DON STRAMETZ
HEAD COACH

Don Strametz, the 2005 Big West Men’s Coach of the Year, enters his 26th season with the Matador women and 21st with the CSUN men. Cal State Northridge is in its fifth year as a member of the Big West Conference in outdoor track & field and its first as a member of the Western Athletic Conference in indoor track & field. The Matadors will also host the 2006 Big West Outdoor Championships for the second time in the last four years.

Last season, Strametz guided the Matador men to their second
consecutive Big West Outdoor Championship, while the Northridge women finished second. The men’s and women’s squads had 22 athletes receive All-Big West Conference honors during the outdoor season while the women had four receive All-MPSF Indoor accolades and the men had two.

In four seasons in the Big West, 78 Matador athletes have garnered all-conference honors, while 21 athletes have been named all- conference while Northridge competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoors. The Matadors have also excelled in the classroom under Strametz’s tutelage as 75 CSUN student-athletes have earned all- conference academic honors over the last four years.

In 2004, Strametz was named Big West Coach of the Year for both men and women after each squad captured their respectve conference outdoor titles. Strametz also spearheaded Cal State Northirdge’s effort to host the 2004 NCAA West Regionals at the Matador Track & Field Complex. Strametz, also the 2002 Big West Women’s Coach of the Year, has now been honored as Big West outdoor coach of the year four times since 2002.

In 2001, the Matadors closed a five-year run in the Big Sky
Conference as one of the most successful programs both indoor and outdoor. Strametz led the Matador women to three outdoor team championships (1997, 1999, 2000) and one indoor championship (1999). The CSUN men finished as the Big Sky runner-up in 1999. In all, 60 Matador men and women earned All-Big Sky Indoor honors and 86 earned All-Big Sky Outdoor accolades from 1997-2001. Northridge track and field also continued its excellence in the classroom by having 79
student-athletes earn Big Sky All-Academic Indoor season honors and 79 All-Academic Outdoor season honorees over five years.

Strametz has headed both the men’s and women’s track and field teams since 1986. He also heads the Matador men’s and women’s cross country teams. In 1979, he became head coach of the men’s team and in 1980 took over coaching duties for the women. With the addition of indoor track and field in 1992, he is the head coach of six Matador teams.

Strametz’s coaching success has not gone unnoticed by his peers. Strametz was named California Collegiate Athletic Association Women’s Coach of the Year in 1986, 1988 and 1990. For the men’s team, he was honored as top coach of the conference in 1987. That same year, the Northridge coach was named NCAA Western Regional Coach of the Year while serving as President of the NCAA Division II Cross Country Coaches Association.

The Matadors’ first NCAA Division I champion in any sport was crowned in 1991 when All-American Darcy Arreola claimed first-place honors in the 1,500 meters at the NCAA Championships. The achievement capped a solid opening season of Division I competition for the Matador program.

In 1989, he was voted Cal State Northridge Coach of the Year by the intercollegiate athletic program of the university, NCAA Men’s Western Region Coach of the Year and was the recipient of the Honorary Service Award, as voted by his peers. He was also a two-time American West Conference Coach of the Year for both the men’s and women’s squads (1995-96) and the Big Sky Conference Women’s Outdoor Coach of the Year in 1997.

As president of the California-Nevada Track and Field Coaches
Association, Strametz heads an organization dedicated to the
revitalization of track and field on the West Coast. He has been
instrumental in spearheading the annual California-Nevada Track and Field Championships.

Before coming to Northridge, Strametz was the head track and field coach at Locke High School in Los Angeles from 1974-79. He was voted L.A. City Coach of the Year in 1979 after leading his boys’ team to first place in the L.A. City Championship and a runner-up finish in the state championships. He also guided the girls’ team to a state championship in 1977.

Aside from instructing athletes in competition, Strametz has been a professor at Cal State Northridge since 1985. He began his teaching career in 1969 at Locke High School in Los Angeles. After leaving Locke in 1979, he taught at Mount Vernon Junior High School until 1985. In addition to his responsibilities at Mount Vernon, Strametz was an associate professor at Cal State Northridge from 1979-85.

