First Lady Jean Callahan is rallying women leaders from campus and community to support the Pacific Tigers women’s basketball team.

A big fan of coach Bradley Davis’s team since her arrival at University of the Pacific in 2020, Callahan has created a special section adjacent to the baseline on the home team side of the Alex G. Spanos Center.

She invites women leaders from the university and the community to a pre-game reception at the President’s Residence before heading over to cheer on the Tigers.

“It’s important for women leaders of today to support our women leaders of tomorrow,” Callahan said. “We have amazing students, and the players on this team are fantastic representatives of the entire Pacific student body. These scholar-athletes are smart, passionate, positive, caring and focus on the team instead of individual accolades. They represent the great diversity of our university in every way–socioeconomic background, ethnicity and geography.”

The 15-player squad has student-athletes from five states and four countries enrolled in 12 majors—biology, business analytics, civil engineering, communications, English, health and exercise science, marketing, media, music industry, political science, psychology and sociology.

The Tigers had a 3.6 combined GPA last semester, with 12 players on the West Coast Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll and five on the WCC All-Academic Team.

Callahan rolled out the #WomenSupportingWomen program for the Nov. 10 season opener, which the Tigers won 73-57 over CSU Fullerton. The following home games have been designated for the First Lady’s new initiative:

• 20 vs. Yale (Monday, 5:30 p.m.)
• 20 vs. Pepperdine (Saturday, 6 p.m.)
• 25 vs. St. Mary’s (Thursday, 6 p.m.)
• 15 vs. Portland (Thursday, 6 p.m.)
• 17 vs. Gonzaga (Saturday, 2 p.m.)
• 29 vs. San Diego (Thursday, 6 p.m.)
• March 2 vs. Santa Clara (Saturday, 2 p.m.)

“The unwavering support of Mrs. Callahan has been a powerful and ever-growing force felt by every single one of us,” said Rosie Schweizer ’24, a senior political science major from Australia who is president of the Pacific Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and on the WCC All-Academic First Team.

“We are grateful to have her in our corner and incredibly excited that her passion and enthusiasm for women’s basketball is helping strengthen our community and fan base,” Schweizer added. “Having strong women to look up to and aid us in our pursuits—academically, athletically and in our broader lives—is a fabulous endeavor that we are lucky to experience.”

Coach Davis said that in addition to competitive and athletic success, “one of our main priorities as a coaching staff is to surround the women of Pacific Women’s Basketball with great people.”

“This obviously starts with our staff and our players, but at a place like Pacific it extends to the university community and Stockton area in a way that supports our student athletes as future leaders in their fields,” he said. “First Lady Jean Callahan’s #WomenSupportingWomen program is an amazing opportunity to support future women leaders—and to have some fun in the process.”