Month: June 2021

Managing Change

The March To A “Normal” Season

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Audrey Sawers moves upfield

It’s only six weeks away, as coaches are preparing for a “normal” fall, where they will be returning to seasons dealing with restructuring, and building their teams for a run at championships. Players, fans, and parents are trying to adjust fall schedules to be in attendance, to watch any number of sports.   Student athletes will eventually be back to live classrooms and hopefully leaving the words like “zoom” behind them. In one and one half months bags will be packed and delivered to new dorm rooms. and college athletes will step on the field with their teammates. As the time approaches, all should all be increasing their off season training. Coach Stone believes in a fit squad, and quite logically the task of molding a squad that plays better as group than as individuals, can’t begin with a team more concerned about their next breath than their next pass, shot or defensive assignment.

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Emma Garvey and Mary Gould of Lafayette stop Bison attack at the goal

The past year has brought new changes as well. Lafayette will have a new president who will no doubt have her own idea about structure. By all accounts she and her spouse are committed fans of college athletics, given their experiences at Notre Dame, Virginia and UNC. In the world of NCAA athletics, it’s interesting how change that was unneeded or unwise has force schools and institutions back to the middle. Many schools, who had tried to drop sports, have now reversed their decisions. William and Mary not only reversed their decision to drop sports, but fired their AD and hired new talent. Stanford, who only 9 months ago decided to drop field hockey altogether will welcome Roz Ellis as their new coach. The Ivy League lost the chance to retain seniors who were deprived of their final  season.  They will see their graduates play somewhere else. Juliana Tornetta having graduated from Princeton, as an all american and now a member of the US Team, will play at Maryland this year! The Patriot League is preparing to deal with NIL and perhaps they have finally given up their aspiration to be “Ivy Light.”  The Ivy League certainly did not demonstrate any superiority of management last year. .

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Leopards get ready in Maroon Club weight training center!!

The NCAA is managing itself to irrelevance, as they seem stuck to managing minutia, as opposed to dealing with real problems. Their efforts seemed limited to changing small elements of the language in their regulations than addressing real problems.

Hopefully, Lafayette will emerge stronger, chastened by over zealous administration of rules, but keeping what is good. I expect athletics will emerge stronger as  Intercollegiate Athletics gets new attention, starting with a change in the reporting structure. All indications seem to be moving in that direction.

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A traffic jam in front of the Lafayette goal

I am ready to get down to the nitty gritty of fall competition. Lafayette will soon have on campus one of their most talented classes ever. Certainly it can be said individually, they can be as competitive with any team in the league. The question is repeated here, How will they mold together as a team?.

With many teams returning players for additional seasons, it will be challenging. Audrey Sawers the Lafayette captain, will be returning for her senior plus season and will be a threat to Patriot League foes. But Lehigh will return Lenke Havas and Drew Pecora, and American will return Noor Coenen and Gaby De Kock.

The League will be improved, and perhaps a better performance in out of conference games will get the League a better seed in the NCAA tournament. Bucknell’s performance in the national tournament certainly helped. Schedule’s are being finalized and Colgate already has reported a schedule that includes Albany in August. a late game with Syracuse. and two games with Cornell. Lafayette will host Colgate on Oct 2 at Rappolt Field. By my count, having reported only 15 games Colgate will have room for more games. There are reports that Lafayette will be playing  Yale on Sept 10 also at Rappolt.

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I will be interested in those early games and scrimmages, as experience must be gained. There will be 10 players for Lafayette who have never played in a Division one game. All manner of challenges, as the season approaches and certainly fodder for us fans!!

Name, Image, And Likeness (NIL)…The Patriot League Gets Ready

What is NIL And What It Means To The Student Athlete

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NIL, ( the student athlete’s rights to their name, image and likeness) is working it’s way through the courts as colleges, the NCAA, and conferences are beginning to get a handle on its implications. Until this point colleges, but not student athletes could profit from selling the rights to NIL to third party vendors like gaming companies. However, the athletes themselves have been prevented through archaic rules promulgated by the NCAA from benefiting from the licensing of their NIL.

Athletes in particular are not permitted to benefit in anyway from outside sources. It could be as insignificant as a four dollar picture frame to thousands of dollars in endorsements. These rules were particularly discriminatory to the student athlete. Was Yo Yo Ma the famous cello player required to forgo compensation while attending Harvard, or even been required to be regulated by the administration at Harvard on his musical gigs?!

The NFL and MLB Players Associations receive approximately 120 million dollars from licensing deals from video game publishers. This equates to about $48000 dollars per player each year. Last year Electronic Arts agreed to pay 40 million dollars to more than 29,000 current and former collegiate student athletes for the rights to use their name or likeness. There is also revenue potential in apparel deals.

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By one estimate the UCLA women’s gymnastic team alone could be worth as much as $1,250,000 annually in endorsement revenue, Many current Gen Z high school athletes are bringing along a following in social media. even before they arrive on campus. I have personally seen, in the sport of Field Hockey, that USA field hockey as part of their “grow the game strategy,” has looked at early experiments in video gaming.

