Deis Sports
New Balance
A career in university athletics helps reshape a dream
By Adam Levin
Sports enthusiast Josh Centor ’04 used to dream of becoming director of athletics at Syracuse University. But after two years working for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), first as an intern in the communications office and then as the coordinator of new media communications, Centor has taken a broader view.
“I’ve met so many wonderful student-athletes and seen so many NCAA institutions,” he explains, “that I’d be honored to work in any collegiate athletic department.”
A native of New York City, Centor says he can remember something about just about every game he has ever played. “One of my favorite memories is of a Little League game at the age of ten or so,” Centor recalls. “My dad had to work, but he came by before the game to wish me luck. I wasn’t traumatized by the fact that he couldn’t be there, but he seemed to be. My family has always been close because of sports.”
Centor played baseball at Brandeis and was copresident of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee as a junior and senior. For his efforts, the economics major and international business minor earned the athletics department’s Morris Sepinuck Sportsmanship Award, which recognizes significant contributions to student life at Brandeis.
After graduating, Centor spent a year as an intern in the Boston College media relations department. After that, he decided the internship with the NCAA was the best way for him to help advance within the field of athletics.
At the NCAA, he developed “The Double-A Zone” (www.doubleazone.com), a blog that launched in November 2005. The blog offers an inside look at NCAA issues and other subjects of interest to the student-athlete. Among the innovations Centor has brought to the blog are “Mondays with Myles,” a weekly podcast featuring NCAA president Myles Brand, and a video news-brief segment called “3-Minute Drill.” Such creative contributions led to Centor’s promotion from intern to full-timer in April 2006.
Though he has attended numerous NCAA championship events (the College World Series in Omaha is his favorite) and interviewed several sports legends, Centor finds his interactions with current and lesser-known collegians just as exciting.
“I really enjoy sitting down with student-athletes on their own turf,” he says. “Traditional media are limited in what they can show us in print and television.”
While he envisions staying at the NCAA as long as he is enjoying it, that dream of being an athletics director is still alive, even if it may have changed a bit. “I can definitely envision going back to a Division III institution someday, because I really believe in their philosophy,” Centor says. “Athletics are an important part of the college experience, but balancing them with academics is crucial in building a well-rounded individual.”
Adam Levin ’94 is director of sports information.