Army West Point Athletics
Softball
- Title:
- Senior Associate AD/Interim Head Softball Coach
- Email:
- robert.beretta@westpoint.edu
- Phone:
- 6416
Bob Beretta is in his 20th year serving as a member of the Army athletic department’s senior leadership team and 34th year overall in West Point's athletic department. He is in his 14th year steering many of the athletic department's external operations ventures to include sport supervision, corporate sponsorship, Army-Navy logistics and operations, national television initiatives, football scheduling and postseason bowl partnerships.
He also oversees maintenance of the athletic department's strategic plan, while holding positions on the Patriot League Sport Management Committee, Army-Navy Steering Committee and several Patriot League subcommittees. He previously served several terms on the Atlantic Hockey Association’s Executive Committee.
This year he served as Game Coordinator for the Army-Navy Game, which was played at West Point for the first time since 1943 and was attended by the President of the United States and senior military officers, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of the Army, Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Staff of the Army. He also served as Trip Coordinator for Army’s visit to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, negotiating that deal shortly after the Black Knights’ initial 2020 bowl berth in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl disappeared after the game was canceled a week prior to kickoff. It marked the Black Knights’ fourth postseason bowl game in five years. He was also Army’s lead negotiator for the inaugural college football games at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. The recently announced “Commanders’ Classic” will pit Army against Air Force at the home of the Texas Rangers baseball team in 2021 and 2022.
Beretta has handled football scheduling initiatives for West Point's Division I Independent Football Bowl Subdivision team since 2004. The Newburgh, N.Y., native gained national acclaim when he completely rebuilt Army’s 2020 football schedule just weeks before the start of the campaign after nine games were lost due to circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. He was featured in stories by several national outlets including, Forbes.com, Yahoo! Sports, ESPN.com and The New York Times. Previously, he developed a strategic plan for scheduling that completely overhauled Army's previous philosophy for the current 20-year (2013-33) scheduling cycle to provide the Black Knights with their best possible chance for success.
He serves as lead negotiator for all postseason bowl, television and neutral-site football contracts and has been the chairman of Army Sports Hall of Fame Selection Committee since its inception in 2004. He has served as Army's lead contact and bowl trip coordinator for each of the Black Knights' last four bowl appearances, including the 2016 Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl and the 2017 and 2018 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, and has been charged with all operational and financial responsibilities.
Beretta was instrumental in changing NCAA legislation in 2018, allowing Army to gain direct access to the postseason bowl system. As part of that initiative, he negotiated an innovative and complex six-year, multi-bowl agreement for the Black Knights that guarantees Army’s football team primary tie-ins to the Independence Bowl and an array of games owned and operated by ESPN Events annually from 2020 through 2025. Included in the deal is an opt-out clause tied to a primary backup agreement to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, another partnership he brokered to provide Army with maximum opportunity and flexibility in the postseason process.
Priot to that, he landed backup agreements with both the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl and Military Bowl in 2010 and locked up the Black Knights’ primary bowl tie-ins for the years 2014 through 2017 with a host of different postseason bowl games.
Beretta has been responsible for leading numerous national coaching searches in the past several years, helping to identify new coaches in the sports of football, men’s basketball, baseball, wrestling, men's and women's swimming and diving, and men’s and women’s track and field.
He recently completed a three-year stint on the NCAA Hockey Rules Committee and served for two years as the Chairman of Atlantic Hockey’s Executive Committee. Beretta currently serves as the Patriot League SMC liaison with the conference’s baseball head coaches committee and remains West Point's lead contact with the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Mets, managing all aspects of those vital relationships. During his time leading Atlantic Hockey's Executive Committee, he was instrumental in the league outsourcing its multi-media rights for the first time in conference history, leading to a significant increase in corporate sponsorship revenue.
Previously, Beretta oversaw the athletic department's fund-raising, donor relations, ticket sales and revenue generation initiatives. Those areas generated nearly $9 million annually through donations, ticket sales and online auctions. He was personally charged with synchronizing the entire External Operations department to align resources, maximize efficiencies and produce one cohesive unit. He also provided oversight to the athletic department's equipment and facility operations for two years and served as the athletic department’s lead for all new construction projects for several years. During that time, he worked diligently through the construction of seven new homes for head coaches and the Foley, Enners, Nathe lacrosse center, a $15 million state-of-the art home for Army’s men’s and women’s lacrosse programs that opened in the fall of 2016.
A veteran of the local travel softball scene, Beretta served a one-year term as Army’s interim head softball coach during the 2018-19 academic year.
Prior to accepting duties as Army’s head softball coach, Beretta maintained oversight of two of Army's five revenue-generating sports, to include hockey and women's basketball. He handled similar duties for Army’s football program for seven years and still shoulders many of the program’s external initiatives, including scheduling, bowl alignment and bowl services.
