At Friday night sports games under the lights or bouncing around the Woodward Center, Tom Convery is around, looking to help, looking to talk, looking to brighten a day. Tom Convery, former varsity athlete of Westfield State soccer, a veteran, and a true leader in developing the foundation of Westfield, continues his journey with the Owls as the Athletic Manager for events, external groups, and equipment. He has and continues to shape the Athletics Department in more ways than one.
Heavily editing, such as cutting portions of answers, were done for clarity.
Q: So I saw that you played varsity soccer at Westford State in the 1970s. Did you play soccer or any other sports throughout your childhood before college?
A: Oh, yeah, through my whole childhood, I played baseball. I played every sport. Yeah. When I was a kid, like elementary school, junior high, people would tell me, “How would you watch Disney?”, “Did you watch the cartoon?” I said, “I never.” I was outside the whole time. We lived on Air Force bases until I started my sophomore high school. So I played everything I could. And then I went to college for a year, played soccer there, and in Boston, and then around April just said, “God, this is not for me right now.” Yeah. So I went in service for four years. In the service, I played flag football, soccer, and volleyball. And in the service, it was very competitive, very competitive. The team was very competitive. And then over in Korea, I was like the MVP of the whole country for softball. I love sports. And then when I got out, I went to Middlesex Community College for a year. Yeah. I played softball there and I was about to join baseball, but they dropped it. Then I came here as a junior, and I actually came to want to play basketball. On my first day of school, I saw the Astro turf. This was when we were only one or three schools to have it in ’76, and lights. The only one I didn’t do was bowling, because it was downtown and I just said, I dont care.
Q: Do you have a favorite out of all of the sports that you played?
A: Up until 15 or something I loved baseball. Mm hmm. I loved it. Mm hmm. And then I started playing soccer, too, and in college. It just happened to be fall (season), like when I got here, soccer was first. I wasn’t one of the ones who sat at the end of the bench all game. Right. So that would have killed me.
Q: And you mentioned you were in the service, which I didn’t know. Was there any differences between playing for college versus playing in the service?
A: The competition was unbelievable. Most teams had somebody 6 ‘4, 6’ 5, 6 ‘6 on them. And it was a lot more competitive. It was better to help develop a game because you were playing serious competition and then when you made the base All Star teams, if you did, the competition was good, because it was the best one or two off every team. At my first base Montana I didn’t get to play much. We had two guys, a lieutenant and a captain that had played on the Air Force cabinet team. They were the stars of the team. We won the base championship, but I didn’t get to play much. Yeah. And it was my first base. And it was tough.
Q: For all your played sports, did you find yourself playing more offensive or defensive, or did it switch for each sport?
A: For soccer, I usually play wing, because I’m usually the fastest on the team. A lot of times I’ve played left wing because I didn’t mind using my left foot. And it really helped when I did corner kicks from the left side, because I had a strong right foot.
Q: Can you recall any fond or memorable memories of playing sports at Westfield State?
A: We had one game. We played North Adams here. And back then, there were no fences around the field, so you could stand right next to the field. We played North Adams, and they were really good. We were both like 10 and 0, and we knew whoever won was going to go to the NCA’s most likely. Yes. They brought, like, eight buses of students. And you have to realize that during that time the drinking age was 18. By the time they got here, they were all in good shape. They had one bus just get out and stand behind our goal. They were telling him (goalie) things he didn’t know about his family. But you could stand right on the sidelines. Yeah. And that game we won overtime. And we ended up going to the NCAs that year. But, yeah, some crazy things and we used to have basketball games in Perenzo, and you could stand on the inlines because it was so small. So if it was a big game, we’d have some good crowds there.
Q: How does your love of soccer and sports present itself now in your career at Westfield?
A: Well, now working in athletics, it helps to be a former athlete because you know some of the things that the people go through and what they’re looking for, where if you didn’t know all of the answers before, you can turn them out sometimes. I’ll know what you’re coming to ask me for. You saw how many baseball players said hi to me down downstairs . . . Come talk to Tom.
Q: So after graduation, you founded the Women’s Soccer Program. Why was doing so important to you?
A: Well, I had one of the young ladies. They had Mark Allen and Mark Allen graduated in ‘78 with me. They all played soccer. They did clinics and stuff with them in the spring, a couple of scrimmages. And in the summer, they wanted me to keep the team going, to get it started in the fall, and they had nobody on one to go. The girls came and said, “Tom, could you run it?” I said, yes, because I was disjockeying at night in Springfield. So I had time, I didn’t have to be at work till 8 or 9 at night. So we started it as a club team, and I had 33 to 39 young ladies every day at practice. And I had roles like whoever came the most to practice, started. We had a schedule, I got 10 games, we played. We were competitive all the time, except when we played UMass. They were a scholarship team. We lost like 9 to 1. They were good. But we went 7 and 3. Then, the athletics director didn’t decide what clubs became varsity sports, the Student Senate did. So the spring was fabulous. And it was nice in December, we had a young lady get in a serious car accident here and she needed a lot of blood, and we did a blood drive right in Parenzo. The soccer team banded together to put the flyers around to get their friends to come, which was cool . . . Now in the spring, the students have voted it to be a varsity sport. Now, let’s just say the athletics director was not happy with talking about. He didn’t want to. He was not happy. It’s now very successful.
