Alumni Ups His Game As Basketball Coach

By Berkley Holzschuh '14

Lindsay Strothers ‘80 has a tremendous passion for coaching basketball, which has contributed to his amazing success story.

As a Pacific alumnus, Strothers acknowledges that Pacific was the basis of his achievements. “Pacific prepared me for life,” said Strothers. “When I left I was prepared for any career. I learned to plan and prepare, trouble shoot and work with people.”

Since then Strothers has been coaching and mentoring student athletes from Oregon to California. He has coached a multitude of winning teams such as St. Mary’s Academy, University of Southern California, Chapman University, and other state and nationally ranked programs.

In 1999 Lindsay founded The Basketball Institute where their goal is “to teach players how to prepare for life through the development of their basketball skills.” Strothers started this after seeing a “need for young people to have qualified instruction in both skill and speed and power training.”

Currently, as the head coach of the girls basketball program at Westview High School, Strothers encourages prospective coaches to “meet as many coaches as you can. Find out whose philosophy fits with you and find a way to work and learn with them.”

Lindsay Strothers believes that intention is the most important characteristic any coach can have. As he amplifies intention in all areas of his life, Strothers’ story as a successful Pacific alumnus continues.

Alumni Give Career Advice at Career Launch: A Team Sport

By Kathleen Rohde '14
Photos by Jonathan Schell '16

A group of alumni visited Pacific for the event Career Launch: A Team Sport on March 2. They hosted a panel and spoke with Pacific athletes from every sport. Football, tennis, track and field, swimming and wrestling among others sat side-by-side to get inside tips from those in their dream careers.

It became clear that stepping out of their comfort zone was the most helpful advice all the alumni wish they’d heard.

Cisco Reyes '03 teaches exercise physiology, biomechanics, high-performance training and programming. Reyes holds a degree from Pacific in Kinesiology and Exercise Science. He played as a baseball boxer during his time in Forest Grove.

Others chimed in on this idea of challenging comfortability in order to succeed.

“Go visit speakers on campus, go to events,” said Barnes. He graduated from Pacific in 1985 majoring in Business and Economics. “They’re not much different than I am— they have two legs and two hands. I looked at them and thought, ‘they took risks and benefited.’”

The panel advised students to challenge their comfort zone by doing internships. Yep, even if they’re unpaid.

Naomi Brown works for the Hillsboro school district as a student case manager, and a resource to find students job/careers or colleges.  She works with children who come from a variety of backgrounds. Whether teenagers are finding high school isn’t working for them or have bigger personal issues, Brown has seen it all. 

She credits her level of experience to handle her current job from an internship she held at the ChristieCare Residential Treatment Center in Lake Oswego working with abused teens.She worked there for two years and continued on with even more experience to search for the career she really wanted, the job she has now.

“Because of my internship, the Hillsboro School District hired me,” said Brown. She also worked with the Hillsboro Parks and Recreation Department and a early childhood school. “After four years I found my dream job where I’m not always in the classroom.  My undergraduate years helped me learn the background, the standard. But the internship helped prepare me for where I’m at now. For the real thing.”

One alumnus found that an internship was just what he needed— just what he needed to decide he wanted nothing to do with that job.

Both Brown and David Slick '04 participated in summer internships between their junior and senior years at Pacific. While Brown found job opportunities closer and closer to what she wanted, Slick was narrowing his search.

“It was great life experience to see what it’s all about,” said Slick. He worked the summer going into senior year at the National Science Foundation doing research. “But I realized I didn’t want to be in the lab.”

After Slick threw his graduation cap in the air, he took another internship. Four months after that a large company purchased the business he was working for and offered him a full-time position.

“From there my career took off,” said Slick. He now works as a software quality assurance manager at InComm.

For the final panelist, he’s working his dream job and did it by standing out.“I made a position for myself,” said Brian Pan '09 who played on the golf team and majored in integrated media and business. He works as a digital media video manager for the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Sounders Football Club. 

“I do it better than it’s ever been done before.” Pan’s been with the Seahawks for five seasons now and the only draw back so far about his job was being kicked in the face during the 2014 Super Bowl.

All the panelists agreed that talking to everyone, even teachers, was important to make connections and network. Slick was sent a link to his first internship from a professor at Pacific. All agreed that internships, yes even if they’re unpaid, are vital to getting real life experience, and good thing for Slick because he realized that wasn’t what he wanted to do.

“If you love what you do it makes it so much easier,” said Reyes.

Each stressed the importance of getting a foot in the door.

“As you network you get to know those people,” said Pan. “They move and they bring along their own people. They know their work and ability.”

Reyes challenged the audience of about 50 athletes in the Boxer Learning Center.

