Drug abuse doesn’t diminish accomplishments
Steroids, HGH, and various stimulants. All illegal, all performance enhancing drugs. In today’s sporting world, they are an unfortunate reality, and it seems like every time the ruckus surrounding PEDs calms down, a new superstar is connected to them, and yet another career is tarnished.
Efficiency. It is a term used by professors of almost all practical academic disciplines. However, the F&M field hockey team took the term to an uncommon dynamic this past week. On Wednesday, Oct. 29, the lady Dips defeated the Spartans of York College by a score of 4-1 at Tylus Field before clinching a playoff spot with a road win against Swarthmore on Halloween.
Dips’ romp over McDaniel keeps team atop CC
It’s a great day if a player sets one record. It’s a phenomenal one when a player sets two records, and it’s unheard of for a player to set three records in one game. But four records in one game? As difficult as it is to believe, F&M quarterback John Harrison ’12 set four school records on Saturday against McDaniel, rewriting the records for single season touchdown passes, completions, and yard, as well as becoming the first F&M quarterback to toss for over 400 yards in a single game.
As the season comes to a close, the F&M women’s golf team and coaches reflect on a positive and successful season. F&M’s head coach of the women’s golf team is Ryan Peffer, who took over this position in the summer of 2007. He has been very pleased with the season, so far.
Rule changes have led to more exciting hockey
July 22, 2005: For most people it was just another summer day, but for hockey fans, it was the day that changed everything. True, hockey isn’t the most popular sport (even though it should be), but the adrenaline you feel getting caught up in the action is a feeling that nothing else can compare to.
Randolph leads ridiculous cast of characters in Oakland
The NBA season starts on Tuesday, so it’s time to start getting amped about the league that annually provides the most enigmatic major sports season. Math warning: the following sentence contains simple algebra. Do not be alarmed. Where baseball is consistently enjoyable throughout the year (think of a graph of the function y = 2) and football becomes increasingly dramatic as the season unfolds (think of a graph of the function y = .
Camaraderie is very important to Noto, men’s soccer
Eric Noto ’10 started his long soccer journey at the age of six when he played on his first organized soccer team. The sport has been an important part of his life ever since. Most athletes love the sport they put so much effort and passion into, but often for different reasons.
Win over Muhlenberg extends Dips’ win streak to four
With F&M possessing a 5-1 record and Muhlenberg scuffling in at 2-4, the two teams that met on the Williamson-Sponaugle Field for F&M’s Homecoming on Saturday had seemingly traded places from their matchup one year earlier. In 2008, the Mules were fighting for a Centennial Conference title, while the Dips were attempting to establish an identity as a young, inexperienced team.
There are many sports that are very region-specific, especially at high school and college levels of competition. Lacrosse is huge in Maryland, hockey is a distinctly northern sport, and the majority of 7-on-7 high school football is played in Texas. However, there may be no greater single-state dominance of a collegiate sport than California’s grip on water polo.
Following a bye week, some teams look rusty, while others look refreshed and return to action firing on all cylinders. In F&M’s case, the Diplomats football team seemed to be somewhere in the middle—their 21-14 win at Ursinus on Saturday was far from a perfect performance.
Halfway through the men’s soccer season, wins are nice. But conference wins are better. In their first game of the week on Wednesday, the men’s soccer team lost a non-conference matchup 1-0 to Elizabethtown, but the Dips came back on Friday by beating McDaniel 3-1 to improve to 8-3-1 overall and 4-1 in the Centennial Conference.
When it comes to the men’s soccer team, style points don’t count. Wins do. In their two games this past week, F&M’s men’s soccer team beat Gettysburg 1-0 on Wednesday and Haverford 2-1 on Saturday night. Neither game produced high scores or epic shootouts, but they were well-played games that saw F&M on the winning side both times.
Standing at five feet eight inches and weighing in at 175 pounds, wide receiver Jay Ridinger ’11 may not look like the standard football player. Surrounded by other guys who stand as tall as six foot five and weigh upwards of 300 pounds, it may look like he’s on the wrong field.
The National Football League is broken. It’s not the crappy teams playing crappy games (Bengals v. Browns and Redskins v. Bucs this past weekend); it’s not the glossed-over shadow of steroids hanging over the hugely jacked-up players; it’s not Hines Ward’s smug smile.
Over the weekend, the volleyball team played in the F&M Scramble Tournament, taking second place out of four and added more wins to their already outstanding record of 15-2 and now own a season record of 17-3. The tournament started with an unfortunate loss to Lebanon Valley College on Friday night.
Let's talk about power rankings. They are, of course, the lists generated by mainstream media outlets that ostensibly determine the best (and second-best, sixteenth-best, etc.) in a given sports league. Being number one in ESPN's weekly NFL power rankings essentially says that the people to whom the country's largest sports network has entrusted the job believe that you are the single best team in the NFL as of this point in time.
Harrison and Eager hook up for three touchdowns before halftime
It was a day of points, highlights, and records for the Diplomats as F&M marched into Huntingdon and dominated the Juniata Eagles from the get-go, winning 34-7. Despite the heavy rains throughout most of the game, the Diplomat offense scorched the Juniata defense, racking up all 34 points in the first half.
