Fresno State Focus: Radio Edition 04/06/2024
Terry Tumey is out as AD. We’ll talk about the new direction the school is taking. Spring is in the air. We take a look into how farmers around the valley are getting ready and we take a look at some fun summer activities, including working on the King’s River. Fresno State-focused radio edition starts now.
Good Morning, and thank you for joining us. I’m Bryan Welch, and I’m Al Scott. Fresno State decided to part ways with athletic director Terry Tumey last month. Tumey was hired in June of 2018 by former university president Joseph Castro. The school decided to give him a two-year extension last February. Tumey is still owed 80% of his salary, which amounts to $312,000. In a statement, Fresno State President Saul Jimenez Sandoval says that he sincerely appreciates Terry’s six years of dedicated service to Fresno State and the support he has provided to our campus community and, most importantly, to our student-athletes.
In the interim, Sandoval has appointed Rob Acunto to oversee the athletic department while the school does a nationwide search to find Tumey’s replacement. Acunto was originally hired last August as deputy director of athletics after spending the previous four years as the athletic director at Presbyterian College.
You know, Bryan, you’d have Justin Hudson getting fired a few days before, and now you have Terry Tumey gone. What’s up with the Fresno State Athletics?
I don’t know. I mean, that’s the big unknown. I mean, you fire the head coach for basketball and then out of nowhere, Terry Tumey is let go. It’s kind of like, OK, Terry Tumey was a really good athletic director, he was very visible in the public, he was very gracious with his time with the athletic department. But it’s kind of like now, who do you go for now? Do you go get yourself an athletic director first, or do you get yourself a head coach for men’s basketball? There’s a lot of unanswered questions right now.
Fresno State, they never really gave a reason as to why Tumey was let go, but there were several factors that probably led into it. Obviously, Measure E not passing, the lack of progression in regards to the Elevate campaign and of course, Fresno State basketball, both men’s and women’s team struggling. The men’s program has not been to the NCAA tournament since 2016 and they haven’t won a game since the early 2000s.
And also, I mean, you look at the last time they were in the postseason, which was in 2022.
It tells me that Fresno State they don’t want to wait around and just do nothing they want to see action and you’ll see that even though they gave them an extension they’re not afraid to spend money to see progress.
The biggest event on campus is back at Fresno State, that is the 50th annual vintage days which is set to take place on campus from April 19th through the 21st. The three-day event will feature local businesses, food vendors, a gaming area petting zoo cosplay event and much more. The highlight of the weekend will be the birthday block party on Saturday the 20th, featuring a drone show.
Today is the first day to head out to the 86 annual Big Hat Days in Clovis. Our Emily Crabtree talked with the event organizers about what to expect.
Old Town Clovis has an electric energy this week as they set up for the 86th annual Big Hat Day event. Priscilla Montell is the director of operations and events for the Clovis Chamber of Commerce. She says Big Hat Days is a staple in the community.
“So, it is the largest street festival in the Central Valley. We take 13 blocks, and it is an outdoor street festival,” says Montell.
For 86 years, vendors from all over have come to show off their wares.
Montell says, “We have about almost 400 vendors, craft vendors, commercial vendors, and businesses that are exhibiting.”
And the vendors are not the only ones who are getting business. Big hat days have a big effect on the local economy.
“You know, these people are purchasing gas here and they’re eating here and they’re staying here and they end up becoming regulars and they enjoy coming back to visit our community,” says Montell.
And there truly is so much to do at Big Hat Days, not only for adults but for kids, too. There are plenty of vendors, tons of food and a whole section with rides for the kids. And if you want to add another member to your family while you’re out there, local animal shelters will be there trying to find forever homes for their adorable adoptables. The last day to visit Big Hat Days is tomorrow. So if you’re thinking about joining in on the fun, that’ll be your last day to visit until it comes back around next year. But don’t worry, The Clovis rodeo is on its way to town in Clovis.
You know what? Big Hat Days are here. I can’t wait to get my big hat in Old Town Clovis.
Well, you do have a big head, so you’re going to have to get a really big hat.
What type of hat would you get in Old Town Clovis, if you had a chance to go to Big Hat Days?
You know, with the rodeo coming up, I think a cowboy hat would fit me perfectly. You know, I recently got some cowboy boots. I’m going to get my lasso on. It’s gonna be a fun time.
