ANAHEIM – Chico State University Athletic Director Anita Barker received the 2009-10 Division II West Region Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) annual convention Thursday. Barker oversaw the Wildcats’ seventh straight top-25 finish in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup as nine of Chico State’s 13 intercollegiate athletic programs advanced to the NCAA Championships during this academic year.
Set to enter her ninth year as the athletic director, Barker has worked tirelessly to ensure that each of Chico State’s 13 athletic programs has the tools to compete at the highest levels of NCAA Division II. The results prove that she’s been wildly successful.
All 13 programs have earned at least one trip to the NCAA Championship Tournament and eight of the 13 have participated in the “Big Dance” on five or more occasions under Barker’s watch. She has resided over 72 postseason berths, 65 NCAA Championship Tournament berths, 33 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) titles, 17 NCAA Championship West Region titles, and nine NCAA titles.
This year, Chico State finished 12th in the Directors’ Cup out of almost 300 NCAA Division II schools, earning 10 postseason berths, nine NCAA Championship Tournament berths, four CCAA titles, two NCAA Championship West Region titles, and a national title.
“I’m so happy for Anita. I’m just surprised that this is the first of these awards she’s been given,” said Chico State Head Track & Field Coach Kirk Freitas. “I’ve worked for and with a lot of athletic directors in my 30 years of coaching and I can say without a doubt that Anita is the best of them all. She is the reason we are where we are right now as a department.”
Barker graduated from Ohio Northern University in 1985 and received her master’s from the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1987. She has worked at all three divisions in the NCAA.
