It’s a sunny September walking up the steps by La Playa stadium towards campus. At the top of the stairs there’s a small rectangle building on the left. It’s not much of an architectural wonder, but inside it’s bustling with energy. A certain catalyst for this energy is City College’s new Dean of Physical Recreation and Director of Athletics, Mike Warren.

Warren’s been involved in sport his whole life, playing, coaching and administering.

He played and coached football at UCSB when the school still had the program. He also coached at Carpenteria and Lompoc high schools.

Warren has been involved with Santa Barbara athletics since his days as a young man at the United Boys Club of Santa Barbara where he met City College golf Coach Chuck Melendez.

“I remember watching Mike play football at UCSB in the ’60s,” Melendez said. “He’s a good man, he has lofty goals and he’s gonna do a great job.”

With such a lifetime involvement in football, one might think Warren would focus more of his attention and energies towards that program, but he insisted that wasn’t the case.

He said he has a love for all athletics. Whether it’s football, softball, or cheerleading, he loves the competition of sports.

“I’m here to help the coaches however I can,” Warren said.

He said he is a strong advocate for gaining funds for both sports and physical education classes.

He voiced a genuine concern for the well-being of all City College sports programs, no matter how big or small. The people in his department echoed this professed dedication.

“He’s been an absolute joy to work with. His enthusiasm is infectious,” said track coach Keith Kephart. “It’s nice to have someone who really cares about what you are doing.”

Beyond the sanctioned school sports, Warren said he’s focused on helping students achieve fitness for life.

He expressed a dire wish to see people just get and be active.

Before coming to City College, Warren was the executive director of Elings Park where he created many youth sporting programs to help achieve his goal of spreading life fitness.

In the future, Warren said he would love to see City College with a new pool and aquatic program, a new press box for the stadium and he wants to set up a contract with the city to develop the baseball fields at Pershing Park.

Though these are only hopes right now, Warren said he’s optimistic.

“I’ve had much success as a fundraiser and facility builder,” he said.

Warren also has ambitions to increase the coverage of City College sports in local news media. This includes getting the teams coverage on an hour-long radio show about local sports that Warren himself hosted last year.