“I wish I stepped out of the box more. I wish I could’ve taken the time to work for free,” said Reyes. “When an opportunity arises, take it. You’re going to fail, but by trying you’re going to only gain more connections along the way.”

 “You can still be competitive in the workplace,” said Pan.

Alumnus Achieves his Dream Job

By Berkley Holzschuh '14

"Do it better than it's ever been done before" is how Brian Pan '09 strives to live his life. Coincidentally, this quote was said by Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, a person Pan is in close contact with throughout the year.

Pan is the Digital Media Video Producer for the Seattle Seahawks. His love for film began at his high school’s TV station in Pullman, Wash. Like most students, Pan knew as soon as he visited Pacific University that this was where he was supposed to be.

Initially when starting college, Pan wanted to pursue broadcast journalism, but after taking some website based classes with Professor Mike Geraci, he veered in a different direction. Geraci helped him broaden his knowledge of the web and was one of Pan’s biggest influences at Pacific.

Pan reflected on the Internet and social media when he was a freshman in college. He discussed how Facebook was the new social media platform in 2005.

Looking back, I never thought about how big the Internet would become,” said Pan. The position Pan has now as Digital Media Video Producer did not exist when he was a student at Pacific.

" Work hard!" is the advice Pan gives students. "It's all about hard work and having a passion for what you do."

Working hard and living by Coach Pete’s quote made Pan’s managers realize that he was essential to their success. He was offered a full-time position at the end of his internship with the Seahawks.

Pan loves his job. Part of Pan’s job requires him to ask famous athletes he has always looked up to for interviews. This challenges him to be “comfortable with being uncomfortable,” which is necessary for personal and professional growth.

Pan also gets to travel with the team. In 2013 Brian went to Hong Kong with the Sea Gals Cheerleaders as they performed for the Chinese New Year. More recently, he even got the chance to travel to Metlife Stadium in New Jersey and watch his team win Superbowl XLVIII.

“I go to work and get paid to watch and film sports; I can’t imagine anything better.”

Notes from Under the Oaks | March 2014

Do you consider yourself an athlete? A former athlete? An athlete at heart? A Monday morning quarterback? A couch potato waiting for the right challenge?

In the interest of full disclosure I’ll confess, I've never considered myself an athlete. In fact, I was actually asked to leave my PE class in 10th grade for refusing to play basketball. I now reflect on this moment of rebellion with humor and a healthy dose of embarrassment. I never played team sports, but I have had two big athletic moments as an adult-- in 2005 I rode a bicycle from Portland to San Francisco and in 2010 I ran a (slow) marathon.

Given my lack of athletic background, I was especially honored to have the chance to participate in an event last week where we connected some of our athletics alumni with our current athletes. About fifty percent of Pacific undergraduate students participate in either varsity, intramural or club sports. I'm willing to wager that number goes even higher when you consider the athletic careers of both our undergraduate and graduate students in high school or at another University.

At Career Launch, we tried to tap into what all that sports activity gives a person. We knew it was more than just knowledge of how to play a game and we had some idea of what our alumni might share as they were providing advice to students on how to use their athletics experience as they begin to navigate professional life. For example -- the ability to be an effective part of a team or how to use competitive spirit to one's advantage.

The panel was going great -- each of the alumni had great things to say and students were taking notes. Then my classmate Cisco Reyes '03 spoke and said something that shaped the way everyone in the room saw the evening. He said, “to succeed you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable."

Suddenly every student in the room relaxed ever so slightly. Someone had just given them permission to feel the anxiety most of them must have been feeling. And in that moment every one of them was infused with a shot of confidence. It was the career development equivalent of the moment just after a touchdown.

After a decade spent working on college campuses I feel privileged to have witnessed the transformational impact of athletics on students who otherwise may not have considered college. Sports aren't simply a doorway to college -- they are a window through which students can visualize themselves at college on a path to graduate school and/or a successful career.

Athletic achievements are in themselves life changing. When I pedaled across the Golden Gate Bridge on that foggy July day, I knew anything was possible. If I could cycle 800 miles, I could do anything. I not only channeled that energy when I ran my (slow) marathon, I use it every time I face a challenge at work and in every sleep-deprived moment of parenting young children.

I'd love to hear your sports story. Are you like me -- 100% clumsy, but realized later in life that running doesn't require hand-eye coordination? Or were you an athlete in high school and/or college? How did sports shape who you are?

I look forward to hearing your sports stories -- especially the tall tales about the Cannery Field.

Keep in touch and best wishes,

Martha Calus-McLain '03
Director of Alumni Relations

P.S. I’d be remiss if I didn’t encourage alumni who are interested in supporting athletics at Pacific, thus providing transformational experiences to future students, to join Boxer Club.