New Modesto JC athletic director brings non-traditional approach

It can be argued that Nick Stavrianoudakis has brought the most unusual résumé to the athletic directorship of Modesto Junior College.

No previous AD collected such wide-ranging job descriptions: pro football player agent, baseball card collector and card business owner, economic adviser to three counties and one city, and – for 13 years – the director of public affairs for the Yosemite Community College District.

Stavrianoudakis, 50, calls himself an idea man, and he’s carried that open-minded thinking to the athletic director’s office. After becoming the interim replacement for predecessor Bill Kaiser in 2014, he was named to the full-time position last summer.

It’s fitting that Stavrianoudakis leads the more than 400 MJC athletes, 21 teams and coaches though he’s not been a coach or an athlete beyond junior high. Rather than going the traditional route, the Turlock native manifests his affection for athletics through a keen eye for history, marketing and old-fashioned passion.

He worked toward his master of arts degree in economics at Colorado while the Buffaloes marched to the 1990 NCAA football title. The excitement and season-long buzz on the Boulder campus convinced him of the value of athletics in the collegiate environment and that someday he’d like to be a part of it.

Q: Do you think the work you’ve done for Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, along with your tenure as the Yosemite district’s public affairs director, prepared you for this job?

A: I would say yes, especially when you think of a community college. Who are you serving and where are you drawing from? All of my work experience has been in these three counties. I like it here. I started at MJC by volunteering at the basketball tournament and the Graffiti Bowl for Dr. Kaiser.

Q: Your family connection with MJC is hard to miss.

A: My nephew Strat was a hurdler for MJC a few years ago. My father, also named Strat, played football for MJC in 1942. My cousin Jim was a running back for the Pirates in the late 1970s, right before the great 1980 team. I can honestly say (becoming MJC athletic director) is a dream come true.

Q: Turlock High and Cal State Stanislaus also played a huge role in your life direction.

A: I always kept involved in sports. Even at Turlock High, I was the stat man for baseball coach Mark de la Motte. At Stanislaus, I was a volunteer for athletic director Jim Santos during the 1980s. West Germany’s women’s basketball team came through the Valley and was playing exhibition games. I marketed the game between West Germany and Stanislaus. That was my first taste of collegiate athletics and doing things behind the scenes. I really liked it. ... Kim Duyst also gave me an opportunity to volunteer there in athletics compliance, which also was a big factor in being considered for this job.

Q: How did you get involved in baseball card collecting?

A: I have a couple of closets full of them. I even had a small business. After Stanislaus, I commuted to Sacramento State while I worked full time. One of my classmates saw me doodling a college football card. ... The next year, Bill Walsh returned to Stanford as coach and the school wanted to do something special for his return, so I designed a Stanford football card set. From there, I also worked with Hawaii, Kansas, Rutgers and San Diego State. It kept me in the loop of sports marketing and colleges.

Q: You even found time for work as a player agent.

A: I was an NFL agent for one year. I had four clients: two at Wyoming and two at Eastern Illinois. One got drafted and one got a tryout in the Canadian Football League. None of them made it, but I was editing tapes and sending them off with biographical information – just side stuff to keep me involved. It was a hobby. I was working for the counties and for the city of Manteca economic development promoting the community.

Q: Your MJC tournament programs with all that history in them have won awards. They also reflect a true affection for MJC.

A: It helps to be at a college that has an exciting history. Look at our Hall of Fame: We have two Pro Football Hall of Famers (Paul Wiggin and Gino Marchetti), a first-round NBA draft pick (Ron Livingstone), at least two Olympic gold medalists (Cy Young, Moose Thompson) and a Wimbledon singles champion (Alex Olmedo). What other community college can boast these kind of athletes? That’s the exciting thing for me, coming from the nostalgia part of it by liking the cards and getting into the history. I don’t like things that are lost. We need to promote it and share it. I’d like to do more of it, and that’s why we brought back Proverb Jacobs and Wiggin and the 1980 team.

Q: After spending a full year on the job as interim AD, how badly did you want to keep it?

A: I did want it, otherwise I wouldn’t have applied for it. There was more to the job than I thought. You take inventory and decide what you need and what you can improve on. ... There was more to it than I was expecting. My focus was to be competent. It took a whole year for me to feel that way. There are things to learn and things that come out of the blue. I’ve always been focused on long-term planning, and I was put into a day-to-day operation where I had to put the long-term planning on the shelf. I wasn’t used to that.

Q: You’ve said Suzette, your wife of 28 years, has been your inspiration.

A: We’ve raised two boys: Alex, a Stanislaus State graduate who’s working in physical therapy at Pacific, and Anthony, a senior at Cal. Suzette is a teacher in Ceres. Without her support and encouragement, I could not pursue all these ideas and dreams. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but the opportunity didn’t happen until the last few years.

Q: Would you agree that MJC is taking a new approach to your position, accenting your marketing skills?

A: A long time ago in economic development, someone coined the term “can do,” as in, “can-do attitude.” Anything and everything is possible if you can maintain that attitude and you welcome all information, positive or negative, because it’s all useful. I don’t want us to be mediocre. Mediocre is easy – you just show up. I challenge and ask the coaches to think big. I know they have high standards. They want what’s best for the kids. Let’s think about the potential and try to hit that or rise above. ... We’ve already addressed things such as the maintenance of our fields, and we’ve taken our inventory and are prioritizing. If we had artificial turf (at MJC Stadium), you don’t need a practice field. If you don’t need a practice field, you don’t need to water it. Artificial turf could expand the possibility for what you can do with the existing space at MJC East, which we don’t currently have.

This story was originally published September 20, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "New Modesto JC athletic director brings non-traditional approach."