CBU Athletics

Dr. Micah Parker returned to California Baptist University as the Vice President of Athletics in May 2023. Dr. Parker previously held the position of Athletic Director at CBU from 2009 to 2020.

Lancer Athletics has returned to top form since Dr. Parker returned to Riverside with no example more telling than CBU's best-ever finish in the Learfield Directors Cup in the 2023-24 season. The Lancers finished 86th overall in Division I and 5th amongst all non-football schools, the top 72nd and 93rd percent, respectively.

The Lancers also claimed their highest finish in the 2023-24 WAC Commissioners Cup, finishing 2nd overall. Regular season wins from men's cross country and women's basketball, WAC tournament championships from men's soccer and women's basketball, and runner-up finishes from baseball, softball, women's soccer, and men's golf all contributed significantly to the milestone year. Additionally, STUNT pushed their unprecedented win streak to 80-0 as an Emerging NCAA sport, claiming their fourth USA Cheer STUNT National Title. The cheerleading squad also brought back impressive hardware to Riverside, where they earned the Grand Champion status as the best overall program at Nationals in Daytona. These titles pushed Dr. Parker over the 60 conference title mark as head of Lancer Athletics.

CBU was honored to have its second Joe Kearny Award Winner since joining the WAC. Cross country and track phenom Greta Karinauskaite was named the recipient of the 2023-24 honor. The Joe Kearny award is awarded annually to the conference best male and female athletes. Karinauskaite became CBU’s first Division I All-American as the Lancers top finisher in the 2023 NCAA National Championship race where she crossed the line in 17^th place, helping pace her team to a program best 17^th place in the championship race. She added to her incredible season resume by earning a second-straight invite to the NCAA Track and Field National Championships in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase. She earned her third-career All-American honor when she finished fourth in Eugene. Karinauskaite joins Ane Olaeta (2020-21) as the only Lancers to receive the award.

The 2023-24 athletic season saw the Lancers win off the field as well, as Dr. Parker oversaw the completion of a $27 million joint baseball and softball clubhouse building project, and installation of new turf at baseball Totman Stadium. Looking ahead, plans are in motion to install new golf simulators in October 2024. Parker has been involved in over $132 million of facility builds and improvements in his career. Parker has now supervised locker room remodels for basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, and volleyball.

In 2023-24 he Lancer Athletic Department eclipsed $1,000,000 in sponsorship and gift-in-kind agreements for the first time in department history.  In addition, Lancer Athletics had the third-largest donation totals in department history. The Lancer Athletics Association Board continues to support Lancer Athletics in addition to the Lancer Athletic Association annual campaign.

Attendance was another area where CBU shined in 2023-24. Two sports in particular continue to grow and bring Lancer Athletics into the national conversation, starting with the men's basketball program, which ranks fourth out of 15 Southern California Division I programs in average attendance. Men's soccer's on-field success has translated into one of the hottest tickets in college soccer as the Lancers averaged over 1,000 fans per match in 2023 for the first time in program history. They also set two new attendance records in 2023, and early 2024 success laid the groundwork for another single-game attendance record when 1,617 Lancer fans attended came to opening night victory against CSU Bakersfield.

Dr. Parker spent the 2020-2023 at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, where he held the same title. During his tenure overseeing the Red Raiders, the football team won the 2022 NAIA National Championship, the men's basketball team won the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) tournament, and the men's soccer and softball teams won a regular season GPAC title. The Red Raider athletic program saw record growth in its fundraising during Parker's leadership, doubling the overall number of donors and tripling corporate sponsorship revenue. Parker started and grew the Raider Athletics Association Board to over 60 members.
 
During his first stint at the helm in Riverside, the Lancers had an unprecedented run of success, leading to Parker being named The Press-Enterprise Most Influential Sports Figure in the Inland Empire in 2015. Parker led the Lancers from NAIA to Division II and Division I. The Lancers won the Learfield Directors’ Cup in 2018 after a steady uptick in the Standings from 2014 (26^th), 2015 (16^th), 2016 (fourth) and 2017 (second). CBU has qualified 70 percent of its eligible teams (66 of 94) for the NCAA postseason from 2013-14 to 2020. Seven individual NCAA champions were crowned, with four from swimming and three from wrestling.

In 2018-19, CBU’s first in NCAA Division I and the Western Athletic Conference, the Lancers won two WAC titles (women’s cross country and baseball) and more than 50 percent of their games. They also secured two runner-up finishes in the WAC and nine top-five conference performances. Five CBU teams (volleyball, men’s and women’s swim/dive and basketballs) also qualified for postseason tournaments featuring Division I teams, with both basketball teams hosting first-round games.
 
Men’s basketball attendance increased by nearly 800 fans to an average of 3,075 in 2018-19. It ranked third in the WAC and fourth among NCAA Division I school in Southern California. The Lancers also entered a three-year partnership with Affinity Licensing for their first-ever campus-wide licensing program in May.

The Lancers could not have left Division II much better in 2017-18. CBU won nine conference championships and qualified 15 of 18 eligible teams for the NCAA postseason. The Lancers continued their streak of national championships when swim/dive’s Scott Tolman and Buse Topcu won individual titles in the 200-yard breaststroke and 500 free, respectively, while wrestling’s Daxton Gordon won the 149-pound crown.

