DECEMBER 26, 2023 — Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Sombrilla Magazine.
From the day Athletics Director Lisa Campos arrived at UTSA in the spring of 2018, she was putting together a game plan. Literally.
Much like UTSA President Taylor Eighmy, who was hired months before her, Campos could envision the vast potential that the university could have in San Antonio and beyond. As Eighmy and the institution put a strong emphasis on achieving the coveted Carnegie R1 research status, Campos and her staff set out to win championships and the hearts of a sports-obsessed community eager to embrace something bold and exciting.
The “Roadrunner Game Plan” placed a renewed focus on the student-athlete experience, a culture of excellence and a new era of community engagement. With those three missions in mind, Campos got to work.
“Five years ago, we put together the aspirational vision that we wanted to transform lives as San Antonio’s nationally recognized Division I program,” Campos recalls. “We’ve been fortunate to have university leaders, community leaders, donors, coaches, staff and student-athletes who also believe in that aspirational vision.”
Campos collaborated with the city, county, donors and the Roadrunner Foundation to fund and construct the long-awaited Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence (RACE), the biggest piece in a strategy to enhance UTSA’s athletics facilities. She hired up-and-coming coaches such as Jeff Traylor and Derek Pittman, who have already led the football and soccer programs to conference championships, as well as acclaimed coaches like Karen Aston, Pat Hallmark and Sergey Avdeyev, who are ushering in new eras for the women’s basketball, baseball and men’s tennis teams. And, in a watershed moment for college athletics and sports culture at large, she partnered with activist Brenda Tracy to adopt the most comprehensive serious misconduct rule in the NCAA.
These and other efforts over the past five years have given UTSA a new air of legitimacy for student-athletes, coaches and athletics staffers across the nation. The ripple effect made its way to the playing fields and courts, where the Roadrunners have thrilled fans both in the Alamo City and beyond.
“UTSA Athletics has been on a roll in recent years, attracting top-tier coaches, winning championships and investing in impressive new facilities,” says San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “And as the Roadrunners reach greater heights in multiple sports, San Antonio’s support for UTSA gets stronger year by year.”
“I hear the stories every day. Whether they’re from New York or California, people are really paying attention to UTSA in a way they weren’t before,” Campos adds.
Like nearly all college athletic programs in 2020 and 2021, UTSA had to persevere through the pandemic’s effects including lost revenue and necessary cuts to budgets and salaries across the department. Yet by the end of 2021, UTSA Athletics was experiencing a high previously unreached — celebrating its first-ever conference championship in football, enjoying its recently opened digs at RACE and preparing for a major move from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference in 2023. Campos’ peers have taken note.
“UTSA’s presence has elevated in a significant way since Lisa took over as their director of athletics,” says Heather Lyke, athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh and winner of the 2023 Cushman and Wakefield Athletic Director of the Year award. “As we all know, it is never about one person, one coach or one student-athlete, but her leadership, thoughtful decision making, hiring decisions and overall vision to improve the program has been noticed and should be commended.”
“In her five years, Lisa and her team have done an incredible job of building the UTSA Athletics brand in Texas and nationally,” adds Mack Rhoades, athletic director at Baylor University. “She has made some great hires and has built an infrastructure that will sustain success into the future, keeping the UTSA name nationally relevant as an institution.”
Bob Bowlsby, a prominent figure in college athletics, also feels that Campos and UTSA’s constituents deserve commendation. He knows what it takes for athletic directors to thrive and institutions to make an impact. Bowlsby was the athletic director at the University of Iowa and Stanford University, guiding both departments to prosperous eras before serving as commissioner of the Big 12 Conference until his retirement in 2022.
“I don’t know that there’s any place in the state of Texas that has evolved more in the last five years than UTSA,” Bowlsby says before swiftly turning his attention to the next wave of investment UTSA will need to excel in The American. “The worst thing for your laurels is resting on them. The university will have to continue to ploy for more resources and work to keep the right people in place.”
Strategic action will indeed be necessary to gain ground in The American, and that effort is already underway. UTSA Athletics recently unveiled “Roadrunner Game Plan 2.0,” with an eye on enhancing facilities and providing more support for student-athletes, coaches and staff. Meanwhile, UTSA Athletics, working with the university’s office of Advancement and Alumni Engagement, has also launched the Bold Champions in The American fundraising campaign to help the Roadrunners keep pace in their new conference.
“We’re not taking our foot off the pedal,” Campos says. “We’re going to keep moving forward.”
At this crucial precipice, Sombrilla Magazine looks back at the university’s recent athletic accomplishments, reflects on the Roadrunners’ rising status in sports culture, and looks forward to UTSA’s promising future in the American Athletic Conference.
Read the full article at the Sombrilla Magazine website.