Beretta also retained sports supervision duties for Army's highly successful baseball program, as well as men’s and women’s cross country and men’s and women’s track and field. In all, he has directly supervised 18 different athletic programs during his time at West Point, also taking turns with football, men’s lacrosse, gymnastics, men's soccer, golf and men's and women's swimming and diving. During his time as gymnastics supervisor, he led all operational elements related to Army serving as host for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships in April 2017. He currently holds supervisory duties for nine sports, including Army’s men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs, as well as the Black Knights’ softball and men’s and women’s swimming programs.
Beretta maintains oversight authority for Army West Point Sports Properties, Army's multi-media rights-holder, which is responsible for totaling more than $2 million in sponsorship revenue annually. Army West Point Sports Properties increased the athletic department's sponsorship sales by 400 percent during Beretta's decade-long oversight tenure. He was also integral in the introduction and execution of the Team Army concept during the spring of 2012, a comprehensive plan designed to add significant value to Army's corporate sponsorships.
Beretta has helped negotiate two new agreements with Learfield that led to 400 percent growth in the rights fee to the Academy. The veteran administrator also led negotiations for a pair of new national television deals that resulted in 140 percent growth in the annual financial guarantee to the Army West Point Athletic Association. He assisted in negotiating new deals for both entities during the summer of 2017, while also helping to negotiate a new Army-Navy football broadcast agreement with CBS. He also ran point during the site selection process for future Army-Navy football games that recently led to those games being awarded to various cities though the year 2022. Previously, he was a major contributor on the team that negotiated a 10-year extension with USAA to serve as presenting sponsor for the game.
A widely respected administrator within the collegiate athletics industry, Beretta also assumes duties as Army’s lead contact for the department’s burgeoning Legends partnership, which will focus on creating an elevated experience for both fans and cadets as part of the Michie Stadium Preservation Project. The project will introduce all-new premium areas for Michie Stadium guests with the addition of suite, loge, and club level seating. Additionally, Legends launched a year-round corporate hospitality program for the Army West Point Athletic Association as a component of the partnership.
Beretta assumed duties as the U.S. Military Academy's sports information director in April 1995 after serving for eight years as an assistant under longtime Army SID Bob Kinney. At the time, he was the youngest Division I-A SID in the country. Beretta was elevated to assistant athletic director in 2000, becoming the first SID to hold such a rank at West Point.
A member of the media relations staffs at four different NCAA Men’s Basketball East Regionals, Beretta held similar duties at the 1996 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four in East Rutherford, N.J. In the summer of 1994, he served as the media director for the bocce venue at the Special Olympics World Games, held in New Haven, Conn. In 2000, he chaired the athletic department’s brand development committee and served as the color analyst for the Army Sports Network on the Black Knights’ men’s and women’s basketball broadcasts for 10 years.
He was promoted to Associate Athletic Director for Athletic Communications in August 2003. Two years later, Beretta added the title of Senior Associate Athletic Director and expanded that role to Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Operations, Relationships and Branding in May of 2008. He was named Senior Executive Associate Athletic Director in July 2010, then was elevated to Executive Athletic Director in February 2012.
For his previous accomplishments in the sports information field, Beretta was elected to the College Sports Information Director’s of America Hall of Fame during the winter of 2020. He is the only West Point staff member to be honored in that manner.
Beretta graduated magna cum laude from St. Bonaventure University in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in mass communication and was a four-time letterwinner on the Bonnies' baseball team. The three-time team captain earned St. Bonaventure's Varsity Letterman of the Year Award as a senior, presented annually for dedication and service to the intercollegiate athletic program. He was named to the Atlantic 10 Conference All-Academic honorable mention squad on two occasions and graduated as the program’s single season and career leader in saves.
In addition to serving as the Bonnies’ starting pitcher in the program’s first-ever Atlantic 10 Conference game as a freshman, he earned a save in the program’s initial A-10 victory, defeating West Virginia. During his undergraduate days in Olean, he wrote for the school newspaper and worked as a student assistant on the St. Bonaventure sports information staff each of his final two years. He began a six-month internship in Army's sports information department just three weeks following his graduation from SBU.
Beretta, who played a large role in bringing the New York Yankees to West Point for an exhibition game against Army's baseball team in March 2013, served as the primary lead on that highly successful event. He also served as Army's primary point of contact with the New York Yankees and Notre Dame for the teams' historic matchup at Yankee Stadium in November 2010 and played a large role in arranging that affair. Beretta was one of Army's chief negotiators for the school's agreement with the Yankees to play four Black Knight home games in the legendary Bronx venue and helped Army secure primary postseason football bowl tie-ins for the years 2010 through 2017. He also served as Army's primary point of contact for the Black Knights' first home game at the new Yankee Stadium against Rutgers in November 2011 and led all operations efforts once again for Army's football "home" game against Connecticut in the Bronx in November 2014. He once again ran lead for the New York Mets’ planned exhibition game at West Point in March 2017.
