increase the visibility of this school through athletics, field a football team.”

Fink paused, searching for the exact phraseology and delivered it.

“That would be a stretch,” he said.

SSU has learned, and Dominican has noticed, that football at the Division II level doesn’t increase visibility as much as it increases cash drain.

So when it comes to football, Sonoma State and Dominican always will be equals, one never ahead of the other. Both will be without the sport.

Beyond that, we can’t help but keep score. It’s the nature of sports. It’s also the nature of two universities sitting 30 minutes from each other.

For more on North Bay high school sports go to Bob Padecky’s blog at http://padecky.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.