Catching Up With: Ron Prettyman

Bryce Alderton

Ron Prettyman will always call himself a “Vanguard.”

And why not.

He graduated in 1977 from the four-year school, then Southern

California College, with a degree in health physical education and

recreation, sat in the athletic director’s chair for 13 years

(1982-1995), and his wife Carol and 24-year old daughter Shara both

graduated from the Costa Mesa-based school.

When Prettyman started at Vanguard he was 27, at the time the youngest

athletic director at a four-year school in the nation.

But times change and people change with the times.

Seven years ago Prettyman, now 47, had the opportunity to take over

the reins as the athletic director at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson

and he chomped at the bit.

“The professional growth and developments presented a challenge,”

Prettyman said. “I took it because it offered the chance to work in the

NCAA.”

Prettyman’s biggest sports thrill at Dominguez Hills came in 2000 when

the men’s soccer team defeated Barry University in Miami in the fourth

overtime to claim the NCAA Division II title.

His biggest sports thrill at Vanguard came in 1990 when the men’s

basketball team reached the NAIA national championships in Kansas City,

Mo.

Making the switch to Dominguez Hills has presented challenges, which

Prettyman said mainly involved doubling his staff from the 20 he worked

with at Vanguard.

“I really thought it would be a cakewalk, but I’ve never had to work

harder in my life,” Prettyman said with a laugh regarding the increase in

staff. “I have to make sure everyone stays on task and accomplishes their

goals. At Vanguard, I worked with coaches, a secretary and an athletic

trainer and everyone else was part-time. Now I have 40 full-time people.”

But Prettyman said his duties as athletic director haven’t changed

much going from Vanguard to Cal State Dominguez Hills.

“It’s actually the same as it was at Vanguard, except on a little

bigger scale,” he said.

Prettyman oversees the athletic department’s budget, which he said is

in the “$2 million range,” making sure student-athletes are academically

“on-task.” He also handles all personnel issues within the department,

which he said is the hardest part about his job.

“The biggest challenge is (deciding on) people to put in charge of

student-athletes,” Prettyman said.

Working with the student-athletes also provides the best part of

Prettyman’s job.

“You have that day-to-day contact with with athletes and get to impact

(their) lives with your decisions,” Prettyman said.

Prettyman is quick to point out how his administrative career at

Vanguard has helped him oversee the $130-million, 100-acre National

Training Center/Sports Complex project currently being constructed on the

Dominguez Hills campus.

Crews are building a training facility for use by the L.A. Galaxy of

Major League Soccer and the NFL San Diego Chargers, who will begin using

the facility for their six-week training camp in the summer of 2003.

The Pete Sampras Tennis Academy will also be finished by the projected

completion date, June 1, 2003.

Prettyman feels privileged to work on a project of this magnitude.

“This is by far the biggest project I’ve worked on,” Prettyman said.

“I’ve got friends who in their whole careers have never been involved in

something like this. I feel really fortunate to have this going on.”

Among other things going on for Prettyman, who resides in Los

Alamitos, the Vanguard and Cal State Stanislaus alumnus (Prettyman

received his master’s in education curriculum and instruction from

Stanislaus) has applied for the athletic director position at UC Irvine

vacated by Dan Guerrero. Guererro is a former athletic director at

Dominguez Hills, who took the athletic director position at UCLA.

While Prettyman doesn’t know if he would take the job, he remains open

to the possibility.

“It’s certainly something that intrigues me,” Prettyman said.