Preview

0:08 - Liam Dacko: Hello and welcome to Stonehill Stories, the official podcast of Stonehill College! I’m your host, Liam Dacko, Class of 2016. In this special episode, I’m sharing a Stonehill story that is still being written: the story of Built to Rise, the College’s fundraising initiative designed to advance Division I athletics, academics and community engagement. At Reunion 2026, Steve King of the Office of Advancement hosted a Coffee & Conversations event with President John Denning; Football Coach Eli Gardner; Women’s Ice Hockey Coach Lee-J Mirasolo; Women’s Basketball Coach Trish Brown; Director of Athletics Dean O’Keefe, Class of 1994; and Men’s Ice Hockey Player Zachary Aben, Class of 2028. The panel participated in a lively discussion about Built to Rise and the College’s bold vision for the future. We hope you enjoy this edited excerpt from the event. And after you give this episode a listen, visit builttorise.stonehill.edu to learn more about the campaign.

Panel Event

1:37 - Steve King: Welcome to Coffee with the Coaches. I’m Steve King, Assistant Vice President for Advancement here at Stonehill, and we are so pleased that all of you are here today. We wish the weather was a little better, but we hope you all are enjoying your time back for Reunion 2026 and that you got a good night’s sleep on those dorm beds last night. So, appreciate you braving the elements and being here today. It’s an exciting morning where we’ll hear from our coaches and special guest, Fr. John Denning. But you’ll be hearing from them in a moment. We wanted to start the program today. Just two weeks ago, we kicked off Built to Rise, an athletic campaign, a $50 million athletic campaign for Stonehill Athletics that will support our rise to Division I athletics that just started four years ago. We’re four years into the transition to Division I, and it’s just an exciting time for the institution. But it’s now my pleasure to turn things over to Stonehill’s 10th president, Fr. John Denning.

2:34 - Fr. John Denning: Thanks, everyone, and welcome. So good to see you all. You know, usually we have Coffee with the President during Reunion weekend, and there’s usually three people that show up. So, you guys have drawn out a crowd, which is great to see. But it’s an exciting time for the College, as Steve shared. And it’s always exciting to watch our student-athletes compete and really bring out the best of the College in so many ways. You’re going to hear from coaches and also one of our student-athletes this morning, and also the Director of Athletics Dean O’Keefe. And all of them, our coaches, really are committed towards mentoring our students each day, not only on the court, but to really help them in their lives to succeed. And that’s really why they’re here each day to work with our student-athletes so that they bring out the best in them, not only on the field, but also in their character formation. And you’ll certainly hear that, too, from our students. So, I can’t wait to hear from them this morning and look forward to hearing them and also hearing your questions. It’s a great moment for Stonehill and for Stonehill Athletics. So, with that, I’ll just hand it over to you and the coaches would introduce themselves. 

3:53 - Steve King: Thank you, Fr. John And so it’s now my pleasure to introduce our Athletic Director in the middle, Dean O’Keefe, Class of ‘94, a former student athlete, soccer player. He serves as Director of Athletics and Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs. In his role, he oversees Stonehill’s 23 varsity athletic programs, as well as the College’s Department of Recreational Sports. So, club and recreational sports as well. And under Dean’s guidance and leadership, Stonehill made the successful transition from Division II to Division I after a bold decision to make that move four years ago. So, we welcome Dean O’Keefe. 

4:36 - Steve King: On the panel today, we have to my left here, Eli Gardner, the Paul Finn, Class of ‘71, Head Coach for Football. Eli has been at Stonehill for 18 seasons, seven as an assistant and the last 11 as head coach. He has led the program and helped to see the transition to NCAA Division I FCS membership. Program has had some signature wins against schools like UMaine, Georgetown and our first NEC win against Duquesne back in Family Weekend of 2022. So, Eli leads the largest Division I program here at Stonehill with almost 100 athletes. So, you’ll be hearing from Eli in a bit. 

5:15 - Steve King: Next, we have Lee-J Mirasolo, our Women’s Hockey Coach. Lee-J has over 15 years of NCAA coaching experience. She’s led the Skyhawks program here for three seasons. During her first season, she led our program in just the second year of existence to the NEWHA championship and a NEWHA championship title and a trip to the NCA Division I tournament. And that was our first program’s first chance to go to a Division I national championship tournament. So, welcome, Lee-J.

5:50 - Steve King: I think many of you know the woman next to Dean, Trish Brown, who’s been here…I won’t say the number of years she had to say it a number of times at our campaign kickoff event. So, I won’t say how many years…25. But in 26 seasons, she is the all-time leaders and games coach, surpassing another Stonehill legend, Paula Sullivan. Her teams have amassed over 450 career wins under leadership. I know it’s all about mentoring students and things, but we want to win, too. And she wins. So, 26 seasons of winning. And she continues to do it here at the Division I level. 

6:24 - Steve King: And last but not least, student athlete Zach Aben from Harvey’s Lake, Pennsylvania. He’s a rising junior sport management major. You’ll be doing an internship just in a couple of weeks at Gillette Stadium for the FIFA World Cup of Soccer. You got that internship through the sport management program. We have 12 students that will be working that fantastic event, Zach, among them. And he was elected to the athlete fellow, engaged athlete fellowship, which is a year-long NCAA-sponsored fellowship. And you’ll hear a little bit about Zach’s work in that program. So those are our panelists. Give them a quick round of applause and we’ll get right into some questions. We’ll leave some time at the end for the audience to ask some questions as well. So, I’ll start off with Dean. You know, we’re four years into the transition to Division I. So maybe share a little bit about that bold move when you first found out about it, when you were kind of…heard the news that we had to make the decision. Do we take a spot that had opened up when Bryant moved on? And some things that have surprised you, maybe some moments and highlights that made you proud. And maybe some things that you’ve learned as a leader during these four years, Division I level. 

