Sept. 30, 2008

BERKELEY - A crowd filled with some of the project's biggest supporters and most dedicated members of the campus community gathered outside Memorial Stadium on Sept. 27 to cheer as Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau and Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour joined student-athletes to place shovels in the ground at the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Student-Athlete High Performance Center.

"Today is a day of celebration," Barbour told the audience. "It is a celebration of our mission as an Athletic Department to provide conditions for success for each and every one of our 900 student-athletes. It's about giving them an opportunity to have the best academic and athletic experience in the world."

Chancellor Birgeneau said the Student-Athlete High Performance Center "will stand as the cornerstone of our commitment to our student-athletes here at Cal, and will also provide the very best environment for their success, both as students and as athletes."

The two University leaders heaped praise upon a long list of stakeholders who have demonstrated great resolve to move the project forward, from members of the administration, campus public affairs, community relations and UC police department; to Cal's outside legal team and project architects; to the donors and supporters who have kept Cal on pace to raise the funds needed for the project; to the coaching staffs and student-athletes who have continued to demonstrate on a daily basis the excellence that the SAHPC will eventually support.

"Sharon and I feel so fortunate to be able to help out in this project," said Barc Simpson '66 of their lead gift, the gratitude for which Mr. Simpson redirected back to the rest of the campus community. "What everybody else has done to get this project going, as an alumnus, I just feel blind lucky that we have such great people here," he said.

Also taking the podium prior to the first shovels turning earth at the construction site was head coach Diane Ninemire, one of only four softball coaches to surpass the 900-win level, doing so over 21 years without a facility like the SAHPC to support her players.

"This is just going to mean so much to all of the student-athletes to be able to train in a first-class situation and make everything a little bit easier for them," coach Ninemire said. "It also is going to help us tremendously in the recruiting aspect, to be able to bring in the finest recruits and to show them what we have to offer here."

Senior volleyball player Kat Reilly, president of Cal's Student-Athlete Council, agreed. "Currently at Cal we have world-class athletes, coaches and administration. The fourth component to that is this high-performance center. It's extremely exciting for recruits to see and encouraging for what our programs will accomplish," she said.

"This is an important and wonderful point in our history," said Barbour. "I love the will of this Cal community. We are indebted to all of you who showed your will and backed it up with your time, your emotion and your resources. None of this would be possible without you."