Dan Guerrero - Photo Courtesy OCRegister.com
Scott Robinson
As the short days of winter wane into the face of spring, UCLA is currently prepping their squad for the upcoming football season. Inroads against a crumbling recent past, one littered with muttering descriptions of mediocrity, are beginning to show a clear path, one with resolve throughout the entirety of UCLA’s athletic program.
During this off-season we've focused on some key data sets pointing towards many different areas needing improvement. As far as coaching is concerned, different practice motifs of efficiency (under the helm of the specialist, Coach Alosi) stand to drastically improve the team with football-specific training.
As both Defensive Coordinator Lou Spanos and Offensive Coordinator Noel Mazzone arrive with a “clean slate,” a mistrusting Bruin faithful fanbase might be asking:
“What else has changed that could possibly lead us to believe Mora’s regime is coalescing towards winning?”
Reports are trickling in of players jumping aboard and heeding guidance from the rallying Coach with extensive NFL experience. But now, it’s not just the players, it’s the administration that’s lining up to right the ship.
In fact, it’s been an incredibly demanding, yet productive, season for one particular UCLA Athletics Department…
Pro-Activity
Despite his absurdly busy schedule, I was lucky enough to talk with Nick Ammazzalorso, UCLA’s Executive Director of Athletic Communications. His role, while newly established, has quickly augmented the football team’s return to relevancy. Acting through both media promotion and most recently, crisis response, Ammazzalorso’s position has quickly become indispensable to UCLA’s ability to mitigate negative press or misinformation.
“Pro-activity,” Ammazzalorso states, “is the key to all teams [in their efforts for success].” One might scoff at such a statement, especially in light of the recent Sports Illustrated article. However, consider UCLA’s ability to respond, most competently, via statement and affirmation of Ben Howland’s return: I would say it would have been much worse without the likes of Ammazzalorso or his department’s function.
