the bobcat bulletin

The Bobcat BulletinPresented by the Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports NetworkMay 6, 2013

Vol. 2, Issue 8theqbsn.com

@QBSN

End of the run

Women’s rugby team makes national semifinals

Photo by Matt Eisenberg

Acrobatics and tumbling | Page 4Top 10 moments | Pages 6-7

Matthew Peca | 0

Almost everyone at Quinnipiac knows that the men’s ice hockey team advanced to the Frozen Four and eventually the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history. Less students are aware about the Ac-robatics and Tumbling team placed second in the NCATA Championships at the TD Bank Sports Center.

Even fewer students know about the best kept secret at Quinnipiac. The women’s rugby team’s run to the 2013 Emirates Airline USA Rugby Wom-en’s Collegiate DII National Cham-pionship remains a point of pride, yet goes without much recognition.

The accomplishment is exciting for members of the rugby squad, but the fact that there is little student support is taken with slight disappointment.

“It can been frustrating to an ex-tent, but at the same time, we’re just playing the game we love,” senior fullback Krystin Orrico said. “As long as we know where we’re going that’s all that matters.”

Just two and a half years ago, an e-mail was sent to the entire student body at Quinnipiac stating that there would be open tryouts for a women’s rugby team on campus. About 60 stu-dents, including Orrico, jumped at the opportunity to play the sport new to the school.

Prior to becoming the starting fullback, Orrico wanted to play soc-cer at the collegiate level but took a different route.

“Originally I wanted to go to college for soccer but I changed my mind at the last minute so given the opportunity to play rugby I jumped on it, and I fell in love with the sport instantly,” Orrico said.

It began a transition for Orrico

The Bobcat Bulletin 2

The Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports Network (QBSN) is the exclusive student-run sports organization at Quinnipiac University. Originally founded by Corey Hersch and Alex Birsh in the fall of 2010, QBSN offers students the unique opportunity to become active as a sports

journalist at QU. QBSN’s primary function has been to broadcast most of the athletics at Quinnipiac – streaming live online at its website (www.theqbsn.com). Sports broadcast include: men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, acrobatics and tumbling, women’s rugby, volleyball and field hockey. Students offer play-by-play and color commentary for each game, along with Twitter updates and an in-game live blog on the website. In addition to the games being broadcast live, QBSN also offers game pre-views, recaps, feature articles and live podcasts through its website. Hockey Night in Hamden and Full Court Press are two podcasts broadcasted weekly that focus on the week that was for Quinnipiac ice hockey and basketball. The shows have become popular among both ECAC hockey and NEC basketball enthusiasts. Pregame shows are offered live twice a week as well, going out before the first athletics action of the weekend. QBSN is fueled by the passionate commitment that its members have dem-onstrated time and time again. Only two-and-a-half years into its existence, QBSN has gained noticeable recognition, earning the QU New Student Or-ganization of the Year award in the 2010-11 scholastic year and the 2011-12 Quinnipiac Athletics Department Behind the Scenes Award. With a passion not only for sports journalism, but for Quinnipiac athlet-ics as well, QBSN is proud and excited to present the exclusive Quinnipiac University athletics monthly bulletin.

The two-year planBy Kevin Noonan

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and the current 11 women that still re-main on the team, seeing the program in its entirety. It also began a transi-tion for head coach Becky Carlson, the first year head coach of this Bob-cat squad.

Carlson said when she was in-terviewing for the job that she told the committee that they should not hire her if they did not envision the program being one of the top teams in the country by the second or third year.

“I don’t think there was one per-son in the room that believed me,” Carlson said. “It was all my col-leagues, and they believe in the pro-gram now. I don’t think it is some-thing that seemed feasible to anyone but at the time me, and now it’s still at

times, seems to be something that is surreal for other people.”

Coming out to the program were women with all different athletics backgrounds, from cheerleading to field hockey to lacrosse.

“Having never played the game, they’re playing up against a lot of teams that have girls who have been playing since high school,” Carlson said. “Regardless of or not they’re club programs, they have a lot of rich experience in the game, and I just have a bunch of crossover athletes that just want to play the game,” Carl-son said.

After the first season of the pro-gram, they finished just 3-6-1 and were blown out of several matches. But in their first offseason, Carlson told her Bobcats that success was just around the corner, and all they had to do was follow the example set by her and assistant coach Michelle Reed.

“I said, ‘If you really want to win, you can win, and I’m going to teach you how to do that. Trust what’s happened in the process. If you trust Coach Reed and I to take you through this process and you do everything that we tell you to do, you can be a national champion.’”

After telling the team this, Carl-son said that about 85 percent of the squad actually believed that it was possible. According to Orrico, the players weren’t positive, but they trusted Carlson.

“Our coach always told us she was going to get us this far and we were kind of like ‘Oh we’re still new to the game, we don’t know,’” Orrico said. “But we worked really hard on it and did want it.”

With the program at the NCAA Division I level, it brought the oppor-tunity for the school to recruit players that had far more rugby experience, and players like Orrico feared they might not be on the team for long.

“I thought that we’d be able to get far in the first two years, but I just wasn’t sure if I’d be on the team still when we got this far,” Orrico said.

But Carlson was not just going to abandon the players she spent a whole season teaching the sport of rugby to, and she trusted their abilities as rugby players to compete.

Despite low expectations of the Bobcats in the 2012 season, they opened the season with a huge victory over Eastern Illinois using the Rugby 7s format, winning the series 2-1. And the victories have kept coming, propelling the Bobcats to the national semifinals at Stanford, where they lost to Winona State University.

Yet, very few people are aware of the remarkable season the rugby team has had.

“It would be tremendous to bring home the championship and represent the university, it would just be another chapter in the great story that not too many have caught on to,” Carlson said.

Sudden success can sometimes be difficult for teams to handle, but these Bobcats have not changed their demeanor throughout the season, ac-cording to Carlson.

“We’ve maintained a level of humility this whole way through that we don’t just automatically think we will win, but we believe we are ca-pable to win. That’s the biggest thing that we play every game like it is the national championship,” Carlson said.

Even though this kind of success may only have existed in the imagina-tions of players like Orrico, it is com-pletely a reality.

“It’s just a huge accomplishment to see my team work this hard and to put in this much effort; it’s kind of just like a pay day” Orrico said. “Every-thing I’ve worked for is coming to an end. It’s just a really good feeling.”

There was one who thought this kind of success was possible from the get-go, no matter how far-fetched it may have seemed at the time.

“Two years, that’s a little ex-treme, I think, for saying we’d win the national championship, but I’ve definitely thought that since day one,” Carlson said.

The women’s rugby team poses for a picture after winning the Tri-State Conference Championship. They finished the fall 12-0 and have advanced to the national semifinal in Palo Alto, Calif.

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Senior Colleen Doherty hugs fellow senior Krystin Orrico after winning the Tri-State Conference championship back in November.


