John Volek, or “The Big Cat” as he’s known at Sacramento State, is back on campus 14 years after his final season as the head football coach for the Hornets.
Volek was named the interim athletic director on Jan. 10 after Bill Macriss, who had been athletic director since March 2015, was reassigned to executive associate athletics for operations and facilities in the department. Volek is a part of the committee that is actively searching for a full-time athletic director.
“It feels good to be back,” Volek said. “I get to be around my people and I get to re-acquaint myself with my former football players.”
Volek came to Sac State in 1995 after spending seven seasons coaching football at Fresno City College, where he was named coach of the year just a few months before taking his new post. In Volek’s first season coaching the Hornets, the team won the American West Conference Championship with a 4-6-1 record.
That team featured Volek’s first All-American player, Jon Osterhout — a member of the Sac State Football Hall of Fame and the current head football coach at American River College — who played for the Hornets from 1995 to 1999.
Osterhout played nearly every position on the offensive line, was a two-time all-Big Sky conference selection, the team’s most valuable player in 1999 and was selected as a first team All-American the same season.
“Coach Volek was an incredible motivator — a father figure and leader of young men,” Osterhout said. “He was consistent as a coach on a daily basis with how he dealt with people and how he held his student-athletes accountable.”
After moving into the Big Sky Conference in 1996, Sac State went 27-51 for the remainder of Volek’s tenure with only two winning seasons.
In 2003, Volek became the athletic director at Sierra College, where he played football from 1965 to 1967.
The school’s baseball, women’s tennis and wrestling programs all won state titles during his eight years at the position. Volek also helped plan the completion of a 1,500-seat football stadium, along with renovations to many other on-campus sports facilities.
As the interim athletic director for Sac State, Volek said he hopes to continue overseeing upgrades to the athletic facilities. He wants to build a new home for the basketball, gymnastics and volleyball programs — which all host opponents in the Nest —a 1,012-seat multi-purpose gymnasium built 62 years ago.
“We need to get an event center and coordinate with the city to supply the place,” Volek said. “It could be a great opportunity to bring in educators, entertainers and host big-time collegiate sporting events. Not everything can be in a 20,000-seat Golden 1 Center, so Sacramento needs that mid(-sized) 5-to-7,000-seat arena that can be shared between our community and our students.”
There have been a few attempts made to build an event center on campus, including a 2014 vote that was opposed by nearly 80 percent of the student body due to a proposed $438 annual student fee which accompanied the plan.
A few months later, discussions about an on-campus event center arose once more after The WELL was nearly transformed into an arena. Three thousand imported bleachers and a portable court were set to move into The WELL when the men’s basketball team came within one win of hosting the Big Sky Tournament.
“We’ve been in Division I (and) we’ve made the playoffs in these sports,” Volek said. “We should be hosting those type of sporting events in Sacramento — the seventh biggest city in the state of California and the state capital.”
Long before taking the interim athletic director position, Volek has been pushing for more pride at Sac State. Former players such as Paul Carrillo, a quarterback for three seasons (1997-99), heard Volek’s vision from the day he signed to play at Sac State.
“He wanted to be at Sac State; he wanted to succeed,” Carrillo said. “He believed the university should be playing in a higher conference such as the Mountain West instead of the Big Sky.”
Volek has been asked to consider accepting the full-time position as the next athletic director, but said that he remains uncertain about his longevity after retiring once already in 2011.
“We need to bring in somebody who’s going to commit to us over a longer term than I can give,” Volek said. “Hopefully, there is a place for me where I can continue to help the growth — help the students and be a part of the community.”