NOTES AND QUOTES for a Wednesday in the Napa Valley:

Mark Massari, a Vintage High School graduate and former Napa resident who starred in football for the 1986 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I champion Crushers, was named as the new athletic director at UC Santa Barbara Monday.

Massari, the senior associate athletics director for external affairs at Oregon State, will replace Gary Cunningham, who is stepping down after 13 years. Massari has been at Oregon State since 2002.

“This is a special place,” Massari said on the UCSB athletic web site. “As an athletic director you want to be at a place where you can win and this place can win. We compete against the best schools in the country academically and win and we will athletically.”

At Oregon State, Massari has been in charge of directing all revenue-generating, external marketing and communications activities.

“Mark Massari has a vision and drive to be successful, and that enthusiasm is contagious among his staff,” Oregon State President Ed Ray said. “He was on the forefront of helping Oregon State develop a campus-wide strategic marketing plan that has helped brand the university nationally. UCSB has hired a person who I consider to be a part of the next group of young talented athletic directors and I have no doubt he will be successful in leading the Gauchos’ program.”

In his time at Oregon State, Massari helped double the marketing and sponsorship revenue, increasing the hours on regional television and radio while also negotiating satellite radio rights with XM Radio.

Massari is someone who “can bring us to the next new height,” UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang said.

Massari played an integral part in OSU’s senior management team, which successfully completed $115 million in improvements with another $40 million planned.

“Facilities need to be the difference maker,” said Massari, 39, who will begin his new job near the end of September. “If you’ve got the facilities, then you’ve got a fighting chance on a national level.”

Oregon State AD Bob De Carolis said: “UCSB should be congratulated for hiring a very talented person in Mark Massari. He successfully managed a wide range of strategic and complex projects for us and I can say this without a doubt — he’s been a major factor in our success at Oregon State. His ability to lead, and more importantly to produce, is an outstanding combination. He simply made us better. Our loss is truly UCSB’s gain.”

Cunningham served as UCSB’s AD since 1995 and announced in January that he would be stepping down from the position.

Massari played four years of college football at Cal State Sacramento and graduated with a degree in history. At Vintage, he was a linebacker, fullback and tight end. He left Truckee after his junior year and moved with his family to Napa. Here, he played at Vintage with his cousin, Steve Buccellato, the Monticello Empire League Player of the Year and Sacramento Bee’s Superior California Player of the Year who, as a running back, gained 1,630 yards and scored 26 TDs for the 13-1 Crushers.

Massari was named All-MEL and All-Napa County after making 77 primary tackles and 23 assisted stops.

Prior to his arrival at Oregon State, Massari directed the broadcast network for the San Francisco 49ers, managing all media sales, affiliate stations and player and coaches’ on-air programming. Before working with the Niners, he spent one season with CBS Radio Sports in NFL sales.

Massari started out his career in college athletics, working four years at the University of Miami (Fla.) as sports marketing and sales director. Prior to that, he was a graduate intern for two years at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga.

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Pete Loomis and Scott De Martini, who play out of Eagle Vines Vineyards & Golf Club in Napa, won the U.S. finals of International Pairs at Quail Lodge in Carmel last month and will now advance to St. Andrews in Scotland to compete with other pairs of winners from all over the world. “To represent the United States as an amateur golfer in Scotland is a truly amazing feeling,” said De Martini. “It’s a dream come true.”

International Pairs, open to golfers with a USGA handicap-index from all over the western U.S., provides an opportunity to represent Team USA at the World Finals at St. Andrews — all expenses paid. The event is Sept. 20-23.

The only registration fee is at the local tournament level. The winning two-person team advances to the U.S. finals.

“We were very happy to be a part of the experience, but when we won, it was completely overwhelming and emotional,” said DeMartini.

Frank Samson is the president and co-founder of International Pairs USA West.

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Big West coaches picked the Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo men’s soccer team, which has Eric Branagan-Franco of Napa, to finish third in the annual preseason poll.

Cal Poly, coming off its best season in program history, returns nine starters, including Branagan-Franco, an All-Conference selection who plays goal keeper.

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In a vote of league head coaches, the Sonoma State women’s soccer team was picked to finish second in the California Collegiate Athletic Association North Division and advance to the conference tournament. Sonoma (10-7-2 overall) finished fourth in the North in 2007.

E-mail Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.com or call 256-2223.