All stats accurate through 5/2


By Joe Schiavone

Ryan Bean and Kimberly Piazza pose for a picture at a fundraiser in Wallingford, Conn. last year.

Played singles, ended up doubles

She may not be the biggest or the strongest Bobcat out there, but she is definitely the fastest.

Shameal Samuels is the star freshman on the women’s indoor and outdoor track and field team. With not even a full year of college under her belt, Samuels is already the school record holder in the 400 meters for both indoor and outdoor track.

Samuels, originally from Mon-tego Bay, Jamaica and raised in Hart-ford, Conn., attend-ed Capital Prepara-tory Magnet High School where she lettered in all three seasons of running: cross country, in-door track, and outdoor track.

She was named the Constitu-tion Conference MVP her senior year as she was the individual champion at the 400 meter, 600 meter and 800 meter distances. It was these achievements and more that made head coach Carolyn Martin want Samuels to become a Bobcat.

“Her high school coach really thought Quinnipiac would be a good fit so he helped get Shameal on cam-pus,” Martin said. “When we met her she was pretty shy, but we knew she had some wheels, so once she showed interest we absolutely want-ed to get her here.”

It did not take long for Samuels to make her mark at Quinnipiac. She

broke the school’s indoor 400 meter record in a time of 56 seconds this past winter, and as the sun came out for the outdoor season another record fell.

This time it was the outdoor 400 meter record that Samuels shattered by a full second in a time of 56.87 seconds. Despite the early success, Samuels was a bit surprised by her new college surroundings.

“I expected it to be a lot more intense,” Samuels said. “I compared college to the Olympics; I thought it

would be that intense.”Entering college, Samuels was

expecting tough workouts and for her coaches to yell at her more than they do. Assistant and short distance coach Steven Belanger has worked very closely with Samuels during her first year. With Samuels cruising past her teammates at practice, she wasn’t really sure how good she could really be.

“Once we started giving her more confidence she started seeing the results from her hard work.” Belanger said. “Now we have to get people to push her more at practice because it is a hard thing to do when you’re working by yourself.”

Between her natural ability as a sprinter and the coaching style of

Martin and Belanger, Samuels is having a record setting season for the Bobcats. On April 6th at the George Davis Invitational, she broke the school’s outdoor 200 meter record in a time of 26.1 seconds. This was also her first time running this event. But she wasn’t done with her record set-ting ways just yet.

Just a week later on April 13 at the Brown Invitational, Samuels broke her own 400 meter record in a time of 56.37 seconds.

At the same meet she broke her own 200 meter record in a time of 26.08 seconds. This pattern would continue a week later at the Larry Ellis Invitational,

where she broke her 400 meter re-cord once again, in a time of 56.06 seconds.

She also showed how she doesn’t just compete for individu-al honors as she was a part of the 4X400 team that broke the school record.

It is very common for athletes to get nervous in their first year on a team, being surrounded by up-perclassman and not knowing what to expect. But what makes Samuels unique is how she steps onto the track knows how to shake away the nerves and run like she knows she can.

“My coaches make me nervous sometimes,” Samuels said. “But I just go out there and run hard and whatever happens happens.”

There’s an old saying that oppo-sites attract. If you said that to some former players of the men’s and wom-en’s Quinnipiac tennis teams, howev-er, they may politely disagree.

As head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams, Mike Quitko has seen at least four relationships form that have led to marriages be-tween players on his teams. Among the relationships that formed, two of them have involved current assis-tant coaches, Nicholas Wormley and Ryan Bean, who both found their wife and fiancé while playing under Quitko.

Other marriages include former players T.W. Goodwin and Liz Axler, and former player Jess Ucello and for-mer team trainer Pete Asadourian.

The closeness of the men’s and women’s teams started, Quitko be-lieves, when the NCAA realigned the seasonal schedules, which allowed both teams to play their seasons at the same time.

This change allowed for one weekly practice that the teams would have together. It is something that Quitko thinks has been helpful to both the men’s and women’s players.

“One of the things I like about it is that the men hit harder in most cas-es, but they lack consistency,” Quitko

said. “The women have consistency, but lack power.”

These practices also gave players a chance to get to know each other.

“So when they hit together, and of course that’s how they get to know each other better,” Quitko said. “‘Do you want to play a little tennis with me?’ or ‘Do you want to hit a few balls with me?’ and then they get to know each other and decide, well that’s their business at that point.”

Traveling to and from matches was also a time when players from both teams could interact with one another.

“It’s almost like we travel with dates. There are usually, and we try to keep the same amount of men as we keep the same amount of women, and it looks like when we get off the bus, that’s exactly what’s happening,” Quitko said.

It was important that the teams traveled together, Bean said.

“We play a good number of matches together so to have a sport that usually garners a smaller audi-ence, it’s nice to be able to bring 20 plus players in union to cheer and support each other,” Bean said.

After the matches, however, at the team dinner is when the teams re-ally got to spend time together.

“Our team dinners occur after every away match,” Bean said. “It

allows for our players to decom-press after a good win or a tough loss. The best thing is that tennis is rarely the topic at the table. It’s because of this that everyone’s re-lationships grow.”

While playing under Quitko, Bean met his soon-to-be bride Kim-berly Piazza. The two met at the first team meeting of the year with Quitko, when Bean was a junior and Piazza was a freshman. They soon became best friends.

“As we continued through the program and the season our relation-ship began to evolve and we haven’t looked back since,” Bean said. “I strongly believe that if it weren’t for Q’s family atmosphere, we might never have been as close as we were during our college experience.”

The couple is expecting their first child in July.

“Needless to say we are more than happy,” Bean said.

The team’s other assistant coach, Wormley, and his wife, former player Michelle Nagle, are expecting their second child.

For all the benefits that come from relationships between players on the teams, Quitko knows exactly what to do when problems do begin to occur.

“When they break up,” Quitko said. “I put a bandaid on the wound.”

By Andy Landolfi

Former tennis players tie the knot after Quinnipiac

Samuels off to a fast start

“My coaches make me nervous sometimes, but I just go out there and run hard and

whatever happens, happens.”- Shameal Samuels

Photo courtesy of Branford Patch

Robey leads young pitching staffBy Nick Dench

In its sixth year atop the York Hill Campus, the TD Bank Sports Center has seen a variety of events. But on the weekend of April 25-27, it hosted the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Associa-tion’s national championship for the first time with the host Quin-nipiac Bobcats ranked as the No. 2 seed.

Despite losing in the champi-onship meet, Quinnipiac had major schools such as Baylor and Oregon coming through its doors and those administrators were blown away by their preparations for the event, something that head coach Mary Ann Powers was proud of after the

For the first time in a few years, the Quinnipiac softball team has multiple pitchers on the staff that can be productive as starters. Sydney Robey is a freshman on this pitching staff and looks to become the ace in the future.

