The Big West is implementing a strategic reorganization of its staff structure and titles to accelerate the league’s growth and better serve its member institutions amid a rapidly evolving NCAA Division I landscape. 

 

“With significant change occurring across Division I athletics, The Big West must continue to be innovative in our approach and agile in our operations,” said Commissioner Dan Butterly. “This reorganization realigns our staff to seize new opportunities while reinforcing The Big West’s Pacific spirit, fearless innovation, enduring integrity, and bold activism.” 

 

Leadership and Operational Enhancements 

Kevin Rorke has been elevated to Chief Financial Officer. Rorke is responsible for managing the conference’s budget, serving as the primary financial contact, and leading all external financial audits. Having independently overseen financial operations over the past year, Rorke will now be supported by Dominic Drury, who will assist with daily operations and financial systems. 

 

Drury has been promoted to Assistant Commissioner – Basketball Operations and Finance. Now entering a third year with the league, Drury will continue to lead men’s and women’s basketball initiatives while expanding his role to include business operations and officiating. Drury will also remain tournament director for the Big West Basketball Championships. 

 

Tom Davis assumes the role of Chief Marketing Officer, shifting focus toward revenue generation, branding, and long-term growth initiatives. A Big West staff member since 2020, Davis brings decades of experience with national brands including DIRECTV, EA Sports, Qualcomm, and UCLA, and as founder of the Los Angeles-based marketing firm Caught Looking, Inc. 

 

Davis will continue leading Sara Perry, Director of Marketing & Digital Media, and Chloe Clark, Director of Multimedia Content, in sponsorship, marketing, ticketing, and publicity efforts. Together, the team will also drive strategic efforts to expand The Big West’s regional and national branding and broadcast presence. 

 

Jessica Lantz has been elevated to Chief Communications Officer. Lantz will continue to lead the league’s storytelling and media relations strategy alongside Kaiber Takamiya and Quentin Rodriguez, Directors of Communications. Their collaborative focus includes editorial content, social media, feature stories, awards reporting and championship coverage. 

 

Deputy Commissioner Kristi Giddings and Angie Allen, Assistant Commissioner – Compliance & Student-Athlete Engagement, will continue to manage The Big West Senior Woman Administrators (SWA) and Faculty Athletics Representatives (FAR), respectively, while directing and executing all aspects of governance, legal, compliance and student-athlete engagement. Cheryl Wong, Associate Commissioner – Championships & Sport Administration, alongside Tyler Huntley, Assistant Commissioner – Championships, will continue to lead The Big West’s championships efforts while working with the entire Big West administrative staff to manage sports and championships throughout the year. 

 

Operational Shift to Remote Work 

As of July 1, The Big West has transitioned to a remote work environment. Quarterly in-person staff meetings will be held in Irvine, Calif., during the 2025-26 academic year. This move reflects the conference’s commitment to strategic cost savings while maintaining exceptional service to member institutions. 

STAFF TRANSACTIONS 

BASSETT – It looks like they’ll be playing football and volleyball at North Central after all.

The Class D school – a co-op of Rock County and Keya Paha County – found itself in a tough spot after the coaches in both sports resigned this past season. Ryan Richey stepped down as the head football coach and Heather Painter moved on as volleyball coach.

An inability to fill those positions led the school to turn to social media in a last-ditch effort to fill the vacancies. Administrations at both schools had been actively engaged in the recruitment of coaches with little success.

A shortage of teachers also complicated the process as coaching duties often are assigned to educators. Administrators said they didn’t want to force coaching duties on teachers who are there to do exactly that – teach.

The Knights have received good news in recent days, according to Rock County athletic director Kayla Fischer.

“We’ve gotten responses from qualified people and we’re going to start the interview process soon,” she said.

It was getting to the critical stage as practice for both sports starts in about a month. School officials had said if coaches weren’t hired by Aug. 1 that the school district might be forced to cancel both football and volleyball seasons.

Fischer said she is thankful that won’t be the case.

“We’ve had assistant coaches working with the players,” Fischer said. “I don’t think the kids have been too worried about it because they knew we’ve been working hard to fill those spots.”

A response to a Facebook post asking interested applicants to apply drew a humorous response.

