April 9, 2002
Opening remarks from Executive Director of Athletics Rick Bay:
"During this search coaches around the country looked at San Diego State and said to themselves, this is a place it can be done. That helped us have a very strong field of candidates to choose from. This afternoon I'm very happy to welcome Jim Tomey and his wife Annemieke. I'd also like to thank associate athletics director Jan Doggett. She did a magnificent job of handling all the applications that came through our office and creating a list of candidates. With that being said, congratulations to Jim, it's great to have you here."
Quoting Head Coach Jim Tomey:
General remarks:
"First of all I want to send a profoud thank you to San Diego State, to Rick Bay, Jana Doggett and everyone who was part of the committee for extending this great opportunity. We appreciate this and are proud to be members of this family. I also want to send a profound thanks to Steve Fisher for giving us the opportunity to enter into this family with him. He is one of the finest coaches in the college game and someone who has been great to be around. He helped me transition from the high school side to the college side and along the way he's become a great friend.
"I'm going to take the experiences I've had with him and apply them to the women's program and get it to the point the men's program is. Those are the things we aspire to do with the women's program. It's a similar situation to what coach Fisher and I came into three years ago. There have been many strides taken to improve our department and the university. There's a sense of pride now that, I think, will propell us to doing great things with this women's basketball program.
"I feel a part of San Diego basketball history, at the high school level and the college level with coach Fisher. Now it's time to create another chapter of my basketball history with the women's program.
"I just met with the team and I can see on their faces that they are ready to be led. That's something I do well and something I look forward to doing.
"I'm excited. My wife's excited. I know my three girls are definitely excited. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get this thing moving. We're going to be good. We're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to work hard. We're going to win and we're going to do it the right way, that I can gaurantee you. We're going to have good citizens and great student athletes. We're going to attract great student athletes. We're going to build this program into something that all of San Diego and San Diego State can be very, very proud of."