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Cogitator Aug 22, 2012
URI men’s basketball coach, Dan Hurley
VISITING ROTARIANS
None.
GUESTS
Therese Vezeridis, realtor from Residential Properties, joined us. Therese helped new URI basketball coach (and guest speaker) Dan Hurley find a home here in East Greenwich. Doug Moody, past East Greenwich Rotarian and envy of many back home (okay, me), was also with us as Bob Miller’s guest. Doug is enjoying a wonderful retirement, cruising through the warm waters of Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean.
BIRTHDAY/ANNIVERSARY
Happy birthday wishes go out this week to George Popella on August 24th. Also, warm wishes for a happy 43rd wedding anniversary to Stan (and Joan ) Reuter on August 23rd.
PHONEBOOK
With 24 unresolved ads, and some $52,000 in committed revenues, the Phonebook Committee under Kathy Brown heads down the home stretch. It’s not too late, and we need all the last minute ads possible. Please make those last calls as soon as possible, and let’s wrap up this year’s campaign on a strong note.
50th ANNIVERSARY GALA
Pat Lenihan is looking forward to making our club’s 50th birthday bash a rousing success, all under a tight 2012-2013 budget. Her committee has met several times over the past months and continues to formalize plans for this landmark event. Pat could use several volunteers to help her, especially for coordinating community service awards which will be announced that spring evening in 2013.
HAPPY BUCKS
George Popella and Doug Moody
-George Popella thanked friend Doug Moody for his travel ‘missives’ from his boat, Surf Song. George also gave a birthday buck and took time to reflect on some signature accomplishments for our club: the Scott Carlson ALS 5K under Judy Pratt; Paul Harris Fellowship and Rotary Foundation participation; our unique REAP (Rotary Emergency Assistance) program, which helps so many local families quickly and significantly; and, the East Greenwich Rotary Scholarship Fund, now over $300,000 in its endowment.
-Richard Waterman welcomed Doug Moody while harkening back to the days when Doug would offer to ‘hang you by the yard arms’ if didn’t get your Rotary ads sold!
-Karen Taylor was happy to report on 500 kids enjoying the East Greenwich Library’s reading program.
-Bob Miller ‘grinded away’ for a few hours playing golf at Alpine Country Club last week, but the evening was sweeter as the ALS of RI’s golf tournament committee reported raising a whopping $35,000 that day.
-Doug Moody thanked Bob Miller for lunch and the club for his Cogitator ‘subscription.’ He also liked the idea of NE Tech’s Rotaract officer installation Caribbean party which promised plenty of conch (a happy staple of his own seafaring diet). Finally, Doug noted today was his first of the year wearing pants! (Well, long pants, that is…)
-Stan Reuter was happy about his second grandchild. Orson Gray Reuter was born on August 11th, weighing in at nine pounds. Stan was also happy to celebrate 43 years with his wife, Joan.
-Jane Boynton’s son met his freshman roommate at URI. (Momma Jane wondered if he would regret not taking that single room when it was available!)
-Steve Lombardi,‘hopeful’ URI alum, looks forward to good days ahead with hoops coach Dan Hurley.
-Yours truly was happy to both welcome Doug Moody and to wish George Popella a very happy birthday. George was president from 1995-1996, has always been a true club leader, and I recalled his sound advice at my fireside chat, ‘…you will get back from Rotary that which you put into Rotary.’
SPEAKER/PROGRAM
Dan Hurley, new URI men’s basketball coach
(Also joining Dan today: Daryl Jasper, Director of Business Development at the URI Ryan Center; and, Adam Schemm, Director of Marketing for URI Athletics.)
Dan Hurley joined in on happy bucks. He gave six bucks, one for each of the URI basketball recruits who signed commitment letters over the past weeks. Three will play immediately, while three will sit out this season due to their transferring to URI.
Coach Hurley’s mission is not to put together a ‘nice little team at URI which will finish each year in the middle of the pack.’ Instead, Dan came to build a championship caliber program, and he wants URI’s team to be a premiere Northeast power.
He will have a lot of work ahead of him, as URI is coming off a couple of down years record-wise and recruiting-wise. Furthermore, the Atlantic-10 has blossomed into one of the NCAA’s toughest conferences. However, with excellent new recruits, and with a good core in place, he sees good days ahead for the team.
Dan has been in coaching for 17 years and has, like his days playing basketball, enjoyed tremendous success on the high school and college levels.
Dan hails from Jersey City, New Jersey, where basketball was part of growing up in the Hurley family from day one. His dad was a beloved high school basketball coach for years. His dad is also one of only two inductees ever from that level into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.
His brother Bobby Hurley was a two-time national champion playing for Duke University and, until a terrible car crash, played in the NBA for several years. Bob is now on the URI coaching staff as an assistant to his brother.
Dan played college ball for Seton Hall under PJ Carlesimo. He laughed when telling the story of trying to guard future Georgetown and future NBA star Allen Iverson one day. Iverson scored 43 points that day, and thus demonstrated that Dan probably would not go onto the pros. After Seton Hall, Dan flirted with the idea of playing in Europe but instead went into coaching, married his sweetheart, and started a family. He and wife Andrea today have two sons, Danny (12) and Andrew (10).
He’s excited to be here in Rhode Island, and in particular, East Greenwich. But…he has one very important question to the locals. ‘Where’s the good pizza around here?!’
Coach Hurley, Daryl Jasper, and Adam Schemm