“The stands are usually full of coaches on game day, just use one of them.”

The schools are located in north-central Nebraska near the South Dakota border.

HONOLULU — University of Hawai’i women’s water polo coach James Robinson completed the Rainbow Wahine coaching staff for the 2026 season with the addition of Brooke Maxson as an assistant coach.

Maxson will join the UH staff after spending the last two seasons at UCLA, where she helped the Bruins capture the 2024 national championship as an assistant coach.

“Brooke has had a positive impact on every team she’s been a part of, whether as a student-athlete or as a coach,” Robinson said. “She has experience at every level and I know that experience will be a huge benefit to our program. I’m very excited to have her on our staff. Her water polo knowledge is great and I know she will form excellent relationships with our student-athletes.”

Maxson joins Robinson and associate coach Candice Vorbeck in leading the Rainbow Wahine into the 2026 season. The ‘Bows went 22-5 this season, sweeping the Big West regular-season and tournament titles and advancing to the national semifinals in Robinson’s first year as head coach.

“Thank you to the University of Hawai’i Athletics Department and James for this opportunity,” Maxson said. “I am excited to support and learn from this talented group of athletes. It is an honor to be part of this program and I cannot wait to get started.”

Originally from Santa Ana, Calif., Maxson played five seasons at UCLA from 2017 to ’21 and earned ACWPC All-America and All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation recognition in 2019, ’20 and ’21 as a defender with the Bruins. She helped UCLA reach the 2021 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship final and posted a hat trick in a semifinal win over Stanford on her way to a spot on the All-Tournament first team. In all, she played in 98 games and finished her UCLA career with 46 goals, 30 steals, 29 assists and 27 field blocks.

Maxson began her coaching career in 2021 at Golden West College where she served as an assistant coach with the women’s water polo and swimming and diving programs for two years. She spent 2023 teaching English at a high school in Madrid, Spain before returning to UCLA in 2024. The Bruins went 46-6 in her two seasons on the coaching staff, including an undefeated run to the 2024 national title.

#WahineWP

During the summer months, the Smith Fieldhouse stands are usually empty.

Far from the eyes of the roaring crowd and even their own coaching staff, the BYU women’s volleyball team enters the building looking for the fire.

And not just any fire. They are looking for the fire that will carry them through the regular season into the NCAA Tournament and beyond.

The Cougars have qualified for the tournament every year since 2012, but last season were swept in the first round by upstart Loyola-Chicago, their first opening round loss since 2005.

That’s why at 7:30 a.m. most mornings, BYU is battling each other and building momentum.

“When you come back for the report date, it’s time to get loose,” junior Claire Little Chambers said. “You remember why you love the sports. People don’t understand how long the season is because BYU is always in the tournament. Every year when you come back you’re so grateful. This is a program built on gratitude. You get to come to practice. You get to be here.

“It really all starts with summer practice. Every single girl who walks into that gym runs conditioning and lifts weights. We have the most competitive sixes matches, despite the coaches not being there. That’s where successful teams thrives is in the summer. The summer is so critical to the culture of the team. It builds unity and this is where we build that competitive fire.”

Little Chambers has had an eventful summer already, having gotten married to BYU men’s volleyball player Gavin Chambers in June.

It took a while for Claire and Gavin to get to the “meet cute” part of their courtship, even though they grew up about 40 minutes from each other in California (Claire in Temecula, Gavin in Corona) and both attended BYU. After some encouragement from her mother last fall and getting the stamp of approval when he attended a family dinner, the two were inseparable. They even trained together in California after the men’s volleyball season concluded in April.

After a lot of thought, Claire opted for “Claire Little Chambers.”

“The way I see it, I’ve made a name for myself as Claire Little,” she said. “So I wanted to make sure no one takes out the ‘Little’ part. On my jersey it will say ‘Little.’ I also wanted to respect my husband and his last name.”

Little Chambers led the Cougars last season with 427 kills (3.88 per set) while hitting .275 in 28 matches.

“I’m not a big goals person,” Little Chambers said. “I just like to see what each season will bring me. What I’m thinking is I’d just like to be consistent for my team, always showing up with fire and energy. I want to lead by example, do my thing and have fun doing it. I want to be there to hype up my teammates and I want to be present. I don’t need any amazing personal accomplishment to feel like the season is going to be great.”

