Coaches

The Double

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 06:00:00 +0000

The Double Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/18/2021 - 00:00

Andrew Daigle

J.J. Tompkins is CU soccer’s all-time leader in wins. Now, the goalkeeper plays professionally in Norway.

Goalkeeper J.J. Tompkins (Psych’19) is CU soccer’s all-time leader in wins with 49 total. Her standout performance, however, came in defeat Nov. 22, 2019, as she made several highlight-reel saves when North Carolina eliminated the Buffs 1-0 in the NCAA Tournament.

The Phoenix native wasn’t done. She began exploring professional opportunities for after her December graduation. She considered leagues in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Israel.

Tompkins earned a tryout with Vålerenga Fotball Damer, a top-tier team in Norway. She bought a one-way ticket, passed the trial and signed in February 2020.

After moving into East Oslo, she joined club practices. She trained with the starting goalie, Hannah Seabert, the only other American on the 20-player roster. In March, though, the pandemic forced Vålerenga into lockdown. Three weeks into her pro career, Tompkins was receiving unemployment.

She walked the city, kept in touch with family and connected with similarly isolated teammates.

“I was a bit shy, so it gave me time to meet them. We really bonded during quarantine,” Tompkins said.

After six weeks, Vålerenga began practices and the team resumed games July 5. Tompkins got her first start Aug. 16. She dedicated it to Buffs associate head coach Jason Green’s late mother Donna.

“She was always a number-one fan. Such a special woman,” Tompkins said. With “Mama Green” written on her hand, she earned a shutout. Tompkins stayed in goal. She collected several more shutouts. On Dec. 6, Vålerenga won the league championship. Meanwhile, the club also began play in the Norwegian Cup — a prestigious nationwide club tournament — and won its Champions League qualifiers.

A week later, Vålerenga won the Norwegian Cup with another shutout by Tompkins.

Said CU coach Green: “One trophy was huge, but to bring a double in her first season — it’s why she is now regarded as the best goalkeeper playing in Norway.”

Photos by Vegard Wivestad Grott/Bildbyran

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Spring 2021

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Extended Version: Q&A with Mike MacIntyre

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 17:10:23 +0000

Extended Version: Q&A with Mike MacIntyre Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/02/2017 - 10:10

Jennifer Osieczanek

CU’s head football coach since late 2012, Mike MacIntyre won nearly every major college Coach of the Year award for the Buffs’ 2016 performance, including the Associated Press and Walter Camp awards. Here he reflects on the season and offers a glimpse of his life away from Folsom Field.

Can you pick one moment that stands out as the best/most memorable of the season for you?

That’s not a fair question! There were so many. I would say the most memorable one moment, at the time, when it happened, was Ahkello Witherspoon’s (EBio’17) interception against Oregon. In the end zone. To seal the game.

What was it like having Folsom Field full at the end of the season, including the first sellout since 2008 for the finale against Utah?

The last two games against Washington State and Utah, the best word I could use is ‘magical.’ Our stadium is so tight, it’s so loud. We had some recruits that came that said they felt like they were in a basketball arena because it’s just so loud down there. It was special. It was really special for our players, to see the look in their eyes and understand what was going on. People rushing the field was really special for our guys.

What’s your strategy when people rush the field?

Get out of the way as fast as I can.

Despite the outcome, how important was it to get to a bowl game for the program?

It was very important to get to the first bowl game, but the thing I love about our kids is that when we got bowl eligible, they weren’t thinking about the bowl, they were thinking about the Pac-12 Championship. Besides us on the team, and some people close, I don’t think anybody else was thinking that. I think they were thinking, ‘Wow, they made it to a bowl. That’s awesome.’ And our guys were like, ‘Yes, but that’s not where we’re headed. We want to get to the Pac-12 Championship game and we want to win the Pac-12 South.’

Is there anything you’d do differently, as a coach, in hopes of changing the outcome of the final two games?

We built this program over the last four years. We’ve made incremental starts and then we made a big jump. The way everybody sees it, it all happened all of a sudden. Well, no, it didn’t. It was built, built, built, built and then we made it. Of course, there’s different things looking back you can say you’d like to change, but we played two top-10 teams, played them in a big atmosphere. Now you’ve got to be a little more intense, execute a little better. When we get there next year, we’ll be ready for that.

The expectations will change heading into the 2017 season. How do you address that with the players?