Softball always took precedent in Robey’s life. She even dropped basketball after middle school to fo-cus more closely on her softball ca-reer

Robey does not only excel on the mound, but she also has a very successful history as a hitter. Head coach Germaine Fairchild recog-nizes Robey’s ability to hit and has not ruled out the possibility of using her from the batter’s box as well.

“She actually continues to hit everyday in practice. We have not necessarily chosen to have her pitch only over hitting,” Fairchild said.

Robey knows that if she wants to hit, she is going to have to work to earn a spot in the lineup. Robey hit .543 her junior year of high school with seven home runs. With those numbers, plus her pitching ability, Robey drew attention from

Quinnipiac and Longwood Univer-sity in Virginia.

Along with softball, education was a big part of Robey’s decision. Robey, a nursing major, wanted a program that was willing to work with the softball team, saying that Longwood was just establishing its program and Quinnipiac has a well-known program.

“We have a very well estab-lished school of medicine and school

of nursing and Coach Fairchild, her ability to work with the student-ath-letes was mainly the factor,” Robey said.

Robey was homesick at first, with Quinnipiac located about three and a half hours away from her hometown of Glenwood, Pa.

“Softball has always been a ma-jor part of my life, and my parents have always pushed me to be the best that I can with school. It’s like liv-ing my life at home just without my parents,” Robey said on transitioning to college.

Fairchild said that the team goes through a mental training program to help with the transition and that Robey has gone through that very well.

“Some individuals definitely take in more of it than others,” Fairchild said. “I think she’s really taken in quite a bit of it and applied it to her game and I think it’s really helped her.”

Fairchild added that part of the

transition is learning that the officiat-ing crew is better in college than it is in high school, mentioning that some high school umpires can be afraid of the velocity of some pitches.

Robey also recognizes that the officiating, along with the hitting, is better in college, but that has not af-fected her attitude as a pitcher.

“My mindset is always have confidence in my pitching and know that always throw my game and try my hardest,” Robey said.

Robey has also been listening to Fairchild’s advice on getting better

national championship.“To hear all these major univer-

sities like Baylor and Oregon say how this was an amazing experi-ence for the kids, how does anyone match this?” Powers said. “This University does everything right, top notch.”

Oregon head coach Felecia Mulkey said what made the event so great was putting the student-athletes first.

“It was all about the student-athletes,” Mulkey said. “Quinnipiac University made this a special, spe-cial championship for all the student-athletes and that’s really what this is about anyway. I think every student-

athlete felt very special like they were at a NCAA championship, which we will be very quickly, so hat’s off to Jack [McDonald] and Mary Ann and all the staff.”

Planning the event was cer-tainly not something that happened overnight, as Executive Director of the TD Bank Sports Center Eric Grgurich said. It took well over a year to plan out the three-day com-petition.

During the winter season at the TD Bank Sports Center, the men’s and women’s basketball and hockey teams have many games which pro-vide plenty of opportunities to work out logistics of each day. The acro-

Photos by Matt Eisenberg


Above: The acrobatics and tumbling team stands on the sideline during one of the NCATA championship meets.Right: The Bobcats compete in the Acro event, where they lost the championship to Oregon 277.350-273.655

batics and tumbling team only hosted two meets all season, not exactly a lot of time to plan out how to run the event.

“You really don’t have all the logistics worked out,” Grgurich said. “You’re kind of moving on the fly so the way we’ve been able to pull it off pretty seamlessly is a tribute to everyone putting their hard work together.”

One person both Powers and Grgurich mentioned who played a major role in planning the event was Associate Director of Academics Ly-neene Richardson.

Richardson received praise from her entire team, and she said the event wouldn’t have been possible without them.

“I think its been exciting; it’s my first time working with an event on this large of a scale,” Richardson said. “We’ve got an excellent team that I’ve worked with here at Quin-nipiac and without them we couldn’t have done it.”

This teamwork really became crucial in the home stretch as Grgu-rich and many of the Athletic De-partment employees were traveling with the men’s ice hockey team on its journey to Pittsburgh and were away from the office more than an-ticipated.

“It put crunch time on us when we get back because now you’re looking at this right down the pike for coming up,” Grgurich said. “So it put everyone into overdrive to get this done the last two weeks we’ve been back.”

Hosting the NCATA Champion-ship for the first time certainly did not make it any easier on this plan-ning committee as well.

“It’s just something we haven’t hosted before, obviously the first

time you’re doing things you’re working out the kinks and kind of going to the meetings to get ev-erything squared away,” Grgurich said.

Once the championship weekend got underway, it was the electricity in the building that took over as both championship meet teams, Quinnipiac and Oregon, were well represented in the stands to cheer on their respective teams.

Hundreds of students came out to cheer on their peers, something that Grgurich was happy to see.

“I think the athletes did a great job of getting their roommates and friends to come out and obviously they’re very loyal and into it, so it’s great to here in there,” Grgu-rich said.

In Quinnipiac’s opening meet, they defeated Azusa Pa-cific before falling to Or-egon in the NCATA championship meet. With Oregon’s vic-tory, they won their third straight undefeated title.

When it comes to hosting the event again in the future, Powers says she would love to get the honor again but is not so sure if that oppor-tunity will come in the near future, if ever again with the addition of five more teams to the NCATA.

“I think this sport is about to explode,” Pow-ers said. “There was a lot of administrators that were here from a lot of places. It might be a long time before it comes back or they put it in a true neutral territory


Sydney Robey delivers a pitch in a game against Long Island University this season.

day-by-day, as well as learning refine her tools as a pitcher.

“Giving my all at practice. We only have a few hours a day, but those few hours really matter,” Robey said. “Coach always says try to get 1 percent better, focus on get-ting 1 percent better every day.”

Robey is not alone in her efforts and has been using the advice of ju-nior catcher Jordan Paolucci to her advantage in the circle.

“She gives you insight on the game because she is a really good hitter,” Robey said.

With an understanding of a hit-ter’s perspective, she knows that a pitcher cannot get every batter out every time. Robey continues to work hard in practice to make her pitches as difficult to hit as possible.

“If a hitter hits a really good hit off one of my best pitches, well ku-dos to them,” Robey said. “So you have to know what the batter is. We always look at stats and things like that. We always look at the books as the game progresses to one up the batter.”

Keeping this strategic approach, Robey continues to develop her game through mechanics and her mental-ity, all with the mindset of becoming the ace for the team.

so who knows. We had it while we could.”

Whether or not Quinnipiac hosts the NCATA championship again, Mulkey pointed out that she would not be opposed to coming back to Hamden again next sea-son.

“Quinnipiac did a phenom-enal job hosting this meet, so

professional,” Mulkey said. “The facilities are beauti-

ful. I just told an admin-istrator from Quinnipi-ac I couldn’t be mad if they asked us to come

back next year be-cause they did a

great job.”

Up, up and away

By Kevin Noonan

“Coach always says try to get 1 percent better, focus on getting 1 percent better

every day.”- Sydney Robey

Quinnipiac hosts its firstNCATA championship


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4. In game two of their ECAC quarterfinal series against the St.

