When right-hander Louie L'Homme '13 uncorked that first fastball
on
April 17, 1912, little did he know what lay ahead for sports at
Assumption College. We will assume that the first pitch was a
fastball and that Will
Rousseau '16 caught it on the outside corner for a strike. The
team, not the Greyhounds until 1933, would go on to earn an 8-8
tie with Sacred Heart
in that game. Since then, the Hounds have won 769 games...only
New Haven has more among New England Division II schools.
Athletics has had a long and storied history at the College from
that first pitch to the last strike fired by all-America softball
star Julie Phipps in May. What L'Homme started, Phipps finished
as the Greyhounds won the E.C.A.C. tournamentthe first post-season
tournament championship for a female team in the College's history!
Between pitches, however, is a whole lotta history.
There was a time when the hockey team played on the pond at Elm
Park (the nation's first public park) and the schedule included
the UMass Aggies and Harvard. Many years later,
Tom Schofield '86 would become the second defenseman in N.C.A.A.
history to record 200 points. The Ice Dogs have been to 11 tournaments
in the last 15 years.
In the 1920s, H L. Rocheleau aided in starting both the tennis
and basketball programs. The basketball team won its first game
over something called the Greendale Athletic Club by the most
improbable score of 63 to 1. It took the tennis team
75 years, but they finally finished undefeated in 1999 at 240.
Baseball Hall-of-Famers Jesse Burkett and Rube Marquard coached
the baseball team at one time. Burkett had come over from crosstown
rival Holy Cross and taught the team more than
just baseball. His succinct manner of speech, mostly x-rated,
caused many a priest to cover his ears.
The men's hoop team under the legendary Andy Laska H'68,
Joe O'Brien '57, and most recently, Serge DeBari '71 earned a
regional and national reputation.
Having players like three-time all-America John Grochowalski
'75 and, just recently, Steve St. Martin '98 didn't hurt.
Then one day we woke up and found 19 varsity sports, a quarterback
(Chad Carges) who threw an average of 48 passes per game, back-to-back
softball national batting champions (Stephanie DeLucia and Julie
Phipps) and a women's lacrosse player (Karen Shaw) with more than
100 goals in two years.
We've come a long way, but we've still a long way to go.
The College has always believed the philosophy and definition
of the term student-athlete. Two of its best, Stephanie DeLucia
and Stacy Mattioli, earned academic all-America honors this past
year while
several others enjoyed all-district mention.
The last two valedictorians at graduation have been student-athletes.
Basketball captain Amy King did the honors in 1998, while soccer
captain Kate Hoey spoke this past May. In addition, senior wide
receiver Patrick Hickey was named the National Football Foundation
Scholar-Athlete for Central Massachusetts.
At the academic honors convocation in April, junior basketball
academic all-America Stacy Mattioli, sophomore cross-country runners
Elizabeth Benestad and Sabrina Zadrozny, and senior women's volleyball
manager Janice Ramos were listed among those students honored
for academic excellence.
Senior baseball/golf captain Kyle Bateman won the Rev. Armand
Desautels Award for combining
athletic prowess with academic achievement. Bateman is the Worcester
collegiate home-run record
holder (33) and among its finest golfers (78 medal), while softball/field
hockey captain Michelle Daley won the female version after a star-studded
career.
And, finally, when second-semester grades came out in June, 169
of 347 student-athletes achieved a grade point average of 3.0
or better or 49 percent. Additionally, 47 earned a 3.5 or better
(14 percent)! As a group the student-athletes (key word-"student")
are a strong academic force in our campus community, having earned
a 2.94 GPA.
Today's modern student-athletes have achieved a great deal.
The women's soccer team is a perennial conference contender, while
the field hockey team has won 32 of its last 40 games playing
for the conference title in each of the last two years. Men's
basketball won the Northeast-10 title and returned to the regional
tournament last year and came within a whisker of returning again
this past year, while softball has won 70 games over the last
two years and played 13 post-season games.