7:37 - Dean O’Keefe: Yeah. So, the first person to make sure the mic was working. There we go. Well, thanks, Steve. That’s like six questions. So, I’ll see if I can nail them all. But if not…

7:46 - Steve King: I haven’t practiced my Oprah Winfrey skills. I got to get better at that. I asked you all my questions at once. So do your best. 

7:52 - Dean O’Keefe: Thank you. But first, I just want to echo Steve’s appreciation for all of you being here. I know it’s a beautiful day for indoor sports, so you can see why we need that new arena for our indoor sports. But thanks for being here. As Steve also mentioned, Class of 1994, my wife, Class of 1993. Our daughter played, competed here in the Division II era, and then our son competed here in the Division I era. So, we’ve got a couple of Skyhawks and a couple of Chieftains in our household. So Stonehill runs deep in the O’Keefe family. But that being said, in terms of the Division I move, I think the first most important thing to communicate is that when we made the move to Division I, it was not a move for the Athletic Department. It was not a move for women’s basketball or ice hockey or football. It was a move for the institution. It was something that made strategic sense for us as a college to move forward for a variety of reasons. And as much as people talked about the wins and the desire to win, and we are competitive buggers in athletics, we want to continue to win. It was really a move to move the college forward in a variety of areas, specifically around enrollment, bringing the best and brightest to Stonehill to continue that effort in a very competitive landscape in the enrollment world of higher education to continue to grow our brand and our reach. The Division I moniker and that brand carries a lot of weight and a lot of exposure. And as a result has brought a lot of exposure to Stonehill and has shown a lot of people around the country and around the world who Stonehill is, not just who our teams are, but who we are as an institution, what we stand for and the education we provide for our students on campus.

9:28 - Dean O’Keefe: And it’s done tremendous things for that as well. And then also it’s engaged and reengaged folks in so many exciting ways. Alumni, the fact that all of you are here to hear about athletics and our Division I move, that speaks to so many alumni we’ve heard from around the country, so many people who have never heard of Stonehill before. The Easton community, the Brockton community right here in our backyard have been energized and reenergized. And I know we’re going to fill the new Bogan Arena when that opens here in a couple of years. So, has really accomplished some great things. And so far, it is a marathon, not a sprint. So, we are in our fourth year, which seems like a long time. But at the same time, it’s just the start of what Division I can and will do for Stonehill College. And so far, so good. I think we’ve seen some really, really exciting things that have happened in terms of our student-athlete experiences that you hear about, in terms of some exciting wins, in terms of some just great moments for the entire Stonehill community. So, an exciting start. And we appreciate the continued support of our alumni as we go on this journey. 

10:31 - Steve King: Great. You nailed it, Dean. You answered all seven questions. Thank you. Now I’ll turn things over to maybe Lee-J and Trish. Talk a little bit about the recruiting that you have to do now. There are some questions people would ask, you know, do we have to change the type of student-athlete we’re recruiting at the Division I level? We’ve had such great success at the Division II level, great athletes, championships. But sometimes the misnomer that sometimes there’s a, you know, a little bit of a question of, you know, are they less academic focused now at the Division I level? And I think, Lee-, maybe you start with some of your student-athletes. I would challenge any other program in the country to look at your program with, I think, four students that are biomed majors that are looking at going to medical school and winning a championship, going to the NCAA tournament. I don’t think there are many Division I programs doing that. So maybe touch a little bit on the recruiting type of students that you recruit here.

11:28 - Lee-J Mirasolo: Yeah. I mean, I don’t think that we change who we’re looking for. We’re looking for…we also call those science kids “The Lab Rats.” And so, I think what’s big for us is obviously we want players who are going to make an impact. We want teammates who are going to do a great job in the locker room. And we want students who are going to do well in the classroom, driven students. But beyond that, I think what’s really important is we want people who are going to make an impact on this campus and across campus. In Athletics, we don’t work in a silo where really it’s education through athletics or life on ice, as we say in the hockey world. And so that’s really important to me and our staff when we’re looking at different players and trying to get them to come to Stonehill. We have Maddi Achtyl, just graduated. She was a…I think she was probably the busiest person on this campus at some points. She was the editor of The Summit. She was part of the Career Development Center, helping her classmates create resumes, write cover letters, that sort of thing. Member of SAC. She actually was part of the Student-Alumni Association and would be here, but she just had surgery on her on her foot. So, she’d be out…out at the barbecue later, but we won’t see her. But this this is the type of person that we want here at Stonehill. It’s really not just about the impact that they can make on the ice. It’s about much, much more than that. 