Lawrence Saints, junior Amanda Colin scored nine minutes into

the third overtime period to tie the series at 1-1.

7. Quinnipiac acrobatics and tumbling did something no other

team has ever done by beating Oregon in the Team Event in

the NCATA National Championship.

8. In the pro

gram’s secon

d year, the w

omen’s rugby

team have

steamrolled t

heir opponent

s and earned

a berth in t

he USA

Rugby semifin

als in Paolo

Alto, Calif.

TOP 10 MOMENTS OF 2012-13

1. Kevin Bui’s 2OT goal

2. Matthew Peca’s natural hat trick

3. Women’s basketball NEC champs

4. Amanda Colin 3OT goal

5. Men’s soccer NEC champs

6. Ike Azotam’s 1000th point

7. A&T beat Oregon in Team Event

8. Women’s rugby national semifinalist

9. Women’s XC eighth straight NEC

10. Switch to the MAAC

1. In the third and decidin

g game of the ECAC quar

terfinals,

Kevin Bui scored halfway

through the second overt

ime period to

lift the Bobcats to the 3

-2 win. It would also be t

he Bobcats’

first appearance in the E

CAC championship round s

ince 2007.

All photos by Matt Eisenberg

Content by Peter Rossi and Nick DenchDesign by Rebecca Castagna, Angelique Fiske and Kevin Noonan


2. Matthew Peca scored a historic natural hat trick against

then No. 13 Union Dutchmen in a span of 3:12. It was the

fastest hat trick in NCAA tournament history and propelled the

Bobcats to their first Frozen Four in school history.

5. The 2012-13 men’s soccer

team had great success in t

he

regular season with its 3-0 w

in against Farleigh Dickinson. T

he

Bobcats were crowned the N

EC regular season champions.

The

seniors led the day, as Will Cavallo score

d two goals and Philip

Suprise notched one of his o

wn.

10. Quinnipiac will

be taking all of

its teams, excep

t for hockey,

to the MAAC nex

t season as ann

ounced by the sc

hool in

December. The m

ove will bring mo

re national expos

ure to

Quinnipiac Athleti

cs.

9. For an unprecedented eighth straight year, the women’s

cross country team won the NEC Championship. The Bobcats

were led by Rebecca White’s top five finish.

6. During a regular season game, men’s basketball junior Ike

Azotam scored 17 points, including his 1,000th career point.

Quinnipiac beat St. Francis University by a score of 77-51.

3. For the first and on

ly time in program hist

ory, the women’s

basketball team won a

n NEC basketball cham

pionship, capping

off its undefeated stin

t in the NEC by beatin

g St. Francis

University, 72-33.

Courtesy of quinnipiacbobcats.com


Connecticut man, born and raisedBy Rob Ciambra

Sophomore Vincent Guglietti takes a swing against the Sacred Heart Pioneers.

By Nick Sczerbinski

Senior Sarah Allen cradles the ball in the Bobcats’ game against LIU Brooklyn. Allen currently owns the record for single-season assists.

“Without a goal scorer, an assist is just a pass,” Sarah Allen said.

The wise words from then-ju-nior Allen after she broke the NCAA single-season record for assists per game are a prime example of the mantra that she made her own.

It is only fitting that exactly one year later, Allen, the player described by coaches and teammates as self-less, genuine and uplifting, set the Quinnipiac program record in total career points with an assist.

“She’s the most selfless player I’ve ever played with and she always looks to pass,” Allen’s backup Kayla Fu said, “She has evolved so much over the time that we’ve played to-gether.”

It was Fu’s goal with four min-utes left in a game against Wagner that turned an Allen pass into an as-sist, one that marked her 176th career point and moved her past Allen’s for-mer mentor, Katie Latonick, for the all-time record.

Latonick was a senior when Allen played her first year at Quin-nipiac, and it’s no surprise that the players’ careers have turned out so similar.

“Getting Sarah to watch Katie

play and play with her was invalu-able to Sarah’s development,” head coach Danie Caro said. “Katie was a good leader and mentor, she gave Sarah a blueprint to follow, and she’s definitely followed it.”

To Caro, the blueprint may have related to the field and the game. For Allen, it was much more.

“I watched Katie play from day

one; she was always the person that I wanted to be,” Allen said. “Break-ing her record is special to me. I saw her after I broke it, and she was really happy for me, so it means a lot.”

Aside from the poetic justice in Allen’s record-breaking point, it was equally fitting that Kayla Fu was the one to finish the play. Fu is poised to fill the void left by Allen in the 2014 season, but knows it won’t be easy.

“It’s definitely a lot to live up to, so I’ll really have to step it up,” Fu said. “It actually makes me a little bit nervous, but I’m ready.”

Allen’s teammates and coaches

agree that she is as good, if not bet-ter, off the field as she is on it.

“Sarah is just a wonderful hu-man being,” Caro said. “And the way she has befriended the younger play-ers and been such a role model for them, showing them how to be better people, has been really helpful to our team.”

One of those younger players

had the benefit to learn from Allen before Quinnipiac was even a flicker on her horizon.

Freshman Katie DeVito was a junior varsity lacrosse player at Glastonbury High School and sat in the bleachers watching her role mod-el lead the varsity team to a 16-3 re-cord and a conference championship.

“Whenever I would get the chance to play in high school, I would always say, ‘Sarah was here on the field’ and ‘Sarah did this from this spot,’” DeVito said. “I always strived to try to get to that level. She was a big role model, and I really

look up to her.”Four years later, DeVito is in po-

sition to compete with Fu for Allen’s former spot, feeding cutters from behind the opposing goal, and the freshman welcomes the opportunity.

“It’s fun and exciting to think that I could maybe take her place when she leaves,” DeVito said.

While some athletes may be senti-mental or resentful when thinking about their “spot” being filled, Allen continu-ously shows that she is a rare breed.

“I appreciate seeing everyone have success, and with assists, two people get credit instead of one,” Allen said. “Your team is your fam-ily, so seeing everyone happy and successful, even after I’m gone, just means so much to me.”

Will her records be beaten? Not even Allen can answer that, but you can bet she will be more than happy for whichever teammate does it.

In mid-May, Allen will wrap up her degree in Sociology and Educa-tion. She will trade the green turf for the green chalkboard, the goals and assists for quizzes and tests, and teammates for students. But no mat-ter how far she gets from the game of lacrosse, the name Sarah Allen will be etched in the Quinnipiac record books for quite some time.

The Bobcats’ sophomore first baseman Vincent Guglietti did not have to travel far to find a college. A native of East Haven, Conn. and graduate from East Haven High School, Guglietti was scouted by head coach Dan Gooley in his early high school days.

“We had known of Guglietti so we had actually been tracking him since his freshman year,” Gooley said. “But once he crossed over into his junior year is when we really had a chance to track him and evaluate him during his junior summer.”

