Hurd's still a team guy
Former Waterford, UConn football star turns to financial planning
When we last checked in on Zach Hurd, it was 2012 and he was living on the West Coast attempting to earn a roster spot with the Oakland Raiders.
Hurd, the ex-Waterford High School great and a two-time All-Big East offensive tackle at UConn, even chronicled his journey through a blog that appeared on theday.com.
Fast forward to today, and boy, have things dramatically changed.
He's still an imposing figure at 6-foot-7, but has dropped 50 pounds while trading all of Oakland's silver and black trimmings for a suit and tie as a financial advisor with Coastal Wealth Management in Mystic, a private wealthy advisory practice whose managing director is another former local athlete, Jason Cerniglia, a Fitch graduate and former PGA teaching professional.
Quite a drastic career change, especially when you consider Hurd earned a degree in criminal justice at UConn and initially planned to pursue a career with the federal government when his playing days ended.
A concussion sustained during his first full training camp with the Raiders ended his NFL dream before he really got started. Oakland opted to place Hurd on the season-ending injured reserve list and he never appeared in a regular season game.
He did spend the entire 2012 season in the Bay Area, but that was for 90-minute daily treatments, and when the year came to an end he moved back home to Waterford.
Hurd did consider free agent offers from Oakland and San Francisco, but ultimately decided to step away from a sport that gave him so much in such a short time.
"I said, 'Thanks for calling, but I'm moving on,'" Hurd said. "I love football, but to be honest, the NFL wasn't like college. It was a business, which I knew going in, but I really missed the camaraderie and brotherhood that we had (at UConn)."
So how did he arrive in the world of money management, asset allocations and retirement funds? It began with some friendly advice from one of his mentors, Waterford assistant coach John Strecker, and a neighbor, Joe Alfiero.
"I had taken a landscaping job when I got a call from a Morgan Stanley recruiter inviting me to take a job test," Hurd said. "John and Joe both said, 'Take the test.' Their advice was simple. Do you want to get your hands dirty the rest of your life or do you want to work with your brain?"
Hurd passed the Morgan Stanley test and went to work as a broker in its Mystic office last year. He liked the new challenge, but never really loved it.
"The brokerage side wasn't for me," he said. "I discovered that I liked the business … just not that side. I enjoy the personal interactions with my clients and the brokerage side doesn't give you that type of independence."
Enter Cerniglia. The two met last fall through a mutual friend and immediately formed a bond, in part because of their love of sports. Hurd joined Cerniglia's group last winter and has worked hard to grow his client list by using many of the same tools that allowed him to play college football at the highest level.
"Everything I've learned in life is from football and I get to apply those same lessons here," Hurd said. "You set goals in football … I help my clients set goals by developing reasonable strategies and solutions based on their financial backgrounds.
"You learn to be part of a team and everything that goes with it in football … and working with Jason is just like being part of a football team. We even meet every day at 10, just like our daily meetings in football.
"I'm 26 and I'm only going to get better because I'm driven to be successful, just like in football, only this time building relationships is even more encompassing than football. I couldn't be in a better place."
c.banning@theday.com
Twitter: @chuckbanning1
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