Athletics

A great, Great GREAT Football Season

The historic wins just keep coming for Weber State

The Wildcats won their third-straight Big Sky Conference title with a 7–1 record during the regular season, earning the No. 3 seed in the FCS Playoffs and advancing to the semi-finals for the first time in team history. Overall, the Wildcats finished the season 11–4, a tie for the most victories in school history. But the Wildcats weren’t satisfied with just those accolades.

The team finished the 2019 season ranked third in the country in the FCS STATS media poll and the AFCA Coaches poll — the highest end-of-season ranking ever for the team. Weber State led the Big Sky with 14 players selected to the all-conference teams, including five players named to the first team. Senior defensive end Jonah Williams was named the Co-Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the fifth player in team history to earn defensive honors. Williams ended the season with 62 tackles, with a total of 7.5 sacks for a loss of 68 yards. He was also named the 2019–20 Weber State Male Athlete of the Year and the Big Sky Scholar Athlete. In April 2020, Williams signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Rams.

Head coach Jay Hill, who is returning for his seventh season, was named the AFCA Region 5 Coach of the Year in 2019. Hill led the Wildcats to a perfect 8–0 home record in 2019, and has the highest conference winning percentage in program history.

In July, the Wildcats were named No. 1 in both the Big Sky Conference media and coaches 2020 preseason polls, another first in team history. Eight players were also named to the preseason all-conference team.

Rising Stars on WSU’s Volleyball Court

Weber State volleyball had a big year on the court in 2019, sweeping Northern Arizona University to make their second appearance in the Big Sky Conference championship since 1988 and earning their second postseason appearance in school history. The Wildcats ended the 2019 season with a 26–9 overall record, entering the Big Sky Conference tournament as the No. 2 seed and finishing in the postseason with a 13–5 record.

The Wildcats recorded 20 or more wins this season for the first time since 2008, and the team’s 26 wins season is the second-highest total on record at Weber State. Junior setter Ashlyn Power ended the season with 1,459 assists, becoming Weber State’s all-time assist leader with 3,703 in her career and breaking a 35-year-old Weber State record. Freshman Dani Nay was named the 2019 Big Sky Freshman of the Year, finishing the regular season as the fifth-best hitter in the conference and with the most kills of any freshman this season. The team also picked up its first and second postseason wins in school history by taking down Boise State before a competitive five set victory over the University of Wyoming in the Womens’ NIVC tournament.

Two Big Hires in Athletics

Weber State Athletics welcomed new faces to important positions in the 2019–20 academic year

In December 2019, Tim Crompton was named as the Wildcats’ new director of intercollegiate athletics. He had been operating as the department’s interim director since May 2019, replacing previous director Jerry Bovee. Crompton is a familiar face to Wildcat athletics, having coached WSU women’s soccer for 15 years prior to his selection.

During his coaching career, Crompton was voted the Big Sky Coach of the Year three times (2004, 2005, 2018). His teams won regular-season titles three times (2004, 2008, 2018), and Big Sky Conference Tournament championships three times (2004, 2005, 2013). He is also a Weber State alumnus, earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree.

In February, Meagan Thunell was named the associate athletics director and senior woman administrator for Wildcat Athletics. Thunell is a member of the Weber State Athletics Hall of Fame and played soccer at Weber State from 1998–2001, helping the Wildcats go to their first-ever Big Sky Conference Championship as a freshman in 1998.

Thunell spent 14 seasons as an assistant soccer coach for the Wildcats before serving as the interim head coach during the 2019 season. Thunell earned her bachelor’s degree with a double major at Weber State, followed by two master’s degrees.

Locker Room Research

Two of Weber State football’s senior linemen combined their passion for sports and science in 2019 to research the spread of germs in the locker room and how it can be combated — all while playing essential parts in the Wildcats historic 2019 season.

Offensive lineman Xavier Stilson, 26, and defensive end Kawika Tupuola, 24, submitted and presented their research paper, “Microbial Load Reduction in Athletic Locker Rooms Using Ozone Treatment,” at Weber State’s 16th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, which was held virtually in April 2020. Three other students assisted on the research, which involved testing the effect of ozone on bacteria like E. coli and S. aureus, commonly found in locker rooms.

“We picked this topic because it sort of allowed Xavier and I to mix our passions of ‘nerding out’ and sports. It allowed us to create the perfect little niche that we loved to be in,” Tupuola said. “In the end, we were also able to present the information to our teammates, which turned out to be a really cool experience.”

Controlled samples of the bacteria were placed in various spots in the Wildcats football locker room and training area while an ozone generator ran. Their research noted a significant difference in the bacteria kill rate from the generator running two hours (88%) versus three hours (98%), Stilson said.

Planning, conduction and presenting the data on their microbiology project was one of Stilson’s best experiences as a student at Weber State, he said.

Stilson, who graduated in fall 2019, majored in microbiology and plans on attending medical school. Tupuola, an exercise science major, plans to graduate in fall 2020 and pursue a career as a physician assistant. The two men often had conversations about football and academics, as well as their desire to go into the medical field and make a difference.

We may not have been the best on the field, or best in the classroom, but we wanted to make differences where we could,” Stilson said. “Showing our fans from football and our peers from our classes and football that you can do much more than just sit on the sidelines and wait for someone else to pick up the torch is doable.”

Q&A: Xavier Stilson and Kawika Tupuola

Along with sharing their research findings, offensive lineman Xavier Stilson and defensive end Kawika Tupuola answered a few questions about their team’s winning 2019 season.

What was it like to be a part of a record-setting Wildcat football team?

Tupuola: “It was special to be a part of that team. It felt like there was a lot of trust and love in that locker room, and it really felt like a brotherhood, exactly like the kind of team that anyone would dream of playing for.”

Stilson: “Amazing! My dad actually played for Weber from 1989–1994, and being able to go up there and make history was awesome. Just being a part of a growing, winning program was amazing.”

What was your favorite experience as a Wildcat?

Stilson: “The games. The fans were awesome, President Brad Mortensen gave us a ton of support, and being in that atmosphere was greater than anything I have been a part of.”

Tupuola: “My favorite experience as a Wildcat was being able to celebrate with the fans after any win in Stewart Stadium. It’s just a down-to-earth and gnarly vibe to be able to share that excitement and joy for the sport after a win.”

What did you like best about your time at Weber State?

Stilson: “The friends and relationships I have made. They are long-lasting and I know that some of my college buddies will always have my back no matter what.”

Tupuola: “I enjoyed the connections I made with professors and classmates while here at Weber State. I have been very fortunate to have had relationships with professors that have helped me become a better and more successful student, as well as with classmates with whom I have made very good acquaintances or very close friends.”

Excellence in Sports and in Class

The Big Sky President’s Cup has returned to Weber State University’s trophy cabinets

Weber State Athletics received the 2018–19 Presidents’ Cup, given to a Big Sky Conference athletics program for success in both academics and athletics each year. The Wildcats finished second overall in athletic standing, totaling 10 top-five finishes in the 2018–19 season, and second in academic standings with a 3.34 department-wide GPA. More than 160 student-athletes earned Big Sky Academic All-Conferences honors during the year.

Weber State received its first two Presidents’ Cup awards in 2003 and 2004. In total, the Wildcats have won the cup a league record of five times in the last 17 years.

Impressive AP Score

The Wildcats also boasted high numbers in the latest multi-year NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR), released in May. The latest multi-year APR calculations included scores from academic years 2015 to 2019. All Weber State squads were above the NCAA minimum score of 930 and 11 of the 14 programs finished above 950.

The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation of all student-athletes on scholarship, and provides a measure of each team’s academic performance.