Exercise Plan
Josh Centor says sports have always been his passion. During his collegiate years at Brandeis, he was a four-year varsity baseball athlete. His play didn’t keep him from hitting the books. The economics major graduated magna cum laude in 2004, and he followed his passion by embarking on a sports career, working in media relations for the NCAA before joining CMU’s athletics department six years ago.
The job hasn’t been all fun and games. With rising education costs, many universities must make cuts in both varsity sports and intramurals. Since he’s been here, Centor has worked diligently to prevent that. He has implemented revenue-enhancing programs such as corporate sponsorships, ensured fiscal discipline across the department, and maintained compliance with NCAA protocols.
With his track record, it was no surprise when earlier this year, after a national search, he was named director of athletics, physical education, and recreation. He says he’s “grateful” for the opportunity to keep following his passion, which includes finding time to attend all the Tartans games he can.
—Emmett Zitelli (HNZ’01)
Well Coached 
This fall, the Tartans men’s soccer team has 22 returning players who finished last season with a 12-3-3 record, their second consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, and an NCAA Division 3 ranking of 18. What’s new this year is the head coach: Brandon Bowman, replacing Arron Lujan who stepped down after six years to work with the United States Soccer Federation. Bowman had been the head coach at Transylvania University since 2002. While there, he compiled a 168-39-32 record, was named the conference’s coach of the year four times, and had seven teams compete in the NCAA tournament.
—Emmett Zitelli (HNZ’01)
In His League
In 2008, Dan Shamash sat in his cap and gown, listening to beloved Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch give the CMU commencement speech. Pausch’s message that day was about finding and pursuing what you most love to do.
Shamash knew what invigorated him: football. The three-year Tartan letterman at linebacker helped the team in 2006 to an 11-1 season, the most wins in school history. The team’s head coach, Rich Lackner says, “Danny had a heart bigger than his body. He loved to compete; he loved the game.”
Shamash, knowing that his passion didn’t match his talent when it came to playing in the NFL, decided to pursue the next best thing—becoming an NFL coach.
His career started at the bottom, as an intern with the New York Jets, where he did anything he was asked to do, including driving IT servers across Long Island when the Jets relocated their headquarters. By chance, he became friends with one of the team’s assistant coaches, who put in a good word for him, which lead Shamash to working for the Jets quarterbacks coach. That coach became the offensive coordinator in Cleveland the next season and took Shamash with him. For the 2014-2015 season, he is the defensive quality-control coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
He says his ambition is to become an offensive coordinator. Already, he has a remarkable NFL résumé for a former D3 football player. No doubt, Randy Pausch would be proud.
—Emmett Zitelli (HNZ’01)
