With the win over Springfield, the Cards move on to face Rowan next Saturday at home. With the defeat of Springfield, it would seem appropriate that Fisher could call itself the true Empire 8 Champion now. You know, just saying. Click on the bracket above to enlarge it.
Fisher defeated Union College yesterday setting up a rematch with Springfield College next weekend. Click on the bracket to see a bigger view of the bracket.
As this is the last edition of the Courier for this school year, I’d like to play against the theme of the issue and instead look forward to next year. Yes, we’ll strive to do things like play our hardest and be show good sportsmanship but I want to set out one overall goal for the 2006-2007 sports calendar:
Beat
Now, now, I realize that we’ve all been born and bred here at Fisher on the notion that the boys and girls of Naz are our rivals but I propose that we change our focus. Let’s bring down the biggest threat in the area, not the closest one – if we actually count Naz as a threat, that is.
Since 2001, 89 championships have been held for 22 different sports under the Empire 8 banner.
The question is how do we better compete with a powerhouse like
Some of it will be taken care of over time, as our athletic programs have become stronger over the past few years. Success breeds more success. The more people see Fisher in the news for winning, the more interest they will have in coming here.
We should also consider expanding the number of sports that we compete in. We’re all familiar with the Empire 8’s football and basketball but field hockey, swimming, and track are also out there. The more we offer, the more diverse student population we’ll draw, the more success we’ll have on the field … or in the pool.
I don’t know – maybe we should start raiding Ithacan teams and steal their players. Promise them parking spots on campus or something.
We have a great and growing athletic program here at Fisher. It’s time though, that we become the Yankees of the Empire 8. Yeah, we have a couple championships, but so far, we’ve played the role of the Red Sox to the Bronx/Ithaca Bombers. And for those of you naïve enough not to understand – we don’t want to be the Red Sox.
- Originally published in the Cardinal Courier (Volume 5-Issue 12; April 19, 2006)
As the semester comes to a close, I’ve got a couple of suggestions for the upcoming year’s athletics. No, no, not the mascot again. I said what I had to say about that. And I regret none of it. None of it.
As many of you have probably realized by now, we have a lot of sports teams here at Fisher. That’s great and all but they’re very traditional sports. Football, basketball – yeah, I’m pretty sure I can catch all of those on TV. So, here are some new sports that the athletic program should consider for the 2006 season.
• Cricket: I’ll admit that I have no idea how cricket is actually played. There’s a ball (of that, I’m almost certain), wickets and bats. I think it’s kind of like baseball. Not completely sure but it’s probably close enough. I bet the baseball team could help us out on this one. Just think of the boost in enrollment when we start recruiting all the top cricket players from area high schools. Since there really aren’t many other cricket teams in the Empire 8, we’d be on the fast track toward an E8 cricket championship. Take that, Naz.
• Elephant Polo: The biggest challenge to starting an elephant polo team would be getting the elephants. I checked the Dick’s Sporting Goods ads for this last weekend and they don’t have any elephant sales going on. Once we clear that hurdle – the Seneca Park Zoo is supposed to be birthing some more elephants, maybe they’d loan them out on the weekends – I think the elephant polo team’ll take right off. It should be quite popular. Everyone likes elephants. With the exception of the evil ringleader from Dumbo. He wasn’t very nice.
• Russian Roulette: This might be the hardest one to get off the ground. Recruiting might be difficult, finding people to play against might be difficult, getting school approval might be difficult, getting legal approval might be difficult. It’ll be a challenge. But isn’t that what athletics are all about? Overcoming a challenge. I’m pretty sure I remember that from those posters they use to have on the walls back in elementary school gym class. There’s one key benefit to having a Russian roulette team: unlike other sports, if we suck at this one, it won’t be around very long.
What’s that you say? These aren’t real sports? Listen, if we can consider cheerleading a sport . . .
- Originally published in the Cardinal Courier (Volume 5-Issue 6; December 7, 2005)