13:02 - Trish Brown: What she said. Thanks for coming, everyone. Because I am the oldest, I had to have the largest coffee. So hopefully that’s not in anyone’s way. Very similar thoughts about the student-athletes that we continue to recruit. We haven’t changed who we are. And in fact, as I was just saying to one of the alum, it’s something that we in women’s basketball are using to our advantage. In this day and age, you’ve all heard of the portal and college athletics becoming very transactional. That’s not what is happening here. And it’s helping us in recruiting. I’m going to brag for one half a second. We are one of 13 Division I women’s basketball programs that did not have one person transfer this year. And I just love a good self-praised clap in the morning. Appreciate you. But it’s true. It’s…we are saying the same things I said 25 years ago when I when I came here. This place is special and it continues to be special because of community and a leader who believes in athletics, the community that supports, the faculty, that supports our students. And I think any coach in our athletic department will tell you great stories about our students, not just our student athletes. And it continues to ring true here that it really is. You will be here at Stonehill as a student athlete. And I think, in recruiting, the things that have helped us. And I’ve always said this from the minute I got this job…thank you, Paula Sullivan…if I can get a student athlete to come to campus, I feel really good about them saying yes to Stonehill. I mean, and look at what we have now. But I believed that 25 years ago. This place is special. And the investment in where we’re going as a Division I athletics program is just incredible. And we’re so excited. Obviously, a new facility is going to enhance our ability to attract student athletes. And that facility is going to be so much more than just about basketball and hockey. We’re letting them come over…that hockey. Actually, I thought I was Bobby Orr when I was little. So, I’m really excited about watching hockey practice.

15:31 - Trish Brown: But it’s going to be a community building. And that will help everyone here in the community as a place to gather and invest. But it also, in recruiting, it’s helped us kind of broaden our scope, as Lee-J said. And as Steve said before, you know, the Stonehill name was very, very strong in the Northeast, in pockets around the country. But now we’re out there, you know, where we’re playing at Notre Dame. We’re playing at LSU. If you’d like to take any of those trips, come on, come along. We’re playing them next year. But that’s a really great experience for our student-athletes. But it’s also a place for us to say, “Yeah, Stonehill is across the country.” And we have definitely felt that in recruiting, in our ability to attract interest from the Midwest, from the West Coast and even internationally. I think that we have a number of international students. So, every bit of our move has been really positive and enhanced our ability to recruit the same quality student-athletes that we’ve always had here. 

16:34 - Steve King: Great, thanks. Yeah, I think there are over 20 countries represented in our student-athletes. It used to be about 60 percent of our student athletes would come from the New England area. Now we have students coming from California and Texas and Florida, states where the demographics are a little bit more enrollment friendly. So, it’s great that we’ve been able to spread the map a little bit deeper and wider for students. And again, more diversity on campus, bringing international students certainly helps in that area as well. So, thanks for touching on that. So, I’ll turn things over now to Zach Aben. I encourage you to go on the Stonehill Skyhawks website and just look at his bio, because there are too many things to mention in terms of the leadership awards that he received in high school. He’s just a great leader. And he was named an assistant captain this year as a sophomore. Not many sophomores at Division I level are named captains, leaders of their program. And he was assistant captain this year. He’ll be a captain next year. So, Zach, talk a little bit about being a leader here on campus for your team. And again, I don’t want to ask too many questions but share a little bit about your engaged fellowship opportunity you got. Again, another leadership thing that really talks to you as a person and what our student-athletes mean to this community.

17:44 - Zachary Aben: Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, it’s an honor to be here. Thank you, everyone, for coming. Yeah, for…in terms of being a leader, you know, as an underclassman, it’s definitely an honor. It’s an honor to be a leader in any team. But I think especially in where we’re at as a program in the school, I think, you know, it’s a little bit more amplified and a little bit more pressure, I guess you could say. But, you know, for me, it’s just kind of being authentic, being myself and just trying to do the right things, be a well-rounded person. And Steve mentioned the fellowship. I was actually contacted by the Athletic Department last spring, early summer to apply for the fellowship. A year-long thing where you basically…there’s 36 other Division I athletes around the country. Eight calls throughout the year. You speak with different business executives, sport executives in the business or in the sport world. They teach you about leadership, civic engagement and just kind of how to be a better person off the field, off the ice. And so that’s really pushed me to be a better athlete, more of a well-rounded person. But the main gist of the fellowship is to participate in a year-long service project. So, we actually finished that this spring. It was April. We held a sports clinic for children with complex health needs to come out and kind of just be able to be part of a team environment that they normally aren’t able to. So, we had 34 children come and our whole team was there. The hockey team was there. Actually, I built upon a clinic that former graduate Cam Mannion held last year. I wanted to build it, though, and integrate more of Stonehill Athletics this year. So, we had women’s lacrosse, field hockey, basketball, baseball came and it was just a great day of, you know, having fun off the ice. So, I think in terms of being a leader, you know, I want to push our team to be better on the ice, drive the culture in the locker room to produce on the ice. But I think it’s important, especially as we grow as a program and a school to push off the ice and do everything we can to be better people in the community. So, yeah, it’s a good opportunity for myself. And, yeah, I’m thankful that, you know, the Stonehill community athletics leadership has kind of promoted that environment where you’re able to make an impact off the off the ice. So, yeah, it’s pretty cool. Pretty cool for me.

20:03 - Steve King: Great work, Zach. Eli, talk a little bit about community, the community that comes out to support you on those Saturday football weekends in the fall. I just remember that first Parents’ Weekend that I was here with my kids were students here and watching you against Duquesne winning that game. The first one was on ESPN and pouring rain. And, you know, there’s been so many exciting games at W.B. Mason Field. You’ve had some great wins and next season you’re going up against the big, big-time schools in UMass, Ohio University. So just talk about what it’s like when you drive on the campus and you see the tailgates happening at 8 a.m. in the morning and, you know, packed house and the excitement around Stonehill football now. 