In high school, Guglietti played for the East Haven High Yellow Jackets. He set new school records during his senior year, including a 40-hit season and batting .543, breaking the previous record of .490. He was also named to the All-State team in 2011.

Guglietti also played for the Connecticut Bombers, a summer travel team. With the Bombers, he batted .500 and helped the team reach the Triple Crown Champion-ship and the Battle of the Boarders Championship.

In the end, Quinnipiac was Gug-lietti’s top choice but not just for baseball.

“The baseball side was going to take care of itself but I was here more for school,” Guglietti said. “When I was being recruited I came to a couple of games and I liked the way Skip [Gooley] coached. I liked the way things were handled, and that was the turning point that

helped me make my decision to come here.”

Guglietti’s choosing Quinnipiac also keeps him close to home, so his family can come see him play as much as possible.

“I think it’s good for him. It’s certainly good for us because we have an opportunity to see his family who are excellent people,” Gooley said. “When you live a half an hour from school, it’s pretty nice that you can sneak out on like a Tuesday af-ternoon or a full weekend to see your son play. It’s pretty rewarding and I’m sure he feels that way about his parents coming to see him.”

Guglietti said that was also a fac-tor in his decision to be a Bobcat.

“That was also a piece too,” Guglietti said. “My dad loves base-ball. He loves coming to watch us play, especially his own son. That was definitely a factor for why I chose Quinnipiac as well. I want my family and friends to come see me.”

Guglietti enjoys playing in front of his family and friends and just wants to have fun, win or lose.

“If you look at it, at the end of the day, baseball is just a game,” Guglietti said. “Let’s say if this was my last game, I want my last game to be fun. And playing it at Quinni-piac or wherever, I’m playing it for my friends and family. That’s the way I want to be remembered: hav-ing fun.”


“Your team is your family, so seeing every-one happy and successful, even after I’m

gone, just means so much to me.”- Sarah Allen

Following the ‘blueprint’




Despite a slow season for the Quinnipiac baseball team, a flock of scouts can be seen every Friday af-ternoon at the Quinnipiac baseball field. They stand behind home plate, glancing at their notes while check-ing their radar guns after every pitch the senior right-handed pitcher deliv-ers smacks against the leather of the catcher’s glove.

Derek Lamacchia knows that the scouts are there to watch him and only him. He knows that he has a shot to be drafted by a professional team this June in the Major League Baseball Draft. But he understands that he has come a long way since playing varsity high school baseball at Holy Cross in New York.

“I really didn’t pitch in high school,” Lamacchia said. “It’s some-thing that was new to me here in my freshman year of college in my first full year as a pitcher. As a third base-man and a right fielder, I didn’t think I had much of a future in Division I baseball. I didn’t see myself as a pitcher or coming this far, so I thank God everyday for this opportunity.”

Despite only pitching 13 innings in high school, totaling 21 strikeouts, walking just three batters and host-ing a sub-2.00 ERA, summer coach-es came to the 6-foot-3 right-hander and suggested that his future may lie

in pitching. He went to several sum-mer showcases, including a show-case at the Long Island Ducks’ facil-ity where he met Quinnipiac baseball head coach Dan Gooley as a junior in high school.

After moving on to Quinnipiac to pitch at the collegiate level, Lamac-chia struggled during his freshman year, totalling an 8.92 ERA, allow-ing 35 runs on 49 hits in just 35 1/3 innings.

“It was a difficult transition com-ing from playing every single day as a position player in high school to being a pitcher here at the univer-sity,” the right-hander said. “There are days here where I’m sitting on the bench itching to get into games because I still feel that there’s some-thing there that I can still play, but I am very happy where I am pitching.”

Lamacchia has improved each year since his freshman season, nota-bly striking out 65 in 61 2/3 innings during his junior year, crediting his success to the development of his secondary pitches.

“As a freshman coming in here, I knew I had a pretty strong arm,” Lamacchia said. “I have been thank-ful to be working hard and getting stronger but I really think the key has been developing my secondary pitch-es: my breaking ball, my change-up, and my slider as well. My freshman year, when I struggled to throw those

secondary pitches, guys would just sit and wait for that fastball and quite honestly they would just tee off of me.”

As Lamacchia developed what he calls a “plus-fastball” and a curve-ball to which he is comfortable us-ing, it has taken him some time to develop his change-up. In a meeting with the Quinnipiac ace following last season, Gooley stressed the im-portance of using a change-up.

“He went off in the summer and used it a lot and then brought it back in the fall and used it in the City Series, and it was very successful,” Gooley said. “Now it’s all part of his repertoire; he has no concern about using it in different pitch selections and I think that’s just added to his value as a pitcher.”

Lamacchia knows, too, that this only makes him more dynamic.

“It’s been a major step in my development here as a pitcher,” Lamacchia said. “As a starter, getting through the lineup the first two times and not showing your full hand, hav-ing that third pitch available is defi-nitely something that has worked to my benefit, especially with all the work I put in this fall.”

Although Lamacchia has strug-gled to pick up the winning decision in games throughout his collegiate career, he knows that the game isn’t entirely in his hands but at the same

time doesn’t let losing affect his mindset.

“It’s all about maintaining com-posure in the time of difficult mo-ments,” Lamacchia said. “I like to try to not show my emotions on the mound of what’s going on behind me regardless of whether we are win-ning 10-0 or losing 10-0. I think that you can’t show emotions of what’s going on behind you.”

Focus and determination are key attributes that drive Lamacchia to improve each time he puts on his spikes, regardless of whether he is shagging fly balls in the outfield dur-ing practice or facing the opponent’s top hitter in a bases-loaded jam. Ei-ther way, the senior always looks to help out the younger players, even if he comes off as quirky.

“He’s a little out there here and there, such as the stuff he listens to like the type of music, but he’s a senior leader who brings it to the team every practice,” team captain Chris Migani said. “He helps out the younger guys and will take them un-der his wing when they need it. He’s come a long way since freshman year. He’s grown up and matured and now he’s obviously our ace and he has a bright future ahead.”

With major league scouts pres-ent at every game that Lamacchia pitches in, there are always rumors and expectations from some that he could be the first Quinnipiac player to reach the Big Leagues since Turk Wendell in 1993. But for Lamac-chia, ignoring the critics allows for him to focus on the task at hand; off the field, he understands that every little detail is being watched from a scout’s perspective.

“Last year was definitely a bit of a shock for me, especially being draft-eligible and seeing scouts at the games for the first time,” Lamacchia said. “This year, I am more focused on the task at hand focusing on the game while not letting things on the outside distract me from focusing on one pitch or one batter at a time. Ob-viously I know what’s going on but I really try to not let it affect me or take away from focus.”

Draft-status aside, Derek Lamacchia will continue to prepare for each start with the same ethic that has gotten him to where he is today.

“He is convinced that he can go onward and upward, especially with all the MLB guys that have been in here last year and this year to see him,” Gooley said. “To be honest, I thought he was going to get drafted last year; now what happens this year we’re going to have to wait and see. I just think somewhere along the line, someone is going to give him a chance.”

