Most athletes, no matter how disturbingly young they are when they start playing their sport, end their careers at around twenty-two years old, as seniors in college.
"Joe Paterno is on his deathbed and someone needs to find him a casket!" Don’t quote me here. I wouldn’t be caught dead saying something so stupid.
O.J. Jailed, An Athlete Gone Wrong
It usually takes an outside force or an overhead authority to expose a program, organization, or team of cheating and to right the wrong. Take a look at the MLB—it took a federal investigation from the United States Senate to determine the sad truth about mass steroid use.
Nine members of the University swim teams joined the Swim Across America program to make a splash for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston this past summer.
While the majority of the University’s athletes spent the summer months separated from their teammates and coaches, the field hockey team stayed active and spent part of their summer together in another part of the world. Thirteen players from the 2007 squad joined Marley Aloe ’03 and Melissa Courtemanche ’03 on a week-long journey in Argentina led by head coach Patti Klecha-Porter and assistant coach Lindsay Wasserman.
For you fantasy football fanatics, these are your most important days. Most leagues hold drafts around this time, and if you don’t make the right picks you’ll probably end up as one of those annoying people who stop playing mid-season, give away your players, and basically ruin everyone’s fun. Don’t be that.
There was no calm on the water this past Saturday in Malden, Mass. when the women’s crew first eight, ranked tenth in New England, endured a grueling race against Tufts University, ranked sixth, the team’s second race of the day.
Our sincerest of apologizes to all the members of the women’s crew team who have competed in two regattas since March 29 and have not received ample coverage from the Argus Sports section. Our bad, writers are hard to come by these days.
Everyone should boycott this summer’s 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The sponsors should unsponsor, the athletes should stop training and the countries should officially back out.
“Legal age 21 is not effective.”
This was one of the opening remarks made by President-Emeritus of Middlebury College John McCardell during a lecture about his new non-profit organization, Choose Responsibility.The lecture was held at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house on Thursday evening.
Did you ever see the movie “Remember The Titans”? If not you clearly hate America, Denzel Washington, and heartfelt sports movies and you owe to yourself to buy the special edition DVD immediately. Anyways, about halfway into the movie, the black and white players on the movie’s Virginia high school football team resolve their differences and hold a team meeting.
When it comes to consistency, look no further than both the men’s basketball team and its leader, starting forward and senior captain Nick Pelletier ’08. A serious presence in the paint for the past three years, Pelletier has been having a monster final season. The Amherst, NH native is close to averaging a “double double” this season, with 13.3 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. These two stats rank 13th and 4th in the NESAC, respectively.
Fireworks exploded in my house Sunday night as Jets and Giants fans celebrated the unthinkable, a 17-14 Giants victory over the previously undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. This wasn’t just unthinkable, it was impossible, it was never going happen, it was laughable on Saturday night, and it was laughable on Sunday morning. The idea of the Giants winning this Super Bowl had every sports analyst hard-pressed to pick against the Pats. How could you? (Random side note: Broadway Joe Namath, who picked his Jets to upset the heavily-favored Colts in Super Bowl III, picked the Giants.)
Earlier this week, I read an online article describing what I call the “Big Man On Campus” (BMOC) effect on student-athletes who are loved at universities and colleges nationwide. Pick up the underrated college football flick “The Program,” starring Omar Epps, and see what the BMOC effect really is.
The women’s swimming and diving team has started the 2007-08 season strong, going 1-1 in dual competition and 5-1 overall, placing first in the Cardinal Invitational Meet this past weekend.
The women’s swimming and diving team, from top to bottom one of the most talent-rich teams on campus, opens the 2007-08 season this coming Saturday with a home meet against Bates College. Although finishing with a 6-7 overall meet record last year, the team produced an array of record-breaking races in 2006-07. All of Wesleyan’s standout female swimmers return this season, hoping to lead the team to a new level of team success.
The University’s football team concluded its 2007 season on Saturday at Trinity, losing to the Bantams 32-14. The loss dropped the squad’s record to 4-4 for the year, the best record that a Cardinals football team has held in three seasons. “Being .500 isn’t amazing, but it’s an improvement,” said linebacker Dave Brustein ’10.