20:45 - Eli Gardner: Yeah. Thanks, Steve. Actually, the rain today made me feel like it was Family Weekend again, because I think it has down poured the last four years. So, if we could get some sunshine this fall, we’d appreciate it. But no, I think as a football program, you know, we kind of take pride in almost being the tip of the spear here. Right. We are one of the programs that gets to start off the school year. You know, like this year, we’re going to be playing at home versus Bryant University to kick off our season and really kick off the school year. So, we’re really excited about those opportunities to play at home. And like Dean had mentioned earlier, it has engaged new alums and reengaged previous alums that that haven’t been back in a while to come back and to be a part of what’s going on here at Stonehill. Obviously, we’re trying to be a huge part of that as a football program. But it’s just it’s been really exciting to see not only our alumni or our students, our families be engaged, but also to be able to play, you know, nationally recognized opponents and to do it sometimes on national broadcast. So, you know, we take great pride in those opportunities as a program because it’s an opportunity to represent not only ourselves, but our school. I think, you know, I’ve been here, like you mentioned, for 18 years and everybody has always kind of referred to Stonehill as a hidden gem. Well, we’re definitely not as hidden now as we were maybe five years ago. And I think that’s really exciting. And that’s a lot of why we are doing what we’re doing. 

22:15 - Eli Gardner: We’ve taken on this…I guess we can’t use the transition word anymore. We are Division I. So, but that’s you know, that’s why we did. And it’s really cool to be a part of that as a coach, having been on the other side of it with Division II for a number of years. And like you mentioned, we have some awesome opponents now coming up that I think, you know, we’re better aligned admissions-wise and competing for students with those schools. So, we should be playing those schools, you know, on the gridiron and on the court and on the ice. So, you know, this year we’ll be playing our first FBS opponents. We’ll be playing UMass and Ohio University back-to-back in the middle of September. So, we’ll be taking our first flight as a team. So, if anybody wants to help me plan to send a travel party of 90 to Athens, Ohio, in the middle of September, we’re taking volunteers. But yeah. And then obviously playing some Ivy League opponents this past year’s family weekend. We lost, unfortunately, on a field goal as time expired against the University of Pennsylvania. We’ll be returning the trip to them. Playing a game against Yale at the Yale Bowl. You know, so a lot of awesome opportunities. We have games against Dartmouth and Holy Cross coming up. You mentioned the trip down to Georgetown. I’m sure Fr. John, who was there, squeezed Ed Cooley’s hand a little bit more firmer after that, after that game with Stonehill on top. So, it’s just a great opportunity for us as a program to be a part of this process. And like I said, be the tip of the spear and represent the school, the department, you know, right out of the gates here in August and September.

23:47 - Steve King: Great. Thank you. Yeah. And I don’t know how many times we’ve had alums reach out and say, “Hey, I saw you on ESPN or Big 10 Network,” or you know, so many different national broadcasts, NESN and regional broadcasts. So, it’s really giving Stonehill an opportunity to, from a marketing standpoint, you know, to put us on the map. And we are definitely on the map now. We were in…Fr. John and I were in Miami a few years ago, watching Stonehill baseball take University of Miami, a nationally recognized program, national championships to the ninth inning. We were ahead and we won’t talk about the outcome. Pat Boen, our former coach, now advancement officer, Pat Boen is here. And I still I still tell Pat he shouldn’t have taken that pitcher out. But anyway, what do I know about baseball? But just the pride that there were some alums sitting in the crowd that night and all their friends were texting them saying, “We’re watching this on ESPN. We can’t believe Stonehill is playing University of Miami. We’re so proud.” So, I don’t know how many stories like that that have happened over the last at least the three years that I’ve been here at Stonehill. So, it’s really fantastic. Another thing that’s really going to transform Stonehill’s campus is the Tom & Kathleen Bogan Arena, the Bogan Arena. Tom and Kathleen Bogan made a $15 million transformative gift that really has helped spearhead this campaign. And so, Dean, I’ll turn it over to you. In addition to the Bogan Arena, we also have an Athletic Turf Field Complex as part of this campaign. So, talk a little bit about these facilities and what they will mean not only for the student-athletes here, but recreational athletes here in the broader community. 

25:13 - Dean O’Keefe: Sure. Thanks, Steve. You’ve heard a little bit about, likely,    the campaign is really focused on a number of things, but primarily facilities and the Bogan Arena serving at its core. Men’s and women’s ice hockey and men’s and women’s basketball will be transformative. And I know we’re using that word a lot, but it’s because it is big and real and exciting what it will do for our programs. I mean, from the most basic needs, Lee-J could probably tell you the stories of her student-athletes now or Zach can talk about how when you don’t have a rink on campus, you know, you’re up at some ungodly hour before the sun comes up, waking up your roommate to drive in your car on a cold January night to Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to practice. And then hurry, scurry, shower, get back for your 8 a.m. class, your 9 a.m. class, and then start your day. It is a challenge and it’s a credit to our student-athletes that they’re able to do it and embrace it and make the best of it. But it’s not a sustainable model. So, we know facilities matter to bring the best and brightest students to our campus and the best and brightest student athletes. We know what it’ll do for recruiting and retention. We also know what those facilities will do for engagement to bring in 2,500. And that’s the estimated seating for both arenas, basketball or hockey to have 2,500 members of the community to have our students have a sense of belonging and a place to gather and rally around their institution and have alumni be there. And folks from this community that want to see Stonehill compete at the highest level of collegiate athletics is going to be certainly something that moves the institution forward in a dramatic, dramatic way. 

