for 4/15/01
Let's start off with the good news.. The Mens Lacrosse team took it to 11th in the nation, Bucknell this saturday. We matched them goal for goal all during the first half. We had trouble getting clear shots at the net, and weren't scoring much, but we were good on defense, and Chris Hettler was outstanding in goal. It was a gutsy effort that we started to lose a handle on late in the third. After a bad pass and breakaway goal, Colgate really fell out of competition, dropping the next few goals. But that shouldn't take away from the tough performance we put in against the now Patriot League champs. Colgate killed 5 extra man opportunities in a row, including one that lasted 3 minutes. Coach Whelen made it clear to the team that this was their big game, that this was their championship game, and the team made it clear they understood. On a side note, the coach was walking around on the sideline with the shaft of a lacrosse stick, waving it around and pointing it at things, from my vantage point, it sure looked like he thought he had a magic wand up there. Unfortunatly, it didn't work, and Bucknell won 10-5.
The Softball team tried their luck this week, playing a doubleheader at Syracuse during the week, and then a 4 game series with the league leading Lehigh this weekend. Despite all the injuries on the Syracuse squad, Colgate could not capitalize. In game 1, 21 Red Raiders got struck out, and Frances Boone did not get the first Colgate hit until the 8th inning. Syracuse only got 4 hits in game 1, finally getting the win in the bottom of the 9th. In game 2, Beth Haas allowed just 5 hits, and 1 run was unearned, it would be enough though, as Colgate only had one more hit than errors. And we took the 1-0 loss in a 7 inning regulation game. Against Lehigh, we got off to a bad start, with Elana Issac giving up 4 runs in the first. Just two hits for Colgate, and this game was stopped early with Colgate down 13-0. The second game was a bit better, Colgate had 8 hits, double that of Lehigh, but it was all for naught, as we would strand 9 on the bases, give up a lone run, and lose 1-0. Games three and four were today. Beth Haas got the start in game 3, and looked good, but took the first inning off, giving up 5 runs. She would go on to have a solid performance, and I was very impressed with her improvment. She doesn't have any really nasty pitches, but she has good placement, and a nice changeup, she worked her butt off over the off season to become a very good pitcher. Amanda Paolucci blasted a homer over the left field fence to break Colgate's 30+ inning scoreless streak, and prevent the mercy rule from ending the game early. This would go the full 7, with us losing 10-1. Lauren Wygant was the pitcher in game 4, she has some nice pitches, but was pulled after 3 innings and 2 earned runs. Colgate was going after this game hard. Isaac would take over, and pitch a shutout for the rest of the game, she's got some nasty pitches in her arsenal. Tough game by Colgate, but a 2-1 loss, making it 6 in a row. Holy Cross and Bucknell await, Colgate needs to finish in the top 4 to advance to the league tournament. For those of you history buffs, here's a name you might remember, Tara McGoff. Tara is in her first full year as an assistant coach for Lehigh. She holds about every pitching record for every team shes ever played for.
In the doghouse this week is the Womens Lacrosse team. It was senior day, and we were playing Lafayette at home. This is a team we were competitive with for two years, but lost it this weekend. We got beat on defense, we couldn't get near the net on offense, Janes save percentage was 35%, due to the fact that Lafayette was lineing up to take their shots, and that Jane was missing them. We did try to do anything to score, but not really in a constructive passing. Our normal offense was to pass around the perimeter, then look for the perfect seem and goal, in reality, we just gave the ball away or took a weak shot. Later on, we tried for the quick pass over the back of the net and the quick one timer. Those didn't work as we couldn't complete those passes, and it only led to even more possessions for the Leopards. 4-13 bad guys. We need a win against Villanova to make the playoffs and in that case we would be the third seed. A loss should make us the 4th seed. More on this later, as this game really rubbed me the wrong way.
The spring Football game came and went. There was a pretty good atmosphere, as a lot of people turned out to see how our guys were doing. Rob Market and JB Gerald saw most of the time at QB. Tom McCune watched on from the sideline. He's healthy, but everyone knows what he can do already. The offense moved slow and steady, but the defense was making some big stops too. Not a lot of big plays for the offense, just a few yards here and there, mostly runs, but you expect that with our 3rd and 4th quarterbacks. A lot of plays were stopped quickly with a sack or tackle for loss of yardage. But no passes were intercepted, and not a lot of medium to long passes were made. Lets look at this position by position. At wide reciever, Joe Parker will be depended on next year. He doesn't have speed, but he has a knack for making the big catch. Lamb and Stripe both had some good plays. At running back, I liked what I saw out of Nate Thomas and Jamaal Branch, Branch had some explosivness, if he can develope that, he might be a key part of our offense next year. Thomas looked solid. We do not seem to have a superstar though. Hopefully, McCune can work some magic, and Tim Lavoie will be back. The offensive line will be improved next year, but were a weakness this year. There were still an awful lot of sacks and hurries. But it was our 3rd and 4th string quarterbacks, and not a lot of open recievers. The defense looked pretty good, but they did give up a lot of yardage, and we still are poor against the passing attack once the ball is in the air. The defensive ends did well in their jobs, the linebackers were very good, filling their holes, which is good since we lost some great ones. The D line was pretty good, on the small side though. The backs were ok, they stayed with their men, but didn't deflect or intercept much. Biddle took a few punts, this guy is getting even better! Really amazing. The way I feel right now is that we're a second or third place team in an increasingly tough league. We have some pretty good freshman coming in, we need them to contribute, and if we get a few of them to standout, then we can have a very good chance at the league title. But we need to take our pass defense to the next level, and we need a few more offensive weapons in there. With the experience we have returning, as well as players coming back from injury, we should be a better team next year, but is the rest of the league improving faster, as has happened in other sports, both major and minor?
