Photo: Kyle Maier
BY: ALLIE ELKINS, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“Every decision that we make is going to be with the student-athlete at the forefront,” said Bob Beretta, vice president and director of athletics at St. Bonaventure University.
Beretta took on the job in July, following a months-long search for an athletic director by the university. According to Beretta, his decisions since taking the job follow the athletic department’s student-athlete-centered approach.
“When you walk down to the basement, you see pictures on the wall,” said Beretta. “Those are our captains. It doesn’t cost a lot of money, but I think our student-athletes appreciate that.”
Other immediate changes include additional locker room space for teams outside of their regular seasons.
“We found some space where it wasn’t being utilized to its fullest,” said Beretta. “So now we’re gonna create locker room space for two of our teams that didn’t have locker rooms while they are in their offseason.”
The women’s lacrosse team now utilizes that space, said Beretta.
“Instead of our women’s lacrosse team walking around with lacrosse sticks because they don’t have a locker room during the fall, they have a locker room now,” said Beretta.
Beretta said he plans to spruce up the Reilly Center with student-athletes in mind.
“We’re going to put some team photos up on the walls,” said Beretta. “We’re creating a student-athlete lounge that didn’t exist.”
Beretta acknowledges recruiting challenges the program faces and how he plans to solve them.
“I felt like our recruiting budgets with some of our sports are very low,” said Beretta. “So, after talking with some coaches, I saw where I could move some things around budgetarily. We’re going to implement that. That’s a huge benefit to our coaches.”
Beretta said he’s looking into healthier food options for student-athletes.
“I’m looking to try to increase what we offer to our student-athletes nutritionally,” said Beretta. “Specifically, we’re looking at corporate sponsorships that might involve nutrition that we can get to our student-athletes.”
Beretta said he is confident about the program’s future despite its financial challenges compared to other Division I programs.
“I feel like at Bona’s we need to maximize every resource every asset that we have,” said Beretta. “We don’t have all the financial resources that all our peers in the Atlantic-10 have, in many ways.”
Another one of those resources is Adrian Wojnarowski. The former senior NBA insider joins the athletics department staff as the men’s basketball team’s general manager.
Beretta said he is even bringing in Chris Laplaca, former ESPN senior vice president for corporate communications, to speak to student-athletes.
“We have unbelievable graduates like [Adrian Wojnarowski], like Chris LaPlaca who’s led corporate communications for ESPN for 40 years,” said Beretta. “Chris LaPlaca is going to be here and he is going to offer our student-athletes a session on personal branding.”
Beretta said he takes a collaborative approach to making changes and improvements within the athletic department.
“I think that my focus is right now building a cohesive team that’s collaborative,” said Beretta. “I want everyone to feel like they have ownership in this department.”
elkinsae23@bonaventure.edu