27:00 - Dean O’Keefe: The discussion about facilities has been on the table. Division I maybe has moved it to the forefront and accelerated the timeline. But Division I, II or III, we needed a home for our men’s and women’s ice hockey team so they didn’t have to travel to Bridgewater. We can all talk about Merkert Gym and our love and passion for it as if you were a student sitting in the wooden bleachers cheering for the team or if you played or if you coached. But at that, even with that nostalgia, like Fenway Park, you can debate whether that nostalgia meets reality of what you need. And we need a new facility for our basketball program. So, it is it is a necessity. That being said, as Trish pointed out, it is not just for our men’s and women’s basketball and ice hockey teams. This is a building, a facility that will serve all of our students. We’ve got sport management as a fairly new major here. I think three or four years old on this campus, is the fastest growing major on campus. And I think part of that is because we are a Division I institution now. And students who want that experience and want to work in sports see the opportunity to get hands-on experience at a Division I institution as really crucial to building their resume and building their skills. And we have a large number of students who are involved in all facets of athletics, even if they’re not competing. They’re doing statistics. They’re helping run our social media accounts. They are helping broadcast our games that are streamed or broadcast around the globe. And I think this facility will really be, we keep saying, it’s going to be a laboratory for every student on campus. If you’re a sport management major, you’re going to use that facility to hone your craft. If you are in, you saw in the video, some of the research around exercise science that can happen with our student-athletes and in that facility. You talk about our communications and broadcast majors, our business majors to talk about the finance side of building and raising money for a $65 million building. Those are all really, really tangible things for our students. So, we’re excited about that.

28:56 - Dean O’Keefe: Beyond that, that facility, as you saw in the video, right, there is also plans for new baseball and softball facilities. We can look at a day like today and say, “Gosh, it’s really tough to play the sport of baseball or softball.” When you have rain in the forecast just happens. And right now, we have natural grass fields. So, the ability to move to an artificial turf field for softball and baseball allows those sports to get out to practice and play a lot earlier in the northeast than they are able to in their current situation. And that is crucial. Our softball and baseball teams are playing baseball and softball in February. That means that they need to start practicing before February. They’re traveling south a bit. But when they get back from the south, they want to be able to have a facility that’s ready to go. And with a turf facility, you are able to do that much more quickly and also play a lot more and practice a lot more around the weather elements. Those facilities also will, just like, Bogan Arena won’t just it won’t just serve softball and baseball. Those turf fields will serve our club programs will be…if anyone’s looked at a baseball outfield, you can put a field hockey soccer practice facility space in those fields pretty, pretty easily. So that field will also serve as a practice location, not a game location, but a practice location for many of our recreation, club sports outside of baseball. So really, really, again, transformative for what it’ll do for our, not just our student-athletes, but for the entire campus.

30:20 - Steve King: Great, thanks, Dean. And so, Trish and Lee-J. Maybe Trish start. You’ve been in Merkert Gym for a long time. 

30:28 - Trish Brown: 25 years. 

30:30 - Steve King: Maybe look ahead two seasons in the fall of 2028. And what do you picture walking into a brand new facility and how will that kind of transform your program or help with recruiting even now that we have some of these renderings? And how are you kind of talking about this facility and what it will do for your program? 

30:49 - Trish Brown: Absolutely, it will be a gamechanger in our ability to recruit. You know, I do, as you mentioned, I do love the Merkert and the tradition and history, but we’re just going to carry it across the street. It’ll be the same court, Paula Sullivan Court. But in this landscape, when you’re…recruiting is the name of the game, I might be a really good coach. No, you don’t have to clap for that. But thank you, Ken. That’s why you’re my favorite. It’s about our ability to recruit high-level student-athletes. And, you know, in this landscape, and you’re competing against, you know, we’re not just competing in the NEC, we want to compete against mid-major schools in terms of getting recruits. And the gamechanger will be a facility that we can show them that has the bells and whistles, has, you know…it will be about the student-athlete experience and the wellness piece of that, having things right there, especially for hockey, you know, a difference maker in their ability to manage being a student-athlete at this level where they’re not getting in their cars to drive. And it just, I think for just game environment as well. And again, like, you know, there’s nothing better than having the Merkert packed and, you know, our students come out, our alumni come back. But I think the community aspect of it, our student-athletes across the board do a lot of clinics and camps for young kids. And, you know, we get those groups back into the gym. And I think just to have those groups come into an arena atmosphere is going be a gamechanger. You know, people will come back. When you have a great game environment and you can pack in a 2,500-seat arena, we can pack that. And it’s just going to be an incredible experience, just a game environment. So, I think our ability to attract fans and more from the local community, that’s going to be impacted as well. So, we’re obviously so grateful that this project is moving forward. And I’m really excited to sit in a new seat. Will I have a new seat, Fr. John? Yeah, maybe. I’ll just take this one, it’s pretty comfy. Thanks. 

33:08 - Steve King: And Lee-J, what will a new facility do, not only for your beauty rest, cause you’re getting up at four in the morning, driving to campus, coming back, doing laundry, doing everything that you do as a head coach here on campus and back and forth. So, talk a little bit about your lifestyle balance that you’ll have, and also obviously clearly what it will do for your program and the student-athlete having a little bit more time to be a student here, be a community member and an athlete. 

