Sonoma State athletic director Fusco receives national award

Sonoma State University Senior Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Bill Fusco has been selected as one of 28 athletics directors around the country among seven different divisions to earn the 2015-16 Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year (ADOY) award.

Fusco is one of four athletics directors at the NCAA Division II level to be honored this year. Cal Poly Pomona’s Brian Swanson was also selected for the ADOY this year.

The award spans seven divisions (NCAA FBS, FCS, Division I-AAA, II, III, NAIA, other four-year institutions and junior college/community colleges). Winners will receive their awards during the James J. Corbett Awards Luncheon on June 15 at NACDA’s 51st annual convention at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas.

The ADOY Award highlights the efforts of athletics directors at all levels for their commitment and positive contributions to student-athletes, campuses and their surrounding communities.

Fusco is now in his 19th year as the senior director of intercollegiate athletics at Sonoma State University. Under his leadership, SSU intercollegiate athletics has grown from 11 teams to 14 with conference affiliation in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, Western Water Polo Association and Pacific West Conferences.

Fusco has served as president of the CCAA (2004-05) and is the past president of the NCAA Division II Athletics Directors Association (2003).

He also served for four years (1999-2003) on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. Fusco was on the NCAA Division II Degree Completion Scholarship Committee and the NCAA West Region Women’s Tennis Committee. He served on the California State University Risk Management Authority Athletic Injury Medical Expense Board. He was on the NCAA Division II Championships Committee for four years (2007-2011).

In 2010-11, Fusco served as chair of the NCAA Division II Championships Committee. As part of his duties as chair of that committee, he served a one-year term on the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel. He is currently serving a four-year term on that panel.

As President of the NCAA Division II Athletics Directors Association, he helped develop the Division II Model Athletics Department, a program that establishes the guiding principles of operating a Division II intercollegiate athletic program.

Since 2012-13, Fusco has served as a mentor in the NCAA & Division II Athletic Director’s Association Women and Minorities Mentoring Program - “Mentoring Tomorrow’s Leaders.”

With more than 34 years of combined athletic administrative experience, Fusco has served as director of athletics at the University of San Francisco and Dominican University of California and as sports information director at St. Mary’s College in Moraga and the University of San Francisco.

He previously was an adjunct faculty member in the University of San Francisco graduate sports management program where he taught an elective class in administrative leadership in intercollegiate athletics. During his tenure as director of athletics at Dominican University, he was named NAIA West Region Administrator of the Year in both 1995-96 and 1996-97.