Providence College Athletics
Bob's Blog
10/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | General
Friar Fans,
It's been an exciting past few days in Friartown with campus visits, golf outings, and team successes. Recently, Father Shanley and I met with our trustees and updated them on the future of the BIG EAST Conference. Commissioner John Marinatto has received approval from all of the Presidents and Chancellors to expand the conference with new football schools to replace Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh. A plan to increase the buyout significantly from its current level of $5 million is currently in its evaluation phase.
We also had our first Vision Team meeting featuring men's basketball Head Coach Ed Cooley. Coach Cooley updated our Vision Team about our recruiting class for 2012, which is considered by many to be a Top-3 class. He also went through various needs for the program, including additional resources for charter flights. The Vision Cup Golf Tournament held October 4 was a big help with that initiative. Nearly $40,000 was raised to help pay for the charter flight to South Carolina when the Friars play the Gamecocks on December 1 as part of the BIG EAST/SEC Challenge. The construction timetable for the renovations to Alumni Gym was also laid out to be completed by the start of next season.
This past Saturday night, Doris Burke, one of ESPN's NBA analysts, came back to campus as part of our Saint Dominic Weekend. Doris delivered to all of those in attendance a wonderful testimonial about the values she learned as a student-athlete. She learned these values through Dominican teachings during her time here at Providence College. Doris played for the women's basketball team and was eventually elected into the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame.
The start of the Men's Basketball and Men's Ice Hockey seasons is right around the corner. Friday, October 14 marks Head Coach Nate Leaman's first game as coach of the Men's Ice Hockey team as the Friars take on the nationally ranked Boston University Terriers. Our Mission 3,000 campaign has been running for a few months and we expect a huge crowd to come out to Schneider Arena. The game will be televised on NESN and students will be handed wristbands at the end of the game to receive priority admittance to Late Night Madness starting at 9:30p.m. in Alumni Gym. Another sell-out crowd is expected as Head Coach Ed Cooley officially introduces his squad.
Some of our Fall sports squads have been seeing lots of early success this season. The men's soccer team is ranked 27th nationally and is set to make a run at the BIG EAST Championship. Both the men's and women's cross country teams are also ranked nationally, 17th and 2nd respectively. Last week at the prestigious Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Penn. the men's team took sixth place while the women's team came in first overall. The women's team has won all three of its meets this season while the men have won two out of three.
I leave you this week with a brief note about touching the community. The women's volleyball team recently held a clinic for children throughout the state of Rhode Island and the men's soccer team has one scheduled in the near future. The men's basketball team recently participated in the 6th Annual Buddy Walk for the Down Syndrome Society of Rhode Island. I cannot understate the importance of our student athletes serving as role models to our youth. Reaching out to the community, helping young children learn and grow, and developing the next group of Friar fans can help our community grow even greater in the future.
Go Friars!
BD
