Grand Canyon University Athletics
Decade toted titles, no entitlement
2/12/2020 6:37:00 PM | General, Paul Coro
Successful Division I transition highlighted GCU's 2010s
In 2010, Grand Canyon University's Antelope logo sported front and hind hooves meeting below its purple body's midsection. It was redesigned during the decade into a running Lope as the athletic program stretched its legs and found its stride with its 2013 move to NCAA Division I.
While GCU was winning back-to-back Division II Director's Cups, a team could not fit at once in a 400-square-foot weight room and coaches stocked concession stands, monitored study hall and repaired sprinklers.
Competitive success and an administrative commitment to facilities and resources led to unprecedented achievements for a Division I transition and a haul of 29 WAC regular-season and postseason team championships despite most sports being postseason ineligible until 2017.
When GCU announced its move to Division I in 2012 at GCU Arena, which had opened the year before, President Brian Mueller predicted that the ascension would "raise our University's profile and illuminate the great things happening at Grand Canyon."
That held true and then some.
Many programs' continued success and high-profile coaching hires Dan Majerle (men's basketball), Andy Stankiewicz (baseball) and Nicole Powell (women's basketball) put GCU on the collegiate sports map with Lope Nation fandom and a blossoming campus connection in tow.
"You can feel it building, the sense of community, the way the athletic teams support each other, the way the athletes that graduate come back and want to stay part of the program," Mueller said. "We don't have athletic dorms. We don't have special training tables that they eat at. They eat with the students. They live in the dormitories with the students.
"The bond that is formed there is why we have 3,000 students at basketball games, why there's such a support of atmosphere. Because our athletes are part of the community, which is why our thing is different."
A not-so-chance meeting
Early in the decade, GCU leadership decided to pursue Division I membership.
"It's because of Division I athletics that you can be at a Christian university but have a big university feel and experience," Mueller said.
Acquisition of that status was made possible by the University's relationship with Phoenix sports and business icon Jerry Colangelo, a former Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks, Phoenix Mercury and Arizona Rattlers managing partner who had shifted to the post of USA Basketball managing director when Mueller met him.
Mueller joined Colangelo at the NCAA men's basketball Final Four when Colangelo told Mueller he was to "coincidentally" walk by his breakfast meeting with NCAA President Mark Emmert.
"The whole night, I'm worried," said Mueller, a former men's basketball head coach at Concordia in Nebraska. "What's too close? What's not close enough? What if he doesn't see me? Do I walk back through?"
The plan worked. Colangelo spotted Mueller and called him over to the table, introducing the University-transforming president to Emmert by saying, "Tell him the GCU story."
A month later, Emmert was visiting Phoenix when Colangelo surprised him with a detour to GCU's campus, where Mueller gave him a three-hour tour. At the end, Mueller overheard Emmert on the phone with a WAC official, saying, "You need these people. They want to go Division I."
Three weeks later, GCU was invited to join the WAC to start its Division I journey.
A decade of perspective
Few might have a better perspective for the decade's athletic transformation than Keith Smith, a volleyball player who arrived as one of the 1,500 freshmen who constituted the majority of GCU's student body in the fall of 2010. Ten years later, Smith is a Lopes men's volleyball assistant coach for a program that has been nationally ranked in Division I.
"I tell the players all the time how lucky they are to be here," Smith said. "I keep telling my mom, 'Why couldn't I have been born four years later?' That would've been perfect."
Smith saw the evolution in facilities, competition and support. He played at GCU through 2015, worked as a Lopes volunteer assistant coach in 2016 and returned to the program as a full-time assistant in 2018.
He said campus pride has swelled over the decade because Lopes teams brought entertainment and recognition, which made it easier for him to recruit when he became a coach.
"It probably makes a little bit more special to go through what it was and help in the start of building something respectable," said Smith, GCU's career assists leader. "It makes it more fun. There's a place in my heart for growing this program as much as it can."
A Division II base of success
Division I success would not have come as readily without the base of Division II success. Before the transition, current coaches Ann Pierson (softball), Steve Schaffer (men's and women's swimming and diving), Dr. Greg Prudhomme (men's and women's tennis), Tom Flood (men's and women's track and field) and Stankiewicz already were winning.
Pierson arrived at GCU in 2003 and loved competing in Division II, even if it meant canceling a practice so coaches and players could paint the dugout and fix sprinkler heads.
"Being successful in Division II was hard," Pierson said. "We all had the mindset of winning and taking it to the next level. The Division I transition was huge for us – beyond exciting and it's still exciting. Everything keeps moving forward. You can look back and see where the foundation was because there were a lot of good things about the University."
Pierson coached GCU's first regular-season WAC champion, a 2014 team picked to finish last, and the first Lopes team to knock off a top-ranked opponent when GCU downed defending national champion Florida State last year.