After he graduated from John Muir High School in Pasadena, Strametz enrolled at Cal State Los Angeles, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1968. Strametz also received his master’s degree in physical education from Cal State L.A. in 1975. In his spare time, Strametz enjoys gardening, golfing and the outdoors.

Avery Anderson is in his second season of his second stint with the Matadors Track and Field team. Anderson worked as a volunteer assistant at CSUN during the 1999-2000 season. Anderson will work with the sprinters and muti-event athletes in 2006.

Under Anderson’s tutelage, Justin Johnson (decathlon) and La’Shana Verdon (Heptahlon) finished as runners-up in their respective events at the 2005 Big West Outdoor Championships.
Anderson returned to Cal State Northridge in 2005 after working as a volunteer assistant at Kansas State (2002-04) and UCLA (2001-02).

A native of Lynwood, Calif., Anderson prepped at John W. North High School and competed in football, basketball and track. He was the top-ranked high school high jumper in the country in 1991 and was also named to the Best in the West Top 100 high school football players.

After graduating in 1991, Anderson enrolled at UCLA where he earned All-American honors on the 4x100 meter relay and All-Pac 10 honors as a jumper/hurdler. Anderson also lettered for the Bruins football team from 1992 through 1995. He graduated in 1996 with his bachelor of science degree in political science.
Anderson, also a member of the NFL Players Association, is currently single and resides in Los Angeles, Calif.

SEILALA SUA
ASSISTANT COACH
THROWS
FIRST SEASON
UCLA , 2001

Cal State Northridge head track & field coach Don Strametz has announced the naming of Seilala (Sly) Sua to the Matador track & field coaching staff. Sua will be an assistant coach in charge of the Northridge throwers. She replaces Dale Cowper who accepted an assistant coaching position at the University of Louisville.

We?re extremely excited to have Sly join our coaching staff? said Strametz. ?She has a sound plan for the throws program and I look forward to watching her implement it. Her expertise will give the throws program the opportunity to expand and go further than it ever has before.

A 2001 graduate of UCLA, Sua is the winningest athlete in NCAA track & field history. The seven-time NCAA Champion and 14-time All-American competed in all four throwing events - shot put, discus, hammer and javelin from 1997-2000, where she still ranks in the UCLA all-time top-10 in each of those events. In Pac-10 competition, Sua won six individual titles and was a two-time Pac-10 Women's Track and Field Athlete of the Year. In NCAA competition, she won six Outdoor titles and one indoor crown. Sua won four consecutive discus crowns and became only the second woman in NCAA history to win four straight individual titles in the same event.

As a professional athlete, Sua has continued her collegiate success onto the National and World scene where she has been a member of two Olympic teams in the discus (2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens), four-time USATF National Champion in the discus, one-time USATF National Champion in the shot put and a three-time World Championships competitor. Sua has ranked in the top-10 in the Nation in the discus for eight consecutive years and had the No. 6 mark in the world in 2001. While competing in the shot put, she also ranked in the top-10 nationally for seven consecutive years. Sua graduated in 2001 with a degree in Sociology and continues to train and compete professionally.

BRIDGET PEARSON
ASSISTANT COACH
POLE VAULT/STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
SECOND SEASON
UCLA, 2004

Bridget Pearson enters her second season on the Northridge coaching staff in 2007. Pearson is in charge of the Matador pole vaulters as well as strength and conditioning.

In her first season, Pearson helped junior Sean Jones to a second place finish in the men's pole vault at the 2006 Big West Outdoor Championships.

A 2004 graduate of UCLA, Pearson comes to Cal State Northridge after serving the 2004-05 season as the head track & field coach at Hoover High School in Glendale, Calif. Prior to that, Pearson was the head cross country coach at Hoover during the 2003-04 season. She also gained coaching experience at her alma mater working as a coaching assistant at UCLA?s pre-vault camp in 2001. Pearson competed as a pole vaulter at UCLA from 1999-2004, winning the Irish Nationals in 2000. She prepped at Hoover High School where she was an All-American in the pole vault all four years. Pearson was the state champion in 1997 and claimed the CIF title in 1999 and went on to finish fourth at nationals. She also competed in volleyball and water polo before graduating in 1999.

Pearson currently resides in Tarzana, Calif.