After 15 years at the helm of the Cal Poly athletic department, athletic director Don Oberhelman announced last week that he is retiring.
One of President Jeffrey Armstrong’s very first hires when he became President of Cal Poly was Oberhelman who came over from San Diego State.
Last week it was announced that it was time to step away into retirement, an announcement he said was in the works for the last few years.
“It's purely a family decision," Oberhelman said. "My wife and I had targeted 2025 for a while. My parents retired when they were in their mid 50's and seemed to just have the most wonderful life after retirement.”
Oberhelman leaves at an interesting time.
On one hand, Cal Poly athletics is trending upward with student-athlete success across multiple sports shown by their recent Big West Commissioner’s Cup trophy which highlights an athletic departments overall accomplishments across all sports.
It also comes at a time where tough decisions have had to be made with the elimination of the swim and dive program due to budget concerns as well as the changing landscape of college athletics with the House vs. NCAA settlement that has had rippling impacts across all sports.
“I hate leaving with such change coming and the changes we've had to make," Oberhelman admitted. "But the time feels right to hand the baton to a new leader. You know, I've been in this sprint for 15 years now. It's time to let somebody else have it. It's time to let somebody else start the race. I'm at the end of it. I'm tired.”
Coinciding with his retirement announcement was the the final deadline for the swim and dive program to come up with $20 million by June 15. By Sunday they had reached $9 million according to former swim and dive coach Kim Carlson. Even with high hopes that it would be enough, President Armstrong released a statement Monday explaining that:
"I appreciate the efforts of many to attempt to raise the permanent funds needed to reinstate the swimming and diving programs at Cal Poly. While I appreciate the significant annual support and revocable bequests that have been identified, the fundraising effort has fallen well short of the goal to reinstate the program. As a result, the university is unable to reinstate the swimming and diving programs."
Oberhelman will continue in his role until a suitable replacement is found. Since 2011 he has overseen 54 conference championships with student-athletes sporting a 93% graduation rate, meanwhile his replacement will have to adjust to some of the budget constraints facing CSU’s as well as figure out how to fund a successful athletic department at a time where name, image and likeness and player compensation are a must have for competitive programs.
“We are at a great point in terms of our success with some of the changes coming," Oberhelman added. "What that looks like with the whole settlement, the national landscape, what's what the budget stuff is going to look like, we're going to leave it in the best shape we can for the next person to have a wild success here.”
Oberhelman explained that it’s uncertain exactly when his last day will be, but he will be around to help in whatever capacity he’s needed for the final preparations of the Madden Football Center which is slated to be done by the early part of 2026.
