By Tucker Paquette
@tpaquette17
After 20 months spent serving as Springfield College’s Assistant Athletic Director for Communications, Max Berkowitz is moving up in the ranks.
On Jan. 6, it was announced that Berkowitz was being promoted to the college’s Director of Strategic Athletic Communications, filling the role of longtime lead-man Brian Magoffin. In December, Magoffin decided to switch gears and take a position with the Office of the President.
For Berkowitz, this promotion represents another step up the ladder in a career that has featured several stops. Berkowitz began his work in athletics as a Sports Information Assistant at MIT, then became the Sports Information Director at FDU-Florham after that.
He made his way to Alden Street in April of 2023, and now finds himself heading Springfield’s athletic communications department. While Berkowitz just recently received the news, he has been mentally preparing for this jump for a while now.
“I had kind of had it in the back of my mind that down the road this may be an opportunity for me to take on,” Berkowitz said. “Brian Magoffin and myself talked about it. We put together a really solid transition plan to kind of get me from a two-person office into a one-person office that hopefully will continue to grow.”
Despite the change in title, many of Berkowitz’s day-to-day responsibilities will remain the same. He’ll still focus on the sports information side of things, with coverage including written game recaps and social media content of all 26 varsity teams on campus.
Berkowitz will be a key figure in the planning and organization of the Athletic Hall of Fame and the Alumni Golf Tournament.
The value of a job such as this one is not lost on Berkowitz. From even before he was hired at Springfield, he understood the rarity of the opportunity.
“When I started here in April of 2023, I said to Brian [Magoffin] in my interview that there’s not many top-tier Division III jobs that come open that often,” Berkowitz said.
Berkowitz has come to love the everyday human aspect of his work. The ability to build a rapport with student-athletes and coaches on Springfield’s teams is special to him, and these conversations stand out among his favorite parts of the job.
“I went to take photos of our women’s gymnastics program at Brown and our wrestling program at Johnson & Wales [this past weekend], and just seeing the smiles on our women’s gymnasts’ faces like, ‘Wow, thanks for coming, we really appreciate that,’ was amazing,” Berkowitz said.
Berkowitz also values the ability to connect with student-athletes and coaches and try to gain a sense of what they are about as people, beyond the field, gym or mat.
“Over the past year and a half I’ve gotten to learn who our student-athletes are,” Berkowitz said. “I think that’s one of the best parts about this job. It’s those opportunities you get in an athletic-specific setting that you don’t get in any other job that really makes this a fun day-to-day life.”
Looking ahead, Berkowitz still intends to approach athletic communications the same way he always has. While he plans to build on Springfield College Athletics’ coverage in several ways, including expanding their social media scope and continuing to partner with FloSports, Berkowitz prioritizes the same fundamental goals he arrived at Springfield with.
“Our biggest thing is trying to recruit and retain student-athletes,” Berkowitz said. “How do we recruit students to come to Springfield College? How do we keep them at Springfield College? And how do we tell their stories?”
(Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics)