COVER|story
Director of Athletics Pete Bothner at the June 2011 press conference announcing the addition of men’s ice hockey to Nazareth’s sports roster. “I knew there was something bigger I wanted to get out of my college experience,” she explains. “I wanted to be an integral part of the team, not just another number. I told every coach I was recruiting with that I wanted to be as important to the team as the team is to me, and that’s exactly what I got here.” Risucci, whose specialty is the breaststroke, has made her way to nationals every year since stepping onto campus, earning seven All-American honors. But her story spotlights more than the passion Nazareth’s student-athletes have for their sport. It also speaks to the importance the College places on enrolling athletes who will be a good fit both academically and socially. Risucci finished the spring semester with a 3.95 grade-point-average, has served as class vice president or president since her freshman year, and has been active in several campus organizations. Nazareth has a broad athletics program that draws a diverse group of students— some 430 of them, nearly one-quarter of the school’s total enrollment—who, like Risucci, are well-rounded and bring with
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them much more than their eagerness to compete. “There are so many quality high school athletes who can’t imagine their athletic career being over their senior year in high school,” says Kevin Broderick ’89, head coach for the men’s basketball team. “But being here is not just about the playing. Certainly we have to be recruiting students with a high level of athletic ability, but they’re also coming here to get a degree and to be a positive part of the campus, not just for the two hours a day they’re at practice.”
Growing a Strong Program When Pete Bothner, director of athletics, took on the job in 1998, Nazareth had 13 intercollegiate varsity sports. With the addition of men’s hockey last fall, that number stands at 24. Nazareth’s athletes are no strangers to national recognition. The men’s lacrosse team has taken part in six national championship games, winning the title three times in the 1990s and maintaining a consistent national ranking over
the past two decades. Men’s volleyball won the national championship last year. And Nazareth has sent members of its women’s swimming team to nationals for eight consecutive years, bringing home a national champion—Emily Lesher ’08, a nine-time All-American who set a Division III record in the 400-yard individual medley—in 2007. The athletics program experienced a growth spurt between 2000 and 2004 to include equestrian, women’s golf, softball, men’s and women’s cross-country, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track, and men’s volleyball. These days, the emphasis is on finding increasingly creative ways to recruit students from a wide variety of backgrounds and geographic areas, especially given that the number of high school students in New York State, a hotbed for Nazareth recruitment, will continue to decrease over the next several years. “That means we’ve got to expand our net to attract kids from outside of what has been our traditional focus,” says Bothner, “which is about 150 miles outside of Nazareth.” Nazareth’s recruiters are directing much of those efforts to prospective students who want to play lacrosse, hockey, and volleyball—sports that aren’t offered at colleges in all parts of the country. Brian Wright ’13, a lacrosse midfielder and double major in biology and inclusive education, hails from Franklin Lakes, N.J. He first heard about Nazareth from an alumnus who was his older brother’s assistant lacrosse coach at the University of Massachusetts, then became seriously interested when Nazareth was recommended by the head coach at his high school. Two visits to campus later, after lacrosse head coach Rob Randall ’88 “reached out to me more than anyone else,” he’d made his decision. “Coming from New Jersey, I didn’t know much about Nazareth,” he says. “But it really set itself apart from the other schools that were looking at me.” www.naz.edu