Sullivan ready for new role Bear assistant has bond with Blodgett

Yes, Rita Sullivan knows she has limited experience as a basketball coach.

The former Bangor High and University of Maine player spent the first half of the 1995-96 season as a student assistant and coached a season of high school ball at Bangor.

But like her new boss – and old friend and UMaine teammate Cindy Blodgett – Sullivan believes the variety of experiences she’s had in basketball will help as she enters her first season as an assistant with the Black Bears.

The University of Maine on Tuesday announced Sullivan as the first assistant coach to be named to Blodgett’s staff.

“There may be some healthy skepticism about my hiring,” Sullivan said Tuesday, “but Cindy’s doing what she needs to do and taking the time to put a strong staff in place.”

Sullivan feels she brings in-depth knowledge of what it’s like to be a Division I basketball player – she graduated from Maine in 1995 and was on a team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament that year, Blodgett’s freshman season – and how to run a basketball program from her years in public relations with the WNBA.

She’s most proud, however, of her affection for and connection to the UMaine program.

“Obviously I love basketball, I love the University of Maine and I’ve followed it since sixth grade when I had season tickets,” she said. “… I had other opportunities [to play basketball in college], Cindy had other opportunities, but it meant a lot for us to play at Maine.”

Blodgett and Sullivan had stayed in touch over the years. Blodgett was playing in the WNBA when Sullivan was working for the league.

After both were out of the league, they wound up living in the Boston area.

Blodgett approached Sullivan soon after her May 23 hiring. Sullivan said she saw Blodgett last season when Blodgett was an assistant coach at Brown University. Sullivan went to some Brown games when the team came to Boston.

“Even if it was only talking two-three times a year, the connection was always there. It’s definitely a very close friendship,” Sullivan said. “She’s an amazing recruiter. People underestimate the enthusiasm and work ethic she brings to this position.”

Blodgett said in a statement she hired Sullivan because of some of those same qualities.

“She has a very strong work ethic and high moral standards,” Blodgett said. “As a player here at Maine, she experienced first hand what it took to build the program into a perennial NCAA Tournament contender.”

Sullivan is wrapping up things in Massachusetts, where she was working for the Harvard University-based Harvard Electricity Policy Group. She graduated Sunday from the Muscular Therapy Institute in Watertown, Mass.

Sullivan said the career move from public relations to massage therapy to basketball coach gets her back to where she hoped to be.

“I didn’t want a job that kept me tied to a desk and a computer for 60 hours a week,” she said. “I wanted to kind of get back to a career where I can be hands-on and help people.”