Q: So your official title at Westfield State is athletics manager for events, external groups, and equipment. Can you just tell me more about what the expectations are of that position?
A: Well, it’s a little bit of everything. Like this last Saturday, I rented court 2 and 3 (basketball courts located in the Woodward Center) to a group called Fusan. They do soccer clinics for kids, from 8 to 12. So we’ve rented two years in a row on Tuesday and Thursday nights over breaks when there’s no students here, 6 to 7. We charge them a small fee, because it’s good for the school. Because you can’t get here at 8 to 12 years old by yourself. So your parents are coming to see you at the school. And there are nights we have 20 kids working out, and the good part is, I’ll meet five or six of the parents or alumni. Some have never been back. . . Right now, what I’m doing is at halftime of games, I’m doing Tom’s T shirt toss. I throw a T-shirt into the crowd and I’ll have baseball players or football, whoever works, help me. And my big thing is, Caitlyn Clark cards. I did this summer, Andrea Bertini, a very successful women’s basketball coach, who was a superstar here. She’s in the Hall of Fame.. She ran a clinic this summer for 187 kids. She does every year. Yeah. And she has, like, 10 counselors. So I said to her I’d like to give you a Caitlin Clark card for every kid that comes to the camp. She goes, “What? How do you have that many cards?” I said, “O, I thought about this way ahead!” . . . I’m a big Yankee fan. I keep some Yankee cards, I keep some Red Sox cards. So if I see a kid with a Red Sox hat on at the game, I’ll walk up, give him a card. . . I greet people at the football games on the go at the doors. Yeah. Yeah. So. So there’s a lot of little things. I’ll do impromptu tours. I’ll see you and your mother come in. Can I help you?
Q: What are the most enjoyable aspects of working at your job?
A: You know, years ago when I was in another division, I ran lifetime Owls, and I got to help a lot of students do a lot of things here. I’d tell them about the scholarships.. I’ll tell them about different things they don’t know. Right now, the thing that I’m really pushing is the Ride Center, because last fall, I had a player I was talking to. I said,”How’s it going?” He said, “Okay.” I said something. He says, “I’m anxious a lot.” I said, “Oh, what do you like to do?” He said, “I like to knit.” I said, “Oh, you knit?” He said, “Yeah.” So I said, “Come on down the hall and I showed him how they (the Ride Center) were going to do a ceramic class next week. And it’s even the football coach. I was telling them about some of these for anxiety and different things. He says, “I might go to one of those.”
Q: Are there any challenges to your job or position at Westfield State?
A: Budget, yeah. Yeah.
Q: For what specifically?
A: Well, there’s a lot of little extra things we’d like to do. Yeah. But, um. I mean, I say little things. The thing that if I could have anything in the world right now would be $2 million to $2.5 million to put a turf over the grass field. So that we could have games there. We could rent it out. We could have better practices. Sometimes we have football down behind the shot put area with 80 people practicing. Yep. We’ll have a team on the grass field. We’ll have a team on the turf field. Baseball and softball is practice and another field. So if you could get that would be my biggest wish, yeah. Yeah. And then if we got a little carried away, we’d do turf on the baseball field. I don’t know if softball would want it, but lights on both fields too, because they’d be even better for renting out. Yep. And I’d like to expand the parking.
Q: What are your hopes and goals for the athletic department and for your own career here at Westfield?
A: Well, I hope we keep doing well with the teams, and something that most people at the school don’t know is that our athletes have a better GPA than the overall school GPA. Which is good. Yeah. And in February, usually the first Wednesday, we have a home double header. Mm hmm. And we have a 3.0 night for the athletes that’s got a 3.0. GPA or higher. We introduced the teams at halftime, all the teams. They get a t- shirt, then we have a pizza party on court two and three. Oh, after they get it. . . It’s a good environment. I generally don’t have to do any heavy lifting because there are 9 million athletes here so I can ask anybody, “Hey, could you do this? Could you help me with that?” And then, just learning what the different teams need . . . So, and it’s funny because I’ve met people who ask me if I’ll be 74 in April. When are you going to retire? I said, “If you enjoy working, why retire?”
