Red Raider Report                                    12/24/00
	Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope everyone is enjoying thier time off want to wish you the best in the new year.  I spent some time with my family this evening, watching some old home movies from when I was in elementary school.  God I was hyper.  It's also this websites 1 year anniversary tomrrow.   So I again want to thank anyone whos visitied this site over the year, and hope you'll come back to see what I have in store for you in 2001.  There are a few new pages in the works, as well as a filling in of the ones already up.    Well, the winter sports teams don't get much time off.   The mens hockey team was given considerable time off, about ten days, to just relax, and spend some time away from hockey.   They return to the ice this Thursday to meet Western Michigan at the Silverado Shootout, hosted by Minnesota-Duluth,  Western Michigan is currently ranked 6th in the nation, so this will be a good challenge for the Red Raiders on thier first time back.  Coach Vaughan expects them to be a little rusty, but well rested.  WM is a high offense, poor defense team, so it should be an interesting game.  This is not a traditional tournament, we already know the next night we will be taking on the host, Minnesota Duluth.  This is a bit more even of a match on paper, in the final bottom 10 poll, Minnesota narrowly edged out Colgate, finishing 6th in the poll, while Colgate was holding steady at the number 7 slot.  Hopefully Colgate will avoid the second half slide this year, but I have a good feeling about the rest of the season, people are healthy again, and the team itself is improving. The Womens Hockey team also got time off.  They will be having 2 practices before thier game against Niagara on the 30th.  This is a very important game, as Niagara is currently ranked number 11 in the national Division 1 poll.  They are also currently in 8th place in the ECAC, where Colgate will be next year.  It's going to be interesting to see how we do.  If we keep it within a handful, I'll be pretty satisfied. The Mens Basketball team picked up thier first road win of the season, topping Long Island University yesterday.  Colgate played a very solid game, and got all the technical stuff right.  We shot well, moved the ball good, and really cut down on the fouls.  If we keep this up, we could have a very successful Patriot League season.   They travel down to the Capital City Classic this coming weekend.  We meet The Citadel in the first round.  Florida A & M and Morehead State are other two teams we could face in the second game. The Womens Basketball team continues to struggle.  Colleen McCaffery earded Patriot League player of the week honors last week, but her 14 points and 4 rebounds were not enough to lift Colgate past Quinnipiac this past week, and Colgate drops its 4th straight in overtime.  We shot just 38%, but we do have the talent on this years squad.   We have three tough games ahead of us to prepare us for the Patriot League season, so theres no need to hit the panic button yet.  Those who did vote in the Christmas fan poll had a variety of answers, but the majority was for Santa to bring us some good recruits, or a mascot.  Well, I don't know much about the recruits, but I do know my old High School Track Coaches daughter is coming to Colgate next year to play Field Hockey for us.   There has not been anything definite about getting a mascot in the near future, but it's not out of the question.  Thats it for this weekends report, the next report will probally be next weekend if I am around, it might get pushed up a day depending on my New Years plans.   So once again, happy holidays everyone, and thanks for making the first year of the Red Raider Sports Fan site, one to remember! E-mail me at   RedRaider013@yahoo.com Head back to the ramblings page