Saint Joseph’s director of athletics was honored by his peers in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), who recently named him Executive of the Year.
The leader of the Saint Joseph’s athletics department since May 2006, Curtin currently serves as chair of the GNAC Executive Committee and works closely with GNAC Commissioner Joe Walsh.
Success, On and Off the Field
In the classroom, the Monks increased their number of GNAC Academic All-Conference honorees (89) for the fourth consecutive year. On the field of play, nine of SJC’s 10 record-bearing teams advanced to the GNAC Tournament, with the Monks women’s basketball program capturing its second conference championship in three years.
The department’s baseball and field hockey programs made GNAC title game appearances last year, while its staff also hosted the 2015 GNAC Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships in Standish, Maine.
Curtin has had extensive involvement on campus with the SJC Institutional Advancement Office in fundraising for the school’s turf field project. He was also instrumental in creating a graduate assistant (GA) position for the Monks’ athletic training staff, working with SJC Vice President & Chief Learning Officer Michael Pardales. The athletic department’s corporate sponsorships increased in 2015-16 as well.
Saint Joseph’s also added the department’s first-ever full-time head coach for men’s and women’s cross country and track & field, and Curtin worked collaboratively to create two combined oncampus/head coach positions.
Before coming to SJC, Curtin was the men’s basketball coach and an athletic administrator at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., for nine years. He then became an assistant coach at Dartmouth College, where his duties included player development, scouting and recruiting. Following his stint at Dartmouth, Curtin joined the basketball staff at American University where he worked as an assistant for two years.
Cross Country Hall-of-Famer
Curtin earned his BA in journalism from Saint Michael’s College and his MA in education and human development from George Washington University. While at Saint Michael’s, he set several records in cross country that still stand and was nducted into the Saint Michael’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
Founded in 1995, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III association made up of 12 member institutions and over 3,000 student-athletes across the New England region. Each year, the GNAC sponsors and administers 17 championships, while balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunities and community involvement.
