Cerveny Gives Up Some SDSU Track Responsibilities

Jim Cerveny said Wednesday that he is stepping down as the director of San Diego State track and field programs but will remain as men’s and women’s cross-country coach and associate track and field coach.

Cerveny said the move was designed to avoid the possibility of losing any coaches because of budget cuts.

Gary Stathas will coach men’s track and field and Rahn Sheffield the women. Jim Spillers will be an associate coach for both teams. All were members of the SDSU coaching staff last year.

Cerveny also said SDSU will play host to the Western Athletic Conference men’s and women’s track and field championships next spring. For that reason as well as others, he said, he wanted to keep the current staff intact for the coming year.

“There are certain budget constraints put forth,” Cerveny said. “(Athletic Director) Fred (Miller) is trying to control everything. We can’t go any further in debt. He was dealing with trying to stay within budget constraints. . . . Each program had to be cut back a little bit.

“This way, we can keep everybody. We have a good group of coaches working with the athletes, we have a good group of athletes coming back next year, and we’ve got the backing of the department.”

Essentially only the titles have changes--all four men will continue to coach in their areas of expertise. Cerveny will handle distance runners, Stathas the jumpers, Sheffield the sprinters and Spillers the throwers.

Cerveny has been at SDSU since 1982, when he was the men’s distance coach. He was named the women’s coach before the 1984 season and became the men’s coach in 1988.

Stathas was a graduate assistant at SDSU in 1983 before becoming a full-time coach at SDSU in 1984; Sheffield, a two-time all-American at SDSU, joined the Aztec staff in 1984, and Spillers has been an associate coach at SDSU since 1987.