• 2015 CoSIDA Special Awards general announcement/release
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by Blake Timm, Pacific (Ore.) Sports Information Director
Marty Valdez often gets asked if in retirement every day feels like Saturday. Considering his former line of work, he can only laugh.
After getting up most Saturdays to head to the playing fields and courts at Cal State East Bay to document the annals of the Pioneers athletic program for the last three decades, Valdez is enjoying some well deserved unstructured weekends.
“I get a lot of rest,” Valdez said. “It’s hard to describe. I am doing everything that I want to do now.”
Valdez will be among those receiving the College Sports Information Directors of America’s (CoSIDA) Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor
will be presented at the organization’s annual convention on June 17 in Orlando, Florida during CoSIDA's annual convention. The CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to members who have served at least 25 years in the profession who are retiring or leaving the profession.
Valdez retired as Cal State East Bay’s sports information director in July 2014 after a 33-year run that saw the school change national affiliations three times and names once. The 62-year-old was the school’s first sports information director in a position that was created for him once he graduated from what was then Cal State Hayward in 1981.
Valdez’s career in sports information actually began as a reporter for the school’s student newspaper. He covered the Pioneers’ run in the NCAA Division II Baseball Regional (where the Pioneers beat a Cal Poly team with a young shortstop named Ozzie Smith), being approached by the team’s head coach about a part-time job opening as the school’s sports information director.
His decision to accept the job was not popular with some. “My kinesiology professor told me that being a SID could not be a full-time job,” Valdez said. “He was wrong. It has been that and so much more.”
Valdez was the only sports information director at East Bay until the school transitioned back to NCAA Division II membership in 2008. During that time, he covered the Pioneers as they left Division II for dual affiliation between Division III and NAIA between 1998 and 2008. His tenure also included covering five national championships, numerous conference championships, and the demise of the Pioneers’ football program following the 1993 season.
Valdez’s body of work is well thought of by those he worked with over the years.
“Marty embodies Pioneer pride,” said Director of Athletics Sara Lillevand Judd, who started her career at the school as East Bay’s women’s basketball coach. “He quantified our results, told our stories and served our athletes for 33 years, becoming part of the fabric of the university.”
“Marty and Pioneer Athletics went together like peanut butter and jelly. You can separate the two, but they’re both better when combined together,” said longtime East Bay Volleyball Coach Jim Spagle. “The support and compassion he displayed for all our athletes and coaches was not a part-time deal. It was 100 percent, 365 days a year for 33 years, which truly embodies what Pioneer pride is all about.”
Like many in the athletic communications business, Valdez regularly put in 60 hours per week, but he did not view that as a burden. “This was never a 9-to-5 job for me,” he told
The Pioneer upon his retirement. “I always took my work home with me.”
Though that balance became harder in the last few years. Between 2010 and 2013, Valdez split his time at East Bay with caring for his ailing mother, who had moved in with him in Hayward. It was one of the few times that the balance between work life and family became a challenge.
Even with that challenge, the decision to finally retire did not come easy in a profession where the only constant seems to be change.
“I was scared to make this move, but when I did make it, things were okay,” Valdez said. “After working for so long, I was moving from one extreme to the other. It was well worth it.”
Despite being scared, Valdez said the timing was right for him. “I had just turned 62 and I wanted to take care of myself,” he said. “So much has changed. Even though you have the luxury of social media and computers, you still work really hard.”
Since retiring, Valdez has put much of his time into his passions of music, movies and traveling. He took the time to watch every film nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards and traveled to London to watch the Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders play.
And between all of his activities, Valdez still finds his way to campus for games as often as he can, but admits he enjoys not having to attend Friday night games.