Renee Baumgartner

Renee Baumgartner

AUDIO: Women Leader in College Sports - Baumgartner (May 17, 2020)

Q&A With Baumgartner (May 21, 2017) | VIDEO: Baumgartner's Introductory Press Conference

Renee Baumgartner, a dynamic intercollegiate athletics administrator, as well as former college head coach and student-athlete, is in her eighth season as Santa Clara's Director of Athletics.

In overseeing the school’s 20 Division I programs, Baumgartner has drawn on her 25 previous years experience as a collegiate administrator and another 17 serving as either a coach or student-athlete.

Baumgartner, hired in July 2015, served a four-year stint as Deputy Athletics Director/Chief of Staff at Syracuse University. She oversaw the daily operation of tickets, fundraising, marketing and promotions, and media relations and was the department’s liaison with men’s basketball, and had direct supervision of men’s and women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, softball, women’s tennis and volleyball.

There have been a number of accomplishments for Santa Clara since Baumgartner's return to her West Coast roots.

 During the 2022-23 year, Baumgartner saw the national powerhouse women’s soccer program win its third consecutive West Coast Conference title and win a game in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth year in a row. Izzy D’Aquila was named All-America, the third year in a row the program has had an All-American.

The men’s basketball team has posted five consecutive winning seasons and back-to-back postseason appearances in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). The Broncos posted a 23-10 record in 2022-23, their third 20-win campaign in the last four seasons (including the shortened 2020 campaign). Jalen Williams was drafted 12th overall in the 2022 NBA Draft and this season Brandin Podziemski was named 2022-23 WCC Co-Player of the Year and WCC Newcomer of the Year.

 Santa Clara has also seen improvements in plenty of other sports as well. The volleyball team won a postseason match after being invited to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship. Men’s water polo reached the Western Water Polo Association semifinals for the first time since 2019. Softball finished third in the WCC for the first time since 2019 and the second time since the WCC incorporated softball in 2014. Nicholas Russell qualified for the NCAA National Championships in cross country and the men’s rowing team made the IRA National Championships.

Aided by the report from the Blue Ribbon Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a template that shows Santa Clara University’s commitment to athletics, Baumgartner was able to increase sport budgets and department staffing.This past year saw the Santa Clara Athletic Department as a whole make a tremendous step with Baumgartner overseeing the implementation which included the approval of 11 new assistant coach positions, scholarships, and the creation of three new units within the department – sports nutrition, counseling and sports psychologist, and creative services. 

Baumgartner has also led the charge for a renovation of Schott Stadium, home of Bronco Baseball. The stadium now features a state-of-the-art turf playing surface. She also has plans for a new on campus golf facility.

The Broncos have excelled in the classroom. During the Fall 2022 quarter, Santa Clara student-athletes posted a GPA and a cumulative GPA of 3.3. A total of 41 students posted a 4.0 GPA, 185 earned above a 3.8 GPA, 185 earned above 3.5 GPA, and 303 student-athletes had at least a 3.0 GPA.

On March 27, 2023, Baumgartner was honored by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) by being named of the 28 recipients of the 2022-23 Cushman & Wakefield Athletics Director of the Year Award. 

Despite COVID impacting the 2020-21 seasons, Baumgartner still led the Broncos to tremendous success, highlighted by women’s soccer’s second national title in a penalty kick victory over top-seeded Florida State in the National Championship match held in May.

Baumgartner led the search for a new site for basketball competition as the county of Santa Clara locked down. Both the men’s and women’s teams played their home games in Santa Cruz at the home of the Santa Cruz Warriors with the women making it to the semifinals of the WCC Tournament in 2021.

The 2019-20 season saw men’s basketball win 20 games for the first time in seven years. Also joining the 20-win club was volleyball under first-year head coach Erin Lindsey. The team’s 21 victories earned them a trip to the NIVC, their first postseason trip since 2015.

Softball had its best season since the WCC incorporated the sport in 2014, finishing at 8-7 in league play and in third place.

During the 2018-19 academic year, Santa Clara Athletics received a record-breaking $34.6 million in donations from nearly 3,500 gifts. The total was more than $28 million for the Stephen C. and Patricia A. Schott Athletic Excellence Center, a transformative $38-million, 50,000-square-foot training facility, the first-ever at the school.

In addition to spearheading the fundraising for Schott Athletic Excellence Center (AEC), early in her tenure she hired veteran, accomplished basketball coaches in Herb Sendek for the Santa Clara men’s program and Bill Carr for the women’s team, and directed an upgrade to Leavey Center. The men’s and women’s basketball teams moved into state-of-the-art locker rooms during the 2015-16 season and the following year those squads, plus volleyball, played on a one-of-a-kind floor.

