Spataro earned the award for his efforts to advance the Oaks athletic program during the 2009-10 academic year, his second term as director of athletics. Prior to the past academic year, Spataro was both the men's wrestling coach and the director of athletics. He started the men's wrestling program in 2000 and led the program to national prominence before stepping down to focus on his duties as director of athletics in the spring of 2009. Spataro enters his third year in charge of Menlo Athletics.

Under Spataro, Menlo Athletics has been a major advocate of the NAIA Champions of Character program with volleyball star Stephanie Williamson earning Champion of Character distinction and men's wrestling's Hanna Malak one of only 13 student-athletes from across the country selected to take part in this summer's Red Cross/NAIA Leadership Program. Nine Oaks earned Academic All-American or Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete accolades during the 2009-10 school year with a total of 17 individual honors and 38 conference honors earned by student-athletes.

In addition to emphasizing academics to Menlo student-athletes, Spataro has made strong efforts to create a more recognizable brand from the athletic department. In the last year the department has unveiled a new set of logos and a new web site with more improvements sure to come. Menlo Athletics has also made the move from a dual affiliate with the NCAA and NAIA to an exclusive affiliate with the NAIA for the 2010-11 school year.

Spataro served as the Cal Pac's representative to the NAIA's National Administrative Council and spearheaded the movement to host the NAIA-SIDA Convention on the Menlo College campus next month.