To meet this challenge the Patriot League in a pioneering move have entered into an innovating partnership with INFLCR to “empower conference-member student athletes to share content  and manage student-athlete NIL activities.”  The Patriot League is the first NCAA Division One conference to provide league wide support for its members. The league officials stated,” By providing each Patriot League institution with a department-wide INFLCR solution, the conference is leading from the front and empowering all Patriot League student-athletes to grow their brands and educate themselves on the new opportunities that are coming soon from NIL.”

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Lafayette fans feeling it !!!

By sharing photos, videos, and graphics produced by member institutions, delivered by INFLCR software enables each student athlete the opportunity to share their story and grow their brand. INFCR software will provide transaction monitoring for student athlete’s  commercial activity, that happens through INFLCR vetted companies. In addition, student athletes will have access to educational video resources, which will provide ongoing NIL and brand strategy content from a variety of athletes and industry experts, according to League officials.

Kudos to the League and its respective members to be ready for this development!!!

Two Lafayette Players And Asst Coach Heading To USA Field Hockey National Championships

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Molly McAndrew chases down VCU opponent

Veteran Lafayette teammates , senior Molly McAndrew, and junior Sydney Woolston will travel with asst Coach Jenny Rizzo to Virginia Beach on June 15-20 to play in the USA Field Hockey National Championships. The 10 team tournament is a selection opportunity for the U 21-22 US team, and the US Development team. The 10 teams will be sprinkled with current US team members, increasing the competitive talent for each team. Lafayette alumnus and captain of the US Team Amanda Magadan will be playing on Team Spirit, coached by US teammate Melisa Gonzalez.

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Molly McAndrew was assigned to Team Unity coached by Iain Byers head coach at Longwood University, Sydney Woolston will be with Team Brave coached by Ohio State asst coach Kate Lipton, and Jenny Rizzo will be with Team Courage coached by Roz Ellis, University of Iowa asst coach. They will be playing an international format with crossover games at the end to determine a champion.

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Sydney Woolston is part of the stout Leopard defense!!

Aside from the current US Team members, the teams are populated by the best collegiate and post collegiate players in country, competing for a coveted spot on one of the US teams. Because of Covid, the tourney was not played last year.

McAndrew was rookie of the year her freshman year, and subsequently been an all league selection. The respect she gets is demonstrated by her being double and triple teamed on most every occasion. Woolston showed her talent from her initial season at Lafayette on defense, by having defensive saves and is a key member of a very solid defense at Lafayette. Jenny Rizzo played for Penn State and also played professionally in Europe.

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Jenny Rizzo was star goalie at Penn State

Phil Edwards who is USA Field Hockey’s manager of Coaching and Performance congratulated all the participants on being selected to play in this prestigious tournament.

Lafayette To Return Two All Americans This Fall

Emma Garvey and Mary Gould of Lafayette stop Bison attack at the goal

The Lafayette Field Hockey Team has barely finished their spring/fall season and thoughts have changed to a preseason that is less than 60 days away. Covid is still leaving its mark on NCAA sports as the NCAA ruled that all NCAA athletes who were on the roster in the 2020-21 academic year will receive an extra year of eligibility. That means that some seniors may be wearing new jerseys in the fall has they proceed to graduate school or they may be playing an extra season as a graduate student or adding a second major at their present school.

For Lafayette that means Audrey Sawers has elected to go for her fifth year. Audrey was the team’s MVP, first team all league and regional all American. Audrey was just getting into stride as the spring season progressed and in my opinion showed extra ordinary growth in confidence and strength. Sawers played on the under 21 Canadian national team last summer and was clearly a leader at her center mid position.

In addition, Simone Hefting ’23 also a regional all American returns for her Junior year. Her clear athletic ability and big hit will be a huge asset in the backfield which has traditional been a key position for the Leopards over the years.

There are a number of good players who got lots of playing time in a schedule that may have been the toughest in the League. They played American twice, Lehigh, Boston, Bucknell, and Holy Cross.

Coach Stone and the team will still have challenges to meet. On the first day of practice she will have 10 players who have not played one second of division one field hockey. Four are last. years freshman who were unable to play because of Covid rules and the entering class ( two from the Netherlands, one from Canada, one from New Zealand and California and Connecticut. Meshing that all together with the returning players, who played a tough spring schedule will be the task of a very talented coaching staff. Outside of Bucknell, Lafayette was the only league team to complete their assigned schedule.

Meanwhile, the other league teams will keep several seniors for their extra year. American’s Noor Coenan, and Gabby DeKock will be back to challenge league opponents. Lenke Havas returns to Lehigh to raise their hopes as they become more formidable with each season. Of course Bucknell, this year’s champion and winner of one game in the NCAA’s will return a seasoned group of players with confidence.

To me it looks like a great fall for fans!!