Lamacchia in the limelightBy Tim Schulze

Senior right-hander preps for MLB Draft

Being a leader is never easy in any sport, but midfielder Basil Kosta-ras has been fortunate enough to ben-efit from the experience of those who played before him. Kostaras, now in his senior season, has been the cata-lyst of the Bobcat offense since his freshman year.

“He’s a great leader,” sophomore attacker Michael Sagl said. “He’s been the captain here for the last two years, so I’ve been looking up to him ever since I walked on campus.”

Over his four years at Quin-nipiac, Kostaras amassed 86 career points going into the Northeast Con-ference semifinal matchup against Robert Morris, but it is not just his scoring ability that makes Kostaras the Bobcats’ leader; it’s his presence off the field as well.

“I try and keep guys motivated,” Kostaras said. “I try and give guys a reason to come out and work every day, making sure they stay focused on our main purpose.”

After the season is over, Kosta-ras’s career as a Bobcat will come to an end, marking the end of an era Bobcat lacrosse history. Head coach Eric Fekete knows that replacing Kostaras is no easy task, but is some-thing of which his team is capable.

“Basil came in here as a fresh-man, and he started the first day he was here,” Fekete said. “It is hard to supplement experience, but as much as we lose Basil and the other seniors, the sophomores roll into ju-niors, and you can tell they’re getting much more savvy in terms of the way they play.”

One player that has benefitted from playing with Kostaras is Sagl, who has tallied 77 points in his ca-reer.

“Mike is a prolific scorer,” Fekete said. “He is a future leader. That’s why Basil does so many good things. We wanted Mike to work with him so that when he does leave, Mike can pick up some of the slack.”

Sagl is on pace to shatter the Quinnipiac record books, something that he knows is possible because he is able to play with the equally dy-namic Kostaras.

“We have this unspoken chemis-try that we know where we are on the field at all times,” Sagl said.

With Sagl’s playmaking ability, scoring will still be there for the Bob-cats next season, but Kostaras is mak-ing sure that his leadership ability off the field will also live on through Sagl.

“When times are down and it’s easy to check yourself out, you’ve got to be the leader you’ve got to be,” Kostaras said. “You’ve got to be the guy that kicks everyone in the butt, and gets them back up again.”

Bobcat fans may be wondering if Sagl will be able to have the im-pact on the program like Kostaras has had. Kostaras believes Sagl is ready to take on this important lead-ership role, continuing the traditions of great Bobcat leaders.

“I think he will do great.” Kostaras said. “He is really coming into his own. He contributes a lot at meetings, and keeps guys under control. He is moti-vated, which is nice to see a young guy motivated like that. I think he will fall into the role perfectly. He is definitely the right person to lead this team.”

From Basil to Sagltradition continues

By Zack Daly

Senior Basil Kostaras tries to beat a defender in a game against Hartford.



To the QBSN Seniors:

From left to right: Luke Mauro, Gil Celaya, Matthias Gausz, Marc Schwartz, Brian Farrell, Neil Ravin, Mike Morgese

Photo by Rebecca Castagna

Gil: for the past two years you have been such a valued member of QBSN. Thank you for always com-ing through to do broadcasts or game recaps regardless of your workload.

Luke: Thanks for sticking with us since our days with WQAQ. You have been an integral part of our bas-ketball team - both on press row and during the intramural season.

Neil: It was a three-year long re-cruiting process, but we are so glad you finally joined us. Your hockey broadcasts are some of the best, and we wish we could have had you sooner.

Mike: Your “Milwaukee’s Best” call will go down in history. We can-not wait to have you back next year to broadcast soccer games and as a men’s basketball walk-on (Just kid-ding. Kind of.).

Brian: You have single-handedly set the highest of standards for writ-ing, from a basic game recap to in-depth features for The Bobcat Bul-letin. You have been such an asset in every aspect of QBSN, with your broadcasting, writing and editing, as well as providing thorough coverage of the men’s ice hockey team.

Finally, to our former co-direc-tors Marc and Matthias, the two of you have taken this organization in directions nobody saw coming. Without your dedication and passion for QBSN, as well as your commit-

ment to making it stronger, QBSN would not be where it is now after only three years. You two not only created The Bobcat Bulletin, but you have encouraged us to take it to the next level.

Matthias: You have taught us so much about broadcast preparation, and we will be sure to pass it on next year.

Marc: You really have left your “marc” on Quinnipiac and on us as well. Your drive makes everyone want to be better.

Seniors, thank you for every-thing. You will all be missed.

By the QBSN Staff


Sophomore Matthew Peca awaits questions after his historic performance against Union in which he recorded a natural hat trick in 3:12. The Bobcats clinched a spot in the Frozen Four with the 5-1 win over the Dutchmen.


Aiming for more than

the netBy Rebecca Castagna

Matthew Peca isn’t sure about how he got his start in hockey, but he is sure

about one thing: he’s far from done playing for Quinnipiac.

Just days after he played in the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, Bobcat fans let out a collective sigh of relief as Peca announced his plans to stay for the 2013-14 season.

“I don’t think I’m ready to leave yet,” Peca said. “We’re going to be an excellent team next year … hope-fully I can make some strides to get better.”

This self-motivational mentality has been a core part of Peca’s play since his time in junior hockey when he played for the Pembroke Lumber Kings.

Though he was shy at first, his teammates say he played with a quiet confidence.

“He wasn’t very outspoken, but he led by example,” Brandon Gagne said, who often played on Peca’s line. “He didn’t really have a lot to say in the dressing room, but when it came to the performance on the ice, that’s when he did his talking.”

Disappointments on the ice served as motivation to improve.

“[Peca] was always pushing himself,” former teammate Ben Re-inhardt said. “He learned from the mistakes and he got better. That’s why he’s in the position he’s in now, and is doing as well as he’s doing. It’s because he just wants to keep getting better.”

Former teammate Ted Pletsch echoed what Peca has repeatedly stressed throughout this season, about bouncing back from bad games and keeping a level head.

“He’s definitely a guy who doesn’t get too low on the lows,” Pletsch said.

Through his example, Peca en-couraged his teammates to improve their play.

“It was exciting to be around a guy like that,” former teammate Ste-phen Farrell said. “[He] had so much potential and had so much going for him that he kind of pushed a lot of the older guys to be better as well.”

A 16-year-old Peca found him-

self playing with guys who were three to four years older than him – quite a change from what he was used to growing up.

“I was playing against guys who were just as old as the guys I’m playing with now, and I was much younger then,” Peca said. “I kind of had to adjust to the older, more ma-ture fellows. But it was fine. They helped a lot and they made me grow up quicker.”

His young age was but a number. He matured from a soft-spoken kid to a more vocal part of the team, be-coming assistant captain his last year in Pembroke.

“He was a real leader for some-one who was only 17, with guys like myself who were three years older,” Reinhardt said. “Everybody had nothing but respect for him.”

