After a successful first semester, Marywood’s new Director of Athletics and Recreation Patrick Murphy has ambitious goals set for the future.

With support from his immediate supervisor, Murphy said he wishes to install a three year program to help improve the athletic facilities around campus.

The details of the three year program aren’t officially set, but after meetings with branding company Phoenix Design about aesthetically updating the facilities, there are high hopes with regards to budget and time.

Something else Murphy said he is working on involves Marywood’s logo and a possible benefit for the University.

“I was also involved with bringing Nexus Licensing group on to register our logos and create a merchandising deal that hopefully the university will see some added revenue that they haven’t seen before,” said Murphy.

Another goal Murphy has been passionate about since starting at Marywood is improving the basketball atmosphere. He wishes to bring in an additional PA announcer to help keep the crowd engaged and has recently applied to get an internship approved within the athletics department. Murphy said the internship will work with sports communication and marketing to help enhance and utilize the social media platforms to get more information out to the students, faculty and general public.

Another idea Murphy has been thinking about involves an incentive program to encourage students to come to not only basketball games, but any athletic events.

“I’m disappointed that we don’t have a better student turn out at the basketball games,” said Murphy. “I need to do a better job reaching them and incentivizing them to come out for the games. One of the things I’m thinking about doing is to come up with some sort of affinity program where in the softwares out there, anytime a student comes to any athletic contest they can swipe or scan and do a point based system where at the end of the year there will be prizes for the top three.”

Murphy said he has also thought about the top three winners being entire teams, clubs or dorms so as many people come to the contests as possible.

Murphy said he is extremely pleased with how his first semester went at Marywood. He said his transition was smoother than anticipated and his style meshes well with not only with the other members of the administration, but with the coaches as well.

“I feel that part of my job is not only to be the Director of Athletics here, but I also feel that part of my job is to develop the people around me to be the best that they can be,” said Murphy. “By allowing them to have the freedom to make decisions or make mistakes, I think that’s how you grow as a professional.”

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