This past spring, he served as Army’s operational lead in moving the Army baseball team’s series against Navy to Citizens Bank Park. He handled similar duties when Army shifted a game against Navy to Fenway Park in 2018, working closely with the staffs of the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox, respectively.
Beretta serves as the school's day-to-day liaison with CBS Sports and CBS Sports Network. He leads sponsorship activities on Army's side for the Army-Navy football game and manages the Academy's key partnership with USAA.
Charged with content development and management for Army's official Web site and all New Media endeavors from 1995 to 2018, Beretta was responsible for launching the Black Knights' burgeoning multi-media platform in 2007. During the winter of 2012, Army became one of the nation's first intercollegiate athletic departments to introduce its own digital network. Shortly thereafter he was instrumental in helping to craft a multi-layered digital network strategy for the Patriot League.
Thanks to an aggressively scripted formula, Army ranks among the nation's leaders in multi-media content, building a comprehensive audio and video streaming package from the ground floor. As one of the nation’s leaders in the multi-media industry, Army provides live audio and video streaming coverage of more than 250 athletic events annually. Beretta presided over six Web site redesigns in the last decade and helped Army's site regularly rank among national leaders in monthly page views and unique visitors. In spring of 2017, Army became one of the nation’s first schools to stream a live broadcast to the NCAA’s baseball Facebook page.
Under Beretta's direction, Army became a leading force on the social media landscape, gaining strong footholds on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube, growing the pages annually by more than 50 percent. He also helped Army become one of the first athletic departments in the nation to introduce a comprehensive social media rewards program and introduced an aggressive social media strategy to the Army-Navy football game, establishing a major presence on all major platforms for “America’s Game.”
Beretta captured 68 CoSIDA writing awards while a member of Army’s Athletic Communications team, earning 24 national honors and nine Best in the Nation awards. He copped 39 publication citings, including 12 national awards and six Best in the Nation honors. In his final year participating in the CoSIDA writing contest in 2008, Beretta won 13 awards (seven national), had three feature stories chosen Best in the Nation and two others finish second in their feature categories. He took home two of the top three finishes in the national Story of the Year voting and won his first national Story of the Year citing. He had finished second in the same voting one time previously. During his time overseeing Army’s Athletic Communications area, his staff earned a total of 88 writing awards and 68 publication honors through CoSIDA.
In the spring of 2000, Beretta’s 1999 Army football media guide was voted Third Best in the Nation, the highest finish for the guide in nearly three decades. His football and baseball media guides regularly claimed Best in the District honors for more than a decade.
While he co-produced the Black Knights’ 1996 Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl media guide that was judged Best in the Nation, 1992 football game day programs garnered similar distinction. Additionally, four of his Best in the Nation accolades were the result of outstanding publication cover designs.
Leading all of Army's External Operations areas from May 2008 through May 2011, Beretta and his staff introduced premium seating for both basketball (courtside) and hockey (rinkside) and a new premium seating location for football. The courtside seating for basketball initiative resulted in Army nearly tripling the number of season tickets sold for the men's and women's programs. He also spearheaded the movement of the U.S. Corps of Cadets seating areas within Michie Stadium for home football games to maximize television exposure. The forward-thinking initiative required a carefully scripted plan to relocate more than 400 season ticket account-holders and resulted in a 95 percent retention rate among those impacted by the move.
Beretta was responsible for completely revamping Army's marketing efforts after assuming supervisory duties for the area in the spring of 2008. Among his initiatives, Beretta unveiled a thorough signage campaign that blanketed the tri-state region, introduced giveaways at all Army football home games, created a new fan-fest area, titled Black Knights Alley, which draws thousands of fans before each Army home game, introduced Michie Movie Night, viewing parties at Michie Stadium for Army away football games and implemented a Coaches Caravan outreach plan that placed members of Army's coaching staffs in the community. Army captured its first three National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) awards under Beretta's leadership in 2009, winning two first-place honors and a second-place accolade for outstanding achievement in marketing and promotions. The Black Knights added two more NACMA awards in 2010 and another the following year.
During that same period, Army was the focus of tremendous national attention. The Black Knights' External Operations areas were instrumental in supporting the CBS documentary, "Game of Honor," that chronicled the Black Knights' 2011 football season leading up to its annual showdown with arch-rival Navy. Not only was the two-hour program broadcast to a national audience on Showtime, but also won the Emmy Award for Best Sports Documentary. The Army football team was also the centerpiece for a behind-the-scenes book titled, "Soldiers First," written by New York Times best-selling author Joe Drape in 2011.
