Boston College Athletics
BC's New Athletic Director Familiar With His New Home
June 03, 2022 | Boston College Athletics, #ForBoston Files
Blake James knows all about BC from time spent in the ACC and Hockey East
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Blake James missed New England falls.
He'd been at the University of Miami for about a decade, but the South Florida trappings didn't erase the memories that a former Providence College administrator and University of Maine director of athletics felt when he stepped outside his house and into a crisp fall breeze. He knew about the leaves changing colors, and how the fade from green to orange and yellow defined a region. He lived in a world flanked by palm trees and tradewinds, a paradise built on the crystal clear blue waves of the ocean, but autumn in New England churned, thousands of miles away, with its own Rockwellian majesty.
"Honestly, it's the fall," James said. "New England has some of the greatest falls and my wife loves the season. To be outdoors, whether it's a soccer game, a football game, whatever it is, on a nice fall day, there is nothing better, and it really resonates with college sports."
A good New England fall can make even the harshest winter or the most bone-chilling spring wind worthwhile, but for James and his family, savoring apple and pumpkin season is now an opportunity worth reliving after the former head of the Miami Hurricanes was unveiled on Thursday as the new leader of the Boston College athletics department.
"My wife and I remember walking on campus with our kids and saying that if our kids decided to come to school here one day, how great would this be," he said, "never thinking that I would actually be here as athletic director. When the rumors first started that Pat [Kraft] was going to Penn State, I started lining up everything I could to make sure I was going to be in the running for this job. To culminate with getting the call on Tuesday that they actually selected me was thrilling because this is a program that I've always had a great appreciation for."
Returning to New England is a bit of a homecoming for both James and BC, an institution he knows all too well from his days spent at both Miami and Maine. He was the director of athletics for the Black Bears, a conference partner of the Eagles through Hockey East, though he's a decade-plus removed from when he left Orono to head back to Miami, the place where he started his career.
He did so with three Frozen Four appearances and national tournament qualifications across football and baseball, softball and women's basketball, and Maine parlayed that success into a campaign for a new indoor practice facility. The multi-million dollar improvement plan helped reshape the flagship university of New England's most northern state and continued a career in development that included the establishment of the Friars Forever campaign at Providence College in the early 2000s.
That fund, along with the Friar Athletic Fund, helped redefine PC's athletics department, and, like Maine, the money raised altered the physical landscape of a campus. In the last 10 years, renovations to Schneider Arena and new facilities for the men's basketball, softball, soccer, and lacrosse programs helped aid Providence's rise.
James was not at Providence when that work came to fruition, having left for Maine in 2005, but his time in the Ocean State helped lay groundwork for future success. His years there also coincided with BC's last years in the Big East, and he left for Orono in the same year that the Eagles realigned into the ACC. It was one year after Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East, and when James returned to the Hurricanes after five years with the Black Bears, the ACC's membership was on the verge of swelling with the additions of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame. Having been named the interim director in 2010, he earned the full-time Director of Athletics position in 2013.
"If you follow non-revenue sports, they would say that they recognize that everyone sees football as the one that really generates revenue," James said, "and the more revenue football generates, the more you can really spread around to better your programs. I would say that at Miami, my focus was on every one of our student-athletes having a great experience. My book at BC is going to be on every single one of our students here then having those great skills. And obviously there's going to be a lot more student-athletes when you come in at 31 [programs at BC]."
All of these connections loosely tied James to Boston College, and he spent his nine-year tenure at Miami tinkering inside the ACC's inner workings with four different representatives of the Eagles. He has firsthand experience in that regard to seeing BC's rise, and he knows all too well about the momentum that began with Martin Jarmond's hire in 2017. His three years helped kickstart a dormant program and set wheels in motion that are now foundational steps for a department knocking on a perceived glass ceiling.
Between Jarmond and successor Pat Kraft, BC advanced to five consecutive national championship games in lacrosse and clinched the 2021 national title last year, and tournament droughts for both the women's basketball and volleyball programs ended when the Eagles qualified for postseason play in the WNIT and National Invitational Volleyball Championship, respectively.
Football has seen a surge in interest under head coach Jeff Hafley and he has the program poised to do things not seen since the Matt Ryan era. Baseball and softball, meanwhile, opened both the Harrington Athletics Village and the Pete Frates Center in a massive step forward for their future prospects, while field hockey qualified for its first Final Four in program history in 2019.
Even this past year, the barriers to the ACC ruling class faltered when men's basketball made its deepest postseason run in years. The team entered the postseason tournament by playing in the First Round, but after winning two straight games, the Eagles took Miami into overtime before a last-second shot eliminated them from the Quarterfinals.
"You're constantly competing," James said of BC, "and there's lots of opportunities for people to do with their dollar, and what are you doing to convey the right message and the right experience when they come [to BC]. It's a lot of the challenges that I faced with my experience at Miami. I often say that [Miami men's basketball coach] Jim Larranaga often shared that when he took the Miami job, people [asked] why he was going there. [They said] you're not Duke and Carolina, and 'you'll never win the ACC]. In 2013, we won both the regular season and the [tournament] championships. It's about having the right people."
That success didn't happen overnight, and it took a concerted, united effort from both athletics and university administration. The Eagles remained flexible and competitive, and they emerged from the 2020-21 season as a lacrosse national champion. Men's basketball hired Earl Grant, and the university inked a historic apparel contract after moving to New Balance, a global brand located a mere five kilometers from campus.
Now James is charged with helping BC continue its movement forward. The new athletics director admitted he followed the news surrounding Jerry York with a keen interest at Greg Brown's hire, and even as folks arrived at the Yawkey Center on Thursday, construction continued on Conte Forum's new Hoag Basketball Pavilion. Olympic sports are entering heights they've never experienced, but the challenge and mission are both aligned at the continued growth of a man who reiterated to the gathered crowd that he intends to stay with the Eagles until he retires.
"BC has a lot of sports that I've never been around," James said. "I've never had a lacrosse program, and we have the best one in the country that lost by one in the national championship last week. I'm excited to be back with hockey. I knew Jerry York from my years at Maine, when we made the Frozen Four. I've never had sports like skiing, but I'm just really excited about the opportunity."
He'd been at the University of Miami for about a decade, but the South Florida trappings didn't erase the memories that a former Providence College administrator and University of Maine director of athletics felt when he stepped outside his house and into a crisp fall breeze. He knew about the leaves changing colors, and how the fade from green to orange and yellow defined a region. He lived in a world flanked by palm trees and tradewinds, a paradise built on the crystal clear blue waves of the ocean, but autumn in New England churned, thousands of miles away, with its own Rockwellian majesty.
"Honestly, it's the fall," James said. "New England has some of the greatest falls and my wife loves the season. To be outdoors, whether it's a soccer game, a football game, whatever it is, on a nice fall day, there is nothing better, and it really resonates with college sports."
A good New England fall can make even the harshest winter or the most bone-chilling spring wind worthwhile, but for James and his family, savoring apple and pumpkin season is now an opportunity worth reliving after the former head of the Miami Hurricanes was unveiled on Thursday as the new leader of the Boston College athletics department.
"My wife and I remember walking on campus with our kids and saying that if our kids decided to come to school here one day, how great would this be," he said, "never thinking that I would actually be here as athletic director. When the rumors first started that Pat [Kraft] was going to Penn State, I started lining up everything I could to make sure I was going to be in the running for this job. To culminate with getting the call on Tuesday that they actually selected me was thrilling because this is a program that I've always had a great appreciation for."
Returning to New England is a bit of a homecoming for both James and BC, an institution he knows all too well from his days spent at both Miami and Maine. He was the director of athletics for the Black Bears, a conference partner of the Eagles through Hockey East, though he's a decade-plus removed from when he left Orono to head back to Miami, the place where he started his career.
He did so with three Frozen Four appearances and national tournament qualifications across football and baseball, softball and women's basketball, and Maine parlayed that success into a campaign for a new indoor practice facility. The multi-million dollar improvement plan helped reshape the flagship university of New England's most northern state and continued a career in development that included the establishment of the Friars Forever campaign at Providence College in the early 2000s.
