Ryan G. Beckwith, 32, was hired as Bakersfield College’s new athletic director over the summer and has big plans for the athletic department going into his first year on the job.
Beckwith has coached and worked in administration at the high school level, NCAA Division I level and most recently the community college level here at BC as an assistant track and field coach.
“I’ve been at all three avenues where we would want to model our development after, [and that’s] the Division I hybrid of everything: the study side of it, the academic advising side of it, the support side of it and then obviously the look and feel of the athletic department,” said Beckwith. “We want our athletic department to have the Division I feel and look.”
In addition to his administration experience, Beckwith was also a student athlete through college, and has been a professional athlete in track and field before taking the position.
Beckwith respects the man he has followed, Jan Stuebbe, but is looking to put his own stamp on the athletic department that he claims is in “pristine condition.”
Beckwith wants to create an atmosphere in the athletic department that is molded around his “high-energy” attitude.
“There just seemed to be an atmosphere that should be here that wasn’t for whatever reason, I don’t know,” he said. “But [my main duty is] building an atmosphere, it’s building a brand of BC athletics that maybe at one point was and at this point isn’t.”
Beckwith’s plans for the future don’t stop at the environment of the department, though. He has his eyes set on bigger and loftier goals.
“There are a lot of things we want to do to update the facilities to kind of bring us into the new millennium, because a lot of the stuff that we have is a little bit older because it was built back in the ’60s and ’70s,” Beckwith said.
“Again, at those times, believe it or not, we had some of the best facilities in the country.”
Being in the economic situation that our district and state is in, Beckwith’s goal is to persuade administrators that the department he has taken over is worth the money.
“I think that everyone understands the avenue that athletics can play,” he said. “We kind of have that way to bring the community back here. We are a community college and if we update our facilities, and we have things like that going on, the community is going to be here using the facilities.”
Beckwith said that he might not be able to get those types of things done as soon as he would like to, but that isn’t going to stop him from working to improve the athletic department in every area he can.
Beckwith is extremely upbeat about what he has planned for the athletic department, and has already set several marketing campaigns in motion, most notably schedules of every BC sports team posted around campus.
“It’s all about baby steps at this point,” Beckwith said. “Do I have the money to go out and buy a new track right now? No. But can I get posters done? Yes. So, it’s those little steps of just showing progressive movement, having tribute games for the military and trying to pack the house, and bring that atmosphere back here.
“It’s just about working for it and trying to work together with everybody to get the ultimate done, which is to update our facilities and have as many events as we can for the community.”