Expectations are good. How you prepare on a daily basis to realize it’s the hard work is what helps you reach those expectations. We’ll probably be ranked going into next year, I would think, and so everyone is going to say, ‘Y’all have arrived.’ No, we go back to ground zero and start working again.

How do you fill Sefo Liufau’s shoes as a leader and as a quarterback next season?

It’ll be hard to do. I feel like we have some excellent quarterbacks here that are very talented and that can definitely do it talent-wise. The situation is, are they going to be able to do it day-in, day-out with the same positive attitude Sefo always had? Even when people were not positive with him, he was positive. How he still believed in his teammates and his teammates believed in him. How he always battled. I believe we have the guys that can do that.

If it’s not at quarterback, what is the biggest hole you have to fill next year?

Secondary-wise, that’s such a make-or-break position back there.

Is there a group that you’re not worried about?

I think we have an excellent receiving corps coming back. They’ve got to keep working hard.

What do you think helped your recruiting efforts more, the new facilities or the winning season?

We had a lot of kids committed before the season started, but the season solidified it. It really goes hand-in-hand. They saw our facilities, they saw our commitment to being successful and our coaches worked extremely hard, everybody in our recruiting area and then as the season went on they saw that it really was happening.

Did the coach of the year awards help you on the recruiting trail too?

Yes, [the recruits] did notice that. That’s a credit to our program again. It’s good any time that we can get on television, in the paper, on Twitter, on the internet, on blogs that are positive that those kids end up seeing. So definitely I believe it helped us.

Do you know how many coach of the year awards you won?

No I don’t. [For the record, it was 11]

What do the coach of the year awards mean to you personally?

It’s always an honor in whatever your field is to be honored by your peers or people that are observing it. But at the same time, it is extremely humbling because of all the people that work at our university, from the president, the chancellor, the AD, to all our auxiliary help here that put hours and hours in unnoticed, and then our players and our assistant coaches and how hard they work and they did it. I’m really receiving the honor on their part. You’re only as successful as the people around you.

What was it like to be a part of ESPN’s championship broadcast Jan. 9?

It was kind of chaotic. It was fun to hear the perspective of the other coaches and watch it that way, but it was long. I was wishing I could go climb on my couch and take a nap.

What does it mean for the program?

It’s more exposure. That was the reason I went. It’s good to get our name out there. Kids saw it, parents saw it. Any chance I can get to get our CU logo, our CU name out there, our brand, I will take advantage of it. It was great. I think I got on one of their commercials in the cafeteria. … No, I’m teasing! I said, “I need to get in one of y’all’s commercials, just let me be in the background.”

Do you like the current playoff structure for college football? Would you like to see more teams included in the playoff or a requirement to win a conference championship?

I would like to see more teams included. Now, I have to preface that correctly: I still want them to use the bowls. Here’s what I believe, if you win your conference championship in the Power Five, if they have a championship game, you should go. Just like they do in NCAA basketball, then you have three other spots to pick.

Do you think your team was punished for the Pac-12 Championship?

Since we lost? Yes. If they would have stopped at the end of the season, we would have been in the Rose Bowl. We didn’t play well enough, we lost, but yes. That’s the truth.

What is your favorite running route in Boulder?

Wow. I enjoy running down Boulder Creek because that’s the place I can go to the most. … It’s funny, people used to try to run over me on their bicycles and now they wave at me and say, “Hi,” since we’ve been winning.

How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

Are you talking about straight through? Most of the time I’m waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning. … Spring break, I sleep good. Everybody’s in school, we can’t recruit, I go to the beach, hang out, get tired and sleep. I don’t even set my alarm clock. The other good thing is my cell phone doesn’t work too good down there [Amelia Island, Florida] either.

If you weren’t coaching college football, what would you be doing instead?

Coaching college basketball. I love basketball.

Condensed and edited by Jennifer Osieczanek

Photos courtesy CU Athletics

Coach MacIntyre reflects on the season and offers a glimpse of his life away from Folsom Field.

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Q&A with Mike MacIntyre

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:04:00 +0000

Q&A with Mike MacIntyre Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/01/2017 - 11:04

Jennifer Osieczanek

Can you pick one moment that stands out as the best/most memorable of the season for you?

That’s not a fair question! There were so many. I would say the most memorable moment, at the time, when it happened, was Ahkello Witherspoon’s (EBio’17) interception against Oregon. In the end zone. To seal the game.

