Cheryl Aaron became Wentworth’s director of athletics in November 2015.

Cheryl Aaron became Wentworth’s director of athletics in November 2015. She previously served as associate director of athletics at UMass Boston and head women’s basketball coach at Wheaton College. As a basketball player, she graduated as the third-leading scorer in program history at Holy Cross and played professionally for two seasons in Ireland.

1. What drew you to Wentworth?

It was really the motto that stuck with me, which is doing, learning, and succeeding. I believe heavily in all three of those tenets. Once you get to Wentworth and work with the students, you really understand that they do go through doing, learning, and succeeding to achieve their goals.

2. What does an athletics director do?

You wear many hats, especially at the Division III level. You oversee all aspects of the department, such as work-study, compliance, scheduling, game management, the leadership roles, the education of the student-athlete. Essentially, we’re in the business of developing young people, using the medium of sport. We do the same thing as faculty, as other staff, as Student Life—we just have sport as our love and foundation.

3. What makes Wentworth student-athletes unique?

Their dedication is remarkable to me. Their ability to manage their time and balance their athletic and academic load—neither one suffers. I don’t know how they do it. Our men’s volleyball team just made it to the national semifinals. One player, Ollie Oshman, a construction management major, was on co-op this semester. He had to get up at 4:30 every morning, go to the construction site, work all day, come back, have something to eat, and go to practice from 6:00 to 8:00 every day. That’s not easy.

4. What to you is the most important thing about college athletics?

The most important thing to me, and the thing that’s always been the most enjoyable and rewarding, is helping people achieve their goals. I’ve always kind of been the coach in the background, supporting [the student-athletes] and advocating for them, but at the same time, I get to be a fan. That’s been a great reward for me as an administrator. As a coach, I was worried about 15 young women. Now I worry about 325 student-athletes, and I get to know them on a different level than their coaches can. I love that part.

5. What’s on the horizon as the next varsity sport at Wentworth?

Probably the easiest transition right now would be to start sponsoring outdoor men’s track and field, and then start to dabble on the women’s side. Right now we have men’s cross country and men’s indoor track. We’ve been really successful in a short period of time, and now it makes sense to add those sports on the women’s side.

— Caleb Cochran

Interview has been edited and condensed. Listen to the “Inside Wentworth” podcast with Cheryl— and all “Inside Wentworth” episodes—on iTunes.