Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Matejkovic retiring after 22 years at WCU
After 22 years building West Chestery University into a Division II power, AD Matejkovic announces retirement
“Dr. Matejkovic has been the consummate professional. A kind and caring man, serving and helping all teams achieve success in the PSAC and NCAA. Rest assured that the blood flowing thru is heart is and always will be purple and gold. He will always be a Golden Ram.” — Betty Ann Kempf Townsley, WCU women’s soccer head coach
On Monday during a coach’s meeting, West Chester’s Ed Matejkovic announced his retirement, which will end the longest tenure for an athletic director in the university’s history.
“It will be a tough adjustment because this is who I am,” Matejkovic said. “But three weeks after I retire I will be 70, so it’s probably time for me to do something else.”
A Coatesville native, Matejkovic will officially step down on June 26, but he made the announcement now so that WCU can begin the process of finding a replacement. During his 22 years at the helm, Matejkovic built West Chester — his alma mater — into one of the most successful athletic programs in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and the NCAA Atlantic Region.
“I have mixed feelings about the announcement of Ed Matejkovic’s retirement,” said WCU president Chris Fiorentino. “I know that he is excited about moving to the next phase of his life, and I am very happy for him. But, we will miss his strong leadership of West Chester University athletics.
“West Chester’s long tradition of athletic excellence has grown during his tenure, and he will be a difficult person to replace.”
In all, Matejkovic has spent 32 years at WCU, which represents about two-thirds of his adult life. He came to West Chester in 1965, earned a bachelor’s degree in 1969 and a master’s degree in 1975.
“I had a great experience here as a student-athlete, where there were people who cared about me,” Matejkovic said. “And all I’ve ever cared since I came here as the athletic director was that I wanted a program where coaches cared about the kids, worried whether they were going to graduate, and gave them a chance to have success year after year.”
When he returned to his alma mater in 1995, West Chester has experienced great upheaval in the athletic department and it showed on the field of play. In the seven years between Dick Yoder’s exit in 1988 and Matejkovic’s arrival, WCU went through seven athletic directors.
“And I don’t think any of them stayed in the position longer than 23 months,” Matejkovic pointed out. “Things were kind of all over the place. There was just no stability.”
When the 1996-97 women’s basketball team ended a several-year departmentwide postseason drought by earning a berth in the NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament, Matejkovic and his staff had to work overtime in order to prepare.
“We were in the office that night until midnight worrying about every little thing,” he recalled. “Now, it’s not ho-hum, but we know what we are doing. We have team-after-team make the NCAAs and it’s like a machine.”
When asked about some his fondest memories, Matejkovic went back to 1999, when the West Chester swim team captured the first of numerous PSAC crowns under head coach Jamie Rudisill. The jubilant swimmers celebrated by throwing Rudisill and Matejkovic into the water at Graham Natatorium.
“I had to go to the equipment room and find an old, dirty sweat suit because I had no dry clothes,” Matejkovic said. “It was in February and freezing cold. On the drive home I had wet shoes and my hair was frozen, but I was happy as heck.”
Today, Rudisill and football assistant Mike Furlong, are the only coaches on WCU’s entire staff who were not hired by Matejkovic. Over the course of the last 22 years, WCU teams have captured five national championships, 23 NCAA regional crowns and 60 conference titles. In addition, West Chester won the Dixon Trophy — awarded to the PSAC’s top overall athletic program — three of the last four years.
“If God has given me any skill at all, it was the ability to hire people,” Matejkovic said. “We’ve hired some really good people and we’ve been fortunate that they’ve been successful and they’ve stayed. I’ve tried to support them, because they know what they are doing, and then just stay out of their way and be a cheerleader.”
West Chester’s athletic teams have won at least three PSAC titles in 10 of the last 12 seasons dating back to 2004-05.
“We’ve had several years where every one of our 24 teams have gone to the postseason,” Matejkovic added.
The national championship parade began in 2002 when WCU’s women’s lacrosse squad grabbed the title under head coach Ginny Martino. And the Rams did it again in 2008. But there have also been seven lacrosse runner-up finishes over the years.
“I’ve never touched the championship trophy, but I had to carry home the second place trophy plenty of times because nobody wants to pick those up,” Matejkovic said. “Those were great accomplishments, but second wasn’t good enough.
“That’s just one example of the competitive spirit and commitment to success we have here, where second place in the country isn’t good enough.”
During Matejkovic’s reign West Chester athletes have also excelled in the classroom, continually posting a higher cumulative grade-point average than that of WCU’s student body. There have been more Golden Rams on the PSAC Academic Honor Roll in each of the past six years than any other school.
“You remember Dixon Trophies, the national championships — even the conference championships are very special,” Matejkovic said. “And that’s what we want to do. But we just broke another record: 401 athletes out of 571 made the honor roll last fall, which means they had a 3.0 grade point average.”
Matejkovic spearheaded a facility upgrade movement at West Chester that resulted in the construction of Vonnie Gros Field, the unveiling of Rockwell Field in 2014 and a face-lift for Hollinger Field House in 2013.
“When (Matejkovic) arrived on campus, the athletic programs at West Chester were not at the level that the history and tradition of the university typically expected,” said PSAC Commissioner Steve Murray. “He created stability, hired great coaches, managed budgets and has turned the program into one of the best in the PSAC.”
There have been, of course, many challenges along the way. Matejkovic faced some criticism when he decided to drop the men’s lacrosse program in 2003 and also when he downgrade baseball and field hockey from Division I to II. Those decisions were made primarily for budgetary reasons.
Matejkovic was vindicated, however, when the baseball program won the national title in 2012, and the field hockey program brought home back-to-back national titles in 2011 and 2012.
“I’m proud of our coaching staff,” Matejkovic said. “They do more with less than anybody I know. They work hard, they care about the kids and they do what they have to do to be successful.
“If we had what other schools have, in terms of scholarship support, we would be unstoppable.”