A significant coaching arrival and a significant administrator departing. A new coach neatly taking the baton from his predecessor — and running with it. One veteran coach and his team bringing March Madness to the school and alumni. Another veteran coach and team avenging 2021.
Cal State Fullerton enjoyed one of its most successful athletic seasons this century in 2021-22. The Titans won conference titles in men’s basketball, softball and men’s track. It added several individual titles in cross country, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field and men’s indoor track and field. The individual men’s indoor titles, coming from Charles Kelly (60-meter hurdles), Shallamar Poole (high jump) and Christian Wood (long jump) gave the men’s indoor track team three titles — and three school records — in the program’s first season.
The success extended to the CSUF Dance Team, which won the UDA National Championships for the 17th time.
There are moments worth revisiting. Moments like these from the just-concluded 2021-22 season.
Going to the Big Dance
The CSUF men’s basketball team was picked to finish seventh in the Big West Conference Preseason Coaches Poll. The media picked them eighth.
This was all the motivation the Titans needed. They rode All-Big West forward E.J. Anosike to the runner-up spot in the regular season to rival Long Beach State, then beat The Beach, 72-71, in a wild Big West Tournament finale.
That earned the Titans their second NCAA Tournament berth in four years — a first-round date with eventual national semifinalist Duke. The gutty Titans fell, 78-61, beating the 18½-point spread on a last-second dunk and making coach Dedrique Taylor the first coach in program history to lead CSUF to two NCAA Tournament berths. Along the way, he became the only coach in program history to win 20 or more games in two different seasons.
He shall return
Everywhere Jason Dietrich went on his coaching travels, he left teams in better shape than he found them. That included CSUF, where Dietrich served as pitching coach from 2013-16. This made him an ideal pick to replace the retiring Rick Vanderhook as the sixth coach in the history of the school’s marquee program.
In Dietrich, the Titans hired a pitching guru. In his four seasons as CSUF pitching coach, Dietrich’s staff never finished with a team ERA higher than 2.89 or ranked lower than 11th in the country. CSUF led college baseball in one of four major pitching categories nine times in his four seasons.
As the Titans went 22-33 in his first season, Dietrich used the entire season as a teaching session, constantly evaluating every element of the entire program. And, given his history, Dietrich is the perfect architect to rebuild the Titans.
Two for the money
Trinity Ruelas and Sammy Ayala never picked up a golf club. But the duo used the Wildhorse Golf Club in Davis as their setting for history. Ruelas and Ayala captured the Big West individual cross country titles, marking the first time CSUF swept the individual crowns.
Ruelas added another page of history. She became the first Titan woman to win a Division I individual cross country title when she stopped the clock in 20:09 for the 6 kilometers.
Ayala captured the men’s title in a course-record 23:34.5 for the 8 kilometers. He became only the second man in school history to win a Division I conference title and the first since Mike Tansley won back-to-back titles in 1992-93.
After both teams finished second in conference, Ruelas and Ayala led the Titans to their best finishes in the NCAA Division I West Cross Country Regionals: 10th for the women, 11th for the men.
Thank you, sir, may we have another?
First-year track-and-field coach Marques Barosso would be the first to tell you he inherited the established seeds of a dynasty from retired track and field coach John Elders. But Barosso still had to do something with all the talent Elders left him.
He did something with all that talent. The CSUF men’s track team picked up for Barosso where it left off for Elders, winning its second consecutive Big West track and field title. Oh, and the Titans did it with a school-record 200 points, the second-highest total in Big West history.
En route, the Titan men swept the 100 meters, with Cooper Bibbs becoming the fourth Titan in the last six years to win the 100. Alonzo Floriolli and Nathyn Scruggs joined him on the podium. Charles Kelly made his second consecutive podium appearance when he repeated as 110-hurdles and 400-hurdles conference champion.
And Andrew Aguilar set the table for all of it, becoming the Titans’ first conference champion in the decathlon. He gave CSUF a points boost it hadn’t enjoyed.
Back where we belong
In 2021, CSUF went 21-3 in the Big West, yet lost the title to Long Beach State — costing the Titans their fifth consecutive softball conference title as it rankled head coach Kelly Ford.
Ford has a long memory to go with her long view of her program. She and the Titans rectified that oversight this year, winning the Big West for the fifth time in six seasons. The chef’s kiss touch? They took two of three from The Beach in the season’s final weekend to clinch that title.
Heading to the Arizona State regional, the Titans went 1-2, losing to the host Sun Devils, 5-2, beating LSU, 3-2, then falling to San Diego State, 8-5. But along the way to a 37-22 record, CSUF beat ranked Arizona and ranked Northwestern – along with beating San Diego State.
The Titans rebounded to their 13th conference title behind Big West Field Player of the Year Megan Delgadillo, who stole a school- and Big West-record 50 bases. One of the country’s elite igniters, Delgadillo hit .404 and led the conference in hits (80) and runs (57). The sophomore outfielder was one of three All-Big West First team selections, along with Jessi Alcala (.380, 6 home runs, 35 RBI, 24 runs) and Peyton Toto (.367-4-33).
DiTolla departs
Take a walk around the CSUF Athletic Department and Steve DiTolla’s fingerprints are literally everywhere. As the senior associate athletic director and chief financial officer for 35 years, DiTolla played a significant part in nearly every key athletic moment.
He spearheaded the new $15.1 million baseball and softball facilities — when he wasn’t turning the old gymnastics and wrestling offices into an ESPN+ broadcast studio. DiTolla played key roles in hiring Taylor as the men’s basketball coach and Jeff Harada as the women’s coach. He was the point person for hiring every baseball coach from Augie Garrido on his second Titan stint to Dietrich.
And when DiTolla wasn’t in the middle of that, he oversaw event marketing, brand marketing and served as the sports supervisor for the baseball, football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer and men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs. He somehow found time to oversee the upgraded scoreboards in Goodwin Field, Anderson Family Field, Titan Gym, Titan Stadium, the Track & Field Complex and the Tennis Courts.
DiTolla retired this year, closing the curtain on a three-plus decade career that literally changed Titan Athletics for generations.
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