That fund, along with the Friar Athletic Fund, helped redefine PC's athletics department, and, like Maine, the money raised altered the physical landscape of a campus. In the last 10 years, renovations to Schneider Arena and new facilities for the men's basketball, softball, soccer, and lacrosse programs helped aid Providence's rise.
James was not at Providence when that work came to fruition, having left for Maine in 2005, but his time in the Ocean State helped lay groundwork for future success. His years there also coincided with BC's last years in the Big East, and he left for Orono in the same year that the Eagles realigned into the ACC. It was one year after Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East, and when James returned to the Hurricanes after five years with the Black Bears, the ACC's membership was on the verge of swelling with the additions of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame. Having been named the interim director in 2010, he earned the full-time Director of Athletics position in 2013.
"If you follow non-revenue sports, they would say that they recognize that everyone sees football as the one that really generates revenue," James said, "and the more revenue football generates, the more you can really spread around to better your programs. I would say that at Miami, my focus was on every one of our student-athletes having a great experience. My book at BC is going to be on every single one of our students here then having those great skills. And obviously there's going to be a lot more student-athletes when you come in at 31 [programs at BC]."
All of these connections loosely tied James to Boston College, and he spent his nine-year tenure at Miami tinkering inside the ACC's inner workings with four different representatives of the Eagles. He has firsthand experience in that regard to seeing BC's rise, and he knows all too well about the momentum that began with Martin Jarmond's hire in 2017. His three years helped kickstart a dormant program and set wheels in motion that are now foundational steps for a department knocking on a perceived glass ceiling.
Between Jarmond and successor Pat Kraft, BC advanced to five consecutive national championship games in lacrosse and clinched the 2021 national title last year, and tournament droughts for both the women's basketball and volleyball programs ended when the Eagles qualified for postseason play in the WNIT and National Invitational Volleyball Championship, respectively.
Football has seen a surge in interest under head coach Jeff Hafley and he has the program poised to do things not seen since the Matt Ryan era. Baseball and softball, meanwhile, opened both the Harrington Athletics Village and the Pete Frates Center in a massive step forward for their future prospects, while field hockey qualified for its first Final Four in program history in 2019.
Even this past year, the barriers to the ACC ruling class faltered when men's basketball made its deepest postseason run in years. The team entered the postseason tournament by playing in the First Round, but after winning two straight games, the Eagles took Miami into overtime before a last-second shot eliminated them from the Quarterfinals.
"You're constantly competing," James said of BC, "and there's lots of opportunities for people to do with their dollar, and what are you doing to convey the right message and the right experience when they come [to BC]. It's a lot of the challenges that I faced with my experience at Miami. I often say that [Miami men's basketball coach] Jim Larranaga often shared that when he took the Miami job, people [asked] why he was going there. [They said] you're not Duke and Carolina, and 'you'll never win the ACC]. In 2013, we won both the regular season and the [tournament] championships. It's about having the right people."
That success didn't happen overnight, and it took a concerted, united effort from both athletics and university administration. The Eagles remained flexible and competitive, and they emerged from the 2020-21 season as a lacrosse national champion. Men's basketball hired Earl Grant, and the university inked a historic apparel contract after moving to New Balance, a global brand located a mere five kilometers from campus.
Now James is charged with helping BC continue its movement forward. The new athletics director admitted he followed the news surrounding Jerry York with a keen interest at Greg Brown's hire, and even as folks arrived at the Yawkey Center on Thursday, construction continued on Conte Forum's new Hoag Basketball Pavilion. Olympic sports are entering heights they've never experienced, but the challenge and mission are both aligned at the continued growth of a man who reiterated to the gathered crowd that he intends to stay with the Eagles until he retires.
"BC has a lot of sports that I've never been around," James said. "I've never had a lacrosse program, and we have the best one in the country that lost by one in the national championship last week. I'm excited to be back with hockey. I knew Jerry York from my years at Maine, when we made the Frozen Four. I've never had sports like skiing, but I'm just really excited about the opportunity."
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