News

CAPE COD, Mass. - Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Commissioner Rudy Keeling announced today that Chuck Mitrano, Commissioner of the Empire 8 Conference, and Charlyn Robert, Director of Athletics at Nichols College, have been selected as the recipients of the 2008 Jostens Administrators of the Year. 

The ECAC Jostens Male and Female Administrators of the Year awards are presented annually to administrators from ECAC member schools or conferences in recognition of outstanding or meritorious service to the ECAC. The awards will be presented on Sunday, September 28, at the ECAC Convention Honors Dinner at the Albany Crowne Plaza. 

Robert was named Director of Athletics at Nichols College on November 9, 1998. Under her leadership, Nichols has won The Commonwealth Coast Conference titles in men's tennis (2000, 2001), men's golf (2001, 2007) and women's soccer (2007). During the 2007-08 seas on, Nichols won the Worcester College Cup for the first time in the 10-year history of the trophy. Robert has helped oversee the construction of a new athletic center in 2000 and a new multi-purpose stadium, Michael J. Vendetti Field, in 2006. An advocate for women's sports, Robert has been able to add women's lacrosse as a varsity sport in 2000 and women's ice hockey will debut as a varsity sport in 2008-09.

Robert coached field hockey at Union College (NY) from 1983-96. She was named the New York Collegiate Female Coach of the Year in 1989. In addition, she coached at the Empire State Games from 1977-89. Robert guided the field hockey team at Nichols from 1996-2002, posting 62 victories during that span - the second highest total in school history.

Robert has served as the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Chair. She currently is a member of the NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship Committee, secretary of The Commonwealth Coast Conference, chairperson for the Colleges of Worcester Consortium Directors of Athletics Committee as well as for the TCCC women's basketball committee.

A graduate of the State University of New York at Cortland with a bachelor of science in physical education and also a graduate of the University of Massachusetts - Amherst with a master of science degree in sport management administration, she was a four-year player and captain in field hockey and lacrosse in college.

Since 2001, Mitrano has served as Commissioner of the Empire 8. Considered a national expert on sportsmanship and ethical behavior, Mitrano was named one of the "100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America" by the Institute of International Sport (IIS) in November of 2007. Under his leadership Empire 8 was also named an "All-American Sportsmanship Conference" by the IIS which was formally celebrated on National Sportsmanship Day on March 4, 2008. This is the first time an athletic conference in any division or level has ever received this prestigious honor. Most recently he successfully lobbied the NCAA and its association-wide membership to host a ground-breaking Hazing Prevention Summit at the 2008 Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

Mitrano serves on the NCAA's association-wide Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct (CSEC). The purpose of the committee is to establish policies and educational programs for sportsmanship and ethical conduct in intercollegiate athletics consistent with the educational mission and goals of the member institutions in all divisions, and educate, on a continuing basis, all constituencies about the policies in the NCAA Constitution. Mitrano founded and led an initiative to create a Division III Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct Committee, which focuses specifically on the issues facing the members of the NCAA's largest division. Mitrano was appointed chair of the committee, which is sponsored by the Division III Commissioner's Association.

As a result of his significant efforts and contributions to sportsmanship and ethical conduct within the sports industry, Commissioner Mitrano was named a Sports Ethics Fellow by the Institute for International Sport in 2004. He was also named the "Sport Manager of the Year" in 2005 by the St. John Fisher College Department of Sports Studies and was one of only 12 national experts chosen to participate in the NCAA Crowd Control Summit in 2006. He was honored as a SUNY Brockport Gerry D'Agostino Memorial Lecturer as a result of his impact in athletics.   

The Empire 8 is leading the way nationally in sportsmanship education under Mitrano's leadership. Within his membership, he has implemented many wide-reaching sportsmanship initiatives. This includes proactive measures such as engaging the Student-Athlete Advisory Council on issues related to sportsmanship resulting in their development of a student-athlete pledge; tracking conduct fouls in all conference sports in real time in order to curb behavior and be more proactive if problems occur; organizing and hosting a sportsmanship seminar for all conference coaches and administrators; requiring members to sign a code of conduct; encouraging coaches to become more involved in the improvement of officiating, and visiting each campus to discuss issues relative to sportsmanship and the value of sporting behavior in the educational process of student-athletes. The conference has also implemented an ejection policy to provide some accountability for unsporting behavior. The Empire 8 was the only conference in the nation to have such a policy and two other conferences have recently adopted the legislation.

A 1995 graduate of St. John Fisher College (N.Y.) with a B.A. in communications/journalism, Mitrano was named one of St. John Fisher's 15 Most Prominent Alumni in 2004. He went on to earn his master's degree (Physical Education and Athletic Administration) from SUNY Brockport (NY) in 1999.

Mitrano began his career in athletics administration at age 21 in 1994, while still a senior in college, as the Sports Information Director at St. John Fisher College, the youngest in school history. From 1997-2000, Mitrano was the Sports Information Director at Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2000, he was named Assistant Director of Athletics at RIT. The following year he was named commissioner of Empire 8, then the youngest commissioner in the nation at age 28.

About Jostens
Jostens was founded in 1897, and has since become a leader in providing products, programs, and services that help people celebrate important moments, recognize achievements, and build affiliations.  Based in Minneapolis, Jostens produces yearbooks, class rings, graduation products, school photography, and products for athletic champions and their fans.

About the ECAC^®
The ECAC is the nation's largest athletic and the only multi-divisional conference in the country with 321 Divisions I, II, and III colleges and universities.  The ECAC stretches from Maine to North Carolina and westerly to Illinois. Established in 1938, the ECAC, a non-profit service organization, sponsors more than 100 championships in 37 men's and women's sports and assigns more than 4,400 officials in 12 sports.  The ECAC also administers eight affiliate sports organizations and six playing leagues, and through the public relations arm of the conference, more than 2,500 student-athletes in 23 sports are recognized annually.  Finally, the ECAC serves as the primary conference for select members in the sports of men's and women's ice hockey and men's lacrosse.