The task of becoming a dean for an entire college’s kinesiology, health and athletics division may seem like a daunting task to some people, but to Collin Pregliasco it is an endeavor he is motivated to tackle.

Pregliasco, who previously worked as the associate athletic director at University of California, Santa Cruz, said he joined the Cosumnes River College administration because he has a passion for the community college level of education.

“I really think I can make the biggest difference,” Pregliasco said. “Academically, athletically, socially, emotionally, I think I can make my impact at this level.”

Some faculty members said they are looking forward to working with the new dean and believe he is a good fit for the position.

“He has great credentials, has great vision for the division,” said Interim Vice President of Instruction and Student Learning Robert Montañez. “He’s very faculty and student-centered, and I think he’ll do a great job.”

While working on his master’s degree in child development, Pregliasco started to coach and substitute teach at Prospect High School in Saratoga, California. There he discovered how sports impacted the development of young athletes, and how he could help them develop.

“Some of my greatest moments as a coach are seeing the ones that would’ve never been in college and seeing them graduate,” Pregliasco said.

Pregliasco coached softball for Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. He had the top team in the state during the 2013 season, but at the end of the year his team was suffering from some injuries.

Despite the setback, “We battled,” Pregliasco said. “It was the most heart I’ve ever seen and most dedication in the tightest group.”

After spending 10 years coaching, Pregliasco realized that he had a lot of ideas that he wanted to implement in the college system, but while he was in his position as an assistant advisor or coach, he had no ability to move them forward.

“When you come up with all of these ideas and you put them forward, as an assistant advisor or coach, you don’t have a seat at the table. So I started to get really frustrated,” Pregliasco said.

This frustration is what prompted Pregliasco to move into an administrative position at UC Santa Cruz and to retire from coaching. As the associate athletic director, Pregliasco said that he was “running the day-to-day operations.”

“I did a lot of the social media, a lot of the marketing, sports information, administrative responsibilities as well, including budget,” he said. “So I got to get my hands into a smaller athletic department and a lot of other things, to mold it how I wanted.”

Pregliasco said that his primary objectives were ensuring student success and being a part of new programs that focused on the academic progress of athletes.

During his last semester at UC Santa Cruz Pregliasco said that he only had six at-risk students out of 330 within his department and that the athletic GPA was 3.2.

He was also a part of one of UC Santa Cruz’s new workshops, which helped athletes plan how they would attain their master’s degrees, study abroad or prepare them for job interviews in the future.

Pregliasco said after aiding UC Santa Cruz with their athletics division, he wanted to return to his community college roots.

“I went to Santa Cruz with the goal of saving athletics and gaining some experience with my ultimate goal of finding the right fit at a community college level,” Pregliasco said.

Now that he is a dean, he wants to implement all of the things he has learned throughout his time as a coach and advisor into making a difference at CRC.

Jeanne Calamar, the assistant athletic director, said that Pregliasco is “extremely fit” for the job.

“I think he’s going to come in, assess our situation, evaluate what we’re doing well, what we’re not doing well with and what we need to improve on,” Calamar said.