When the St. Joe’s basketball team takes the floor next fall, they will do so without another familiar face on the sideline, that of Marie Wozniak, associate athletic director and sports information director.

Wozniak, who worked in the athletic department for the past 16 years and was the primary media contact for St. Joe’s men’s basketball, was notified on May 21 that her position had been eliminated.  

Wozniak sent out an email early on May 22, informing many of those with whom she has built relationships over the years that she was being replaced.

“There are many moving parts in athletics right now, including building a men’s basketball staff, retirements, resignations to spend more time with family, position changes, promotions and a reorganization,” said Director of Athletics Jill Bodensteiner in an email to the Hawk.

Bodensteiner added the athletics department will announce moves and new positions in the coming weeks.

The termination of Wozniak’s position comes just two months after the firing of her cohort and former men’s basketball head coach Phil Martelli. The two worked together on a daily basis, with Wozniak handling all media requests and public relations for Martelli and the rest of the men’s basketball team.

“Who Phil Martelli is and who Marie is, there’s no way for the St. Joe’s public face to be presented better than by those two very professional, very proficient, very human people,” said Marcus Hayes, a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Fellow Daily News and Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski, who graduated from LaSalle, also pointed to Wozniak as an embodiment of the university and the consummate link between athletics and the media.

“It seemed to me, as kind of an outsider, that she was the kind of person that makes St. Joe’s what it is,” Sielski said. “When you’re at a place like a LaSalle or a St. Joe’s, there are certain people who get to the soul of the place and Marie seemed to be one of those people at St. Joe’s.”

Wozniak’s career on Hawk Hill began with a bang, as her first year as the men’s basketball SID was the historic 2003-04 season in which the Hawks went 27-0 and captured the number one overall seed in that year’s NCAA Tournament. According to Sielski, Wozniak didn’t flinch under the national microscope.  

“You want to talk about a baptism by fire?” Sielski said. “[Former Daily News writer] Dick Jerardi used to joke that Marie should write a book about that season and every SID in the country would buy it. It would be a how-to on how to handle a story that comes out of nowhere when you have no experience at that place.”

After the news about Wozniak broke, an outflowing of support, much of it from media personnel, appeared on Twitter. Wozniak was again linked to Martelli, but the former coach had words of his own to share about his longtime colleague.

“Marie is as good a person as I have ever met and no peer in doing her job as SID. Much respect” Martelli tweeted.

There was also a tweet from NBC 10 content producer Rob Kuestner, who told the story of how Wozniak, unprovoked, sent every picture the school had on record of Kuestner’s uncle, a St. Joe’s baseball hall of famer, when he passed away.

To this, Martelli responded via Twitter, “This is Marie to her core – always aware and willing to help – true professional – better human being – know that the support she so richly deserves and is getting has lifted her spirits”.

To media personnel, Wozniak and Martelli always went hand in hand, as they had to go through one to get to the other.

“Both of them were not only respected but beloved because they treated people very very well,” Hayes said, “Not just media people, but friends, family, alumni, former players, players who had transferred. They were sort of textbook in the area of handling people and managing people in doing their jobs.”

Sielski called Wozniak “one of the best people in college sports, one of the best people in Philadelphia sports, one of the best people anywhere.”

In her email the day after she was notified of her termination, Wozniak said she was “ok for now” and would be considering her next options.

“I’m appreciative of all of the relationships I’ve developed over the years and thank all of you for your coverage and cooperation,” she wrote. “There were a lot of great moments along the way, but it’s the people who made it more enjoyable. I hope to cross paths with many of you down the road.