When Peca was in junior hockey, he was faced with many options, in-cluding pursuing major junior hock-ey with the Ontario Hockey League or going to the NCAA for college hockey, something he didn’t know a whole lot about.

But for Peca, Quinnipiac was an easy pick.

His reasoning was, in a way, threefold: a beautiful campus with a promising hockey program, a head coach willing to take a nine-hour drive for a personal recruiting visit, and the opportunity to pursue a col-

lege education while playing the sport he loves.

Peca’s attitude towards education runs in his blood. His mother teaches senior kindergarten and had him in class as well.

“Yeah, she got me when I was young,” he said, smiling.

His teammates from Pembroke

say he consistently prioritized aca-demics.

“When he was in Pembroke, school came first before hockey,” Pletsch said. “That’s definitely a big part of who he is and how he operates.”

Peca’s teammates remember him bringing his backpack on the road to do work to and from games.

“If I was trying to sleep, he would always have his light on, and

he’d be flipping through his note-books,” Farrell said, who often sat in front of him on the bus. “It may have been 1 a.m. on the bus, but he’d still be reviewing his homework for the next day or trying to get an assign-ment done.”

Though he is a marketing major, Peca has always wanted to teach.

“He’s always been instilled with the value that hockey has a shelf life ,and even the best players only play to their 40s,” Reinhardt said. “After he signed with Quinnipiac, he said that one of the reasons why it was so appealing was not only for the hock-ey, but it had a program so he could become a teacher.”

But first Peca has hockey to play and teammates to lead on the ice, as he starts working with the incoming talent to shape the team for the next year.

“That’s what I’m most excited for,” Peca said. “To get new faces in and to not necessarily start from scratch, but to try and pass along the knowledge that we have of what it takes to make it to the national cham-pionship … we know what we’re ca-pable of.”

Though Peca came to Quinni-piac already drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning, and after this sea-son has an NCAA tournament re-cord to his name for fastest hat trick

and has been featured on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” he always shifts the conversation back towards the team.

“You try not to think about it too much,” Peca said of the swarm of press he received during the ride to the Frozen Four. “It’s nice to get the recognition, but I think every team was taken by it … just having that type of spotlight on your team really prepares you for basically anything we’re going to meet from now on.”

He personifies the old saying that there is no “I” in team.

“He was just a great, all-around, team guy,” Reinhardt said. “You can’t be successful without a team mentality and that’s what he was all about.”

As the team prepares for next year, Quinnipiac hockey fans have high expectations for Peca. But his team mentality and desire to improve his play for the team remain constant.

“I don’t want to set the standard too high … [but] I think it just kind of makes me a little more confident now that I know what I’m capable of doing,” Peca said. “You kind of try to put that stuff in your rearview be-cause you don’t want to let it go to your head.”

Even as his Pembroke Lumber Kings teammates continue their own careers, they have followed his two seasons at Quinnipiac and are hardly surprised by his success.

“I think everybody knew that he was an elite hockey player,” Gagne said. “He wasn’t cocky though. He kind of minded his own business. Watching him grow up, we all knew that he was something special … he’s one-of-a-kind.”

Whether modeling humility and teamwork, valuing an education, or demonstrating his dedication through hard work and self-reflection on the ice, Peca has already become a teach-er and has had a lasting impression on his teammates.

“He was a great teammate and he was an even better person,” Pletsch said. “He’s one of the nicest guys off the ice, willing to do anything for anybody else, but especially on the ice. You couldn’t help but notice how great he was.”

“Watching him grow up, we all

knew that he was something special ... he’s one-of-a-kind.”

- Brandon Gagne

By Shane Doyle

Bethany Buckholz and Maxx McNall never thought they would be where they are today. McNall thought he was going to play college football at a New England Division III school until a shoulder injury derailed his dream. Buckholz was working for a healthcare company as a customer service representative but realized that the field was not for her.

Buckholz and McNall first formed a friendship two summers ago, while working as interns for the Connecticut Sun, a professional women’s basketball team. Today, the two friends who took different paths are now graduate students working in the sports information department and in the master’s program for Pub-lic Relations at Quinnipiac Univer-sity.

Initially, Buckholz first learned about the job opening from Mc-Nall. She enjoyed working with the Connecticut Sun in the summer and thought it would be an opportunity to get back into the field of media rela-tions. Even while working in health-care, she worked with the Sun on the weekends and knew going back to school was a great idea.

“At that point, I was in the work-ing world, not 100 percent loving my job in healthcare, and I was thinking why not give it a shot and go back to school,” Buckholz said.

McNall attended Quinnipiac as an undergraduate and gradu-ated last spring, so it was an easier choice for him to make. His under-graduate degree was in print jour-nalism; however, he wasn’t sure if it was the right field for him, but he definitely wanted to stay involved with sports.

“I always wanted to be a sports reporter,” McNall said. “I was dead-set in doing that and then go-ing into the summer of 2011, my junior year, I was trying to find internships and there was nothing out there. Then I stumbled upon the public relations internship for the Connecticut Sun. That’s what made me shift to find something new in media relations.”

The transition to graduate as-sistants and students is a change for both of them. In sports information, the two cover specific teams during each sports season.

With some overlap or covering multiple sports at a time, the tran-sition, at some points, was hard to balance. Buckholz had to readjust to being a student after graduating from Westfield State University in Massa-chusetts in 2011. For McNall, it was transitioning from journalism to pub-lic relations.

“This is my first time doing pub-lic relations,” McNall said. “It was a huge adjustment, but this [spring] semester has gone a lot smoother.”

Writing game notes and press re-leases are some of the tasks that the two graduate assistants have. They also serve as a resource to members of the media who want to interview

Inside Quinnipiac Athletics:Graduate assistants

Photo courtesy of Bethany Buckholz

student-athletes. In addition, they as-sist with statistics that coaches and the media rely on after each game. It can be stressful with long hours, but both agree that they have had some great resources to rely on when prob-lems arise.

There are two people who they look to the most when questions come up: Sports Information Di-rector Ken Sweeten and Assistant Sports Information Director Tony Distasio. Both McNall and Buckholz have relied greatly on them in their first year.

“[Sweeten] has a great wealth of knowledge, being available through-out the year,” Buckholz said.

She also added that Sweeten and Distasio are not only great col-leagues, but “great people.”

Working with these great people and athletes has been something that both of them have treasured throughout their first year of this new experience. They have enjoyed road trips with the teams up and down the East Coast. Even though the hours are long and the off days are sparse, they would not want it any other way.

“It is a rewarding experience be-cause you get to form relationships with the teams, and you become a part of the team,” Buckholz said. “With school on top of it, it does pose a challenge, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the teams we represent and we are having a ton of fun along the way.”

Photo courtesy of Bethany Buckholz

Bethany Buckholz (above) and Maxx McNall (below).