33:33 - Lee-J Miraslo: Yeah, just right off the bat, they reclaim one hour of their days just in travel alone. And everyone here knows that one hour for a college kid is a big amount of time. And so that alone, and I think maybe they use it for sleep, but certainly it is something that will make a big difference in their lives. And so that is…we can reel in recruits because of this amazing place and everything that Stonehill is, but the rink is something that is 100 percent will be a gamechanger for us. So that’s a big part of it. Trish talked about the fan experience. So, we don’t get…we get mostly parents and families over at the rink for our games. But there was one game, the NEWHA championship a couple of years ago, when…it’s one of my favorite pictures. It is my favorite picture. It’s after the overtime game winner and the team is celebrating. They’re all rushing onto the ice and the glass behind them, it is packed. It’s packed in the stands. And you have men’s ice hockey players that are over the glass, like cheering. Trish is in that picture, but it’s just, there’s other student-athletes there. And so, if we could have that on a more regular basis, that changes not just the experience for the players who are in the game, but it changes the experience for the students that live on this campus. They don’t have to drive half an hour to get to Bridgewater. They just get to walk across the street and enjoy a really good product. 

35:15 - Steve King: Yeah, every Friday night from October through March, there’ll be opportunities for students to go celebrate their student-athletes, have fun before the game, go tailgate before and have a great time. 

35:29 - Eli Gardner: Yeah, sorry, as obviously we talked about it not just being for hockey and basketball. I mean, as a football coach, January, February, March, like that’s peak recruiting season for us. So, these, just like a football home game, we hope it becomes an event on campus when we have a home basketball game or a home ice hockey game. So that’s an event that other programs are going to be bringing their recruits to during official visits and wanting to show off the type of atmosphere, the type of campus environment that we have here. And that’s what is going to drive admissions and recruiting because people want to be a part of that. It’s really hard to do that now. Unfortunately, I’m not bringing any recruits on official visits to Warrior or Bridgewater right now, but I’m excited to host their families and bring them across the street to a home basketball game because it’s something we want to show off and not hide. And I think that’s where we’re moving towards right now.

36:25 - Steve King: Great. Zach, talk a little bit about how you see the facility for your, particularly for your program and maybe as a student too, just, you know. 

36:35 - Zachary Aben: No, 100 percent. I think that gamechanger is definitely the right word, but as a student-athlete, there’s a lot of things like Lee-J just mentioned, the hour that we drive to the rink every day. We have a different schedule. We’re going in the afternoon, but we’re off campus from about 12:30 to 5:15 every day. So, you think about that, we’re practicing for about two hours in that time, but the hour that we’re in the car, what can we do with that? We have a rink on campus, we have a facility, state of the art facilities with a gym, a shooting room, a player lounge, even a player lounge. Like we spend that hour just hanging out with our teammates, getting closer, being closer together. That’s going drive the culture that I discussed earlier that we’re not even able to now. So, let alone working in the gym, working in the shooting room, actually getting better and being able to kind of work towards better on ice performance. I think that’ll be huge. And then the other aspect is, aside from having student-athletes come to our games, having a rink on campus will allow us to go to other student-athlete games as well. There’s plenty of times in the fall or spring where there’s a soccer, baseball game, lacrosse game at three o’clock that we’re not able to go to because we’re off campus. So, I think for me and for my teammates, that’s something that we’re always bummed about when we can’t catch a game on campus and that’s an opportunity that we’ll be able to have. But yeah, I think the biggest thing, the most exciting thing for me in the rink is kind of just being able to hang out there and probably my teammates as well. We’ll spend a lot of time just, either it’s in the gym, in the lounge, just kind of having our own spot, having our own place to go on campus is something that we’re really looking forward to. And we’ll definitely appreciate when that day comes because as Lee-J said, we don’t really have that home feel at Bridgewater. So, yeah.

38:27 - Steve King: Great. I want to switch topics to coaching leadership and mentoring. I’ll start with you, Eli. You hold the Paul Finn Coaching Chair, Head Coaching Chair for Football. Paul Finn, Class of 71, made a gift to endow the position. And maybe talk a little bit about the prestige of that, being the only shareholder of an athletic head coaching chair. 

38:49 - Eli Gardner: Yeah, I think it kind of ties back to what we mentioned with re-engaging and reinvigorating our alumni base and the spirit of philanthropy. I think it’s a process that is probably more familiar in the Ivy Leagues. When you look at every Ivy League football program and we’ve been scheduling them and playing them and their head coaches, their coordinator positions are all endowed from alums that graduated in the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s. So, they’re fortunate to have a much larger alumni base than we have. But I think the decision by Paul and his family to endow my position is really a signal, I think, to the school, to the athletic department and to fellow alumni and fans that there is a huge backing here. And it’s something that I think inspires other people to get involved, to be engaged, to participate in that because a huge part of what we do now is obviously it’s very demanding financially, right? So, to have the assistance from somebody like Paul Finn, I think it’s inspired other alums to be involved, and it’s allowed us to provide the best possible, in my example, football experience without having to sacrifice their academic or their social experience while they’re here. Right now, right across the street, we have 80 football student-athletes that are staying here for five weeks. That is not funded by our departments, funded through our alums and their generosity. So, we’re able to fundraise for things that allows us to provide a Division I experience. And Paul and the endowment of my position is a huge advantage for us as a program to have. But also, like I said, I think it’s a huge signal to the other alums that this is what it takes for us to be successful. And I think it’s inspired a lot of people to be engaged as well. 

