Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
CALIFORNIA PACIFIC CONFERENCE
  • Cal Maritime

    Cal Maritime

  • Northern New Mexico College

    Northern New Mexico College

  • Pacific Union College

    Pacific Union College

  • Simpson University

    Simpson University

  • Stanton University

    Stanton University

  • Westcliff University

    Westcliff University

  • Central Christian College of Kansas

    Central Christian College of Kansas

  • Walla Walla University

    Walla Walla University

UCM’s Dunham Selected as AD of the Year
Posted: May 07, 2024

UCM’s Dunham Selected as AD of the Year

The California Pacific Conference announced Tuesday that UC Merced's David Dunham has been selected the Cal Pac Athletic Director of the Year, the fourth time he has been selected since 2015.  A founding staff member of UCM, Dunham is in his 18th year leading the Bobcat athletic program.  In that time, UCM has seen an exponential growth in competitive programs and facilities, including the creation of men's and women's programs in cross country, volleyball, water polo, and track & field.  In 2023-24, Dunham and his staff have hosted five Cal Pac Championship postseason tournaments:  cross country, women's soccer, men's and women's basketball, and men's volleyball.  As it has over the past two decades, UCM athletic programs continue to excel off the playing fields as well, recently compiling a 3.192 GPA, the department's highest cumulative GPA to date, with a student-athletes earning academic recognition on CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes, and Cal Pac All-Academic Teams.  Along with his position at UCM, Dunham serves in many other leadership roles, including the Cal Pac Representative for the National Administrative Council and also serves on the NAIA Women's Soccer Selection Committee.

Three additional annual awards were announced by the conference.  Simpson was voted the Sportsmanship Award, Embry-Riddle earned recognition as the top Sports Medicine program, and UC Merced was named the outstanding Sports Information program.

The Cal Pac Sportsmanship Award is a year-long, program-wide award voted by the head coaches of the conference's nine scheduled sports. As part of each sport's season-ending awards, the coaches select a team which in their eyes best exhibited the core value of sportsmanship during the season.  This year marks the eighth time since the award's inception in 1999-2000 that SU has received the honor. 

The Sports Medicine and Sports Information awards are based on a vote taken from the respective recipients' peers.  For the fifth time since joining the conference in 2016, Embry-Riddle has been recognized as the top Sports Medicine program in the Cal Pac. The Eagle AT staff is led by Monica Surguine and focuses on helping to maintain an over-all well-being for their student-athletes.  While providing complete care for the ERAU student-athletes, they also assist and support visiting athletic teams to the Prescott, Ariz., campus.

UC Merced also was selected as the Cal Pac's Sports Information Department of the Year, marking its seventh award in the past 10 years.  Sports Information and Marketing Coordinator Andrew Mitchell, in his sixth year with the Bobcats, heads a team that promotes all 12 UCM athletics teams, oversees statistical and video operations, coordinates social media strategy, and develops creative content for the athletics website and social media platforms.  He also handles the play-by-play for the Bobcats' home broadcasts.  Additionally, Mitchell and his staff hosted five Cal Pac basketball championship tournaments, not only coordinating practice times and accommodations for visiting teams but providing play-by-play coverage on livestream broadcasts in four of those tournaments. Mitchell also assists his Cal Pac peers as one of three conference SIDs on the Executive Council.