That quintet of coaches who came from GCU's Division II era has accumulated 25 WAC championships (15 in indoor and outdoor track and field), finished 35th at nationals (men's swimming in 2018), reached an NCAA tournament (men's tennis in 2019) and groomed three All-America honorees (swimmer Mark Nikolaev, javelin thrower Jesse Newman and pole vaulter Scott Marshall).
Stankiewicz, a former Major League Baseball player, came aboard in 2011 and has won 252 games in eight seasons. His staff landed a recruiting class that was ranked 30th in the nation last fall because of three WAC regular-season titles and a new ballpark with batting cages, but also because of the increase in academic support for student-athletes.
"All that is huge in trying to build a program that is going to be competitive," Stankiewicz said. "That's where we've been able to come a long way. From a resource standpoint, it's neat the way they've allowed us to coach and recruit and do what we need to do to be competitive. Those are the things that helped us turn the corner.
"We couldn't get Power 5 teams to return our calls when we first got here. Now, people recognize the University and what it's about."
A building project
To build a Division I program, GCU needed to build facilities. The key was GCU Arena, which opened as a 4,238-seat venue in 2011 and expanded to 7,000 seats in 2014.
Two years later, Lopes soccer teams were playing in 6,000-seat GCU Stadium, the tennis teams moved to campus courts and the golf teams benefited when a nearby municipal course was renovated into GCU Championship Golf Course, complete with a new clubhouse.
In 2017, 1,000-seat GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium opened, and the next year brought the opening of 4,000-seat Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark and 1,200-seat GCU Softball Stadium. The basketball teams also unveiled a practice facility that year, and the 66,000-square-foot Lope Performance Center was expanded from its 2010 construction.
Nothing built up GCU athletics' stature more than the 2013 hiring of Majerle, a basketball legend and a Phoenix favorite for his years as an All-Star player, broadcaster and assistant coach with the Suns. His presence paired with the Havocs environment to make GCU basketball a must-watch and a dangerous opponent that won 20 or more games each season from 2015-16 to 2018-19.
"When I took this job, I said for us to be successful, it's not just going to be the coaching staff and the players," Majerle said. "It's going to be the student body, the faculty, the administration. We have such a great support staff for everybody."
Lopes basketball has scheduled bluebloods Duke, Kentucky and Indiana and played before national television audiences. GCU Arena has posted the highest men's basketball attendance by arena capacity percentage in the nation and become the definitive student environment. It is filled annually for Midnight Madness, and students camp out overnight on the Quad for the best seats and moments like the 2016 court-storming when GCU defeated WAC power New Mexico State for the first time.
"The feeling here is unbelievable," Majerle said. "This is a special place. I'm very lucky to be here and be a part of this University. I thank God every time I wake up and am able to come here."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
While GCU was winning back-to-back Division II Director's Cups, a team could not fit at once in a 400-square-foot weight room and coaches stocked concession stands, monitored study hall and repaired sprinklers.
Competitive success and an administrative commitment to facilities and resources led to unprecedented achievements for a Division I transition and a haul of 29 WAC regular-season and postseason team championships despite most sports being postseason ineligible until 2017.
When GCU announced its move to Division I in 2012 at GCU Arena, which had opened the year before, President Brian Mueller predicted that the ascension would "raise our University's profile and illuminate the great things happening at Grand Canyon."
That held true and then some.
Many programs' continued success and high-profile coaching hires Dan Majerle (men's basketball), Andy Stankiewicz (baseball) and Nicole Powell (women's basketball) put GCU on the collegiate sports map with Lope Nation fandom and a blossoming campus connection in tow.
"You can feel it building, the sense of community, the way the athletic teams support each other, the way the athletes that graduate come back and want to stay part of the program," Mueller said. "We don't have athletic dorms. We don't have special training tables that they eat at. They eat with the students. They live in the dormitories with the students.
"The bond that is formed there is why we have 3,000 students at basketball games, why there's such a support of atmosphere. Because our athletes are part of the community, which is why our thing is different."
A not-so-chance meeting
Early in the decade, GCU leadership decided to pursue Division I membership.
"It's because of Division I athletics that you can be at a Christian university but have a big university feel and experience," Mueller said.
Acquisition of that status was made possible by the University's relationship with Phoenix sports and business icon Jerry Colangelo, a former Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks, Phoenix Mercury and Arizona Rattlers managing partner who had shifted to the post of USA Basketball managing director when Mueller met him.
Mueller joined Colangelo at the NCAA men's basketball Final Four when Colangelo told Mueller he was to "coincidentally" walk by his breakfast meeting with NCAA President Mark Emmert.
"The whole night, I'm worried," said Mueller, a former men's basketball head coach at Concordia in Nebraska. "What's too close? What's not close enough? What if he doesn't see me? Do I walk back through?"
The plan worked. Colangelo spotted Mueller and called him over to the table, introducing the University-transforming president to Emmert by saying, "Tell him the GCU story."
