California State University, Stanislaus welcomes Michael Matoso as the new Director of Athletics. Matoso may be new to Stanislaus, but he is no stranger to sports by any means.
Throughout high school he played several different sports, however after receiving his diploma he decided to pursue baseball at the next level. He completed his junior college eligibility at The College of San Mateo, and then accepted an athletic scholarship to play for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He then went on to play a short stint of professional baseball overseas in Sweden.
After returning from Sweden, Michael took up a strong interest in working in athletics at the college level. He returned to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where he earned his master’s degree in education and worked as an intern in the academic advising department. Matoso got his first full time job at the University of Southern California working in academic services with the Trojans.  He spent three and a half years first working with olympic sports and then moving on to football and baseball.
Michael’s wife, Kelly, is from the San Diego area, so when he heard of a job opening at the University of San Diego he jumped on the opportunity and soon was the new academic support coordinator for the Toreros. He spent 13 years working his way up in ranks before arriving here at CSU Stanislaus. Matoso comes from a long line of winning at USC where he was a part of five straight Commissioner’s Cup titles, a trophy presented to the team with the most championships in a given conference.
Michael said that the number one question he has been asked since leaving for CSU Stanislaus is “So you moved to Turlock from San Diego, huh?” After seeing what this school had to offer he thought “Wow, I can come up here and really make a big difference.”
As the new athletics director Michael Matoso has many goals, but his biggest vision is to bring a Commissioner’s Cup to Stanislaus. 
“It may not happen this year, but let’s start to put some emphasis on winning. Let’s win some conference championships. The way I see it, if you are winning conference championships and you are making the postseason, you are giving yourself a chance to win a national title,” Matoso said. 
A huge part of winning is going to come with getting the community more involved. One of the first changes he made when he took his new role was to give staff and faculty free tickets to all sporting events. In the past, people who worked for the school had to pay to watch our athletes play. 
“We as an athletics department need to get out in the community, and bring the community on campus,” Matoso said. “If you work here, I think you should be rewarded for that and be able to come out to games for free.” 
All staff members will receive four free tickets to all home games. Michael also believes that students are going to be a huge part of our success. He is finding ways to get students here on campus more involved and want to come out and support their Warriors on the fields and courts. 
“Students can change the atmosphere of our games by bringing excitement, and the people in the community want to see that excitement,” Matoso said. “We want to make it as fun as possible for the students. We want to make it something where people stick around on a Friday night and watch a game…make it something you are proud of. It is going to be fun for students to come to the games.”