Forty years later, Beretta is being waved home, this time by the president, not the third-base coach.
The Le Moyne College athletics director, who navigated the Dolphins’ move from Division II to Division I last year, has been named vice president and director of Intercollegiate Athletics at St. Bonaventure, Dr. Jeff Gingerich announced today. Beretta will begin work later this summer.
Beretta will be introduced to the campus community at 3 p.m. Friday at a press conference in the Quick Center for the Arts on the first day of Reunion Weekend. Local Bonnies fans are welcome to attend.
“To have the chance to return and serve my alma mater, the institution that transformed me academically, socially and professionally, the place that inculcated all the values I was able to take into my career, is an amazing opportunity,” said Beretta, who graduated manga cum laude from SBU in 1987 with a degree in Mass Communication. “Everything I’ve done in my life points back to my time in the Enchanted Mountains.”
After a distinguished 34-year career at the United States Military Academy at West Point, which saw him rise from assistant sports information director to senior executive associate AD, Beretta was named Le Moyne’s athletics director in 2021.
Beretta was responsible for transitioning Le Moyne’s 21-sport intercollegiate athletics program to Division I and the Northeast Conference. In three years at Le Moyne, Beretta led the complete restructuring of the Department of Athletics.
Beretta added oversight of intramurals and club sports in 2022 and oversaw a vast remake of Le Moyne’s recreation opportunities offered to all students. He was promoted to assistant vice president for Athletics and Recreation in the summer of 2023.
“Bob has every characteristic we were seeking in an AD,” Gingerich said. “He’s a planner, a builder and a leader, someone who’s willing to be collaborative to build a special team through action and accountability with the student-athlete always at the center of everything. The fact that he’s an alum is simply a bonus, but having a deep appreciation of our mission and values is an asset that will prove invaluable.”
Gingerich was grateful to Gerry Helper, ’79, and Mary Jane Telford, ’75, who co-chaired the search committee.
“The committee did a great job in such a short time frame,” Gingerich said. “Having Tom McElroy, ’74, helping the committee find the perfect fit for Bonaventure was an added bonus.”
A four-time letter winner and three-time team captain of the Bonnies baseball team, Beretta wrote for The BV newspaper and worked as a student assistant on SBU’s Sports Information staff. Upon graduation, he began an internship with Army’s Sports Information unit.
Prior to his departure from West Point, Beretta served as senior associate athletic director for Strategic Initiatives, the last of 10 positions he held in his 34-year career there. He held communications roles until 2008 when he was named senior associate AD for External Operations. He even coached the Army softball team in 2018-2019 when he was a senior associate AD.
“What really impressed me about Bob was the number of innovative, student-focused programs he established at both Army and Le Moyne,” Gingerich said.
Despite the rapidly shifting sands of NCAA Division I athletics — “I don’t look at them as challenges, but opportunities,” Beretta said — the wellbeing of St. Bonaventure’s student-athletes will always be his highest priority.
“Serving our student-athletes is what fuels me every day. They will always be at the forefront of all that we do. We can never lose sight of that primary mission,” he said. “I’m a product of St. Bonaventure University and its intercollegiate athletics program and know how meaningful the experience can be in their lives.”
Beretta was selected to the College Sports Information Directors Hall of Fame in 2020 and won the Jandoli School of Communication’s John Domino Award for excellence in the sports communication field in 2022.
A native of Newburgh, New York, Beretta is married to Jennifer (Johnson) Beretta, also a 1987 graduate of St. Bonaventure. They have one daughter, Julia, an assistant director of Athletic Communications at Penn State.
