American River College Dean of Athletics Greg Warzecka has been operating as the president of the Big 8 Conference this academic year.
The Big 8 governs the athletics of eight community colleges in California (ARC, Sacramento City, Cosumnes River, Diablo Valley, Modesto, San Joaquin Delta, Santa Rosa, and Sierra).
The Deans of Athletics for the eight colleges switch off alphabetically each year. Warzecka has been ARC’s Dean of Athletics since Fall 2012.
When asked what his goals will be as president, Warzecka replied “continuity and a balanced budget.”
“I’ve done this type of work before,” Warzecka said. “It’s something you do to help the administration of a sports conference. The president runs meetings and conferences during the year, meets with the commissioner, and casts the conference vote on new legislation for the CCCAA convention April 1-3.”
The California Community College Athletic Association Convention in Los Angeles determines policies for the different sports conferences in the state.
Warzecka also handles appeals for student athletes that are kicked out of games.
“One of the jobs of the president is to handle any appeals that come in,” he said. “I work with Michael (Liddell) on decorum violations for student athletes, if they get kicked out.”
He also “handles the updates to the sports supplements, the rules and regulations, and how the schedules are put together, and how the sports and championships are conducted.”
Warzecka praised the Big 8 Conference, which he described as “one of the biggest and most successful.”
“We host ten other schools who have sports without a main conference, such as track and field and men and womens golf,” he added.
Michael Liddell, the Commissioner of the Big 8 Conference, had nothing but praise for Warzecka.
“He’s fantastic,” Lidell said. “A great wealth of understanding. He’s a wonderful administrator and he’s my president and I couldn’t be more happy.”
“He’s approachable and very enthusiastic and articulate,” Lidell added.
Warzecka has worked at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Davis, San Francisco State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Redlands.
Most notably, he was the Director of Athletics for the University of California, Davis, for 16 years.
Warzecka says that he likes being the Director of Athletics at ARC.
“I enjoy my work here at ARC,” he said, adding that being the Big 8 President is “one of those things you do for the good of the order. There’s plenty of work to do here, and it pulls attention away.”