Adding to the busy year, Army's external areas were responsible for promoting the efforts of football standout Andrew Rodriguez, who became the first Army player to win the National Football Foundation's William V. Campbell Trophy, garnering the honor in December 2011. The Campbell Trophy is presented annually to the nation's top football scholar-athlete. Four months later, Rodriguez was honored with the Amateur Athletic Union's James E. Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete. He became the first Army player to receive the award since 1946 and was just the third player in history (Peyton Manning, Tim Tebow) to win both the Campbell Trophy and Sullivan Award. It marked the second Army athlete to reach finalist status for the AAU Sullivan Award in three years.
Beretta also restructured Army's ticket and development operations to better serve West Point in a changing economic environment while overseeing those areas. He developed the new Kimsey Club, identifying a source of revenue for the department while providing fans with an in-game hospitality option, and restructured the Athletic Director's Tailgate to form an interactive fan-friendly experience prior to home football contests. Army also introduced an ambitious online auction program under his watch, an endeavor that yielded the department over $125,000 in four years. On the development side, he was charged with managing a donor base that numbered approximately 4,000 that was responsible for approximately $3 million in gifts during the 2010 calendar year, a figure that represented a 10 percent increase from the previous year.
An innovative and creative leader, Beretta was instrumental in developing the design and floor plan for the Hoffman Press Box in Michie Stadium and layout and production of the Kenna Hall of Army Sports in Kimsey Athletic Center. He was also a driving force behind developing the Hudson Valley Baseball Classic during the spring of 2006. In 13 years, the classic regularly established attendance records for a college baseball game in the Hudson Valley.
During the summer of 2013, he led a sweeping signage and branding facelift for historical Michie Stadium with the goals of upgrading the overall appearance and providing an enhanced fan experience for Army fans. The first phase of the project included the installation of 493 signs in and around Michie Stadium and was completed prior to the 2012 football season. The veteran administrator managed a second phase of that project, which included signage at all athletic facilities, as well as a massive renovation project in the Kenna Hall of Army Sports, the first for that marquee facility. He also led all operations for the Black Knights' first basketball and hockey jersey retirement initiatives, which spotlighted three former men's basketball, three former women's basketball and three former hockey standouts during the winters of 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Beretta helped usher in the use of the first video board at venerable Michie Stadium in 2009 and Tate Rink in 2013, and was responsible for all programming, scripting and content for those boards.
In the past several years, Beretta served on committees that helped negotiate a new apparel agreement with Nike, a new pouring rights contract with Coca-Cola, and an agreement with the Aspire Group to bolster ticket sales and better serve Army season ticket holders.
During his tenure in the athletic department, Beretta has played large roles in negotiating four national television agreements, including the Black Knights' current agreement with CBS Sports Network, the Army football team's series of games at Yankee Stadium and the presenting sponsor title rights to the Army-Navy football classic. He also held a vital role the committee that selected the sites for future Army-Navy football games (2009-18) before spearheading the most recent Army-Navy site selection process. He is handling similar duties currently for the next cycle of Army-Navy games (2023-2028) and has also held a position on the Army-Navy Steering Committee throughout the last decade.
Beretta has served on committees that have been responsible for drafting strategic plans for the intercollegiate athletic department on four different occasions and was responsible for overhauling the athletic department’s driving document of record during the summer of 2017.
He is a past president of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors of America (ECAC-SIDA) and served on the organization's executive board for more than two decades. He was presented with the ECAC-SIDA Irving T. Marsh Award in the spring of 2010 and the Pete Nevins Award for Distinguished Achievement in June 2014. As Charities Director, Beretta and his committee raised more than $60,000 for the organization's charitable efforts over a 15-year period. For those efforts, he was selected as the 2020 winner of the Bob Kenworthy Award, presented annually for service and dedication to the organization.
A former member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Beretta served as the official scorer for the Hudson Valley Renegades during each of the organization’s first seven years of existence (1993-2000). The Renegades are a Single-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, owning membership in the New York-Penn League and are based out of nearby Fishkill, N.Y.
Beretta is also active in the local community, serving as founder and head coach of a highly competitive girls travel softball program for the past 10 years. More than 20 of his players from the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders program have gone on to play in college over the past four years. His Crusader teams have registered nearly a .750 winning percentage during his tenure at the helm and captured a host of regional tournament championships.
Beretta and his wife, Jennifer, live in Monroe, N.Y., with their daughter, Julia, a senior at Sacred Heart University. Julia is in her second year as co-captain of the Pioneers’ nationally ranked club softball team and earned all-region honors at second base during each of her first three seasons on the squad. She also earned varsity letters in cross country and track and field last year, balancing those responsibilities with her softball duties. She has earned Dean’s List recognition during each of her seven semesters at SHU and is pursuing a double-major in sports management and marketing.
