A quick walk around the ever-improving athletic facilities, it is hard not to bump into a homegrown product finding success at the University of New Haven.
However, the local athletes that make a good story are not limited to the student-athletes.
Among the recent hires at New Haven was longtime Amity High School boys' tennis coach Chris Raffone being brought into coach the women's tennis squad for the Chargers and former Southington High School and Eastern Connecticut State softball standout Kelly Paterson, who recently was named the softball coach for the Chargers.
"I was born and raised in New Haven County," Raffone said. "Pinch me, I am coaching a great team in my own county. It is a great opportunity. It needed to be something really, really special for me to leave Amity because that was my heart and soul. When this opportunity came along, I couldn't pass it up. It feels surreal."
Both programs were left in good shape so that should make the adjustment go that much smoother.
Raffone admits that he needs to catch up on the challenge ahead of him coaching in the Northeast-10.
Paterson comes to New Haven after spending the last six seasons as an assistant coach at rival Southern Connecticut State so she has a pretty good sense of the talent she has to work with.
"I came from across town so I have an idea," Paterson said.
Paterson had a positive experience during her playing days at Eastern Connecticut State that included regular trips to the NCAA tournament and so many memories involving the friendships that were formed.
She will try to create the same sort of atmosphere with the Chargers.
"My philosophy is I coach the person first and the athlete second," Paterson said. "I think relationship building is huge, especially nowadays so I always try to get to know the players first.
"I am competitive, but at the end of the day I want to make sure I am preparing them for life after softball and after college."
There is little time for either of them to relax.
The women's tennis season begins in September with the conference tournament in October.
October is the same month that Paterson and the Chargers will have some games to play during the fall season before things get rolling for real in the winter and spring.
"That was pretty easy," Paterson said. "I have good connections with the college coaches too so I knew when I got hired that I would be working for some games."
Both Paterson and Raffone left great situations. Raffone led Amity to the 2005 Class LL title while being among the top programs in the Southern Connecticut Conference. Raffone had a chance to take the men's job at Quinnipiac but decided to return to Amity.
Telling people at Amity of his decision was not easy.
The stars aligned for Raffone. His late father played tennis and graduated from New Haven. Memories of his dad's love for tennis and New Haven played a part in Raffone making this move.
"It was very emotional," Raffone said. "I called my athletic director Ernie Goodwin who has become a really dear friend of mine and explained how this was not on my radar, it kind of came out of nowhere. It really got my competitive juices flowing to have the opportunity to coach a really good, up-and-coming women's program and try to bring them to new heights, they have never won a conference championship. I knew that the girls were really strong and I think I can be the one to put them over the top. I said this is an opportunity I can't pass up.
The recruiting part of things will be a key to the success for both of them.
Paterson has connections to the Division II recruiting world as well as travel ball and they should serve her well.
"I find Connecticut to be a really interesting [recruiting base] because we are in between New York and Massachusetts," Paterson said.
"You get the rivalries, you can joke about the Yankees-Red Sox but I think Connecticut is special. We can travel quickly to Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. Sometimes I joke that Connecticut is a bubble, I think it is important in the recruiting process that I recognize that bubble."
New Haven's women's tennis program has success recruiting internationally. If that is the way Raffone has to go to realize his goal of leading the Chargers to the NE10 title, so be it.
"I plan to recruit the best players, if they are international or domestic, I want to get the best players here and I want to compete for a conference championship," Raffone said. "When I was at Amity, nobody said we could win the LL title, it belonged to Greenwich and Staples and we did it. Here, it is Southern New Hampshire and all of these other schools are ahead of us, Franklin Pierce ... Not anymore, that is my personality. We are going to compete for conference championships while I am here."
