By Braedan Shea
@braedan_shea
After 18 storied years working various roles in the Springfield College Athletics Department,
Brian Magoffin announced that he is stepping down from his role as Director of Strategic Athletic Communications and Coordinator of College Media Relations at the start of the new year.
“I told a lot of our coaches it was the honor of a lifetime to be able to tell their stories and to celebrate their successes and their student athletes, and get to know them on a personal level,” said Magoffin, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Sport Management from Springfield in 2005 and a masters in Athletic Administration from in 2017. “But I think now, seeing that there are some opportunities on the horizon is something that excites me for sure.”
Magoffin isn’t going far. He will become Springfield College’s Board Professional, Secretary to the Board of Trustees, and Director of Communication for the Office of the President. His new office will only be “a par five away” from Blake Arena in Marsh Memorial.
Magoffin has been a part of the athletics staff at Springfield College since 2007, serving as the Assistant Director of Sports Communications and then Director of Sports Communications. In 2016, Magoffin was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director for Communications and then became both the Director of Strategic Athletic Communications as well as the Coordinator of College Media Relations in 2023.
His roles included website maintenance, designing and creating athletics enrollment management materials, developing social media content, overseeing game-day functions, using video production and graphic design to promote the College, and enhancing alumni and donor communication in coordination with the Friends of Springfield College Athletics fundraising arm. Magoffin will pass the torch to Max Berkowitz, Springfield’s current Assistant Athletic Director For Communications.
As Magoffin well knows, taking on sole responsibility for sports communications and the 26 varsity teams on campus is no easy task. From December 2021 to April 2022, he was in the same situation until Berkowitz was hired. Now, Magoffin is confident that Berkowitz will excel in the role, and expand on the foundation he built during his 18 years in the position.
“A lot of times in life, you want to leave something better than you found it,” Magoffin said. “As the communication space in society has continued to evolve, we’ve had to adjust considerably here.”
Filling Magoffin’s considerable shoes will be no easy task. Charlie Sullivan, Springfield College’s head men’s volleyball team and someone who has crossed paths many times with Magoffin since the latter was a student at Springfield, finds that the impact that Magoffin has had on Springfield’s Athletics was more than just as a worker, but as a person as well.
“Brian has meant the world to Springfield College Athletics,” Sullivan said. “He brings a personal touch that can never be labeled on a job description, and he adds caring, friendship, concern, resource and ability as a colleague – and it’s really something that a lot of people can’t do. I’ve never met anyone that’s done it better.”
However, Magoffin believes that Springfield’s sports communications is in good hands with Berkowitz.
“Being able to take calculated risks and put ourselves out there a little bit when we weren’t sure what social media was going to look like, and now to hand the reins over to [Berkowitz] who’s established himself as one of the best in the nation – there’s a reason for that,” Magoffin said.
Using a mindset that most of the coaches on campus can attest to, Magoffin approached his job with the motto of “controlling the controllables.” While many know Magoffin for his bubbly personality, he also wants to be known as someone who worked just as hard behind the scenes.
“Ultimately, attitude and effort are two things you can always control,” Magoffin said. “In my time here at Springfield College Athletics, the attitude and effort that I put out is something that I’m really proud of, and something that I hope other people noticed as well.”
Aside from a two-year stint as the Assistant Director of Athletic Communications at Stony Brook University, where he worked primarily with the men’s basketball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer and softball programs, Magoffin has been part of the Springfield College community since he started his undergraduate degree in 2002.
His role will be split between supporting the Board of Trustees and communications from the Office of the President. In addition to coordinating board committee meetings and full board meetings, the position guides new trustee onboarding and orientation, offers considerations for bylaw discussions and impacts board engagement and evaluation. With upward of 20 years of communications experience, Magoffin is excited for the new challenge, and believes that his skills will translate immediately.
“There’s so many transferable skills that I’ve learned and developed here in Athletics – whether that’s interpersonal communications, relationship building, crisis communication, content creation – all these things that are really the tenet of athletic communications,” Magoffin said. “We joke that communications is hard for a lot of people, and so for me, having been able to develop and grow here over the last two decades and really develop these certain skills, I think can only enhance what we’re trying to do on the other side of campus with the Board of Trustees and Dr. Cooper.”
Although he notes that there really isn’t a “right time” to leave Athletics, it is a process that has been in the works for the past year and a half. Magoffin has already been working with the Office of the President and the Board of Trustees, so when a full-time position opened, Magoffin applied.
“There’s only so many times in life when you get this opportunity, and it would have been, for me, short-sighted to not take advantage of it when it was presented to me,” Magoffin said.
With the closure of this latest chapter for Magoffin, he will forever cherish this time for the people he has come across, including his wife and fellow alum Deleney ‘05 G’11, whom he met when they were students at Springfield together in the early 2000s.
“More so than anything, it’s the relationships,” Magoffin said. “I’ve been so fortunate to interact and watch so many student athletes grow and develop, and to be part of their story just a little bit to help amplify their successes. It has been so cool for them to have, in a lot of instances, become ingrained in my family’s life, to see my daughters look up to so many of these young women and think that they too one day could be that athlete or that change agent on our campus. It’s certainly something that you know resonates and hits home for sure.”
Craig Poisson, Springfield’s Executive Director of Athletics, believes that Magoffin’s departure leaves quite the hole in Athletics.
“[Magoffin’s impact is ] immeasurable,” Poisson said. “Brian really elevated the whole area of sports communication during his progression within the Athletic Department. His knowledge and expertise in all facets of the field – from game-day stats, to website communication, to evolving technology, to social media – is impressive. He parlayed his talents in a way that had a tremendous impact on the overall experience of our student-athletes. Brian contributed in all the tangential sports communication areas as well, be it through our annual golf tournament, the Athletic Hall of Fame or with our development initiatives. He had his finger prints on much, and everything he touched was better through his passioned engagement. I am grateful and indebted for all service to Springfield College Athletics.”
And Magoffin was more than just a sports communicator with athletics, said Sullivan.
“He had this extra job description of being all the coaches’ comforting sports psychologists,” Sullivan said. “[It’s] the same support he gives to the student athletes, knowing them, their background, their story, their personal challenges. He took his job and he probably made it 12 times more in depth by all these natural personal skills he has that are really unique.”
Although Magoffin is excited for his newest endeavor, the new job will be a change of pace. One thing is for certain, however: he leaves Athletics on great terms.
“We have such a great Athletic Department, and so many special colleagues that we come to work with every day, and our focus is to be able to support our student athletes and our teacher coaches,” Magoffin continued. “There’ll be a void for sure for some time, until I figure out what that looks like on game days and just the the the daily interactions and pop ins in the coaches office and them into mine, and same with student athletes popping out to practice and seeing them, all these things have just been really special in my time.”
Photo courtesy of Brian Magoffin