Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens’ Lisa Beckett earned the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s (SCIAC) Distinguished Service Award during an on-campus ceremony last Monday, according to a news release from Pomona-Pitzer athletics. The award honors her for years of service to the college’s and conference’s athletic programs.

Beckett joined Pomona College in 1987 as assistant professor of physical education, head coach of women’s tennis, and assistant coach of women’s volleyball. Beckett’s women’s tennis teams won seven SCIAC championships and seven NCAA championships between 1987 and 1998, one team title, two singles and four doubles out of 11 NCAA appearances.  In 1992, Beckett’s team earned the Triple Crown of tennis when they won the NCAA team championship, singles championship and doubles championship, the first ever for Division III. 

In her 31 years at Pomona, Beckett taught fitness classes designed to improve knowledge and performance levels, also included lessons in nutrition, healthy lifestyle choices, and stress management. She held several administrative roles including coordinator of physical education, coordinator of faculty/staff fitness and wellness, associate director of athletics and Title IX planning committee chair. She also held various administrative roles inside the SCIAC.

Over a 16-year span, Beckett also brought nearly a thousand intermediate school girls to campus to participate in sport clinics and celebrate National Girls and Women in Sport Day. 

Beckett stopped coaching in 1998 but remained with the college as a teacher and PE administrator.

In the spring of 2017, Beckett was awarded a three-year appointment to the Exercise is Medicine campus advisory group, a special initiative coordinated by the American College of Sports Medicine. The program assists universities and colleges in the promotion of physical activity as a vital sign of health.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education at Sonoma State University and an master’s in PE at Washington State University. Beckett played four years of tennis and volleyball, three years of softball, and a year of track at Sonoma State. She was a tennis and volleyball team captain and was named the Sonoma State Athlete of the Year in 1979.