WORCESTER – It was going to take a special place to get Dan Curran to leave Merrimack.
In each of the last two seasons, Curran had the Warriors one win away from the NEC title and the foundation he built there over a decade had a lot of the necessary things it takes to be a competitive FCS program every season.
Holy Cross was that special place.
Curran was officially introduced as the next head coach of the Crusaders in a press conference that started a few minutes after 3 p.m. on Tuesday in a team meeting room just steps away from the beautiful St. Ignatius Indoor Practice Facility. Curran spoke in front of a pretty crowded room. His family, alumni, members of the staff, athletic director Kit Hughes and other members of the tight-knit Holy Cross community were all on hand.
“When you’re at a job, a place that you love, it is difficult,” Curran admitted while answering questions for about 15 minutes following short speeches from him and Hughes. “I know the coach that just left here went through the same thing. I will say that for me…this is something that really, quite frankly, I’ve worked towards my entire life. This is the job. This is the spot. I’ve always firmly and strongly believed that the type of kids that I want to recruit, develop, coach and mentor are on this campus. We you feel that strongly about a community and a program, and you understand the history and what makes a place special, it’s really hard to turn that down.
“I’m really proud of what we built at Merrimack. We built a great foundation. We didn’t cut any corners. We didn’t go in the transfer portal. We developed it with our guys, home grown. That thing is built to last because of the culture that we built there. I think if we can bring in some of the stuff that we had at Merrimack that made that a success and you add it with all the great history and tradition and the unbelievable kids that we have now in that locker room at Holy Cross, we have a chance to be pretty good here.”
Curran meant it very literally when he said Holy Cross was the job for him and his family while growing up in Chelmsford. In his speech, Curran told a recruiting story before he ultimately went to the University New Hampshire.
“It’s an old family story my brothers can attest to that happened to me during my recruiting,” Curran began when trying to encapsulate the enormity of the moment. “For those of you that don’t know my background, I’m the youngest of five. I grew up in a tight-knit Irish Catholic community. My parents, the late Tom and Kay Curran always had a dream and a hope that one day one of their kids would attend Holy Cross. They loved this place believe in it very strongly. I had three older brothers that were talented student athletes. They were all team captains, they graduated from Villanova University. My sister Kate was a multi-sport athlete, a team captain and graduated magna cum laude at Worcester State. I was the baby, I was the last hope to fulfill that dream.
“So, during the recruiting process, many of you know that coaches come out and do home visits. Kind of the normal routine would be break out the tea, a little coffee, maybe some cookies and obviously sit down and break bread. It was a little different when the head coach at Holy Cross at that time Peter Vaas came to my house. There was a three course meal out there. There was no subtly about where Kay Curran wanted her son to go. So, it’s a little bit late, a couple years later, but one of the Curran kids is home.”
It’s been a whirlwind for Curran, his wife Megan, son Ty and two daughters Kaley and McKayla that won’t end any time soon. National Signing Day is Wednesday and Curran – who was familiar with most of the recruits already on board in Worcester – still has a lot of work to do in a short amount of time between recruiting and building a staff. Not only that, but Ty will be signing with Ball State as well.
First, establishing a rapport with current guys still on the team was step one on this new journey.
“If you can tell by my voice, between talking with current players – which is the most important thing, just being able to engage and build a relationship with them, start to connect with them on a personal level so the first time we’re speaking it’s not on a Zoom call,” he said while extremely hoarse. “The next piece was making sure we solidified all the current commits, which we’ve been able to do and think is really good. There’s a couple key guys I think we were hoping to get on board before tomorrow morning, but it’s been a really, really good weekend. The official visit weekend went awesome and a lot of that credit goes to the assistants and the guys that were here. Those guys have been professionals and did a great job…I really appreciate all the effort they put behind this weekend.”
Curran is hoping the staff will firmly be in place in the next week or so with the best case scenario being a blend of new and old.
“This is not a broken product,” he said adamantly. “This is a very strong culture we’re coming into, which is awesome, a very established one. So, instead of coming in…a lot of new staffs it’s ‘who do we have to keep?’ and I said, ‘well, how can we find ways to keep as many guys as we can?’ I was fortunate to have a bunch of pre-existing relationships with a bunch of the coaches on the staff. Obviously, I have an immense amount of respect for what they’ve been able to accomplish for the last few years. That certainly made it easier. Our goal is to blend it. We’re keeping some key guys here that have been given opportunities to stay and want to be here and be part of Holy Cross. And we’ll bring in some guys that I believe are really key pieces that have helped with what we built at Merrimack.
“Blend that together with a couple other individuals from the outside that I know are really talented that will make this place even better.”
Curran talked about going to games at Fitton Field as a kid and getting one of his first scholarship offers ever from the Crusaders. Still, following a legacy like the one Bob Chesney left at Holy Cross is daunting and may not have been for everyone.
There was no doubt in his mind he was meant to wear purple.
“Bob and I have always maintained a close relationship,” he said when asked if he spoke with Chesney before taking over. “I called him the other day and congratulated him on his opportunity at JMU. But, no we didn’t. I think that’s something he understood from a professional standpoint. This is something I need to do on my own with my family and I. No, there was no hesitation. It’s been mentioned a couple times already, but when you know a place is the perfect fit from a standpoint of a vision, values and everything else this place has to offer, there’s no hesitation.
“This is the job. The job for me.”