I didn’t really know what to think when I read earlier this week on the Williams College athletics website that our traditional NESCAC rival would play host to ESPN College GameDay for their football game against Amherst. When the initial shock and excitement wore off, I was merely perplexed.
The football team dropped its Homecoming game for the third straight year on Saturday, falling 33-13 against visiting Williams College. Torrential rainfall, gusting winds, and atrocious field conditions forced the usually high-octane Cards offense to change its game plan.
Playing on a slick, muddy field at Bowdoin College this past Saturday, the Wesleyan football team defeated the Polar Bears 21-14. With the win the team improved to a record of 4-2, its best start to a season since 2002.
The guttural churning of over 700 vintage Buick, Chevrolet, Corvette, Ford and Pontiac vehicles resounded on Middletown’s Main Street this past Sunday. Parked on the knoll across from the First United Methodist Church, extending in two single-file lines down Main Street and occupying every parking spot along the sides, these cars represented generations of the American auto industry.
Two weeks ago, the Wesleyan men’s tennis team looked beaten. After starting the season off strong, a 9-0 spanking from visiting Bates College on Oct. 7 left the Cards with a 1-2 record with three matches to go and in serious need of quality wins.
On Wednesday, the Cards fell to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by a score of 5-3 in a match that saw some stunning upsets of Wesleyan players, but also a strong showing from the back end of the singles bracket.
Continuing to stroll through its brief fall schedule, the men’s tennis team stunned the Springfield Maroon at home on Wednesday with a 7-2 team victory, placing the Cards at 1-0 in dual-match competition. “This match was a great first test for us to work our way into the season, when we will have some tougher matches,” said senior tri-captain Max Schenkein ’08.
It was an event without team scoring, but the Wheaton Invitational at Wheaton College saw a select few Cardinal tennis players represent the team well as they returned to Middletown with three titles and a second place finish.
While many of Wesleyan’s fall teams opened their seasons this past weekend with intercollegiate competition, the men’s tennis team spent Saturday morning practicing on the Vine Street courts in preparation for a full slate of fall action. On Sunday, Sept. 16 the Cards will open their season with an invitational at Wheaton College followed by a dual match at Springfield on Wednesday the 19th.
It is almost unprecedented in the annals of the National Football League for two head coaches to have attended the same college. When two coaches hail from a small, liberal arts school with as much of a connection to professional sports as The Boogie Club, then we are dealing with an unparalleled phenomenon.
Playing in the NESCAC semifinals and finals on consecutive days, the men’s lacrosse team had a grueling weekend in Medford, Mass. where Tufts University hosted the conference tournament. On Saturday, the team faced Williams College and shut out the Ephs 8-0, the first shutout in NESCAC Tournament history.
It was a wild weekend for the men’s lacrosse team as the Cards played two games at the Birdcage in 24 hours, beating Bates College 7-6 in overtime on Saturday and defeating Bowdoin 7-3 in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament on Sunday.
Enduring the long drive to Vermont and the heckling of Middlebury alumni, the men’s lacrosse team proved that it is the champagne of the NESCAC, coming from behind to defeat the Middlebury Panthers 5-4 in overtime. "Their fans were ridiculous," said Dan Latzman ’09. "They would just scream at everything. It was really annoying and was an extremely harsh environment to be in."
Playing only its second game on the CFA grass, better known as "the Birdcage," the men’s lacrosse team trounced the visiting Trinity Bantams 18-8 on Wednesday. Not wanting to underestimate another conference opponent, the team came out firing, leading 5-1 after 10 minutes of play and 9-1 at the half.
It was a wild week for the men’s lacrosse team, as it played in two different NESCAC contests decided by one goal. The "cardiac kids" earned two huge road wins, 10-9 over Little Three rival Amherst in double overtime, and 8-7 over Colby. Russ Follansbee ’09 had the hot hand for the Cards, scoring the game-winning goal in both contests.
The "Birdcage" rang with cheers on Saturday as the men’s lacrosse team (9-1, 3-1 NESCAC) knocked off Williams College 11-7, moving one step closer to both another Little Three title and a high seed in next month’s NESCAC tournament.
