Nov. 21, 2025 SHARE: Sports Highlights. Michael Taylor sits down for a one-on-one interview with HCU Athletics Director Steve Moniaci for a recap of the 2024 season. As Athletics Director, what does success look like to you beyond wins and losses? Success for me certainly starts with our athletes being successful at their sport. Everyone likes to win games. But beyond that, and more importantly, success is going to the three different days of graduation that HCU has each year and seeing our athletes walk across the stage to receive their degrees and then watching how proud their parents and family are of them after the ceremony is over. Success is going to Late Night Breakfast and having them come up and tell me they are ready for finals the next day. And success is going to our end-of-year athletic ceremony and having an athlete on each team get up and talk about the highlights of their season in a polished fashion, which often includes the telling of how much their team has grown spiritually. Which coaching or recent staff hires have made a significant impact, and how have they shaped HCU’s athletic programs? Five of our sports have had head coaching changes over the last two years, and while each of those sports were coached by very good coaches prior to the changes, the impact and energy of the new hires, not just the head coaches, but also the assistants that they brought with them, have energized the whole department. I might add that each of the new head coaches approaches their sport with a servant leadership ethic and with the idea to instill in their athletes not just winning in their sport but winning in their walk and in their life. Which programs do you believe are poised for breakout success in the upcoming seasons, and why? We obviously want to continue the runs we started this past year in men’s soccer, football, basketball and baseball. We always think that volleyball and beach are going to be near or at the top of their league, and as I mentioned earlier, we are looking for women’s soccer to take a step up to the league prominence that we experienced for so many years under Coach Misty Jones. With the advent of the transfer portal, one now has very little knowledge of how we are going to stack up against our opponents, so the best we can do is be the best version of ourselves that we can be. Looking ahead, what is your long-term vision for HCU Athletics over the next five years? First, we’d like to continue to improve our facilities for our athletes. This will help us not only recruit better, but to compete better. Second, we want to continue to improve athletically in our league. We want to be in the top half of our league in every sport and competing for championships. Last, we want to improve our attendance at our home events, so that when our young men and women step onto the fields and the courts, they know they are supported by friends, family and Husky fans who are all rooting them on to victory. Over the past several years, what have been the most significant milestones or achievements across HCU’s athletic programs, and how have they shaped the department’s overall growth? I think two things have helped to shape the department the most over the past several years. The first has been the new head coaches who have come on board in several of our programs. Football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and women’s soccer have all seen new head coaches in the last two years, and I think the new head coaches have brought a new spirit and new ideas to their sports. We have seen the success already in football, men’s basketball and certainly baseball this past year, and we’ll look to see that same sort of excitement from women’s basketball and women’s soccer in the next couple of seasons. The second has been winning conference championships in both volleyball and baseball over the last several seasons. We’ve also seen record results and championship efforts by individuals in the sports of track and field and golf during this time, as well as men’s soccer reaching the championship game in their league this past year. This sets a bit of a tone for the rest of our sports, le ing them know that it can be done – and keeping them striving for the same sort of results. In what ways is faith actively integrated into the day-to-day life of HCU Athletics, both on and off the field, and how do coaches and staff encourage spiritual growth among athletes? Each of the coaches does this in different ways. Some take their athletes to Sunday services during parts of the year. Some sports have bible studies. Some emphasize giving back to the community. And all of them rely heavily on the power of prayer with their teams. Each team manifests this differently, but all with the same goal of leading the young men and women further in their walks.