The court features a large stain painting of a photograph of Santa Clara University’s iconic Mission Church. Tinker Hatfield, NIKE’s vice president for design and special projects, designed the floor, which is believed to be the first of its kind. No known playing surface incorporates an image of a campus building in its design.

NIKE, as part of its multi-year agreement with the department of athletics, also assisted in the design of a style change and logo enhancement, which was unveiled in January 2016. The style change is a classic, collegiate look to better promote the Santa Clara Athletics brand.

The Schott Athletic Excellence Center, which will provide dedicated space for student-athletes to work out, train, practice, eat and study together, came to fruition in April 2019 when ground was broken on the two-story building that is expected to open in the summer of 2020. The structure features the Stevens Academic Center, two practice gyms, the Bronco Bench Foundation Sports Performance Center, the John Filizetti & Coach MacPherson Sports Medicine Center and the William and Pamela Connolly Fuel Station.

Academic improvement at one of the most rigorous academic institutions in the country has been a consistent theme in Baumgartner's tenure.

During the winter of 2019-20, nearly 400 student-athletes combined to a term grade-point average of 3.37, the highest in nearly seven years. In addition, 10 programs earned public recognition awards from the NCAA for outstanding Academic Progress Rate (APR) for the 2018-19 academic year, the most-ever for the Broncos since the inception of the initiative. That mark eclipsed the prior school record of eight set the prior year.

Baumgartner arrived in Syracuse, in 2011, after a 22-year tenure at the University of Oregon, where she was an administrator and head women’s golf coach. In her role as the executive senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator (SWA), roles she assumed in 2009, Baumgartner assisted with the daily operation and management of the 19-sport department, assisted with strategic planning, budget management, and personnel departments. She was the sport supervisor for men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, and acrobatics and tumbling.

In addition to sport supervision at Oregon, Baumgartner oversaw internal department components, including the student-athlete treatment center, strength and conditioning, student services (Life Skills program), and intercollegiate human resources. She was a senior member of the University athletics’ team, which was responsible for the planning, execution and fundraising of more than $300 million in gifts to the department, including the construction of a state-of-the art $200 million basketball arena and a $23 million campaign to reinstate the baseball program and build a new stadium.

Baumgartner began her athletics administrative career as the interim senior woman administrator in 1998, while also serving as the head women’s golf coach. In 1999, she was promoted to associate athletics director and SWA, and was elevated to senior associate athletics director/SWA in the spring of 2002. She was a member of the executive team of the athletics department and represented the University in all SWA Pac-10 and NCAA committees and related matters. Baumgartner supervised a staff of 66 full-time employees, was the sport supervisor for various programs, and was responsible for oversight of internal departments, including maintenance and facilities, event administration, human resources, the weight room, and equipment room.

A four-year golf letterwinner and team captain at USC, Baumgartner began her coaching career at Oregon in 1987 and guided the women’s golf team to its first NCAA Championships appearance and a top-20 national finish in 1993. She then returned to her alma mater as head golf coach, and, in a two-year stint, led USC to a second-place finish at the 1994 NCAA Championships, before moving back to Eugene, Oregon, to again lead the Ducks’ women’s golf program in 1995.

The Portland, Oregon, native retired from her duties as head women’s golf coach following the 2000 season after building the Ducks into one of the nation’s premier programs. Oregon posted three top-14 finishes at the NCAA Championship in her final four seasons at the helm. In 1997, Oregon finished seventh at the NCAA Championships with Baumgartner rewarded with Pacific-10 Conference and Far West District Coach of the Year honors.

As a student-athlete, Baumgartner’s USC golf team earned third and fourth place finishes nationally in 1986 and ’87, respectively. Among her many honors are the 2006 All-American Football Foundation Senior Associate Athletics Director/SWA Award, the 1986-87 USC Scholar Athlete Award of Honor, in addition to induction in the Central Catholic High School Hall of Fame, the National Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Wakefield cushman NACDA Athletic Director of the Year.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in Sports Information/Broadcast Journalism from USC in 1987. Two years later, she completed her master’s degree requirements in Interdisciplinary Studies at Oregon and in 1996, was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.

Bamgartner currently serves on the Division I NCAA Council, Council Coordination Committee, and is the Chair of the Competition Oversight Committee. Throughout her career, Baumgartner has been active on many committees, including the NCAA Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet, NCAA Men’s and Women’ Golf Committees, NCAA Amateurism Cabinet, NCAA Management Council, NCAA Legislative Review Committee, NCAA Championships Finance Review Committee, and served as the President of the National Collegiate Acrobatic and Tumbling Association (NCATA).

She and her husband, Scott, are the parents of two daughters, Ellie and Abby.