By By Patrick McHugh, News Staff

In an effort to broaden support and attention for Northeastern athletics outside of Boston, various coaches will travel to three major U.S. cities during the first Northeastern Huskies Coaches Caravan, which will begin in August.
Athletics Director Peter Roby will travel with NU coaches to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York to meet with alumni, financial supporters and fans and talk about happenings in the athletic department. The caravan will include a question and answer session with Roby and the coaches.
Roby said the idea for the caravan came from a discussion with Devin Crosby, the Assistant Athletics Director of Development. The two spoke of possible initiatives to reach out to people outside the school’s immediate area and decided they wanted ‘to create more excitement for Northeastern athletics outside the Boston area,’ Roby said.
Crosby said he and Roby looked at what they considered to be ‘aspiring institutions,’ such as the University of Southern California, where President Joseph Aoun worked as the Dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; and the University of Virginia, where Crosby worked as the Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing and Promotions. Crosby said the two noted how both schools reached out to alumni by traveling to different areas of the country, and that given the success of Northeastern’s teams recently, that this summer would be ‘a perfect time to send an impactful message about our commitment to athletics.’
Roby said he finds it important that those with an interest in the university be informed of what is happening.
‘I think the overall goal is to continue to communicate with alumni and supporters of Northeastern athletics,’ Roby said. ‘We want to make sure they come away understanding who are the people involved with our teams, make sure they get introduced to some of our coaches, and hopefully increase their interest in and their awareness of our athletic program.’
The first Huskies Coaches Caravan is Aug. 13 at the Union League Club in Chicago, Ill. Joining Roby will be men’s hockey head coach Greg Cronin, track and field and cross country head coach Sherman Hart, baseball head coach Neil McPhee, and women’s rowing head coach Joe Wilhelm.
The caravan will move to the Hamilton Crowne Plaza in Washington, D.C Aug. 20. The coaches making the trip with Roby will include men’s basketball head coach Bill Coen, football head coach Rocky Hager, women’s basketball head coach Daynia La-Force Mann, and field hockey head coach Cheryl Murtagh.
The final stop for the caravan will be at the New York Athletic Club Aug. 26. Coen, Cronin, swimming and diving head coach Roy Coates, and men’s rowing head coach John Pojednic will be alongside Roby for this date.
Each event will commence with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m., with the program beginning at 6:30. Crosby said e-mails were sent to the members of the alumni chapters in each city the caravan will visit. He said other alumni may RSVP through the Alumni Relations website.
Roby said he solicited interest from coaches regarding the caravan and matched them according to areas of the country where fan and recruiting interest is greatest for each sport.
‘We tried to pick major locations where we had people that were involved with us at a leadership level in terms of the athletic fundraising committee that we put together,’ Roby said. ‘These areas are also where we would like to create more interest and excitement.’
Pojednic said the opportunity to meet with alumni is important for his team and all teams at Northeastern.
‘Part of the job of being a head coach here is networking with alumni to improve our internal infrastructure,’ Pojednic said. ‘Men’s rowing competes against top-line schools’- California, Stanford, Pennsylvania’- and our alumni always like to hear that we challenge these teams with bigger budgets. Basically, for me at least, this will be an opportunity to spread a positive message to our alumni and followers.’
In regards to future happenings, Crosby said athletics will plan more than 30 events over the next calendar year and will examine other locations of interest as well as other time periods for these events.
Roby said he is pleased with the partnership the athletics department created with Alumni Relations in conjunction with promoting Husky sports.
‘Alumni Relations typically does things at some of the locations where our teams are playing in our conference, whether its football, ice hockey, basketball, or any other sport,’ Roby said. ‘We’ll continue to try to do those things. We always try to figure out whether we can partner with Alumni Relations when our teams go outside the area to play, and give people a reason to come together under the umbrella of Northeastern.’
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