Well, the rodeo is right around the corner. So speaking of things going on in the valley, it’s growing season here, and the valley is famous for growing fruits and vegetables, and another season of picking is right around the corner. I was able to talk with the president of the Fresno County Farm Bureau about what is in season.
The San Joaquin Valley is home to plenty of fruits and vegetables, and picking season is right around the corner, the beginning of April is blueberry season president of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, Ryan Jacobsen mentions that blueberries and stone fruit take center stage in the agricultural realm of the valley.
Jacobsen says, “We’re in this transition stage, so there’s still citrus going on very heavily. We have some of our seasonal vegetables that are being picked in the county right now, such as broccoli as well as lettuce. And as we transition to over the course of the next couple of weeks now going through the month of April, we will see a big transition towards blueberries, toward Stonefruit, Peaches and Plums.”
More blueberries have been grown in California over the last 20 years, especially in Tulare and Fresno counties. The region’s climate plays a role in the growth of these blueberries.
Jacobsen says, “So blueberries work here for a combination of a few reasons. Obviously, we can grow just about anything we want here in the San Joaquin Valley simply because of our incredible weather. We have phenomenal soils that are literally world renowned. You know, you put some water with it and some pretty incredible things can happen.”
Jacobsen mentions that blueberries are thanks to Emmanuel Jimenez of the U.C. Cooperative Extension, who is a pioneer in growing different varieties of blueberries in the Valley. Watch out for valley blueberries in grocery stores, and farm stands around town.
If you’re looking for a farm fresh produce, check out the Fresno County Farm Bureau website to see what else will be hitting farm stands around the valley soon.
Even though the 2024 Blossom Trail season is over, there is still a lot to be excited about in the upcoming weeks. Starting in May, all of the stuff you see on the trees will begin turning into the fruit and nuts that make the Central Valley well known.
Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen told ABC30 in 2023 what makes the Blossom Trail so special. The beautiful blossoms represent crops such as almonds, apples, apricots, cherries, citrus, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums and pluots. Even though the Blossom Trail doesn’t run through Fresno, it is just a short drive south to Reedley and Sanger.
Located next to the Fresno State Library, the Fresno State Peace Garden pays tribute to some of the most well-known pioneers in history, and the Peace Garden visitors can find statues of icons such as Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Jane Addams. In the future, the Peace Garden will introduce statues honoring the Yokuts and Mono tribes, as well as Nelson Mandela.
Jane Addams was the latest of the statues to be unveiled, as it debuted in 2006, while Gandhi was unveiled in 1990. Outside of statues, two trees were planted in 2002 to honor two Fresno State alumni who died in the 9/11 attacks.
With summer coming up, Dylan Gonzales gives us a deep dive into the Kings River rafting expedition.
For Fresno State students looking to get outdoors in the spring and the summer, the Kings River expedition started its 2024 season on March 28th. The camp is located east of Fresno. It offers one day trips and two day trips. Kings River Expedition has been around for over 50 years and has always had a close relationship with Fresno State. Fresno State offers a whitewater rafting course where students can learn the basics of rafting.
Casey Cornell is in his second year as owner after taking over for Fresno State Professor Justin Butcher. Cornell says a lot of Fresno State students are unaware of the access that they have to whitewater rafting and how simple it is to join the staff as a guide.
“We always have a booth at Fresno State looking for college students who are interested in guiding. They can always go to our website and go to the careers tab.”
Along with whitewater rafting, the one day trip also includes a barbecue lunch, while the two day trip includes four meals in ten acres full of camping ground for groups. The busiest time of the year for the Kings River expedition is typically May and June, due to the warm weather.
“The water has always pretty chilly, but just the hot air outside makes you you’re begging to get hit by a wave.”
With how hot Fresno gets in the summer, I’m for sure going to hit the raft sometime this summer. How about you, Al? Are you going to go raft down the Kings River?
Where you can expect me to be is at Millerton Lake this summer. I look forward to a nice warm day out by the lake. My family, last year we went jet skiing for the first time and that was just one of the most fun days I’ve ever had, driving around at 40 miles an hour on a jet ski blasting waves, yeah, until I fell off and flipped my mom over.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Did you fall off?
I’m a fall risk, Bryan, you know that. But it’s always a fun time in Millerton, you know, the Pincushion trail, the nice views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it’s a really good time. It’s a great way to cool off.
Well, especially when it’s 110 in the Fresno area. You have to cool off somewhere.
You know, some days, it might even get 115. Those summers are a hot one.
