After 29 years of work at Fresno City College, athletic director Susan Yates retired on Sept. 1, 2013, leaving behind one of the most successful athletic programs in the state.
“It was my honor and pleasure to be at the helm of this program,” Yates said at her retirement party on Aug. 29.
Following the achievement of her master’s degree in secondary education at the University of San Francisco, where she participated in volleyball and badminton, Yates went to work at Clovis West High School and McLane High School .
She served these schools as an athletic instructor and coach before being hired on at Fresno City College in the fall of 1984 as the coach for the women’s volleyball team, as well as instructor for the program. Later, she would add the title of golf coach to her resume at FCC.
In 1999, she was promoted to co-athletic director alongside Ron Scott, the current coach of the men’s baseball team.
“All the credit she gets, she deserves,” said Scott of his former partner.
She took on the role of being FCC’s sole athletic director in 2002, and oversaw one of the most accomplished athletic programs of any two-year college in California, leading the coaches and student athletes to victory, giving all the credit to them in doing so.
Her legacy is further reflected by the coaching staff that has worked under her for more a decade.
“I can’t imagine a better coaching staff,” said Yates. “There may be equal out there, but there’s no better.”
Her direction was recognized by the coaching staff.
“Most of the coaches here have huge egos and she did a good job balancing all those egos and keeping us together as a team where we weren’t divided into factions,” said Ron Scott, her former co-director and the current men’s baseball coach.
Under Yates’ direction, FCC would go on to see women’s water polo and badminton added onto the FCC list of sports when most other community colleges in the state were clamping down on athletics. In 2007, she saw the construction of the Performance Center, the practice gym for FCC athletes to prep for their games.
For her part, Yates earned the highest award for community college sports, the National Alliance of Two Years College Athletic Administrations cup five times in her tenure, finishing in first place three times, and twice in third place. Her pinnacle achievement would come in the 2011-2012 athletic season, when the Fresno City College Rams would go on to win the state championships in wrestling, men’s basketball, and men’s tennis. In addition to these three titles, 15 of the 19 Rams teams went into the postseason, and 11 won conference titles.Yates was recognized for her direction of this landmark season when she received the Junior/Community College Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup for the 2011-2012 season, the first ever recipient of this award. The crystal cup remains on display in the Performance Center she helped to build, and assures that she will retire on a high note.
“She’s been very much a mentor for me,” says women’s volleyball coach Tracy Ainger-Schulte “and for what I want to try and achieve at this level.”
Yates made it clear to all that winning was never her primary focus, but according to her, it was the well-being of the student athletes and the unity of the teams.
“We just use athletics as the carrot to get the athlete to find their goals and to achieve their goals and degrees.”
Despite her winning strategy and leaderships, Yates does have her regrets from her time at FCC. Most notably, she found dismay in any student athlete that never reached their full potential. It was a disheartening experience, and one that she did all in her power to prevent from happening.“You take that to heart,” she said “you take that personally. What did I not do, or what could I have done to help that individual succeed better?”
But Yates took the pain and used it as a drive to help any student who would step into her office. In the countless students who worked their way to victory, Yates often found her greatest source of inspiration.
“I gain every day from those athletes,” said Yates, “the drive and the ‘never giving up’ attitude.”
This was carried over to her life at home, where her role as a mother benefitted.
She is the single mother of two daughters, Riley, 16 and McKenna, 12, both girls are highly athletic.
While McKenna has been active in water polo, swimming, baseball and track, Riley has put her focus on gymnastics. She currently is a member of Break the Barriers, a gymnastics team that focuses on collaborations between able-bodied and disabled gymnasts, aiming to empower the disabled and boost self-esteem. With her retirement, Yates looks forward to spending time with her children, having been relieved of her balancing act.
Yates, however, will always look back on her time, able to take pride in her greatest achievement.
“The accolades we get in awards is one thing,” said Yates, “but it’s the little award when that student athlete gets that scholarship they’ve dreamed of, those are the fondest memories.”
