BUZZARDS BAY – It was announced today that Massachusetts Maritime Academy athletic director Bob Corradi will be honored next month as one of four Division III recipients of the 2014-15 Under Armour National Athletic Director of the Year Award at the 2015 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Convention in Orlando, Florida. Corradi, Mass. Maritime’s athletic director for 26 years and its head baseball coach for the past 43 years, announced his retirement last summer and this spring enjoyed his best baseball season since 1982 at the school.
After 26 years as athletic director at the Masschusetts Maritime Academy, Bob Coradi will be recognized next month as one of the nation’s NCAA DIII Athletic Directors of the Year in Orlando, Florida.
Photo courtesy of MMA Athletics
The award will be presented on June 17 at the Orlando Marriott World Center.
A Bourne native and longtime resident of Sandwich, Corradi is set to retire from both of his positions at the end of this academic year. Corradi joins longtime friend and former Bridgewater State University Director of Athletics John Harper as the only two Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference administrators to receive this prestigious national award. The award has been given annually the past 17 years to honor intercollegiate directors of athletics for their commitment and administrative excellence within a campus and/or college community environment.
“For over 40 years as the head baseball coach and for 26 years as Athletic Director, Bob Corradi has been the face, the heart, the soul and the spirit of MMA Athletics,” Massachusetts Maritime President Admiral Rick Gurnon said of the Under Armour Award. “He knew that this small, special-mission college with a regimental lifestyle and an unusual academic year (most students are at sea or away at internships for the winter) would present obstacles to attracting talented players and coaching them through the distractions of sea term semesters and a strict uniformed lifestyle, but he embraced the differences and ran a top quality, highly successful fall and spring season with an intense, sustained passion that is rare in college sports. The college will honor him this June by presenting him with an honorary doctorate at graduation – officially making him a permanent Buccaneer!”
Corradi’s long and heralded baseball career came to a close last weekend in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships in Newport, Rhode Island on the heels of his first MASCAC championship in 33 years. The Buccaneers went 17-13 this spring and Corradi finished with 579 victories career victories. He was named MASCAC Coach of the Year for the fourth time. The Buccaneers’ baseball helmsman guided the program to both MASCAC and ECAC titles during the storied 1982 campaign that saw the Bucs win a school record 28 games.
“This is an incredible honor, and one that wouldn’t have happened without all of the opportunities provided to me over the years by the Academy’s administration,” Corradi said of the Under Armour Award. “I want to thank Admiral Gurnon, (Vice President of Student Affairs) Captain Ed Rozak, each and every student-athlete, my entire staff, coaches and all members of the Buccaneer family for their hard work and support—this is a reflection of the trust and belief that they have placed in me and that I have in them.”
Bob Corradi
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Corradi is a graduate of Bourne High School — where he excelled in three sports — and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he played baseball. Each autumn for the past 38 years, Corradi also served as an assistant football coach under Massachusetts Maritime Head Coaches Don Ruggeri, Joe Domingos and Jeremy Cameron and helped lead the Buccaneers to a pair of New England Football Conference championships in 1977 and again in 1983.
Corradi served in a number of different administrative capacities at Massachusetts Maritime prior to assuming his current role of Director of Athletics in September 1989. He has overseen the growth and development of a program that has nearly doubled from eight sports when he assumed his duties to its current 15 varsity sports programs.He also oversaw the construction of a new turf athletic stadium (Clean Harbors Stadium) while helping to implement new construction and upgrades to existing athletics facilities both on and off campus, including the Clean Harbors Athletic Center, Commodore Hendy Field (baseball), Alison Rollins Field (softball) and the Keith Hartford Sailing Center on Herring Pond. During Corradi’s tenure as Athletics Director, the amount of student-athletes participating in intercollegiate athletics at the Academy has tripled, and nearly 45 percent of all student-athletes participating in at least one sport have achieved a minimum 3.00 GPA over the past seven years, another example of his commitment to the mission of Massachusetts Maritime and NCAA Division III.
In addition to the many honors he has received from Massachusetts Maritime, including Academy Employee of the Year in 2007, Corradi has been recognized with other numerous accolades, including the two highest awards bestowed by the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association: the Jack Butterfield Award for integrity and dedication to the game of college baseball in 2010 and the Andy Baylock Award for significant contributions to the betterment of New England college baseball in 2012. He received the Cape Cod Baseball League’s Fred Ebbett Lifetime Achievement Award for his many contributions to the league and to its Hall of Fame in 2012, and in 2013, he was feted during the American Legion District 10 All-Star Game in Hyannis for his years of coaching and dedication to American Legion baseball, specifically the Clark-Haddad Post 188 team in Sandwich. Two months later, Corradi was honored as the 2013 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Male Administrator of the Year.
Corradi will also be presented with an honorary doctorate from Massachusetts Maritime at the Academy’s 2015 Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, June 20.
Corradi will join Bob King of Trinity (Tex.) University, Julie Soriero of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Charlie Titus of the University of Massachusetts Boston as the Division III recipients of this year’s Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year Award, which spans seven divisions (NCAA FBS, FCS, Division I-AAA, II, III, NAIA/Other Four-Year Institutions and Junior College/Community Colleges). All NACDA-member directors of athletics in the United States, Canada and Mexico who met the criteria were eligible for the award. Among the criteria were service as an AD for a minimum of five academic years; demonstration of commitment to higher education and student-athletes; continuous teamwork, loyalty and excellence; and the ability to inspire individuals or groups to high levels of accomplishments.
Massachusetts Maritime Academy Director of Sports Information Jim Seavey and Capecod.com Sports Editor Sean Walsh both contributed to this story.
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