Is there anything you’d do differently, as a coach, in hopes of changing the outcome of the final two games?

We built this program over the last four years. We’ve made incremental starts and then we made a big jump. The way everybody sees it, it all happened all of a sudden. Well, no it didn’t. It was built, built, built, built and then we made it. Of course, there’s different things looking back you can say you’d like to change, but we played two top-10 teams, played them in a big atmosphere. Now you’ve got to be a little more intense, execute a little better. When we get there next year, we’ll be ready for that.

The expectations will change heading into the 2017 season. How do you address that with the players?

What was it like to be a part of ESPN’s championship broadcast on Jan. 9?

It was kind of chaotic. It was fun to hear the perspective of the other coaches and watch it that way, but it was long. I was wishing I could go climb on my couch and take a nap.

What is your favorite running route in Boulder?

How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

Are you talking about straight through? Most of the time I’m waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning. … Spring break, I sleep good. Everybody’s in school, we can’t recruit, I go to the beach, hang out, get tired and sleep. I don’t even set my alarm clock. The other good thing is my cellphone doesn’t work too good down there [Amelia Island, Fla.] either.

Condensed and edited by Jennifer Osieczanek.

Back to main article.

Head coach Mike MacIntyre reflects on the season and offers a glimpse of his life away from Folsom Field.

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Taste of Victory

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:15:00 +0000

Taste of Victory Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/01/2017 - 10:15

Staff

Buffs deliver the turnaround we'd all been waiting for.

Let’s be clear: 2016 was spectacular for Buffs football.

Never mind that the postseason was no cause for joy. The point is, there was a postseason — for the first time in a decade — preceded by months of fingers- crossed hope, feverish optimism and real wins. Ten in all, eight in the Pac-12.

The prior season, CU was 1-8 in conference play.

This wasn’t just a turnaround; it was an about-face.

On Twitter, one football fan — a Nebraska grad, no less — proclaimed it “movie-worthy.”

So, fans are excited about Colorado football again, and should be. Besides winning lots of games, the Buffs won a division title, played in a conference final and, for the first time since 2007, appeared in a bowl.

Along the way they delivered a thumping win (44-7) over Colorado State, made a good run at Michigan, reached a top 10 national ranking, sold out Folsom Field for the first time since 2008 and made a lot of people happy.

In the bitter end, the Buffs faced off in the Alamo Bowl against another great team, Oklahoma State, on ESPN.

Buff Nation can admit the bowl went badly (38-8 loss) and still feel great about the season, which defied all expectation and led to a heap of coach-of-the-year awards for head coach Mike MacIntyre.

As former CU and NBA basketball star Chauncey Billups (Soc ex’99) tweeted to the team in December, “You guys made us all proud this year.”

The 2017 season opens Sept. 1.

See a more in-depth breakdown of the season, and what's to come, by clicking the images below.

Q&A with Mike MacIntyre

Key Returning Players

Season Records Between Bowls

Twitter History of the Season

2016: Game By Game

A Timeline of CU Football

Photos courtesy CU Athletics/Glenn Asakawa

Buffs deliver the turnaround we'd all been waiting for.

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Sports Briefs – Summer 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Sports Briefs – Summer 2016 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/01/2016 - 00:00

Jennifer Osieczanek

Digits

Hat tricks in one Buffs lacrosse game by Darby Kiernan (IntAf’18), Cali Castagnola (Mktg’17) and Sarah Lautman (ChemEngr’16) versus Michigan.

feet Height of Dallas Walton, who signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball for the Buffs next year.

2,604

Solar panels on the roof of CU’s Indoor Practice Facility.

1996

Year Ceal Barry was an assistant coach for the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball team.

Years Irv Brown, former CU baseball coach and assistant football coach, spent on Denver radio before retiring in April.

Coaches: Coming and Going

Linda Lappe (Mktg’02) stepped down as women’s basketball coach after six seasons. The Buffs most recently went 7-23 (2-16 in the Pac-12). Overall CU was 105-92 under Lappe, with one NCAA Tournament appearance. JR Payne of Santa Clara University was named coach. Santa Clara was 23-9 last season.

Rodney Billups left CU men’s basketball to become head coach at his alma mater, the University of Denver. Bill Grier, a former head coach at San Diego, succeeds him.

