Army West Point Athletics
Bob Beretta Bio
March 14, 2007 | General
Bob Beretta
Senior Executive Associate Athletic Director
A local product with deep-rooted ties to the Hudson Valley, Bob Beretta is in his 10th year serving as a member of the Army Athletic Association's senior leadership team and 24th year overall in West Point's athletic department. Army's Senior Executive Associate Athletic Director, he is in his fourth year overseeing all of the athletic department's external operations ventures to include marketing, tickets, development, multi-media, athletic communications and broadcasting.
After taking over the reins of Army's sports information office in April 1995, Beretta was promoted to Associate Athletic Director for Athletic Communications in August 2003. Two years later, he 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.
In addition to his external operations responsibilities, Beretta has handled Army’s football scheduling initiatives the past six years and has helped negotiate several football postseason bowl and national television agreements for the athletic program. He has acted as chairman of the selection committee for Army’s Sports Hall of Fame since its inception in 2004 and has shouldered oversight duties for several sports to include football, men's basketball, hockey, lacrosse, baseball, men's soccer and men's and women's swimming.
Under his watch, Army's football program experienced a significant rise in attendance this fall, bucking a national downward trend in that area. In fact, the Black Knights averaged 31,667 fans for its five home games at Michie Stadium this season marking a 13.1 percent from their 2009 average attendance.
Army's 2010 average attendance ranks as its highest since 2007 when the program had 31,712 fans per game enter Michie Stadium. The Black Knights' average percent capacity of 79.31 ranked 12th among BCS non-automatic qualifying schools.
Beretta, who 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, played a large role in arranging that affair. He also served as a lead negotiator for Army in its agreement with the Yankees to play four future Black Knight home games in the legendary Bronx venue and has helped Army secure primary postseason football bowl tie-ins for each of the next seven years. He landed backup agreements with both the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl and Military Bowl in 2010 and locked up primary tie-ins this fall for Army for the years 2014 through 2017. He also spearheaded the school's operational efforts for its trip to the 2010 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl.
Additionally, he serves as the school’s day-to-day liaison with CBS College Sports Network and Army Sports Properties, the school's multi-media rights-holder. Since assuming oversight duties of Army Sports Properties, the unit has realized a 300 percent increase in overall sponsorship revenue. Charged with content development and management for Army’s official Web site, Beretta launched the Black Knights’ burgeoning multi-media platform in 2007, which he now oversees. 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 in just four short years. In the past three years, Army provided live audio and/or video streaming coverage of nearly 600 athletic events on its official Web site. He has presided over four Web site redesigns in the last decade and helped Army's site rank among national leaders in monthly page views and unique visitors.
Beretta was responsible for completely revamping Army’s marketing efforts after assuming those duties 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, and implemented a Coaches Caravan outreach plan that placed members of Army’s coaching staffs in the community.
Since taking over full responsibilities within the External Operations area, he and his staff introduced premium seating for both basketball (courstide) 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 this season 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.
In the last year alone, Beretta has restructured Army’s ticket and development operations to better serve West Point in a changing economic environment. He was also instrumental in developing the new Kimsey Club, identifying a source of revenue for the department while providing fans with an in-game hospitality option, and restructuring the Athletic Director's Tailgate to form an interactive fan-friendly experience. Army also introduced an ambitious online auction program under his watch, an endeavor that has yielded the department over $100,000 the past three years. On the development side, he is charged with managing a donor base numbering approximately 4,500 that was responsible for nearly $3 million in gifts during the 2009 calendar year, a figure that represents a 10 percent increase from the previous year. That figure is projected to rise once again this year.
During his tenure in the athletic department, Beretta has played large roles in negotiating two national television agreements, including Army’s current deal with CBS College Sports Network, the Army football team’s upcoming series of games at Yankee Stadium and the presenting sponsor title rights to the Army-Navy football classic. Additionally, Beretta played a vital role as a member of the committee that selected the sites for future Army-Navy football games and serves on the Army-Navy Steering Committee.
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 last year.
He has also served on committees for national searches to identify new Army coaches in the sports of football, women’s basketball, men’s basketball, baseball and track and field. Included among the coaches he has helped attract to West Point are Rich Ellerson, Maggie Dixon, Dave Magarity, Zach Spiker, Joe Alberici and Troy Engle.
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. Beretta was named an assistant athletic director in 2000.
The Newburgh, N.Y., native graduated magna cum laude from St. Bonaventure University in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications. Three weeks later, he began a six-month internship in the Academy’s sports information department. He had previously served as an intern for the Pointer View, West Point’s post newspaper, during the summers of his sophomore and junior years, and filled the role of sports editor.
Elevated to full-time assistant status in the sports information office in January 1988, Beretta succeeded Kinney as the U.S. Military Academy’s fourth sports information director in April 1995. At the time, he stood as the youngest Division I-A SID in the country.
The veteran administrator has served as the athletic department's sport supervisor for Army's highly successful baseball program the past five years. During that span the club has captured a trio of Patriot League regular-season titles, making a trip to the NCAA Regional Finals in 2009. He added oversight duties for the sports of football, men's basketball, hockey, lacrosse, men's soccer and men's and women's swimming in May 2010. Currently, he serves as the supervisor for Army's football, men's basketball, hockey and men's soccer programs.
During his 24 years at the Academy, Beretta has captured 68 CoSIDA writing awards, including 24 national honors and nine “Best in the Nation” awards. He has 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, 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 on one occasion previously. During his time overseeing Army’s Athletic Communications Office, his staff has captured 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” by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the highest finish for the guide in nearly three decades. His football and baseball media guides have regularly claimed “Best in the District” honors over the last decade.
While he co-produced the Black Knights’ 1996 Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl media guide that was judged “Best in the Nation,” his 1992 football game day programs garnered similar distinction. Additionally, four of his “Best in the Nation” accolades have been the result of outstanding publication cover designs.
Complementing his responsibilities at West Point, Beretta has worked a number of special events, both within and beyond the confines of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He is a past president of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors of America (ECAC-SIDA) and continues to serve on the organization’s executive board in the role of Director of Charities. He has been a member of the executive board each of the past 11 years, and was presented with the ECAC-SIDA Irving T. Marsh Award, the organization’s highest honor, in the spring of 2010.
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.
At the Academy, Beretta has coordinated media operations for two Patriot League Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments and four conference baseball championships. He has also served in a media relations capacity for many other NCAA championship events hosted by West Point, including lacrosse, gymnastics and golf regionals.
In 2000, he chaired the athletic department’s brand development committee and has served as the color analyst for the Army Sports Network on the Black Knights’ men’s and women’s basketball broadcasts the past 10 years.
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 five years, the classic has regularly established attendance records for a college baseball game in the Hudson Valley.
While at St. Bonaventure, Beretta lettered four times in baseball and graduated as the school’s career and single season leader in saves. He served as team captain each of his final three years and was a member of the SBU squad that debuted in the Atlantic 10 Conference and landed on the honorable mention academic all-conference squad. He was the starting pitcher for St. Bonaventure’s inaugural Atlantic 10 Conference game and saved the school’s first A-10 victory.
Upon graduation, Beretta received the St. Bonaventure University Letterman of the Year Award, presented annually for dedication and service to the intercollegiate athletic program. He also wrote for the school newspaper and worked as a student assistant in the Bonnies’ sports information staff each of his last two years.
A 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.
He lives in nearby Monroe, N.Y., with his wife, Jen, and daughter, Julia.