A month later, Emmert was visiting Phoenix when Colangelo surprised him with a detour to GCU's campus, where Mueller gave him a three-hour tour. At the end, Mueller overheard Emmert on the phone with a WAC official, saying, "You need these people. They want to go Division I."
Three weeks later, GCU was invited to join the WAC to start its Division I journey.
A decade of perspective
Few might have a better perspective for the decade's athletic transformation than Keith Smith, a volleyball player who arrived as one of the 1,500 freshmen who constituted the majority of GCU's student body in the fall of 2010. Ten years later, Smith is a Lopes men's volleyball assistant coach for a program that has been nationally ranked in Division I.
"I tell the players all the time how lucky they are to be here," Smith said. "I keep telling my mom, 'Why couldn't I have been born four years later?' That would've been perfect."
Smith saw the evolution in facilities, competition and support. He played at GCU through 2015, worked as a Lopes volunteer assistant coach in 2016 and returned to the program as a full-time assistant in 2018.
He said campus pride has swelled over the decade because Lopes teams brought entertainment and recognition, which made it easier for him to recruit when he became a coach.
"It probably makes a little bit more special to go through what it was and help in the start of building something respectable," said Smith, GCU's career assists leader. "It makes it more fun. There's a place in my heart for growing this program as much as it can."
A Division II base of success
Division I success would not have come as readily without the base of Division II success. Before the transition, current coaches Ann Pierson (softball), Steve Schaffer (men's and women's swimming and diving), Dr. Greg Prudhomme (men's and women's tennis), Tom Flood (men's and women's track and field) and Stankiewicz already were winning.
Pierson arrived at GCU in 2003 and loved competing in Division II, even if it meant canceling a practice so coaches and players could paint the dugout and fix sprinkler heads.
"Being successful in Division II was hard," Pierson said. "We all had the mindset of winning and taking it to the next level. The Division I transition was huge for us – beyond exciting and it's still exciting. Everything keeps moving forward. You can look back and see where the foundation was because there were a lot of good things about the University."
Pierson coached GCU's first regular-season WAC champion, a 2014 team picked to finish last, and the first Lopes team to knock off a top-ranked opponent when GCU downed defending national champion Florida State last year.
That quintet of coaches who came from GCU's Division II era has accumulated 25 WAC championships (15 in indoor and outdoor track and field), finished 35th at nationals (men's swimming in 2018), reached an NCAA tournament (men's tennis in 2019) and groomed three All-America honorees (swimmer Mark Nikolaev, javelin thrower Jesse Newman and pole vaulter Scott Marshall).
Stankiewicz, a former Major League Baseball player, came aboard in 2011 and has won 252 games in eight seasons. His staff landed a recruiting class that was ranked 30th in the nation last fall because of three WAC regular-season titles and a new ballpark with batting cages, but also because of the increase in academic support for student-athletes.
"All that is huge in trying to build a program that is going to be competitive," Stankiewicz said. "That's where we've been able to come a long way. From a resource standpoint, it's neat the way they've allowed us to coach and recruit and do what we need to do to be competitive. Those are the things that helped us turn the corner.
"We couldn't get Power 5 teams to return our calls when we first got here. Now, people recognize the University and what it's about."
A building project
To build a Division I program, GCU needed to build facilities. The key was GCU Arena, which opened as a 4,238-seat venue in 2011 and expanded to 7,000 seats in 2014.
Two years later, Lopes soccer teams were playing in 6,000-seat GCU Stadium, the tennis teams moved to campus courts and the golf teams benefited when a nearby municipal course was renovated into GCU Championship Golf Course, complete with a new clubhouse.
In 2017, 1,000-seat GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium opened, and the next year brought the opening of 4,000-seat Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark and 1,200-seat GCU Softball Stadium. The basketball teams also unveiled a practice facility that year, and the 66,000-square-foot Lope Performance Center was expanded from its 2010 construction.
Nothing built up GCU athletics' stature more than the 2013 hiring of Majerle, a basketball legend and a Phoenix favorite for his years as an All-Star player, broadcaster and assistant coach with the Suns. His presence paired with the Havocs environment to make GCU basketball a must-watch and a dangerous opponent that won 20 or more games each season from 2015-16 to 2018-19.
"When I took this job, I said for us to be successful, it's not just going to be the coaching staff and the players," Majerle said. "It's going to be the student body, the faculty, the administration. We have such a great support staff for everybody."
Lopes basketball has scheduled bluebloods Duke, Kentucky and Indiana and played before national television audiences. GCU Arena has posted the highest men's basketball attendance by arena capacity percentage in the nation and become the definitive student environment. It is filled annually for Midnight Madness, and students camp out overnight on the Quad for the best seats and moments like the 2016 court-storming when GCU defeated WAC power New Mexico State for the first time.
"The feeling here is unbelievable," Majerle said. "This is a special place. I'm very lucky to be here and be a part of this University. I thank God every time I wake up and am able to come here."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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