The football team also has some new faces, and familiar ones in new roles. Former CU quarterback Darian Hagan (Soc’01) was named running backs coach. Klayton Adams will manage the offensive line, and Gary Bernardi will oversee tight ends and fullbacks.

Nikki Marshall (Soc’10) joined women’s soccer as a volunteer assistant coach. She played four seasons at CU (2006-09), scoring 42 goals. She holds CU records for goals and points –– as well as shot attempts (261), game-winning goals (18) and goals per game (0.49).

Stroem Sweeps

In March, junior Mads Stroem (Econ, Fin’17) became the sixth Buff skier to win both Nordic titles at the NCAA Championships. He won the men’s 10K freestyle race in 22 minutes, 6.8 seconds and the 20K classical race.

The Buffs finished second to DU in the team standings, failing to repeat as national champions. But a historical trend may favor CU next year: The Buffs have won the championship in all three odd years of the decade so far (2011, 2013, 2015), and each of those competitions was in New England. In 2017 the NCAA Championships take place in Franconia, N.H.

Buff Bits

CU men’s basketball heads to New York in November to play in the 2016 Legends Classic, a tournament that also includes Texas, Notre Dame and Northwestern, and culminates at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. … CU and Georgia Tech, which split the 1990 national football championship in the polls but have never met on the field, will play a home-and-home series. The first game is scheduled for 2025 at CU; the second for 2026 in Atlanta. CU Coach MacIntyre is a Georgia Tech alum who lettered twice as a free safety and punt returner for the Yellow Jackets. … Basketball forward Josh Scott (Soc’16) was named to the 2016 All-Pac-12 Conference First Team and forward Wesley Gordon (Anth’17) earned an honorable mention. On the women’s side, point guard Kennedy Leonard (A&S’19) was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.

CU coaching changes, an NCAA sweep and basketball updates.

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Summer 2016

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A Lawyer on the Court

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 07:00:00 +0000

A Lawyer on the Court Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/01/2016 - 00:00

Jennifer Osieczanek

New head volleyball coach chose the sporting life over the law

Jesse Mahoney (Psych’94; Law’99) enrolled at Colorado Law with every intention of becoming an attorney. But he’s made his career on the court, not in one.

“As I finished my degree, I started getting offers to coach and took a leap,” says the former CU men’s club volleyball champion. “I took that path for a lot less money and it all worked out in the end.”

For Mahoney, the end is a new beginning in Boulder. Sixteen years after graduating from law school, he’s back on campus as the fifth head coach of the Buffs women’s varsity volleyball program.

He succeeds Liz Kritza, who was dismissed in early December after seven seasons in the job.

Now 44, Mahoney started his coaching career as an assistant for the CU men’s club volleyball team in the mid-1990s. As a player in 1993, he helped the team to a national championship, then served as head coach from 1995 to 1998, a period when the team was consistently ranked in the top 20 nationally.

Mahoney’s first varsity coaching job, in 1998, was as an assistant at Colorado Christian. Over the next 17 years, he coached at Fort Hays State in Kansas, Colorado State and the University of Denver, where he was head coach for the past four years.

The Pioneers were 88-41 under his watch, earning back-to-back Summit League regular season and tournament titles and reaching the NCAA Tournament two years running.

“When I met with our volleyball student-athletes, I told them that we would go out and hire the best coach, mentor and leader for them, and I feel like we accomplished all three,” CU athletic director Rick George says. “I am excited that Jesse is back home again as a Buff.”

Mahoney, who started his new job in December, also has been reacquainting himself with campus, and not just the gym.

“I walked through Norlin with the recruits the other day … The Alferd Packer Grill — no one knows that anymore, so I was explaining that.”

Every day is a trip down memory lane, which may be more fun for him, he jokes, than for his coaching staff.

“My assistants are already tired of the phrase, ‘When I went to school here…’”

Photo by CU Athletics

New head volleyball coach chose the sporting life over the law

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Sports Q&A: Ceal Barry

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Sports Q&A: Ceal Barry Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 12/01/2013 - 00:00

Gary Baines

The Ceal Deal

Athletic administrator Ceal Barry, the winningest women’s basketball coach in school history, completed her 30th year at CU-Boulder. Last summer she served as interim athletic director after the departure of Mike Bohn and before the hiring of Rick George.

What made you decide not to throw your hat in the ring for the permanent A.D. job?

