Photo by Christina VanHorn,
UNH Human Resources

As the Assistant Director of Campus Recreation at UNH, Dave is responsible for all aspects of administering the Intramural Sports Program. He markets, organizes, schedules and administers 12 major sports and 10 to 12 tournaments. The Campus Recreation program has anywhere from 110 teams to 140 teams per major sport. He and his staff also recruit, hire, train, schedule and evaluate upwards of 80 to 100 officials and 12 supervisors. "We also encourage a couple officials in each sport to go out and get certified, he says. "This helps the peer leadership, training and evaluation among our officiating staff. The officiating piece is a very important skill to have for my Graduate Assistant, and our supervisors as well. It's a continual education process every day, each year. To try to keep officials coming back from year to year we also officiate hundreds of games in the community. It helps the Community Recreation Programs and gives our staff a way to make more money."

Dave's ability to make order out of what could easily be disorder in the sporting world started at a young age. Born in Somersworth, NH, Dave "grew up playing hockey, baseball and golf," he remembers. He later played Division II hockey at New England College. After leaving grad school (Springfield College) he did his Assistantship at Assumption College in Massachusetts. "I was gearing for Athletics so I coached hockey," he explains. "While I was there, I worked in the Athletic Department scheduling, dealing with elegibility, recruiting etc. The second semester I was there they opened a new Rec. Center. I worked there for the semester doing anything and everything. I liked it. It was around sports, but it isn't like a light or anything clicked, but I really enjoyed it and it beat recruiting. I started interviewing for jobs and I ended up at Adelphi University running the intramural program and the facility staff. After a few years it was time to get into a bigger program and when I heard that the Hamel Recreation Center was built (sounds awkward) I thought it was a good time to leave New York and get back to the NH area."

The hectic pace and tremendous amount of teams involved in the program doesn't phase Dave in the least. "It's been an interest since I was a kid setting up neighborhood tournaments," he says. "I can remember hockey tournaments as a kid that were set up incorrectly. It would drive me nuts! In general some classes helped out, but it's basically working with it that drives it home. In our situation at UNH with pretty high team numbers and a lack of field and facility space some creativity helps.

When asked what is most satisfying about his position at UNH, Dave doesn't hesitate when saying "student development. Watching student employees take pride and responsibility for our program and with time turning into valuable leaders. Our philosophy is to give them meaningful responsibility and leadership opportunities/resume building experience and they in turn take the job seriously and have pride in the program. Feeding them never hurts! Without our student staff supervising and officiating 100 games a week at some points of the year, without them scheduling and evaluating staff, we would never be able to offer the programming we do. I think having a fun, but professional atmosphere to work in is very important with the student staff. More than anywhere I've been the students are very reliable, hardworking and respectful."

The students have also been responsible for creating and maintaining the Campus Recreation website. "We are very, very student driven," Dave states." "Going on-line six years ago with intramural registration, league information and participation numbers (, no and) changed our program dramatically. The students can now access information and register teams on their timeline saving valuable time inputting standard information on our end."

Being involved in almost every possible aspect of sports doesn't end when Dave leaves his job and heads for home. "I have kids so golf is out at this point," he says. "Now I volunteer coach and run T-ball in Hampton, coach my son's soccer team (I will admit soccer isn't my favorite sport, but it's fun with him) and play racquetball. I water ski a tiny bit. I'm very competitive. At the present time racquetball is the workout. I also love fantasy sports (baseball and football) and watch too much nonsense on TV." In further making sure there's next to no time in the day when he's not involved in something, Dave also enjoys investing in real estate. "With rental property and an old Victorian Home I'm a glutton for punishment with major projects around the houses," he says.

"I love tradition with the family," Dave says. "Growing up, there was never any doubt that on the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, etc. the whole family would be together. Now I try to do the same thing with my wife and kids."

Dave and his wife Debbie reside in Hampton, NH with their three children, ages 6, 3, and 1 month.