Longtime San José State University Athletics staff member Lawrence Fan, Athletics Director Marie Tuite and head coach Brent Brennan, recently named the 2020 Lombardi Foundation College Football Coach of the Year, are among 11 Spartans to be honored at the university's 53rd annual Spartan Service Celebration.
The virtual celebration begins Monday, March 1, concludes Wednesday, March, 3, and can be seen at https://www.sjsu.edu/up/news/spartan-service-celebration.php
The three-day celebration honors those university staff employees who completed 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 years of service during the 2020 calendar year to San Jose State and its students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the university. More than 300 staff employees out of a work force of over 3,700 will be recognized. According to a 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, 4.0 to 4.3 years is the average length of time an employee stays with the same employer.
"With today's mobile labor force and job market, the university's annual celebration is a tribute to the Spartans who have embraced the opportunity to work for San Jose State University and turn it into a career. I'm proud of the diverse group of successful coaches and staff being honored this year and what they've contributed to the growth, evolution and transformation of our university," said Tuite, one of the department's 10-year honorees.
Fan, now with the title of associate athletics director for football communications and special projects, is one of two being recognized for 40 years of university employment.
Women's basketball head coach Jamie Craighead, deputy director of athletics Eileen Daley, academic advisor Jeanine Haldi, academic eligibility coordinator Roseanne Oty, and compliance director Jennifer Miller-Heimstead join Tuite and Brennan as 10-year honorees.
Women's swimming and diving head coach Sage Hopkins, video coordinator Doug Osumi, and Julie Stansberry, assistant director of Student Athlete Success Services (SASS), are among more than 60 15-year honorees.
Marie Tuite, director of athletics (10-year honoree)
Tuite was promoted to athletics director in May 2017 after serving San Jose State Athletics in several executive administrative positions since joining the Spartans in June 2010. She is one of 12 women who is an athletics director at a NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) program nationally and manages an athletics program with 22 sports and nearly 500 student-athletes. Tuite served on the 2019 College Football National Championship Host Committee executive board. She represents San Jose State on the San Jose Sports Authority's Board of Directors. In 2020, the Silicon Valley Business Journal named her one of the area's "100 Women of Influence."
Brent Brennan, football head coach (10-year honoree)
Coach Brennan is the first Spartan football head coach to be named a national Coach of the Year. Today's San Jose State football fan will always remember the 2020 season led by Brennan, also the Mountain West and American Football Coaches Association Region V Coach of the Year. The Spartans won the Mountain West championship for the first time and were ranked 24th nationally in the final Associated Press poll. He came to San Jose State initially in 2005 as an assistant coach, stayed for six seasons, and returned in December 2016 as the head coach. After the 2019 non-conference win at Arkansas, the Spartans were named the Reveal Suits Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) National Team of the Week.
Jamie Craighead, women's basketball head coach (10-year honoree)
Most recently, Craighead coached the Spartans to one of their best seasons in 40 years when the 2020 team won 19 games. Only the 1979 and 1980 San Jose State teams won more games in a season than the 2020 Spartans. Her 84 Spartan coaching wins is third on the all-time list for women's basketball coaching victories. Craighead's players have earned 11 post-season All-Mountain West playing honors. She came to San Jose State after five seasons at Sacramento State, two as an assistant coach before being promoted to head coach for three successful seasons.
Eileen Daley, deputy director of athletics and senior woman administrator (10-year honoree)
Daley has specialized in creating and developing academic support programs for Spartan student-athletes to succeed. Since joining San Jose State, she was recognized nationally for her role in San Jose State's upward trend in its Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, a national measurement defining student-athlete progress towards earning an undergraduate degree. In 2020, Daley was named to the 20-person NCAA Division I Committee on Academics as the Mountain West conference representative.
Jeanine Haldi, academic advisor (10-year honoree)
Haldi's San Jose State affiliation began as a volleyball student-athlete earning conference scholar-athlete awards from her sophomore through senior seasons and playing on the 2000 and 2001 Spartan NCAA Tournament teams. She became a SJSU volleyball assistant coach and was named the department's 2010 Assistant Coach of the Year for Academics. Haldi was appointed an athletics department academic advisor in 2014. She is a member of the university's Coalition of Spartan Advisors and the athletics department's recently-formed Name, Image and Likeness committee.
Jennifer Miller-Heimstead, assistant athletics director for compliance (10-year honoree)
Miller-Heimstead recently returned to San José State University after accepting the position of assistant athletics director for compliance. For seven years through 2020, she held a similar position in the Cal Poly Pomona athletics department. Miller-Heimstead began her professional career in 2005 at San José State as the athletics department's compliance coordinator and completed four years before accepting positions of greater responsibility at four-year universities throughout California. She is a member of Women Leaders in College Sport and the National Association for Athletics Compliance. Nationally, she was a member of NCAA committees on academic requirements, initial eligibility, and student-athlete academic records.
Roseanne Oty, academic eligibility coordinator (10-year honoree)
Oty's San Jose State career covers university admissions procedures, counseling and recruiting prospective international students, athletics compliance, and student-athletes athletics eligibility. After working in admissions for six years, she joined San Jose State Athletics in 2016 specializing in compliance before transitioning to eligibility certification of prospective and continuing Spartan student-athletes. In 2019, the Morgan Hill resident was named one of 12 "People to watch – People Who Inspire Us" by GMHToday.com.
Sage Hopkins, women's swimming and diving head coach (15-year honoree)
Hopkins is a two-time conference women's swimming and diving coach of the year award winner and led San Jose State University to a pair of Western Athletic Conference team championships. He is the only Spartan women's swimming and diving head coach with more than 100 dual meet victories. For 16 consecutive semesters, his teams earned a College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America award for team grade-point average above 3.20.
Doug Osumi, video coordinator (15-year honoree)
Osumi's professional career is centered in video production. Joining San Jose State in 2005, he was the football program's video coordinator for more than a decade before moving into his current role of working for the entire department in video production. Much of his postgame highlights, features and interview packages can be seen at the San Jose State Athletics' YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/sjsuspartans/videos .
Julie Stansberry, student-athlete success services (15-year honoree)
Stansberry's San Jose State career is divided between working in the athletics business office as an analyst and in student-athlete academic advising. She became an academic advisor in 2015 after 10 years working in the business office. As an academic advisor, the student-athletes she assisted, encouraged and mentored earned more than 200 institutional and conference academic awards. Stansberry also was the coordinator for the San Jose State University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
Lawrence Fan, athletics media relations (40-year honoree)
Fan's San Jose State career is in athletics media relations and sports information. He is a liaison between the local, regional and national media and the athletics department's staff, coaches and student-athletes. Believed to be the first Chinese American to join the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and enshrined in the organization's Hall of Fame, he is one of the longest active media relations professionals in NCAA Division I athletics. Fan serves on the university's emergency preparedness team as the South Campus coordinator. He is on the board of directors for the San Jose Sports Authority Hall of Fame and the Northern California chapter of the National Football Foundation.