Wojnarowski, ’91, Retires From ESPN To Accept GM Role With Bonnies Basketball Program

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Adrian Wojnarowski, Senior NBA Insider for ESPN, is retiring from his award-winning journalism profession and returning to his alma mater as basic supervisor for the St. Bonaventure males’s basketball program.

“I am thrilled and humbled to return to St. Bonaventure with a chance to serve the college, Coach Mark Schmidt and our elite Atlantic 10 males’s basketball program,” Wojnarowski mentioned. “In these altering occasions of faculty sports activities, I am keen to affix a championship program that mixes high-level basketball, nationwide tv publicity, professional preparation and NIL alternatives with an intimate, supportive instructional atmosphere.” 

In his function as basic supervisor, Wojnarowski will serve the teaching workers in managing a variety of tasks together with title, picture and likeness (NIL) alternatives and as a liaison with collectives; switch portal administration; recruit, household and alumni participant relationships; skilled participant applications; and program fundraising.

Recognizing the quickly evolving panorama of faculty athletics, many energy convention and mid-major colleges have added the function of basic supervisor since 2022, particularly for his or her soccer and males’s basketball applications.

“I am hopeful to share with members of our neighborhood some finest practices discovered from essentially the most profitable franchises and minds within the NBA and dedicated to opening doorways globally for our gamers each on and off the court docket,” Wojnarowski mentioned.

Bob Beretta, vp and director of Intercollegiate Athletics, mentioned Wojnarowski’s choice is an “unbelievable alternative” for the college, its athletic division and the boys’s basketball program.

“At a time of super turbulence inside the intercollegiate athletics enterprise, we’re making a robust assertion that St. Bonaventure continues to be on the forefront of change,” Beretta mentioned. “This a daring transfer that aligns with our institutional targets to proceed to develop and flourish.”

Wojnarowski’s world community of connections within the basketball world will probably be a useful asset for this system, Beretta mentioned.

“Woj is the right particular person to fill this new function, combining his intimate information of St. Bonaventure and our Franciscan values with a deep community of relationships he has constructed throughout the worlds {of professional} and intercollegiate basketball,” Beretta mentioned. “The truth that the preeminent journalist in his subject is keen to stroll away from a profitable media profession to serve his alma mater in a help function is a testomony to his love and fervour for Bona’s.”

Schmidt known as the choice so as to add Wojnarowski to his workers a “house run.”

“This transfer is vital to navigate the brand new panorama of faculty basketball in NIL, recruiting and retention,” mentioned Schmidt, the winningest males’s basketball coach in class historical past. “Woj is as linked as anybody within the basketball world and his decades-long community of relationships can solely assist our program stay among the many high groups within the Atlantic 10 going ahead.”

In strolling away from a profitable contract extension he signed with ESPN in 2022, Wojnarowski now needs to present again to a college that has made an indelible impression on his life. He and his spouse, Amy, ’92, have been main benefactors to the basketball program and the Jandoli Faculty of Communication.

“I am grateful to President (Jeff) Gingerich, Bob Beretta, Coach Schmidt and all the St. Bonaventure neighborhood for welcoming my spouse, Amy, and me again into the campus neighborhood in a brand new function,” Wojnarowski mentioned. “We met on this lovely campus as undergraduates and have shared a lifelong love with the college that continues now. I am able to get to work.”

Wojnarowski, Class of 1991, introduced his retirement from ESPN on X (previously Twitter) this morning. 

“This craft remodeled my life, however I’ve determined to retire from ESPN and the information business,” Wojnarowski wrote. “I perceive the dedication required in my function and it is an funding that I am not pushed to make. Time is not in infinite provide and I wish to spend mine in methods which can be extra personally significant.”

Previous to his work for ESPN, the place he is been since 2017, Wojnarowski labored for Yahoo Sports activities, the place he spent practically 10 years, together with two as editor of The Vertical. His standout profession in journalism contains practically 10 years at The File of New Jersey (the place he was twice named the APSE Columnist of the Yr), in addition to a number of years every on the Fresno Bee and Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American.

Wojnarowski’s friends voted him the Nationwide Sports activities Media Affiliation’s Nationwide Sportswriter of the Yr in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He joined a distinguished record of greats to have gained that award in not less than three successive years – Crimson Smith, Jim Murray, Frank Deford, Rick Reilly, Bob Ryan and Tom Verducci.

Wojnarowski is the New York Occasions bestselling creator of “The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball’s Most Unbelievable Dynasty.”

The college’s Graduation speaker and recipient of an honorary diploma in 2022, Wojnarowski was named the Jandoli Faculty’s 2019 Alumnus of the Yr, and has been inducted onto the Jandoli Faculty’s Wall of Distinguished Graduates.

A press convention to welcome Amy and Adrian again to the Bonaventure neighborhood will probably be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25, within the Fast Middle for the Arts theater. The campus neighborhood is welcome to attend.

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In regards to the College: The nation’s first Franciscan college, St. Bonaventure College is a neighborhood dedicated to reworking the lives of our college students inside and out of doors the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong dedication to service and citizenship. Out of 167 regional universities within the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #6 for worth and #14 for innovation by U.S. Information and World Report (2024).