Three Coaches Gain 'Coach of the Year' Honors
Roche Nystrom (Women's Volleyball), Pete Schuler (Women's Water Polo) and John Marsh (Men's Water Polo) were each named the top coach this past week.

Coach Nystrom was named WSC Coach of the Year for the third time in her career, while leading the Cougars to her fifth WSC title. Nystrom also became the program’s all time win leader by surpassing her former mentor Hugh Gerhardt on the school’s win list.

Pete Schuler’s program is the winningest team in the Western State Conference and after a three-year layoff they were once again the loop’s dominant team. The Cougars have won three WSC titles since starting the sport in 1999 and have made five post-season appearances. Cuesta has posted a 153-85-3 overall record and is 33-6 against the WSC. Schuler was also named WSC Coach of the Year in 2002.

Coach John Marsh’s win total has climbed in all three of his seasons, from 16 to 24 to 27. He has led the Cougars to the Western State Conference title each year and been named WSC Coach of the Year following each season. This year his Cougars made the school’s seventh trip to the State Tournament and first since 2000. The Cougars third place finish was the best by a Cuesta team since 1990’s second place finish.

David Diaz
Health Educator David Diaz, with colleague and Director of Research Ryan Cartnal, published an article in the June/July, 2006 issue of the Innovate Journal. The article is titled, "Term Length as an Indicator Of Attrition in Online Learning."

In this article, Diaz and Cartnal discuss the notorious attrition rates in online learning as well as possible causes and solutions. The authors look at the impact of term length on drop rates, advocating a shorter term to enable time-strapped students to complete courses more efficiently. You can find the article at the Innovate Journal online.

Jani Johnson and Mike Napoli
Cross Country and Track coach, Jani Johnson and Women's Tennis coach Mike Napoli had both of their teams recognized recently for the California Community College Pepsi Scholar Team Award. The Scholar Team Award is the highest academic team achievement given annually by the COA. All team members must have excelled academically with a total GPA of 3.0 or higher. The team should have demonstrated better than average accomplishments in intercolligiate athletic competition. Six teams throughout California were awarded this distinction of excellence, which is an award that recognizes both athletic as well as academic achievement.

The Cuesta Women's Track & Field team finished 5th in the conference and had a team GPA of 3.2, while the women's Tennis team finished 1st in conference, 10th in the state and had a team GPA of 3.4. This was the first team award for coach Johnson and was coach Napoli's 3rd (1998, 2004, 2005).