BYU coach Heather Olmstead knows how important Little Chambers will be to a successful season.

“She’s definitely been developing her offensive toolbox,” Olmstead said. “She’s continuing to develop her back row play. We just want her to be able to hold up passing in the back row and have a six-rotation game. She’ll continue to be a great server and be a weapon out of the back row.”

The Cougars also return sophomore setter Alex Bower (10.01 assists per set), 6-foot-5 junior middle blocker Brielle Kemavor (1.47 blocks per set) and sophomore outside Eli Mortensen (2.71 kills per set). BYU has a strong contingent of defensive specialists/liberos as well, including sophomore Lulu Uluave (3.12 digs per set), senior Hannah Billeter (42 aces) and Washington State transfer Emma Barbero.

A strong recruiting class is led by 6-2 freshman Suli Davis from Euless, Texas. The 2025 PrepVolleyball Player of the Year and Under Armor All-American had a whopping 800 kills her senior season at Colleyville Heritage High School. Davis has been starring for the United State U19 team this summer, recently competing in the 2025 Worlds in Croatia.

“Suli is such a competitor,” Little Chambers said. “That girl just wants to win and will do anything to do that. She’s always in the gym and always getting extra reps. She has very high goals. She’s going to be great and people need to watch out for her because she wants it so bad.

“What really separates the best from the good is that drive. She has such high motivation. Players like that come in and change programs. I’m excited to see what she’ll bring to BYU.”

The Cougars report for team practices at the end of July and open the season with an exhibition match against Idaho State at Ogden High School in Aug. 23. BYU officially opens the 2025 season by hosting the doTERRA Classic with High Point, Farleigh Dickinson and Central Michigan beginning Aug. 29.

“I’m really excited to see this team grow in the aspect of being consistent and being able to fail gracefully,” Little Chambers said. “Last season we had a lot of five-setters and games where we got down early, so I’d love to see this team start strong.

“It’s just a year of opportunity. Everyone is going to get a shot and everyone is going to get a chance to prove themselves. I feel like we have a deep bench and a deep team. I have a good feeling about this team. We’ve always known that something about BYU is it’s greater than just a sport. At the end of of the day if you just sucked at practice, you’re still a daughter of God and its going to be OK. That unites the team. We’re excited with our talent to see how we can fight and compete.”

SUMMER PROGRAMS: Many July opportunities

Laguna Beach High School’s summer athletics programs are in full swing, with July sessions including boys beach volleyball (grades 9–12) scheduled the week of July 14. Ongoing training is also underway for baseball, cross country, and football. Program schedules and contact information for girls soccer, girls volleyball, girls lacrosse, and flag football are available on the school’s summer athletics website at lbhs.lbusd.org/athletics/summer-programs.

Guyer Field Turf Replacement

The turf at Guyer Field is being replaced this summer and should be ready by the end of July. Laguna first played football on artificial turf in 2000, with Guyer Field going artificial in 2004. Breakers have played on grass only once since 2020, with the all-weather turf now the standard in Southern California.

Basketball Update:

Boys are in the Newport tournament this weekend. The “Battle of the Beach” summer high school tournament is on Friday through Sunday, July 18-20, at Dugger Gym. There are 12 games on Friday, 13 on Saturday and 12 on Sunday, starting at 8 a.m. Laguna’s girls’ team will participate in the El Toro Summer Tournament from July 25-27.

FALL 2025 SPORTS

Countdown to the start of the 2025-2026 sports season!

Girls Volleyball: Aug. 2: at Queens Court Tournament

Flag Football: Aug. 12 at Loara

Football: Aug. 21 at Chino (Thursday)

XCC: Aug. 30 at Saddleback Cup/Trabuco Hills HS

Boys WP: Aug. 26 at Aliso Niguel

Have a note on Laguna Beach High School sports? E-mail Frank at frank@twometer.net

2025 High School FALL SCHEDULES? Check Laguna Beach High School on the Max Preps website or

the schedules tab on the Athletics website at https://lbhs.lbusd.org/athletics/schedules. To get scores on the school site – select the sport and level, click year and move the “Show older events” toggle under the selected season.