Jan. 23, 2003
By Jerry Beach, The Village Times
This is what the to-do list on Dr. Richard Laskowski's
desk may have looked like during the spring of 1993,
shortly after he was named the Dean of Physical
Education and Athletics at Stony Brook University:
* Upgrade the University's sports programs to Division I.
* Be competitive at Division I.
* Find a conference with automatic bids to all the Division I NCAA Tournaments.
* Build a Division I-caliber stadium for the football,lacrosse and soccer teams.
Nine years later, that to-do list is complete, thanks
largely to Laskowski's blend of patience, assertion
and people skills.
"He's just an easy guy to get along with," said New
York State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, who represents
the 1st Senate District and helped secure the state
funds necessary to build the new on-campus stadium,
which is named after him. "My style is to set goals,
set a time period and then to move forward as quickly
as possible. And Dick, I think, has the same
qualities. He's a great cheerleader and he interacts
with people and [helps] get them going."
Under Laskowski's watch, Stony Brook has completed the
move to Division I, and 17 of its 18 athletic programs
are in the America East Conference. This calendar year
alone, the men's lacrosse team won the America East
tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament while
the women's basketball, women's soccer and women's
volleyball teams all advanced to the championship
round of their respective America East Conference
tournaments.
The America East does not offer football, but
Laskowski helped place the football team--which was in
Division III when he arrived--in the Division I-AA
Northeast Conference, whose champion advances to the
ECAC Bowl every fall. The Seawolves nearly made it to
the ECAC Bowl this year, when they finished second in
the Northeast Conference and went 8-2 overall, the
best mark in the 18-year history of the program.
"The thing that has impressed me about Dick is that we
got into the America East Conference," said Nick
Macarchuk, who is in his fourth season as the head
coach of the Stony Brook men's basketball team. "We
all knew that we had to get into a conference, and
[it] just didn't look good, especially the first year
that we were here. And then Dick along with the [Stony
Brook] president [Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny] and some of
the administration really spearheaded the entire
process. I really think he's had an awful lot to do
with us getting into a conference."
Macarchuk believes Laskowski's previous experience as
an administrator at St. John's University--he spent 19
years there, including eight years as the Associate
Director of Athletics for Varsity Sports--and as a
member of several Big East Conference committees
helped accelerate Stony Brook's entry into the America
East Conference.
"You talk to people outside of the Stony Brook area
and Dick is held in high regard in sports circles,"
Macarchuk said. "And I think that he's made a lot of
connections over the years, and those connections are
the thing that really carried us into this
conference."
However, Laskowski's crowning moment occurred this
fall, when Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium--an 8,136-seat
state-of-the-art facility which houses the
University's football, soccer and lacrosse
teams--opened to packed houses and rave reviews.
Players lauded the "FieldTurf" playing surface, which
is as soft as grass but as durable as artificial turf.
The football team went 5-0 at home and drew 27,378
fans--a five-fold increase over last season's
attendance at old Seawolves Stadium. In addition, more
than 500 fans signed up for football season tickets. A
year ago, there were no season ticket holders.
"The stadium was a bonanza," Macarchuk said. "It just
came at the perfect time."
Laskowski recognized that Stony Brook's old football
field--which featured only bleacher seating and was
indistinguishable from any other athletic field--was
not befitting of a Division I university. "If you were
going to go Division I, you couldn't continue to play
lacrosse or football on that field," LaValle said.
"Quite honestly, I always felt the Ward Melville
athletic field was a better facility than what Stony
Brook had. So I think [Laskowski] understood that
there were connections between Division I athletics
and the facilities."
And while the stadium is named after LaValle, it
wouldn't have been built without Laskowski's efforts.
"The initial design of the stadium was not something
that I felt was appropriate," said LaValle, who helped
secure the state funds necessary to build the $23
million stadium. "And [Laskowski] is just an action
guy. He [says] 'OK, we'll fix it,' and [he] interacts
with [Dr. Kenny]. And together the three of us are
making changes in the design of the stadium.
"As we're moving forward, I'm constantly saying 'We're
never going to hit our target date,'" LaValle said.
"And Dick was pushing as many buttons as he could to
ensure that the timetable was met.
"And it was."
