The Marist Running brand

Last week, our men’s and women’s cross country team sat through a very worthwhile presentation on the benefits and pitfalls of social media. Associate Athletic Director Travis Tellitocci did the excellent and important session. Our young adults need to be made aware of the broad scope and potential consequences – positive and negative -- of their activity on social media.

One topic that Travis discussed was “branding” as it applies to social media usage. Travis, a Marist alum, has done much to promote and advance the “Marist brand.” Several years ago, he spearheaded the transition to our new logo marks, and he did a great service to our athletic department and our school in general by truly trademarking that brand. Prior to his work in this area, Marist athletic team uniforms and other apparel had all sorts of logos and looks, and it was quite chaotic. Now, Marist has a “look” or a “brand,” athletically and otherwise, and Travis played a large role in that.

Anyway, as it pertained to his social media presentation, Travis told our student-athletes that whatever they do on social media – posts, photos, Tweets, re-Tweets, etc. – advances and establishes their “brand”, for better or for worse. It was a powerful message that I hope was received. This got me thinking about our program and what our “brand” is. I’ll be honest when I say that this is not something I have thought through too much.

But on Saturday, at our home meet at Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve, I think we saw the “Marist Track/XC Brand” in full force. We are close-knit family – men, women, distance, sprints. It was especially gratifying to see our track-only athletes out to support our distance men and women today. And of course, the family support, tailgating, etc., never ceases to amaze me and I am always humbled with gratitude by the outpouring of fellowship and love and alumni support. Of course, our primary mission athletically is to field as competitive a team as we can in all our seasons. But our calling card, our brand, has been that family atmosphere. It’s something that began way back in the fall of 1991 when Phil Kelly and I started this generation of the program, it continues today, and we hope it will endure for many more cycles of Marist cross country and track athletes.