GREENFIELD — The UMass athletic department showed off some of its new bling in Franklin County on Wednesday.
Minutemen hockey coach Greg Carvel and Minutewomen basketball coach Tory Verdi made the trip to the Hangar Pub and Grill in Greenfield for a meet and greet with fans, with both bringing along the hardware they acquired last year.
Fans got to take pictures with Carvel and the Lamoriello Trophy for winning Hockey East a season ago while fans also got to pose with Verdi and the Minutewomen’s Atlantic 10 championship trophy it captured last season.
“Winning or losing, I appreciate the opportunity to thank the really loyal fans and those are the ones that come out to these things,” Carvel said. “People come from long distances to be here. It’s great to see.”
Verdi enjoyed getting to meet some of his most loyal supporters on Wednesday.
“Whenever we can get out to the community, rub elbows with people and tell our stories about UMass, our programs and the success we’re having, it’s great to visit with them and let them know about that,” Verdi said.
Both Carvel and Verdi have had unprecedented success since arriving in Amherst.
Carvel took over the program in 2016 and has lifted it to new heights. He brought the Minutemen to the NCAA national championship game in 2019 and won the program’s first national championship in 2021. UMass has won the Hockey East title the past two years, with the team winning 20 or more games each of the last four years.
He said he felt the appreciation from the community on Wednesday, and continues to feel proud of what he’s built during his six years running the program.
“The comment I get is that they’re so thankful and proud of what UMass hockey has done over the last four or five years,” Carvel said. “I feel the same way. When I got here I just wanted to build a program that people would be proud to support. I think we’ve done that. The trophies are a bonus. The way we run the program is the way I want to run it, whether we win or lose. I thought it would lead to success and it’s actually a lot more than I thought.”
Like Carvel, Verdi took over the Minutewomen team in 2016 and has turned UMass into an Atlantic 10 power.
The Minutewomen have increased their win total each year since Verdi took over. That steady rise culminated in winning the Atlantic 10 title for the first time in program history last year, punching its first NCAA tournament berth since 1998 in the process. Verdi is now the all-time winningest coach in program history.
Coming off a historic season, Verdi said he hopes that UMass can build off the success and continue building buzz around the program..
“It’s still surreal to me,” Verdi said. “It was six years of hard work. I knew when I first took over the program that we had to invest. It wasn’t going to happen overnight. We were able to go out and recruit some high character kids and kids who wanted to be part of something special. To finally win a championship and get some excitement around the program is a ton of fun.”