Athletics Director Krumm honored with Sport Hall of Fame top award

Two other awards, the President’s Award and Inspirational Athlete Award were also respectively presented to Dr. Tracy Duncan, assistant principal over athletics at Riverside Unified School District, and Christian DeLoye, former Martin Luther King High School track and cross-country competitor who was named Most Inspirational Athlete for 2024 for his achievements in the face of disabilities. The evening also celebrated eight new inductees into the Hall of Fame as its Class of 2024. Class members are nominated by the community and voted into induction by the Hall of Fame board.

“The Chuck Kane Leadership Award is given to those who, through their continuing leadership in the Riverside community, have inspired all of us to athletic achievement. This is primarily a leadership award,” said Jerry Hurley, vice president and past president of Riverside Sports Hall of Fame board. “The Executive Board of the Riverside Sport Hall of Fame was pleased to recognize Javier’s leadership in achieving the La Sierra University athletics program as the highest student-retention program on campus, for keeping the overall GPA of student-athletes around 3.2 and for having the majority of teams qualifying as NAIA Scholar teams. 

“This honor noted his selection as the 2023 California Pacific Conference Athletic Director of the Year and his leadership in earning the Five-Star status in the NAIA Champions of Character program for nine years in a row. Our Executive Board also recognized Javier’s creation of the La Sierra University Athletics Advisory Board and his being a key participant in two Frank Jobe galas and two La Sierra University Golf Tournaments for the university. Javier Krumm rightfully takes his place among other noted leaders in the Riverside community.”

 A life’s dream

When he was a young boy growing up in Argentina, Krumm knew what he wanted to do with his life – he wanted to be an athlete and a physical education teacher like his mentor during his youth.

Krumm grew up on the campus of the River Plate University in Entre Rios, Argentina. “I used to open my balcony and there was the tennis courts, soccer, basketball. So I grew up playing sports, I was blessed. I had a childhood that the only thing I knew was I had to come back at 10 p.m. ”

“I was in every single physical education class. My PE teacher was my first mentor,” during a time when the word ‘mentor’ was not commonly used, he said. “Somehow I found mentors.”

When Krumm was 10 years old, a physical education high school teacher named Carlos Esparcia showed up at Krumm’s elementary school to give a career day talk. He was riding a motorcycle and sporting a mustache. ““Of course we all wanted to be like him, he was a cool guy. The guy told the class what it takes to be a PE teacher,” Krumm recalled. The teacher talked about the need to understand anatomy – how the body’s bones and muscles worked – and about the importance of other subjects like psychology. He talked about the rigorous education required of physical education teachers in Argentina which involved learning the basics of all sports including gymnastics.

“I was determined,” Krumm said. After the class, the teacher invited Krumm to begin training with tennis. Krumm’s tireless dedication in training all day on the courts impressed the PE teacher who asked Krumm to assist with his classes. “That was a great moment because he gave me a hug. After that I volunteered for every single class so I was doing warm-ups for all the [high school students].”

By the time Krumm got to university, he tried out for and was accepted into an elite national physical education program that involved survival training as well as sports. After Krumm graduated, he helped develop a first athletics program at the local Seventh-day Adventist school.

After completing his degree, Krumm encountered another mentor, Eduardo Busso at Sagunto College in Spain, also an Adventist school. Busso needed someone to fill in as interim athletics director for a year while he pursued a graduate degree. “The amount I learned from that guy, he was coming every day to counsel me.”

“Somehow, when I went places, I found someone to mentor me,” Krumm said. His work ethic and drive are not only inherited traits from his parents, but were inspired by his environments and mentors, he said.

Krum participated in a variety of sports and eventually entered a career playing and coaching soccer and volleyball in Argentina and Spain. He earned a B.S in physical education from INFE University in Santa Fe, Argentina. He holds a master’s degree in Fitness and Health (LIC) and a minor in theology from River Plate University, and another master’s degree in science of education from Southern Adventist University in Tennessee.

After Krumm arrived at La Sierra University in 2009 to build the athletics program, different sorts of mentors emerged who connected him with key people and advised him in matters of protocol. The initial connections led Krumm to Morrison who agreed to mentor him in athletics management and growth and who inspired him to become involved in the life of the community through service. Others were present at La Sierra University including its former vice president for student life, Yami Bazan, who now serves as president of Union Adventist University in Nebraska.

Building a department

Krumm was hired in 2009 to head La Sierra’s Golden Eagles athletics department, which at the time consisted of six sports. From the beginning of his tenure, he pursued servant-leadership and aimed to inspire it in his coaches, reaching for success through hard work, promptness and attentiveness to others. He developed and pursued a vision of growth for the university’s athletics program that eventually involved the addition of several other sports and the university’s entry into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the California Pacific Conference. The Golden Eagles sports teams and student-athletes thrived, winning top placements, records, and championship games at the conference, state and national levels and with student-athletes achieving the NAIA’s Champions of Character awards multiple times.

The first five years at La Sierra involved grueling, 14-16 hour days, Krumm said, as he worked to build the program and recruit coaches and players. He moved the Golden Eagles’ affiliation from NCAA Division III to the NAIA and eventually led the department to earn the Five-Star status in the NAIA Champions of Character program nine consecutive years. He hired 25 coaches for an athletics program that brings 250 athletes to campus.

His efforts included the creation of an athletics advisory board chaired by Morrison, and which later, in collaboration with the university Office of Advancement, developed gala fundraising events in commemoration of La Sierra alumnus and professional sports medicine icon Frank Jobe.

Under Krumm’s leadership, the Golden Eagles will be able to offer increased athletics scholarships and will add four new sports during the 2025-26 school year --- women’s beach volleyball, men’s indoor volleyball, women’s flag football, and men’s golf. The program will also move to the NAIA’s Great Southwest Athletic Conference. Its 13 teams will go up against teams from nine other colleges and universities in the GSAC.

Krumm has also been instrumental in organizing an annual conference for athletics directors from Seventh-day Adventist institutions around the North American Division. He led a second annual conference held at La Sierra University at the end of July. He was also instrumental in advocacy efforts several years ago that compelled the NAIA in 2017 to move cross country national competitions from Saturday to Sunday to accommodate the values of participating Seventh-day Adventist schools.

Krumm was named the California Pacific Conference Athletic Director of the Year, in 2016 and again in 2021, he was also recognized by the NAIA-ADA. In 2018 he was presented with the Jay J. Nethery Award for Extraordinary Service to Students at La Sierra University.