NEW YORK – July 1, 2013 marked an important day in intercollegiate athletics. In addition to several prominent Division I colleges transitioning between conferences, the first of the month also saw the start of the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) formed from the merger of the single-gender Hudson Valley Men’s Athletic Conference and Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Conference.
The new league will consist of 12 institutions from the NYC metropolitan area, all the existing HVMAC and HVWAC members — Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Berkeley College, The Culinary Institute of America, The College of New Rochelle, Medgar Evers College, Pratt Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, St. Joseph’s College, Vaughn College, Webb Institute and Yeshiva University — plus the addition of The King’s College.
“The merger of both conferences is the next logical step in the evolution and growth of the Hudson Valley,” remarked HVIAC president and Berkeley College athletic director Brian Maher. “Ten years ago, there was a significant difference in the membership across both conferences and a need to operate independently, especially to maintain the integrity of women’s intercollegiate athletics, which the HVWAC served. After a short period of transition with members moving on to other conferences, our membership has remained stable over the last several years with only one or two institutions differing on both sides.”
The HVIAC will sponsor championships in 13 sports — six men’s sports and seven women’s — with the addition of baseball voted in during this past June’s athletic directors meeting.
“Operating under a unified conference will help promote our brand and reduce confusion among our coaches and student-athletes,” commented HVIAC vice-president and Yeshiva University athletic director Joe Bednarsh who helped spearhead the merger. “It was a large undertaking to merge both constitutions and bylaws, as well as coming up with rules that all our membership agreed to, while maintaining the history of both conferences.”
In addition to Maher and Bednarsh serving on the inaugural executive board as president and vice-president, respectively, Culinary Institute of America athletic director David Whalen has been elected treasurer, a position he held previously in the former conferences, and Webb athletic director David Byrnes has been elected conference secretary.
The new conference website, currently in development through a partnership with PrestoSports, will be accessed via www.HVIAC.net when launched at the end of the summer. On social media, the league can be found on Twitter at @HVIAC and Facebook at facebook.com/HVIAC.