Regardless, the weather is going to be beautiful on the river in the next two months.
Moving on to weather in the Fresno area and the San Joaquin Valley. At the end of March, we saw roller coaster weather with warm and cool temperatures that brought rain during spring break. But in the month of April, we will see a chance of warmer temperatures. This week, we saw temperatures in the high seventies and a big drop in temperatures in the fifties. The whole valley might see some rain today and tomorrow. The valley will be drying out in the next week, and temperatures will be in the seventies, which everyone in the valley loves during the year. That is your focus on the weather. Back to Al at the news desk.
Now, it is something you are waiting for. The Welch, Scott Sports Report.
The Fresno State baseball team has been on a hot streak as of late after sweeping UNLV over the weekend in Las Vegas. The Diamond Dogs are sitting at the top of the conference standings with a record of nine and three. Fresno State welcomes the Wolf Pack of Nevada for a three-game series this weekend at Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium. The Wolfpack are seven and four in Mountain West play going into the weekend. This is the only meeting between the Wolfpack and the Diamond Dogs in the regular season, which means wins are important for Fresno State. This is the biggest series of the season, Al.
Three final series at home at Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium. The Bulldogs have, of course, been hitting the ball around. Their top three starters, though, were what I want to talk about. Jake Dickson, Noah Beal, Jack Anker. It is as good a one, two, three as there is in the Mountain West Conference. And frankly, on the West Coast, Jack Anker is looking like a potential Mountain West pitcher of the year, and Dickson’s right there with him, Noah Beal. Any start, he might strike out twelve. There really is just a lights-out trio there. There’s a lot to love.
What about hitting? You have Rocco Peppi you have Eddie Saldivar batting lead off Grady Morgan. That lineup is really scary to face for opposing pitchers because, you know, everybody one through nine are going to hit that ball really well.
You mentioned Eddie Saldivar’s name. In all my years of watching Fresno State baseball, I have never seen a better leadoff hitter than Eddie Saldivar. Whether it’s getting hit by pitch, walking, poking a ball through the gap, whether it’s laying down a bunt, he finds ways to get on. He is the ideal table setter and table setter he is he’s got a lot of guys behind him, mean, you mentioned Rocco Peppi and Grady Morgan.
Morgan’s hitting the ball out of the ballpark with ease right now. One guy that really has been quiet, though, is Murf Gray freshman player of the year last year. He’s had his ups and downs, but at times he’s hitting the ball with the best of them as well. I think as you get towards the end of the season, he is the guy that is the X Factor or the Bulldogs going to be this fringe conference champion, you know, in the mix? Or do they want to be a national…do they want to be a perennial powerhouse? Are they going to be a contender in Omaha at the end of the year?
We have to get to the regionals first. You have to win your conference first before you can talk about going into the regional, super-regional and going into Omaha. But speaking of a team that’s been in the national limelight, it has been the Fresno State Water Polo team. The Fresno State water polo team is back in action later today against Concordia University of Irvine.
The Bulldogs are looking to get back in the win column after dropping their last two games to LMU and California. Let’s hop back in the time machine to last Thursday when the Bulldogs welcome in the Golden Bears of California for a top-ten matchup. The Bulldogs struck first in the first period from sophomore Ashley Williams. But the Golden Bears brought an avalanche of offense and defense that made it impossible for Fresno State to get back into their groove.
Fresno State did not score a goal in the second period of action. Some of the bright spots on Thursday were from Hailey Andress, who scored two goals in the game’s second half. Unfortunately, California beat Fresno State ten to six. The coach of Fresno State’s water polo team, Natalie Benson, brought up that passing the ball was improved, but scoring is important for the team to be successful.
Benson says, “And I thought our passing was much better. But our shooting, we need to be less of a shooter and more of a scorer. And so that’s definitely something we can’t just hang on Hailey to do all that work. You know, we have to be able to spread that between the two sides and, you know, get other people a little bit more engaged.”
The Bulldogs look for win number 15 of the 2024 campaign against the Golden Eagles at noon today in Southern California.
Fresno State held interviews this week with several head coaches around the country for its vacant head coaching position for men’s basketball. Finalists included Ryan Miller of Creighton, Gus Agarnal of Cal State San Bernardino and Vance Walberg from Clovis West High School. Notably missing from the list is Fresno native Quincy Pondexter. The former San Joaquin Memorial product went to the University of Washington for college before spending nine years in the NBA.
