An 11:00 a.m. tip-off on a Thursday is not typical for an NCAA basketball game. Neither was the crowd when the Binghamton University Women’s Basketball team took the floor at that time on January 15th. In the seats to root on the Bearcats were students from schools across the Southern Tier, including a few hundred from Binghamton City School District elementary schools. The crowd was huge; in fact, when all the tickets were counted – 4,671 of them – it was a new attendance record for women’s basketball at the university.
“It was the best,” said Liz Flynn. “I love having this place filled with kids, I think it’s an awesome opportunity for them.”
This was the third Youth in Education Day at the Events Center and each year attendance for the game has grown. Liz (Woidt) Flynn is the Associate Athletic Director for Community Engagement & Marketing for Binghamton University’s Athletics Department and the brains behind the annual game designed to introduce younger fans to Bearcats athletics.
“Yes, it’s a fun day, it’s coming to a basketball game, but it’s also about getting kids from our community on to a college campus and showing them that if you work hard in school and as a student-athlete, you can go to college, get an education and play your sport or be involved in the dozens of clubs and activities we have,” Flynn said.
Flynn is a Binghamton High School Class of 2009 graduate where she lettered in softball and swim. She credits her coaches in those sports, Dale Cook and Bill Meade, with creating a mindset that has helped her along in her career.
“They always held us to a high standard and always wanted us to expect more out of ourselves,” said Flynn. “They pushed me to want to do more and be better and continue to grow in everything I did.”
After graduation, she attended Farleigh Dickinson University where she played softball for the Knights. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Sports Administration from FDU. Out of college, Flynn landed her first job at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Three years later she took a job with Arkansas State University, but just six months into her new position Flynn was presented an opportunity to return home.
“One thing I noticed was that wherever I moved, the first thing I did was find the local parks, so I had a passion for this,” Flynn said. “So I moved home in 2018 to run the Broome County Parks Department. It was a great opportunity to be able to run such an awesome department.”
During her nearly five years as Director of Parks, Flynn managed all Parks staff and oversaw upgrades throughout Broome County’s nine public parks, including two of the biggest redevelopment projects in decades. With Flynn at the helm and the support of the County Executive and Legislature, four brand-new turf fields with lights were installed at what is now known as Greenlight Networks Grand Slam Park (formerly BAGSAI). Additionally, Flynn was crucial to a facelift at Grippen Park in West Endicott – a renovated pavilion which includes a track and an ice rink in the winter, new pickleball courts, a new wiffleball field, and basketball courts.
“For so many years, the parks hadn’t been touched,” Flynn said. “To be able to help secure funding and get new equipment and bring the parks up to date and create a plan for the future, that was really rewarding.”
Her leadership at the County got her noticed and led to a new job with Binghamton University in 2023 as an Assistant Athletic Director for Community Engagement and Marketing. The position was new at the University, giving Flynn some freedom to explore different things she wanted to accomplish in the role. One of her first orders of business was to create a special event for kids and Youth in Education Day at the Events Center was born.
“Some of these kids might never set foot on a college campus, so it helps expose them to it, light that spark, have them see role models they can look up to and aspire to be,” Flynn said.
As a student at Binghamton High School nearly 20 years ago, Flynn said she never would have imagined being in the position she now holds. She says it’s those lessons that her coaches at BHS taught her that helped her make it to a record-setting role at Binghamton University. Advice that she now shares with current Binghamton Patriots.
“Whatever your current job is, your current position, always go above and beyond in that role and it’s going to open countless doors moving forward,” said Flynn. “So, don’t just do what you have to do, look and see how you can do more.”