Introducing Renee Baumgartner, the new director of Athletics at SCU.
Steven Boyd Saum
16 Nov 2015
Meet Renee Baumgartner, the new director of athletics for SCU. She donned responsibilities in July. The Oregon native has two decades’ experience in athletics at the University of Oregon—both as an administrator and as the golf coach; she built the golf program into a national powerhouse. She comes to Santa Clara from Syracuse University, where she had served as deputy athletic director since 2011. As an undergrad at the University of Southern California, she played varsity golf. Along with her Division I creds as student-athlete, coach, and administrator, she holds a doctorate from Oregon. Baseball is where she turns for a metaphor when talking about goals for athletics programs: First base is academics; second is following all the rules; third is fiscal responsibility—and having resources to match expectations. Home? “Students want to win championships, and they come here because they want to compete at the highest level,” she says. Note: She’s no newcomer to the Mission Campus; her brother is George Mack Jr. ’84, and she has a niece currently at SCU.
A Q&A with Baumgartner and more: santaclaramagazine.com/sports