In January 2017, the Lancers announced a transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I membership by joining the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
 
Parker was instrumental to the university’s collaborative effort of designing and developing the state-of-the-art, 5,050-seat CBU Events Center.  The events center, which hosts to CBU men’s and women’s basketball teams, features a stunning multitude of technological and visual displays including designer graphics, locker rooms, basketball offices, a four-sided Daktronics videoboard, 360 LED ribbon board, premium courtside seating and concessions. The events center hosts student chapels and graduations, as well.

From 2009-2020, CBU has won 55 conference championships, accounting for 64-percent of all conference championships in program history (86). CBU won six of seven PacWest Commissioner's Cups, including five in a row, becoming the first school to do so. The Lancers have also garnered national attention with the Take It Outside wrestling event (setting an NCAA record for highest attendance for an outdoor wrestling event at the time), and men's and women's basketball playing on national television multiple times. Parker’s vision broke attendance records as the Lancer baseball team defeated Point Loma at Angel Stadium in front of over 7,000 fans.
 
Parker's first major accomplishment was the establishment of the Lancer Athletic Association (LAA), the fundraising arm of the department. Through his work with the LAA, he was instrumental in bringing back the Lancer Golf Classic as well as implementing the annual Lancer Choice Awards honoring the student-athletes each year. He also established the Lancer Athletic Fundraising Board. External revenue increased by over 600 percent since Parker became AD in 2009, including the university’s first six-figure sponsorship.
 
During the transition to NCAA Division II, CBU won 10 NCCAA National Championships, 12 conference championships and won both the PacWest Commissioner's Cup and the NCCAA Presidential Award—given to the most successful athletic program in the respective associations. In addition, Sports Spectrum, a full-color Christian sports magazine, named CBU the top Christian collegiate athletic program in the nation in 2011.

As much success as the Lancers have had athletically, they have also done so in the classroom with consistently demonstrating a strong commitment to academic excellence. CBU's student-athletes collectively have boasted over a 3.3 GPA over the last 12 semesters. Most recently, in 2023-24, the department has achieved a remarkable 3.45 GPA, surpassing the national average for Division I student-athletes. The department’s GPA average has increased significantly since 2009 where the average was below the 3.0 threshold. The NCAA Graduation Success Rate also highlights the academic success of the department with a rate over 90% the past two years. During the past year, the Western Athletic Conference recognized a total of 165 CBU student-athletes with the prestigious Academic All-WAC honor. Over a three-year span (2014-15 to 2016-17), CBU produced the most PacWest All-Academic Team members in the conference, as well.

Parker has added over 60 new coaching and staff positions during his tenure, including seven coaches who have been named conference or national Coach of the Year. He established and built departments within athletics including compliance, marketing, corporate sales, strength and conditioning, ticketing and business operations and fan engagement. Every area of athletics expanded to meet the demands of the transition to Division I.
 
Between 2009-2017, he oversaw several facility improvement projects, including the CBU Events Center which opened July 2017, a new 12,000 square foot Athletic Performance Center in 2019, the addition of lights at the John C. Funk Softball Stadium, the Lancer Aquatic Center and Totman Baseball Stadium, brand new team rooms for men's and women's soccer and volleyball, a state of the art putting facility, a complete remodel of the Van Dyne Gym locker rooms as well as the baseball and softball locker rooms, the addition of a new scoreboard at the Lancer Aquatic Center, as well as a new softball scoreboard, and upgrades to seating at the Lancers' soccer field.
 
Prior to CBU, Parker served as the headmaster at the prestigious Lutheran South Academy in Houston, Texas. Prior to his time at Lutheran South Academy, Parker spent more than 17 years as a collegiate coach, including his time as the top assistant women’s basketball coach at NCAA Division I Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, from 2003-2007. He helped lead the Bulldogs to the 2007 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship and a subsequent NCAA Tournament berth as well as a pair of WNIT Tournament appearances.
 
A 1991 graduate of Concordia University in Seward, Neb., Parker spent eight seasons as an assistant men’s basketball coach at his alma mater immediately after graduation. During that time, Concordia went 178-75, won three conference titles and made six straight NAIA National Tournament appearances, including a Final Four appearance in 1992.
 
In 1998, Parker moved to the women’s side when he was named head coach of the women’s program at Concordia. After a 14-14 campaign in his first season, Parker led the Bulldogs 66 wins and into the national rankings during the next three seasons. In his final season of 2002, Concordia was 28-6, ranked as high as No. 6 and advanced to the NAIA Sweet 16. The next season, Parker served as the director of operations for the University of Nebraska women’s basketball program.
 
Outside of CBU, Parker is also a Christian motivational speaker, speaking at national youth gatherings, faith-based businesses, school assemblies, church events, graduations and Fellowship of Christian Athletes groups. He also served as an assistant professor during his time at Concordia.
 
Parker earned his master’s in education from the University of Nebraska in 1994 and then later earned his doctorate of philosophy with an emphasis in educational leadership from Nebraska in 1999. Parker and his wife, Amy, have three children: Emma, Jonah, Gracie, and Joy. They attend The Grove Church.