“You can’t be successful without a team mentality and that’s what he was

all about.”- Ben Reinhardt

Jamee Jackson dreams onBy Angelique Fiske

Made of twigs, thread and feathers, dream catchers remain a gift of sincer-

ity. They ensure infants and young children peaceful sleep and dreams while trapping nightmares. The bad dreams remain in the web until the light of day evaporates them into air, never to bother the sleeper again.

At any given moment, Jamee Jackson shows bits of his 17 tat-toos. Some are visible daily, some are not. When he donned his Quin-nipiac basketball jersey for the last time this winter, the first piece of art he got on his body showed on his arm, and it will show for the rest of his life.

On Jackson’s arm is a dream catcher, a full circle complete with feathers and beads. In the center where a piece of thread typically creates a web is a basketball. Above reads, “Dreams do come true.”

Jackson said the inspiration came after he began getting the phone calls that would change his life, the phone calls that would allow him to go be-yond a high school graduation, the phone calls that would push him fur-ther than he or anyone in his family could have known.

For Jackson, the dream that came to fruition was not only being able to play basketball at a collegiate level, but even the opportunity to receive a college education, one that will be


complete come May 19.“Nobody ever said anything

about college,” Jackson said “No-body went to college. I didn’t even know how to get to college. It was so far-fetched.”

Growing up in Newark, N.J., Jackson’s mother sought to protect her children in an area that did not allow for carefree days of childhood.

“It was tough,” he said “My mom wouldn’t really let us outside much because it was a bad neighbor-hood.”

Jackson and his family moved around from New Jersey to Rhode

Island and back to Newark for his sophomore year of college. The moves were in part because of job opportunities and in part because Ja-mee and “[his] brothers were bad,” he said laughing.

Then Jamee found basketball.“I always played basketball in

the parks, but I never played orga-nized basketball,” Jackson said.

By his sophomore year of high school, Jackson began getting no-ticed by college scouts. He grew

through basketball in order to move on to college, and according to head coach Tom Moore, once he arrived at Quinnipiac, the sport became a way for him to grow as a person.

“He’s really matured a lot,” Moore said. “I don’t think we’ve had a person who has grown more as a person than Jamee has.”

Sporting the blue and gold for the first time on a team in which James Feldeine, Justin Rutty and James Johnson filled roster spots helped Jackson find strong guides for his Bobcat beginning.

“The team was so accepting and so friendly,” Jackson said. “In other locker rooms, you’ll have groups, and maybe these guys don’t get along with these guys. They were like a family, and I like that feeling.”

Once the big names eventually graduated and the once-fresh faces became the leaders, Jackson recog-nized a change in him.

“It’s like day and night,” Jackson said. “I got in trouble freshman year in the dorms, little silly stuff. Everything just got so much better. I’m so much more confident in the classroom, on the court, out and about. It comes with getting older.”

Through the seasons, Moore sees both the good and the bad play a role in his athletes’ lives. As far as Jamee’s trying times, Moore thinks they have only made him stronger.

“It’s easy to go through this mentoring thing or this coaching thing with young men or young women when everything is going smoothly,” Moore said. “I think you learn a lot about kids when they hit a rough patch.”

While his early days at Quinni-piac mirrored that of his childhood, Jackson’s opportunities only began on the court. His true defining char-acteristics are the product of his ma-jor.

The legend of the dream catcher begins with the vision of a La-

kota elder. A spider appeared to him and began to spin the web, explain-ing that the cycle of life from infant-hood to old age.

In everyone’s life, he explained, good and bad forces are thrust in all directions. The good forces are a guide, and the impressionable go with the bad forces to dangerous places. He still spun the web.

When he finished, the spider ex-plained that bad forces would remain in the web while good forces will be used to reach goals.

On his way to a basketball ca-reer, Jackson steered away his own negative forces, and as a sociology major, he hopes to help other kids do the same. Ideally working with inner-city kids, Jackson hopes to be the positive force, guiding his men-tees in a way he was not.

“I just try to be a role model for them,” Jackson said. “I tell them that, ‘Okay, you can go to school.’ Tell them my story that I didn’t always think I could go to school. Nobody

told me, and maybe if I give them a head start, they could turn out better than me.”

Jackson already has experience with working alongside young kids with The Tom Moore Basketball Camp. Through his love of basket-ball and his will to help, Jackson already proves himself as a role model.

“It means everything. I can’t even ex-plain it,” Jack-son said. “I have people, I have a lot of people there for me – my older brother, my mom, my big-gest fan, my dad – so I just try to keep it going. Everyone needs somebody to push them, make them feel good.”

Moore credits his effective-ness to his light-hearted, kid-like nature.

“He’s an emotional, fun-loving kid who you love going to practice with, you love going to the gym with, you love going to games with,” Moore said.

While Jackson said “he fits right in” with the kids, another Bobcat before him chose the same career path with a much different approach. Jeremy Baker, a 2010 graduate, also found a career in social work but with a more stern attitude, according

to Moore.“Jeremy is a little more serious,

a little more guarded,” Moore said. “He doesn’t show as much of his personality outwardly as Jamee does, but they both have very good values. I think athletics and basketball did a very good job of developing skills for that. They see probably a lot of themselves in young people.”

D e s p i t e their differ-ences in their a p p r o a c h , Jackson keeps in contact with Baker and sees his

impact.“He’s relentless, he’s tough and I

kind of model that a little bit as far as my game,” Jackson said.

Having seen both Jackson and Baker come through the program and the impact athletes have on chil-dren, Moore knows that “kids natu-rally look up to athletes,” and that this make their word that much more valuable when trying to mentor or re-solve conflict.

He also knows that as gradu-ates, there are opportunities avail-able that stretch far beyond what any classroom can prepare a stu-dent for.

Whether Jamee goes overseas to further his basketball career or

jumps right into social work, the “world is [his] oyster,” according to Moore.

“It’s exciting and your path can go in a lot of different ways, and I think Jamee is no different than any college graduate nowadays,” Moore said.

According to Native American legend, giving a dream catch-

er as a gift shows great respect and love. It means that someone cares so deeply that he or she wants to ensure peace of mind.

Jamee Jackson’s dream catcher is almost complete. Some threads may be missing, therefore some neg-ative energy may still trickle through as years go on. But there are always more dreams that will be filtered through to existence, no matter how big or small. As he sits weeks away from completing one such aspira-tion, Jackson is on the brink of a new hope.

By passing down his faith to the children he has and will men-tor, Jackson represents not only the product of a dream catcher, but also the giver of one. Through the field of social work, Jackson will help steer the kids that he meets on a path of good choices, one that will help them to catch their dreams too.

History of dream catchers from Dream-Catchers.orgJackson awaits a teammate’s free throw against Central Connecticut State.


“I think you learn a lot about kids when they hit

a rough patch.”- Tom Moore


Senior Jamee Jackson runs off the court and to the fans following a win against Central Connecticut State University.

“Everyone needs someone to push

them, make them feel good.”

- Jamee Jackson

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