Scarborough native named new Husson College athletic director
John Sutyak is returning to his residence state.
The 45-year-old Scarborough native was launched as Husson College’s new director of athletics on Tuesday on the Corridor of Fame Room within the Newman Gymnasium on the Husson campus in Bangor.
He’s changing Frank Pergolizzi, who retired in June after 10 years at Husson.
For the final three and a half years, Sutyak had been the director of athletics at Ferrum School, an NCAA Division III establishment in Ferrum, Virginia. Husson can be a Division III faculty.
“Husson has been a faculty that has continued to develop,” mentioned the previous Wheaton School baseball participant, assistant sports activities data director and athletic director.
“After I was a student-athlete at Scarborough Excessive College within the mid to late ’90s, Husson wasn’t as massive as it’s now. It has turn into a big regional college and the athletic program has continued to achieve success,” Sutyak mentioned.
He was on the NCAA Division III softball committee and, for a number of years, Husson’s softball groups would earn berths to regionals however would by no means win a sport there.
“Now they’re profitable video games on the regionals, and that basically reveals the expansion of the division. I credit score [Pergolizzi] for lots of that,” Sutyak mentioned.
Sutyak is inheriting a Husson program that received 10 convention championships and despatched 4 groups to NCAA postseason play. He needs this system to offer the student-athletes with an awesome expertise and put together them for the longer term.
“This is a chance for me to return residence to a spot that basically cares about its athletic program and isn’t apologetic about being profitable,” he added.
Sutyak needs all of Husson’s groups to compete at a excessive degree and get its student-athletes significant competitors, regardless of its restricted choices as a result of its geography.
Most of Husson’s sports activities compete within the North Atlantic Convention. Husson is within the Commonwealth Coast Convention in soccer.
“Typically, what you’re doing is the most suitable choice for you. However a few of our sports activities want extra alternatives and we’ve to determine that out,” Sutyak mentioned. “I’m trying ahead to engaged on that.”
He mentioned Husson’s continued funding in its infrastructure was one of many lures for him.
“As somebody from exterior, I’ve been in a position to watch that occur steadily during the last 10 to fifteen years. The regular progress has been spectacular,” he mentioned.
Husson improved quite a few locker rooms over the summer time and by the top of the autumn, it is going to have automated movement cameras at Boucher Area, the Winkin Sports activities Advanced and the Newman Gymnasium.
“We hope to proceed so as to add extra technological enhancements to our amenities, particularly our streaming capabilities,” he mentioned. “I do know a variety of the mother and father of the student-athletes dwell far-off and may’t be right here on a regular basis. And our alums are invested in wanting to observe.”
When he was at Ferrum, Sutyak oversaw the addition of males’s and ladies’s monitor and area, helped lead a renovation of the softball facility and was additionally concerned within the institution of an endowment to assist assist the soccer program.
At Wheaton, he was concerned within the growth and development of the college’s first synthetic turf area, the $3.8 million Diane Nordin Athletic Area.
He’s open-minded with regards to including extra varsity sports activities, but it surely must be carried out the precise approach, he mentioned.
“Numerous colleges add sports activities so as to add our bodies. Should you don’t make investments the precise approach, you received’t get the return in your funding. Nothing drives you nuts greater than in the event you begin one thing and don’t end it otherwise you aren’t aggressive,” he mentioned. “And it must be financially possible.”
Sutyak, who earned his undergraduate diploma at Wheaton School and his masters at Springfield School, additionally feels strongly about establishing robust leisure packages so all the scholars may be energetic, not simply the varsity athletes.
He thanked quite a few individuals, together with his mother and father, spouse Carmen and influential individuals at his earlier jobs, together with Husson President Dr. Robert Clark and the search committee at Husson College.
Clark mentioned the issues that stood out for him have been Sutyak’s vitality, expertise and enthusiasm.
Husson soccer coach Nat Clark mentioned Sutyak is a “personable man who is ready to join with individuals straight away. He did a superb job at his two earlier stops, and he is aware of the heart beat of New England collegiate athletics. I’m excited to have him right here.”
