CSUSB Magazine
CSUSB Men's Basketball team stand with coaches

Coyotes return home

The Yotes are back! We can’t see their smiles, but we feel the joy emanating from their eyes. While masks cover their faces, nothing is stopping us from celebrating the return to practice and playing the sports we all love. After being separated since March 2020 from their sport, their teammates, coaches and school, our student-athletes have returned to campus. Each day is filled with hard work, laughter and a reminder how sport brings us together.
Feeling their energy on campus is like spending time with an old friend you haven’t seen in years. It’s as if time stood still as everyone picked up right where we left off. The momentum our student-athletes created over the past few years continues on every day in the (virtual) classroom, in the community and for now, in practice, as they prepare to resume competition in the fall.
Leilia To'omalatai
“Our Yotes take their academics seriously!”
In the classroom our student-athletes continually set new records. They challenge each other to be champions in the classroom. Despite all the adversity that came with the pandemic and a turbulent year, our Yotes had the best fall term in our history with a 3.45 GPA. This continues the momentum from last year when we earned an all-time best 3.24 GPA for the entire year! Significantly, all 10 teams achieved above a 3.0 GPA. Amazingly, 74 percent of our student-athletes earned a minimum 3.0 GPA. Our Yotes take their academics seriously!
Our 200+ student-athletes can be found in every college at CSUSB and are majoring in over 44 different programs. We have the campus covered. In addition to the campus, our student-athletes dominate our peer institutions across the CSU system. We had 65 student-athletes achieve conference all-academic honors this past year. This beat our previous best mark by 19 student-athletes! Most importantly, our student-athletes are graduating at rates higher than we have ever experienced.
Leadership development is a cornerstone aspect of the student-athlete experience at CSUSB. Nationally our Yotes are being recognized for the hard work they are putting into their entire educational experience. This year saw Jeronimo Valdepena recognized as one of four finalists, and the top male soccer honoree, for the prestigious Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award given to the top male and female student-athlete of color in the United States. The award factors in athletic success, academics and community engagement. In addition to Jeronimo, student-athletes Tyler Williams this year and Carly Luna last year, were both finalists and the top honorees for baseball and women’s soccer respectively. Our Yotes truly are Defining the Future!
While we don’t get to celebrate victories in competition this year, we can definitely reflect on the tremendous success we achieved last year. Our Yotes can’t wait for fall to celebrate the raising of the Volleyball National Championship Banner in the Coussoulis Arena rafters. What a season it was. It was only the third undefeated season in NCAA Division II Volleyball history. It is truly a team for the ages. To the victor go the spoils. Alexis Cardoza earned every individual award that can be given. In case you need a refresher, Alexis was the unanimous National Player of the Year, First Team All-American, First Team Academic All-American, Regional Player of the Year, Conference Player of the Year and the CSUSB Student-Athlete of the Year. What a year! Yet it wasn’t a one woman show as several of her teammates also achieved national, regional and conference recognition.
Men’s Soccer had its best season in history, narrowly losing in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Championship Tournament and receiving a No. 5 national ranking to end the year. Our first-ever First Team All-American, Frank Daroma, capped his amazing season by recently signing with local soccer powerhouse, LAFC of Major League Soccer, and he will play for their affiliate, the Las Vegas Lights, in 2021.

Men’s Basketball returned to the national rankings in a big way, reaching as high as No. 15 in the country. All of the hard work put in by the team was rewarded with its first NCAA Championship Tournament invitation in six years. While the pandemic prevented us from traveling the road to a national championship, the core of the team will be returning next fall to continue the journey. Four of the team members will be graduating this spring and will begin their master’s programs in fall 2021 as they continue their playing careers at CSUSB. Yotes continue to be champions on the court and in the classroom.

Our cherished partners have continued to support our student-athletes throughout this challenging year. Led by Dignity Health, we have been able provide PPE and other support services to our student-athletes. Dignity Health is a vital member of our community and we are excited to strengthen the relationship in the years to come. We all can’t wait to see our student-athletes back in the freshly renovated Coussoulis Arena playing on our beautiful court emblazoned with Dignity’s logos.
We want to thank the entire CSUSB community for being a crucial member of the Athletics Pack. It is your support that makes all of us #10TEAMSONEPACK. Our student-athletes compete for you. Whether it be our alumni, who have established the legacy that challenges our student-athletes to do more; our colleagues on campus, the faculty and staff that educate our student-athletes and provide the environment for them to succeed; our students who bring the spirit that energizes us all, you all give so much to Athletics with your time and your resources – in a word you are all champions. We thank you and look forward to celebrating in sport with you next year. Go Yotes!

Shawn Chin-Farrell Director of Athletics