Everything Old Is New Again
Matthews Arena gets a lttle work done
By Jason Kornwitz
Unlike Northeastern’s co-op program, historic Matthews Arena won’t turn one hundred until next year. But the grand old edifice has already received an early birthday present: a $12 million face-lift.
The sports and entertainment facility—which reopened on Labor Day, September 7, right on time to host freshman convocation—is now jam-packed with state-of-the-art amenities, including a 2,200-square-foot strength and conditioning center for Northeastern athletes, a big LED-display video scoreboard, and eleven flat-screen TVs in the lobby.
All the upgrades give the world’s oldest ice-hockey arena a fresh appeal, says vice president for student affairs Ed Klotzbier, AS’87.
“We’re trying to create a real fan experience for students, alumni, and other supporters of Husky athletics,” Klotzbier explains. “We want fans to say, ‘Wow,’ and ‘Have you gone to Matthews yet? You really need to check it out.’ When our hockey team scores and you see fans going wild on the video scoreboard, think about what that does for the fan experience.”
Many of the improvements—like the new seating,
sound system, and concession stands—will send a message to everyone who
shuffles through the Matthews turnstiles: By creating a more fun,
comfortable, and interactive environment, Northeastern is thanking
generations of Huskies fans for their years of support and
encouragement.
“We want to make sure fans know we’re giving them as much value as possible,” says athletics director Peter Roby.
And if you attend a men’s-hockey home game this winter—say, between Northeastern and rival Boston University, as they battle for Hockey East supremacy—school officials hope you’ll be infected by all the energy radiating from the new upper-balcony bench-style seating, which encourages students to stand up and cheer, and the live images of happy red-and-black-painted faces on the video scoreboard.
The excitement created by the arena upgrades, Roby believes, could have a huge and lasting impact on the perception of the university’s athletics department as a whole.
Fan passion, he says, “has a halo effect on all the programs within the athletics department. It says so much about the role Northeastern athletics play on campus, and the value the university places on the athletics programs.”
Northeastern officials, who worked with Boston architecture firm Miller Dyer Spears to redesign the arena, did their pre-renovation homework, meeting with coaches, trainers, students, and alumni for months before the project began in April.
Ideas from those meetings became structural amenities, many serving multiple purposes. For instance, updated locker rooms and players’ lounges allow athletes to review game tape on “video walls.” But they’ll also help coaches recruit more stars, says men’s hockey coach Greg Cronin.
“The reality of college sports is that prospective student athletes measure their quality of life on the basis of amenities, which we’ve had an absence of for years,” Cronin says.
“When we go after top players who are also looking at the University of New Hampshire, Boston University, Boston College, and Michigan, we now have more ammunition.”
Freshman Phenom Strikes Soccer Success
Pressed to choose, Devin Petta counts her blazing speed as her greatest attribute on the soccer field.
But this freshman is also practiced in dribbling through a tangle of midfielders, out-jumping defenders to knock a header into the net—and getting mobbed by her teammates after scoring a game-winning goal.
She’s a striker with impeccable aim. In the regular season this year, Petta notched fourteen goals and seven assists for thirty-five points, setting a new university record for single-season scoring, leading the Huskies to a 12-3-3 record, and clinching the team’s first-ever Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) regular-season title.
Oh, and in a late-September win against Drexel, Petta scored three goals in four minutes and four seconds, shattering Northeastern’s previously held record for fastest hat trick.
Her all-round excellence did not go unnoticed. In early November, Petta was named CAA Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, and became the first CAA player ever named to TopDrawerSoccer.com’s All-Rookie first team.
Unfortunately, in the regular season’s final game, Petta suffered an ACL tear, and had to miss the playoffs. Northeastern lost to James Madison in the CAA tournament semifinals.
Petta downplays all of this season’s accomplishments. “I don’t want people to think that I think too highly of myself,” she says. “Soccer is a team-oriented game. Sometimes it’s difficult to get that into other people’s minds.”
Head coach Ed Matz didn’t expect Petta to play such an integral role this year. Then sophomore forward Veronica Napoli went down with a knee injury. “Devin just took it upon herself to be our go-to person on offense,” Matz says.
In high school in Whitman, Massachusetts, Petta already had star power galore. She captained her team to a league championship. She was the 2008 Massachusetts Player of the Year, and was named to the 2008 ESPN Rise Fall High School Second All-America team.
When Matz first saw Petta—who was also recruited by Boston College, Boston University, and Wheaton College—he was quickly impressed. “She can strike the ball from anywhere on the field with either foot,” he says.
Now, at Northeastern, he reports, “she loves academics, loves co-op, and loves the campus. She’s a hard-working, enthusiastic, great kid.”