Primarily, it’s pretty well understood that the department was in search of additional revenues and revenue production, whether that be through fundraising, licensing, sponsorships — areas that I’m not familiar with. During the last eight years as an administrator, I’ve worked more with internal operations. The charge of what the chancellor was searching for, and what my strengths are, really didn’t match up.

Between being the interim A.D. and heading up the search committee, was it enlightening for you?

I think you work to learn and to become an interesting person, to get better as a human being. That’s part of why we’re in interesting careers. Who wants to be stale or stagnant? Nobody. So hopefully I’m learning something every day. Part of the reason I got out of coaching was because I could run those basketball camps with my eyes closed. I thought, “I’m becoming a boring person.” So yeah, it’s really been interesting. I have learned a lot about things that I was not exposed to in the last eight years as an administrator.

Were you given any guarantees about your position when you took on the interim A.D. role?

No, and that’s important. Who wants to get comfortable and be protected? I think I’m going to have to prove myself to the sixth athletic director who I’ve worked for. I’m getting up there in years and I don’t have the same skillset as a 25-year-old who can do technology and social media, so what are the things I can offer, other than historical perspective? I think it’s important that I prove myself just like anyone else. I don’t want to retire. I don’t have children. I like to play golf but not that much. I’d get bored. I like the intellectual stimulation of fixing problems. I did that as a coach. Hopefully I’ll still be able to do that.

In the last eight years, have you ever missed coaching, or do you think you’ll ever go back?

I think about that every March because that’s the fun month. There are 11 hard months and March is the fun month. Or I’ve thought, “When I retire I’m going to coach a seventh-grade team.” But when I think about coaching, I think I just can’t do it. I’m too busy right now but maybe someday.

Have you enjoyed your role the last eight years?

I firmly believe that former coaches who have an interest and an aptitude make very good athletic administrators. Recruiting, managing assistant coaches, coaching games, taking a team on a road trip, disciplining student-athletes — I think they’re vital experiences for administrators to have because it’s hard for administrators to put themselves in the shoes of an assistant coach, head coach or a student-athlete if they have never lived it — and really, really lived it.

Do you foresee retiring from CU?

I definitely will finish my career at CU — hopefully in five or seven more years. Part of that will be dependent upon what the new athletic director has me doing. Maybe he will see a skillset that I have that I don’t see. It will be nice to have someone else with a fresh set of eyes looking to see, “How can she contribute?” That will be kind of interesting.

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

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Sports Briefs – Winter 2013

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Sports Briefs – Winter 2013 Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 12/01/2013 - 00:00

Stats

2.892

was the GPA of CU’s student-athletes during spring, the second-highest average since 1996.

500

is how many CU football radio broadcasts KOA’s Larry Zimmer had called after he worked the home game against Arizona on Oct. 26.

is the number of CU football games ever postponed: in 2013 (Fresno State in September because of flooding), 2001 and 1963.

$2,000,000

has been raised by the Buffalo Bicycle Classic for scholarships for high-performing students who qualify for financial aid.

800

students have won scholarship support, thanks to our Buffalo Bicycle Classic riders and sponsors.

CU Volleyball Sets Victories

Liz Kritza had gone without a victory over a nationally ranked opponent in her first 4.5 seasons as volleyball coach. But in an eight-day span, the Buffs knocked off two nationally ranked programs — No. 11-ranked UCLA and No. 1-ranked Washington. It was the second time in program history that the Buffs have beaten a top-ranked team, Nebraska in 2006 being the other. “Years of work go into something like this,” Kritza says.

Buff Tidbits

Darian Hagan (Soc ex’92), a starting quarterback, and former Buff men’s basketball coach Frosty Cox will be inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame on April 17. Men’s golf earned the team title for the second time in three years at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational in Erie. Nikki Marshall (Soc’10) won a National Women’s Soccer League title with the Portland Thorns FC and was picked in the NWSL waiver draft by the Washington Spirit.

Soccer Team Soars into Winning Territory

The CU soccer team posted its best start — through the end of September — since 2008. The Buffs won eight of their first 10 games, with both losses to nationally ranked teams. In early October, Colorado won its first Pac-12 home game ever by beating Oregon State 2-1. CU followed up the win over Oregon State by beating Oregon.

Photography by CU Athletics

Sports news from fall 2013

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Winter 2013

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