Entering into eight straight NESCAC games that will finish out their regular season, the fourth-ranked men’s lacrosse team started things off right, beating the Bowdoin Polar Bears, 7-3, at home on Saturday. The Cards also slipped past a deceptively skilled Connecticut College team Wednesday night in an 8-7 double overtime decision. The two wins helped the team to get back on track in the highly competitive NESCAC. The Cards now sit comfortably at 2-1 in the conference.
Monday afternoon the men’s lacrosse team put on an offensive and defensive clinic against Western Connecticut State University en route to an 18-1 victory. On the attacking side of the field, 11 different players found the back of net, with six scoring multiple goals.
Dan deLalla ’07 put an exclamation point on one of the most successful wrestling careers in school history this past weekend by competing in the NCAA Division III Tournament at Loras College. DeLalla cruised through his first match but dropped the two ensuing decisions, knocking him out of the tournament.
Throughout the 2006-2007 wrestling season, Dan Bloom ’10 has ruled the mat. Immediately taking over the 125-pound weight class where he is currently ranked third in New England, Bloom has compiled a 22-9 overall record, going 14-5 in his weight class and 8-4 in tournament competitions.
Sunday, 10 wrestlers traveled to Springfield College to compete in the NECCWA Junior Varsity Championships. For many of these select 10, Sunday marked the first time any of them had competed on the collegiate level.
Wrestling in four matches in the past four days, Wesleyan summoned all of its endurance to finish the dual-meet season by dominating Western New England (44-3), breaking even with Oneonta St., ranked 25th nationally, and losing a heart-breaker to Williams (19-18) in a quad-meet at Western New England College on Sunday.
Wrestling is a unique sport in which a total team victory relies entirely upon individual performance and success. Similar to tennis, a team’s accomplishment in a match is simply the cumulative score of all of the individual team members. While the wrestling team consists of a cohesive group of guys that compete in practice, motivate each other in the off-season, and hang out together, when it comes time for in-season matches each Cardinal wrestler is on his own.
Facing tough, national caliber competition this past weekend at the R.I.T. Invitational, the wrestling team placed 11th out of 15 teams. Represented in the tournament were the 10th, 13th, 17th, 23rd, and 27th nationally ranked teams in Johnson & Wales, Cortland State, Wilkes University, Thiel College, and John Carroll University, respectfully.
Matt O’Connell ’09 is a rising star on the Wesleyan men’s tennis team. Compiling a 5-1 doubles record and 2-0 record at sixth singles in his freshman year, Matt proved he was a capable force for the team and stepped up to the third singles and first doubles spots this fall. This past week I spoke with Matt about his fall season, his off-court interests, and how he motivates himself each day.
The men’s tennis team lost 8-1 to Bates this past Saturday in Lewiston, Maine. Bates, coming off tough losses in the ITA Invitational and at MIT in the past two weeks, swept the singles matches, while the stellar doubles tandem of Paul Gerdes ’09 and Alejandro Alvarado ’09 posted the Cards’ lone win, an 8-4 victory at second doubles.
The men’s tennis team suffered a tough few days this past week, losing to the MIT Beavers by an 8-1 margin on Tuesday and losing all but one match in the 11-team ITA Invitational Tournament over the weekend at Williams College.
The men’s tennis season kicked off last Wednesday with an emphatic shut out win at home against the Cadets of Coast Guard Academy. Every singles player and doubles position won in straight sets. Particularly impressive were wins by Mike Frank ’08 at third singles and Jaafar Rizvi ’09 at fifth singles, who both posted 6-0, 6-0 victories, the third doubles tandem of Frank and Max Schenkein ’08, with an 8-0 victory.
The men’s wrestling team spent the winter break competing in ten different matches and tournaments. The team went 4-4 in matches and placed 12 of 15 in the Ursinus tournament on Jan. 14 and and seven of eight at the New England College Conference Wrestling Assocation (NECCWA) Duals on Jan. 22.
Injuries and growing pains encompassed an improving men’s wrestling team this past weekend at the R.I.T. Invitational in Rochester, N.Y. The Cardinals finished the day with only nine points and a disappointing 17th place finish in a field of 18 teams.