40:46 - Steve King: Great, thanks. Yeah, I think that’s important to touch on. Not only is this campaign about facilities, but it is also about growing a sustainable funding operation that allow our teams to compete at this level with travel, out of region travel, with equipment, with training needs, all the different things that go into being a student-athlete in today’s day and age. So just a couple, maybe a month ago, we had a Day of Light and Hope Giving Day, and it was so inspiring to see. We had over 700 people step up that day alone to make gifts in honor of various programs in the Go Hill Fund. And we want to thank everybody that made gifts to that, over $200,000 in one day to support our athletic program. So that gives us faith that this community understands what we’re trying to do, and they believe in the product, and they believe in these coaches as leaders. So that’s going to be a big part of this campaign as well. Trish, talk a little bit about leadership, 26 seasons. How has the student-athlete changed, if at all? You hear that you have to coach a little differently. Do you coach differently, or are you able to maintain who you are as a coach? Or have you had to adjust and adapt? 

41:59 - Trish Brown: I’m not sure if there’s enough time to talk about the change in the student-athlete culture. I have changed a little bit, I think, based on the student-athlete that we coach today. But basically, it’s the same. As I go back to the recruiting piece, we’re recruiting the same high-level student-athlete that wants to succeed on the court and in the classroom here. And so that’s been a consistent, and that’s something that we don’t need to change in terms of our philosophy, and in how we mentor, how we motivate, and how we help and assist and want to mentor these student-athletes to be leaders. A Zach. You could go through each team, and there are such great stories on each team here at Stonehill. And again, and I think actually our Director of Media Relations has done a really nice job this year. Hopefully you’ve seen the website and he’s done some senior reflections but also highlighting the incredible student-athletes that we get to coach. So, I guess, I’m not answering your question. My philosophy is the same. I don’t think I have changed much. And the student-athletes that we’re grateful to be able to mentor and motivate here has stayed consistent. You know, all of you, I see Sally Scully, Class of ’81, who played for Paula Sullivan. I hope I get to coach Sally Scully’s every year. And thankfully we’ve been able to have that consistency.

43:42 - Steve King: Great, thank you. Dean, I touched a little bit on it but just talk a little bit about the impact of funds going to the Go Hill Fund, what you’ve been able to do to provide for our teams and our student-athletes through support to the Go Hill Fund. 

43:56 - Dean O’Keefe: Yeah, absolutely. It’s right, as Eli, I think, gave a great example of, it’s the fuel that makes us go, right? Is the support and generosity of folks who believe in the College and the College’s mission and our student athletes and our coaches and all the good things they’re doing. And it is, you know, quite simply, it’s what we need to be successful, right? And it’s not unique to Stonehill, right? It’s UCLA and Texas and Middlebury, Division I, II, or III. It is folks like hopefully all of you who hear the stories of our student-athletes and the great work and mentorship that our coaches are doing, and say, “I want to help be part of that” because it does provide, right? Big dollars provide things like the facilities we’re talking about, but the ability to bring in Eli’s team when they’re allowed to be here by the NCAA rules this summer is equally important. And the gear that our team wears when they travel is equally important. I think there’s some things that haven’t changed in the time of athletics and the most important thing is parking and what kind of gear do I get to wear? So that stuff never changes. And that support and that need for support never changes. The dollars may change, the needs may change in terms of what, but we really, you know, we appreciate and rely on the folks who believe in Stonehill and folks like me, I know what Stonehill has done for me and my family. And that’s why, right, I work here, right? So, it’s a job, but, you know, I also wear that alumni hat and that former student-athlete hat to say, right, I believe in the mission of what the College is doing and want to support it. That’s the message that we try to share. And we ask all of you to share that message with your fellow alums who may not be here this weekend or may be here and they’re going to be at the barbecue, but, right, spread the word about Stonehill because that next great point guard might be in your neighborhood right now. So, tell them to come on down for a recruiting trip. 

45:50 - Steve King: Great. So, I want to do just a couple rapid fire questions. Division I highlight, memory or win so far? Eli? 

45:58 - Eli Gardner: It’s probably a tie between beating Duquesne opening week or the Family Weekend, our first Division I football game, or Georgetown. I just think the way that those two games transpired for us as a program, one obviously equally special one being our first season, but beating a team like Georgetown, who, I believe, is the oldest Catholic college slash university in the country, coming from a Catholic college ourselves, I think is really special. Obviously the ties with Coach Cooley being there and it was just a great opportunity for us to put Stonehill on the map and help in that narrative. So, I’d say it’s probably a tie between those two. 

46:41 - Steve King: Great. I think I know your answer, Lee-J, but let’s hear it. 

46:45 - Lee-J Mirasolo: This is the easiest one. The NEWHA Championship. That was just an unbelievable experience for them. 

46:50 - Steve King: And that is a great photo with Trish on the glass banging and the hockey players. It should be blown up and put in the athletic department wall. Dean? 

47:00 - Dean O’Keefe: I feel like this is an unfair question. It’s like asking who your favorite child is, right? You have one, but you’re not supposed to say it publicly.

47:08 - Steve King: We’ll let you do it. How about three? Three of your highlights, okay. 