Pondexter spent the last three years as an assistant coach at Washington. Despite his interest in coaching for the Bulldogs, the university did not grant him an interview due to his limited coaching experience. Bryan, I have a lot of thoughts on this. I know you do as well. Here’s a guy who has played basketball his entire life. He wanted to play for the Bulldogs out of high school. It did not work out.
He ended up getting a better opportunity to play at a Power Five school up north along the coast in Seattle, Washington, of course. And then he played nine years in the NBA. He comes back to Fresno, he’s coaching pro-am here. He’s doing three years at Washington. What more does he need to prove to Fresno State?
You look at the resume requirements and five years of coaching. Fresno State wants somebody experienced, but at the same time, you want somebody that you want people to pack the Save Mart Center. And that’s what Quincy Pondexter was going to do if he had a chance and also bring in recruits.
One of the things that Fresno State wanted when they hired Justin Hutson was to have that valley guy. They wanted him to bring in recruits. They wanted to establish a solid defense, and most importantly, they wanted to pack Save Mart Center. That did not happen; they were nearly last in attendance every single season he was here. Their chance to the pack Save Mart Center was with Quincy Pondexter, and while Hutson was from Bakersfield, that doesn’t have the same feel as a guy from Fresno, a guy that every single person in the valley that watches basketball, that plays basketball, they all know who Quincy is.
He competed for a state championship with the Lopez Twins back when he was here in Fresno himself. He still lives here. I talked to Quincy. One of the things that Quincy is known for is how dedicated he is to basketball here in Fresno, growing the game here in the 559. That’s something that, frankly, Fresno State has not had in a head coach since Jerry Tarkanian. They missed that leadership, and honestly, I think it’s a shame that Fresno State is not giving him an opportunity to interview.
And also an offer of $200,000 for the program. Oh, yeah. It was a lot of money from tennis star Sloane Stephens, but the Fresno State Athletic Department did not budge. So it’s kind of interesting to see who they have their eyes on, on the radar for the next coaching job. You know what? Cal State San Bernardino was a really good program, a really good deed to program, and that went to the Final Four. They lost. But you look at it right now, in hindsight, and could Fresno State have gotten Danny Sprinkle, head coach at Montana State? He went to Utah State, and now he’s in Washington. So a little hindsight. 20/2o for Fresno State, maybe.
I don’t know what Fresno State, they’re really going to do. They’ve got several candidates that they’re looking at. I think Ryan Miller has got to be the favorite at this point. But we’ll see.
Major League Baseball is back, and there has already been a lot of excitement, multiple benches, clearing altercations, walks offs and even a no-hitter. Astros starter Ronel Blanco blanked the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday, allowing no runs on no hits while striking out seven in a complete-game masterpiece. It was a full circle moment for Blanco, who is entering just his eighth career start, none of which went more than six innings. Blanco’s inclusion into the Astros rotation was at the last minute, as the right-hander found out he had made the team on the final day of spring training.
That same morning, he and his wife welcomed home their second child, a beautiful baby girl. A week later, Blanco was absolutely untouchable. Bryan, it’s stories like this that really just touched my heart. Here’s a guy who was only in the rotation because the Astros, they had four guys missing due to injuries. And here he is at the first start of the season. He was absolutely unhittable.
No-hitters are always hard to do, but especially in the early part of the season with that rotation for the Astros, I’m going to be surprised if we see more no-hitters in the Astros rotation. I think we’re going to see some more no-hitters.
Funny you mention that the Astros have made up for the last seven no-hitters in Major League Baseball. That’s pretty astounding. They’ve definitely got that special touch out there in Houston. Of course, they’re not the only story around the Pirates. They started out really hot, their best record since the 1980s. Of course, they started hot last season as well, and that fizzled out.
But yeah, Major League Baseball is back.
Just wait until the Pirates get Paul Skenes. Just think about that. Paul Skenes and Pittsburgh: The guy is in triple-A right now. He’ll probably be in that rotation in two months.
He and Jared Jones. It’s quite the mix.
Today’s episode of Fresno State Focus radio audition was produced by Hanayo Oya for the Department of Media Communications and Journalism. Our stories and interviews were produced and edited by Emily Crabtree.
This program was produced in collaboration with 90.7. KFSR for Fresno State Focus Radio Edition. I’m Al Scott
And I’m Bryan Welch, we’ll see you next week.