Andrew Kriner Starts Club Soccer at Seton Hall
By: Bradley Childs, Leadership Class of 2013
Andrew Kriner (Leadership Class of 2013) always had a passion for soccer. He also had a strong passion for leadership, which is exemplified in all of his work with the Leadership Program. These two variables combined to create a tremendous example of leadership in the Seton Hall community.
One of the hallmarks of the Center for Leadership Development is the Junior Year Mentoring Project. Andrew worked with Mr. Dick Smith as his executive mentor, and the two decided to pursue Andrew’s passion for soccer in a leadership role. That project was to create the first ever intercollegiate club soccer team for the University. This process started from scratch – it entailed everything from creating the club’s manual, proposal, and budget. In addition to this the tasks of finding players, a league, a coach, and a field had to be addressed. From beginning to end, Kriner had to schedule meetings with Recreational Services, the Varsity Soccer Coach, the Athletic Director, and the interested students. There was a major hurdle to overcome: the department had a rule that “if there is a varsity sport, there can’t be a club sport.” So, soccer was presumably out of the question as a club sport. Andrew persevered through this stage, when most people would have just given up.
After about 9 months of work, he was fortunate enough to get the proposal passed by the Athletic Council and the team had its inaugural season this semester. The team placed second in its division of seven teams.
Andrew is very thankful for the guidance Mr. Smith provided him throughout the project: “Working with Mr. Smith on a project like this gave me great insight about how projects like this are undertaken and carried out in the business setting. I knew that by the time my project was done and had to be presented to both the Athletic council as well Professor Shannon, Valdez, and Reuter, our manual and proposal were up to the standards that Mr. Smith would look for in the corporate world.”
This project represents the skillset learned in this program put into action. That is what being a member of this program is all about – fostering and cultivating skills that can be applied to student’s personal and professional lives.
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