47:13 - Dean O’Keefe: I will say one is also women’s ice hockey-related, but it was our very first game at the University of Connecticut when we started. If we didn’t mention before, all the incredible things that Lee-J and her team have accomplished in terms of wins and championships and going to the NCAA tournament. They’re only four years old as a program. This was only their fourth season as a program at any level. So pretty amazing. And four years ago, our first game was at UConn. It was the first game of the program, of the organization and obviously competing at the Division I level against a Division I opponent. I think that just to me signified, one, I’m from Storrs, Connecticut, so I grew up a UConn kid on campus, but more importantly than stepping into Division I, it was creating a new program and new opportunities for student athletes. That championships come and go, and Lee-J and her team will always remember that championship. But the fact that we established a women’s ice hockey program, there will be 25 to 30 women who will continue to come to Stonehill because of that sport for hopefully the next couple of hundred years and then some. And establishing something I think was really, really exciting for the college and the department. And that’s my one. That’s my favorite kid.

48:27 - Steve King: Trish.

48:28 - Trish Brown: So many. I think my favorite win so far was last year when we won in overtime, but it was the win to get us to the conference championship. And that was year three of the program to be competing for a conference championship was awesome. I think the other one was Sharn Hayward’s 10-3 to get us onto ESPN SportsCenter. That was kind of a fun game. So, when you sit down, you don’t have to coach. 

48:58 - Zachary Aben: For me, definitely we beat UMass Lowell. They were ranked number nine in the country last year in overtime. So that was a huge milestone for us. From the second Coach Berard came in the locker room on the first day, he instilled in us that we’ll play anybody, anywhere, and we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win that game. We’re going to prepare during the week, throughout the season, going into any game, preparing and expecting to win and coming out with that win. That was the first time it kind of came to fruition where we beat a nationally ranked opponent, gained a lot of respect in the hockey world and we’ve kind of grown a lot from there. So, I think that was the first milestone that kind of was eye-opening. We weren’t surprised necessarily, but it gave validation to what Coach Berard was instilling in us and how we’ve grown so far under his leadership in two years.

49:47 - Steve King: Biggest rival team you’d like to beat the most? 

49:49 - Zachary Aben: So we, Long Island University, we play them, like, a lot. So, in the, yeah, I guess them, they’re the other independent that is pretty close to us. So, we, my freshman year, we played them eight times. I think last year we played them six times. So, you kind of just, it’s a built-in rivalry just from playing them so much, but yeah, definitely a little bit of dislike towards them across the board. So yeah, definitely want to.

50:17 - Trish Brown: After 25 years, my first thought is Bentley. But we’ve got a new Bentley, FDU. 

50:27 - Dean O’Keefe: Trish, you stole my answer. Bentley will always be a rival for us, especially for many alums here, right? We do think, Zach, I think we play him in hockey, men’s ice hockey this year. Obviously, they do have a Division I men’s ice hockey program. So, but I think for those of you who are of that era, right, if there was a checkerboard here and there was someone from Bentley, we would have them play someone from Stonehill and we would be cheering as passionately. So, we’re still developing those new rivalries, right? FDU is emerging, LIU, we’ll hear what the others say, but I think time will tell what we’ll become and it may be different by sport, but it will emerge in this Division I era for sure. 

51:04 - Lee-J Mirasolo: There was so much parity in our league, especially this year, but I would say whatever team we’re playing against is our biggest rival…And then I would love to beat a Beanpot school. I went to one, I would love to beat a Beanpot school. 

51:23 - Eli Gardner: I would also say LIU. We played them in a really close game this past year. Obviously, they’re a former NE-10 opponent of ours and they made the transition up to the NEC to Division I a year or two before we did. And I think that that rivalry has continued. We played them in a really tight game and got the win this past year. So luckily we’re on the upper hand right now. 

51:46 - Steve King: And final rapid-fire question: three words to describe, to recruit, what makes Stonehill so special? 

51:51 - Dean O’Keefe: It’s the people. 

51:53 - Trish Brown: That was three words.

51:56 - Steve King: It’s the people, three words. You got it. He nailed it. He nailed it. Not what I meant, but he nailed it.

52:04 - Trish Brown: Student-athlete success. 

52:06 - Zachary Aben: Bold. Family. Growth. 

52:09 - Lee-J Mirasolo: Compassionate. Leadership. Community. 

52:13 - Eli Gardner: Community. Driven. And grit.

52:14 - Steve King: I think we’ll end on that note. I just want to thank those that have worn the uniform prior to these years. So, raise a hand or stand up if you wore the uniform as a Chieftain or Skyhawk or what else were there, Swamp Rats, I think was one Leo Meehan mentioned. So, we wouldn’t be here today without you and your efforts, people that started programs, that wore the uniform, that took the pride and all of you that support our programs and support this institution. Stonehill is on the rise and it’s an exciting time. This campaign is going to provide opportunities for future student-athletes. We have over 550 student-athletes plus probably 50 percent of the students play a club sport or recreational sport. So, every dollar will go towards supporting this department and these outstanding student athletes. And again, just another round of applause for our outstanding coaches and Zach Aben, one of our representative student-athletes. 

Credits

53:19 - Liam Dacko: Thank you for listening to Stonehill Stories! This podcast is produced by Liam Dacko of Stonehill College’s Office of Communications and Media Relations. Intro theme composed by Associate Professor of Music James Bohn. Outro theme composed by Philip Pereira. Graphic design assistance provided by Colin Spencer. To discover more about Stonehill College, visit our website at Stonehill.edu.