As one of the three seniors on the men’s golf team, Joe Fucigna ’10 is excited and optimistic about his final season of competition here at F&M. Fucigna’s godfather first introduced him to the game of golf when he was young.
I really like Peter Gammons. I respect him, and I think that he is one of the more knowledgeable baseball guys out there. Sure, he has his biases (he seems to occasionally favor two little baseball towns in the Northeast... places called New York and Boston.
On Tuesday, Sept. 16, the lady Dips took on the Neumann Knights. Due to a schedule change, the non-conference game took place under the lights of Tylus Field, where F&M conquered Neumann 3-0, improving their record to 3-1. Nora Kinney '11 set the tone in the first half with a completed penalty stroke at 30 minutes.
After starting as a first-year, quarterback John Harrison ’12 has seen an impressive improvement in his performance on the field. In his first two games Harrison has been stellar, completing 35 of 47 passes for 295 yards and 3 touchdowns against Washington & Lee and 24 of 32 for 369 yards and 5 touchdowns against Catholic.
Despite the drizzling rain that fell throughout the game on Wednesday, the Dips maintained an upbeat attitude and beat Frostburg State 1-0 to maintain their 3-game winning streak. From the outset, the Dips laid into the Bobcats with surprising vigor, getting two early shots on goal, both of which were stopped by the keeper.
Pam Horner ’11 fell in love with volleyball in seventh grade and has continued her passion throughout college; currently, Horner is the starting setter for the women’s volleyball team here at F&M. The setter position is similar to the quarterback in football or the point guard in basketball—it runs the offense and makes decisions about ball possession.
Would you go to a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs game over a Phillies matchup? Of course you wouldn’t. Then why would anyone choose college football over the NFL? While I enjoy a good old-fashioned Ohio State-Michigan shootout, NFL rivalries like Redskins-Cowboys put the NCAA version to shame.
With one swift kick, Dickinson won the game, crushed F&M’s high hopes, and booted the Conestoga Wagon back to Carlisle. In an epic showdown on Saturday, the Dickinson Red Devils were able to barely escape after trailing by one point late, winning on a last second field goal, 45-43.
Playing through the rainy conditions on Wednesday night, the women’s soccer team got their second win of the season. The Diplomats dominated the Alvernia University Crusaders, with the game ending in a final score of 2-0. The beginning of the game started out rough as the team had to adjust to the slippery conditions on the field.
The Diplomats volleyball team (7-2, 1-0) soured the hopes of Washington College on Wednesday night, defeating the Shorewomen in three straight games. The overall match was the CC opener for both teams. Attacks and kills were strong in the Dips’ performance, and led the team to 25-18, 25-7, and 25-22 wins.
Baseball may be America’s pastime, but football is king. America lives and breathes the sport of football. The NFL is one of the most efficiently run and profitable businesses on the planet. Anytime you can convince 70,000 people to drive for an hour, drop $40 on parking, another $100 on tickets, and another $100 on concessions every weekend every fall, you know you have a good business plan.
Drafting players for your fantasy football team is an incredibly complex science. There are numerous stats to consider, which also need to be seen in the context of the actual teams a player is on. And of course, both Yahoo and Fox have their own ways of grading players.
Head football coach John Troxell feels like Catholic University was a team comparable to F&M’s in terms of experience and talent. If that’s the case, then the Fummer football team must be pretty good. Following a thrilling opening win over Washington and Lee on the road last weekend, F&M throttled visiting Catholic University 42-21 in the home opener.
Terrell Owens. Pacman Jones. Michael Vick. Donte Stallworth. Chad Ochocinco. What do all these players have in common? Well, there are actually two things. For one, they are some of the NFL’s biggest and most recognizable names. Secondly, all of these players carry significant baggage.
Though it wasn’t the ideal start to the soccer season, it was definitely an interesting one. The men’s soccer team kicked off their season at home by playing a 4-3-3 formation against the Roberts Wesleyan Raiders. The Dips moved the ball around well, working in a nicely executed one-two and getting off a few crosses that, unfortunately, no one managed to connect with.
Every undefeated season begins the same way, and in order to attain their goal of a Centennial Conference championship, the F&M Diplomats had to win on day one. After Saturday’s game against Washington and Lee, the Diplomats set the tone for a successful season, and showed they had the ability to achieve their lofty goals.
The women’s soccer team opened their season with a 2-0 loss Tuesday night against Cabrini College. Despite the loss, the team remained positive about what is to come. Commenting on the positives of the game, head coach BJ Atkins said, “We have a lot to learn yet, but we did well creating a number of opportunities to goal and at moments working the ball out of the back.
Coming off of a season Head Coach Claus Wolter deemed very successful, the F&M crew teams are gearing up for their fall schedules. And although spring is crew’s traditional season, the men’s team has four events this fall while the women’s team will race five times.
In many sports, there is a home-field advantage that plays a distinct role in a team’s successes and failures. In basketball, crowd noise is a huge factor for the home team, while in baseball the familiarity with the dimensions of the ballpark can help out “the good guys.
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