FB: Empire 8

['gro]

actually saw the kid working out recently. i dont believe in freshmen, esp at QB but boy he looked good. Ithaca went into Union and RPIs backyard and took a good one!

I don't think that any team should pass on good talent, but looking at RPI and Union's roster they have 4-5 QB's returning in 06 (and RPI's soph to be Robertson was LL rookie of the year).

What's this Nisky kid's story? What other schools was he looking at? It's a shame a section II kid had to end up in central NY, but then again...

[dewcrew88]

Some recruiting information about the Utica Pioneers:

http://www.utica.edu/instadvance/marketingcomm/news/index.cfm?action=detail&id=1019

For those too lazy to click the link:
The Utica College football team is expecting to have 75 first year student athletes report to traning camp on August 12, 2006.
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Football Homecoming 16 (07/05/2006) - UTICA, NY – The Utica College football team is expecting to have 75 first year student-athletes report to training camp on August 12, 2006. The Pioneer recruiting class has a good mix of local athletes including:

Edward Blackshear (Thomas R. Proctor/Utica)
Sean Dixon (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill/Sherrill)
Isreal Ferrer (Thomas R. Proctor/Utica)
Nicholas Houle (New York Mills/Frenchtown)
Reed Kinderman (Whitesboro/Marcy)
Phillip Klosner (Ilion/Ilion)
Geno Latella (Frankfort-Schuler/Frankfort)
Shane Linen (Thomas R. Proctor/Utica)
Andrew Mower (Holland Patent/ Holland Patent)
Thomas Nanna (Whitesboro/Marcy)
Donato Pinnisi (Whitesboro/Marcy)
Kyle Vincent (Whitesboro/Utica)
Christopher Walrath (Little Falls/Little Falls)
Kyle Wiggins (MVCC/Marcy)

The Pioneers enjoyed their most successful season to date in 2005, recording their first-ever winning season after finishing 6-4 overall, including three key conference victories. The Utica College football team made history in 2005 placing a program-record 12 student athletes on Empire 8 All-Conference teams.

The Pioneers will take on host Becker College September 2, 2006 at 2 p.m. at Worcester Polytechnic in the season-opener.

[tecmobowler]

 A bit of good research will dig you up a TV news report clip reporting when Nisky Grastorf chose Ithaca over Union. 

This impressed me alone since someone in Albany thought this was news.  They don't give every High School senior a piece of the sports report when he commits on a D-3 college.

[Jonny Utah]

Did this guy play football at IC?

http://departments.oxy.edu/athletics/football/2004%20Archive/coachesbios/fletcher.html

[gordonmann]

The New York Times ran an article on why schools start football programs.  Utica is cited heavily for those who are interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/education/10football.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

You'll probably need your own log-in, but the process is free and quick.

[dewcrew88]

The New York Times ran an article on why schools start football programs.  Utica is cited heavily for those who are interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/education/10football.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

You'll probably need your own log-in, but the process is free and quick.

That is a great story, Gordon.... see if PC would be willing to put that story somewhere where a lot of more visitors to this site would see it.

['gro]

A bit of good research will dig you up a TV news report clip reporting when Nisky Grastorf chose Ithaca over Union.

This impressed me alone since someone in Albany thought this was news. They don't give every High School senior a piece of the sports report when he commits on a D-3 college.

What no link?  If it's Union vs Ithaca, my guess is that the kid has had enough of the capital district and wanted to get out for college... I'd say both schools are on par in football and academics... or he hooked up on his recruiting trip.

[gobombers]

Did this guy play football at IC?

http://departments.oxy.edu/athletics/football/2004%20Archive/coachesbios/fletcher.html

Doesn't ring any bells to me JU.

[gobombers15]

It says right in the link where he played. He graduated in 1994 and, no, he didn't play at IC.

From the looks of it, there should be a pretty good QB competition this year. Hopefully, both QB's get better because of it.

[Jonny Utah]

It says right in the link where he played. He graduated in 1994 and, no, he didn't play at IC.

From the looks of it, there should be a pretty good QB competition this year. Hopefully, both QB's get better because of it.

It says he graduated in 1999 and it said he played a year at Nichols College before transferring to Ithaca but was vague as to if he played or not.  I didnt remember the name but he looked familiar.

[AUPepBand]

The New York Times ran an article on why schools start football programs.  Utica is cited heavily for those who are interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/education/10football.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

You'll probably need your own log-in, but the process is free and quick.

Good press for Utica College and Coach Kemp!! I am continually amazed by the NUMBERS of young men who desire to play football these days. AU will have 150+ in camp this year, with another freshman class of 75 to 80 recruits. Working in the library, I meet a lot of the football players...many come here for football (Coach Murray does a great job bringing them in) but after a season or sometimes two, many find that a) they are not going to get playing time b) the time commitment is more than they want to invest, c) their academics take precedent, d) they get a girlfriend, e) or any combination of the above.

Ol' Alex never had those numbers....some years (even after the introduction of platoons) he had kids going both ways. And of course, when he took over the AU "program" (more like he was named the football coach, wrestling coach, basketball coach)in 1937, everyone went both ways.

Nevertheless, Alfred received regional and national attention as a result of its football teams. Football was and continues to be a tremendous asset to Lil Alf--both in terms of attracting student-athletes and balancing the gender ratio. While AU is now well known for its art and design program, Alfred still leads the world in producing ceramic engineers, many of them of the pigskin persuasion.

I'm happy to see so many more small colleges jumping on the (pep)band-wagon and starting football programs. D3 has become extremely competitive, yet all for the love of the game. Now if we in the Empire 8 can only persuade RIT, Nazareth and Elmira to join the fun!

[Jonny Utah]

Doesnt RIT have like 10,000 or 20,000 students too?

And what does a ceramic engineer do?

And I remember when Mt. Ida first had a football team.  They started out with like 80 guys their first year and then the next year 60 of them dropped/failed out of school. 

You have to figure that if you have 50 or so freshman comming in (like Ithaca usually has)  50 percent of them werent great high school football players.

[saxontad]

johnny utah,
good question about ceramic engineering.  i attended AU (in philosophy, not CE).  in the Corning, NY area there is a plant that manufactures substrates for catalytic converters.  that is an example of ceramic engineers at work.  another example is the heat resistant tiles on the space shuttle.  both of these products are examples of applied ceramic engineering.  i have traveled far and wide since i graduated and have happened to meet several ceramic engineers, some from europe.  they all know about AU and its program.
go saxons!!!!!!! 

[AUPepBand]

RIT is huge...they had a team at one time, but they were not good. Had they stuck it out, perhaps got a different coach, built the program, they'd be competitive today.

A ceramic engineer, to quote a recent AU grad, "makes everyone's lives better."

Ceramic materials are everywhere. We have a company here in Alfred (with around 100 employees) that produces a multitude of designs of ceramic filters used in the aerospace industry, primarily. There are many other applications as well--including military, as shown in this link:

http://www.alfred.edu/nyscc/view.cfm?temp=2724

saxontad: good to see another Saxon around....it's been one long and lonely off-season on Post Patterns!

[gobombers15]

50 days until the season openers for five E8 Teams.

September 2, 2006

Huntingdon at ITHACA
King's at FISHER
Mt. Ida at NORWICH
UTICA at Becker
Endicott at HARTWICK

The other teams have their openers on September 9th.

Thiel at ALFRED
Union at SPRINGFIELD

Those will be two interesting games as two E8 teams get to host two 2005 playoff teams. We'll see how far Springfield has come along.