Let's get some recruiting news in here. Everyone knows Melissa Rawson, right? I mean, how can you not? She's one of the best softball players to pass this way in a while. Ok, this isn't news, but the fact that her little sister is coming to Colgate next year is. And according to everything I've heard, little sis is an even better softball player! Better? That's hard to imagine, guess we'll find out next year! Kristin Cirbus will join the womens hockey team next year. She's good, yeah, shes only a member of the Syracuse Stars! The current women under 19 national champions, yeah, that team. Kristin chipped in 21 goals and added 20 assists this season as a center, and, oh yeah, she scored on us in an exhibition game against us earlier this season. She also brings her 1200 SAT's to the table, she has a whole host of accolades, read about them, HERE. Welcome aboard!
Our softball program will recieve two bonuses next year. Number 1 will be the addition of lights to the Eaton Street field. It's one of the nicest facilities in the league already, can't wait to catch a night game there. We are serious about turning the competitivness of that program up a notch. Also, guess who might be back next year? Done guessing? Here's a hint, the name rhymes with Frances Boone. She had skipped last year to focus on basketball, giving her an extra year of eligability. And we mentioned her academic problems before. I'm not sure if we should be happy about this or not, yes, she will add to the team, but shes not exactly the ideal Colgate student athlete.
Ok, I promised a rant, and here goes. I don't like to talk about my own athletic experiences, but here's one I think it relevent. As a sophmore in HS, I was part of a struggling JV football team. Unlike some of the schools we played, we tended to send more sophomores up to practice with the varsity even though they don't play there much. So, my freshman team was very good, winning the league, sophomore year, the bottom drops out, as all our really good players moved up to varsity. We were something like 1-5 heading into our "playoff" game. The game was on our home field, on the big field, under the lights. The AD didn't allow the big field to be used by teams other than for varsity football games, unless there was a special occassion. As had happened for most of the rest of the season, we dropped to an early deficit. We were making mistakes we haden't made before, we weren't playing with the intensity we needed. We were down 21-0 at halftime. The halftime speech went something like this...
"God damn it, look at you, this is your home field, those are your families in the stands. You're better than this, and you know it. But you're losing, and you're used to it! You know what you're problem is? You're not playing with any pride, you're not playing with any guts. This team very well might be better than you if you both play your asses off, but your not even doing that, your afraid to try, to give it all you've got because you enjoy it, because you want to win. You don't want to win, you want to go through the motions, to bitch and moan about how much this season sucks. I never taught you to do that. And if I did, tell me, and I'll quit right here, because I am embarrassed right now, and I'm pissed off, and if your not pissed off right now, then you don't deserve to win another game ever. Tom, (our quarterback and captain) If I see you tell one more guy "Hey, we'll get em next year", there will be no next year for you, there's no room in this program for thinking about next year when you are getting your asses kicked. I'll tell you all this right now, not all of you are making the varsity next year, this will be your last game, is this how you want to remember your football careers, cause you won't remember being 7-1 last season, you will remember this. It is ok to lose when you've left everything on the field, it's not ok to not try. We have a damn good program and tradition at this school, and you are embarrassing all of the people who have passed through this locker room with that first half. You have to have pride in that tradition, pride is not letting them pushing you around, pride is fighting back, pride is not letting them sack your quarterback, pride is hitting a guy and liking it, pride is not letting yourselves look stupid on your own field, even if they are a better team. Now, I'm tired of yelling, if none of you want to take some pride in your program, I'm tired of teaching you, because I have not gotten used to losing yet, and I have pride in this program."
We sat in silence for the rest of halftime, then went on the lose the game. By a score of 28-30. It was my last game, as I knew I was far to undersized to continue playing my position at the varsity level, and I wanted to try something new. But that speech has always stayed with me. And this year has been a hard one, with every loss being a tough one, even though I wasn't on those teams. I was reminded of that speech when I realized I was getting a little bit too used to losing, I have been looking foward to next year a little bit too much. I can't say whether or not our teams are doing the same. But seeing the loss on Tyler's field to Lafayette this weekend really reminded me of this speech more than anything. Maybe we weren't trying our hardest, maybe we gave up early, but one things for sure, we did not look pissed off. We did not look pissed off that we were getting our asses kicked on our field on senior day. And that annoyed me. So my advice to the athletes would be this, you're here for 4 years, and practice is the same length whether you are working hard or not. You've player this sport for a long time, and might be getting tired, but after this, the opportunities to play competitivly will not be there for many of you. This is a divsion 1 school, winning isn't everything, wanting to win is.
Now for the fans, I don't know what to tell you, but you can make a difference, it might not be much, but you do contribute to the atmosphere, we are a community, and we win or lose together. We should feel the joys of victory, and the dissapointment of defeat, together, and every single time.
Oh yeah, Happy Easter!
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E-mail me at RedRaider013@yahoo.com