Individually, softball's Stephanie DeLucia and Julie Phipps became
the first back-to-back N.C.A.A. Division II batting champions
from the same school, while baseball all-star second baseman Eric
Tridenti found a masochistic way to earn fame, being hit by 21
pitches this past season. Tridenti also batted .404 with 28 stolen
bases. Basketball standout Drew Cooper found his niche becoming
perhaps the first player in collegiate history to score 2,000
points without a high school career, while basketball star Katie
Kerr was certainly Kerr-ific
leading the Northeast-10 in scoring as a sophomore and becoming
the smallest to score more than 1,000 points. Kerr stands just
5'3", but it's heart not height that wins games!
Hockey star Mike Cardillo earned all-America honors after reaching
the career 100-point mark this past year and the men's tennis
team led by Arizona freshman (yes, we've expanded the recruiting
region!) Ryan Richert finished 24-0.
Hockey's Tom Schofield '86 is one of a select group of 200-point
defenseman, while a pair of former Greyhounds,football's Fran
DeFalco '95 and basketball's Demetri Beekman '93 made it all the
way to Sports Illustrated. DeFalco, the Hounds' lone varsity all-America,
parlayed a five-touchdown, 200-plus yard afternoon into a National
Player of the Week trophy, while Beekman was the second player
in N.C.A.A. history to record 1,000 points and 1,000-assists.
Drew Adderly's 2,489 points is still the Northeast-10 Conference
standard, while Mike O'Keefe '92 delivered a New England record
240 career hits.
Seven of the 20 students who volunteered for a Mexico Mission
in May were student-athletes, the women's basketball team annually
adopts a local elementary school, the men's basketball team reads
to kids, while the football team has become "Worcester's
unofficial cleanup team" in volunteering its services.
An All-America Year
Five female and three male student-athletes earned all-America
honors for their performance on the field or court, while two
earned all-America honors for their performance in the classroom.
Softball career hit leader Stephanie DeLucia pleased her coach with a .396 average, 8 home runs and 52 RBI, and pleased her father with a 3.44 cumulative grade point average as a double Psychology/Social and Rehabilitative Services major. Her father, Ralph, is the softball coach.
Others who earned national recognition included junior defender Kerri Desto (field hockey, 1st team), junior midfielder Julie Lane (field hockey, 2nd team), junior first baseman Julie Phipps (softball, 2nd team), senior attack Karen Shaw (lacrosse, 2nd team), junior forward Mike Cardillo (hockey, 2nd team), senior forward Drew Cooper (basketball, honorable mention) and junior forward Stacy Mattioli (basketball, 3rd team academic).
2 SPORTERS
A Rare Breed
The re-emergence of the two-sport athlete has become a developing
story at Assumption College with 16 student-athletes (seven men
and nine women) playing two sports this past year.
Softball had six players on its roster that played another sport
including three starters. Of the six, five earned
all-Northeast-10 Conference honors in their "other"
sport. Field hockey has six members of its roster playing another
sport, three of which start for their second sport and one of
whom earned all-America honors.
The two top performers were senior Michelle Daley and junior
Stephanie Martin. Daley has earned all-America honors for her
work in leading the softball team to the NCAA Regional and Northeast-10
Conference tournament title last year. She has also been named
all-Northeast-10 Conference first-team in both softball and field
hockey, and has captained both. She was instrumental this year
as the team won the E.C.A.C. tournament.
Martin is a three-time all-Northeast-10 soccer and softball player.
She is one goal short of the Hounds' career record for scoring
in soccer and finished as the 32nd leading hitter in the nation
(.445) as softball became the first team to win an E.C.A.C. tournament
in Greyhound history.
Among the captains, Kyle Bateman captains both golf and
baseball and Daley captains field hockey and softball.
And what is most important, seven of the 16 earned Student-Athlete
Honor Roll status for a GPA above 3.0 this past spring. Sophomore
Amy Robertson (tennis/softball) and junior Liz Palinkas (field
hockey/lacrosse) had GPAs over 3.5... both earned Dean's List
honors.
Others playing two sports include: senior Megan Caci
(field hockey, softball), freshman L.J. Goldblatt (hockey, lacrosse),
sophomore Stosh Konesky (football, baseball), junior Julie Lane
(field hockey, softball), freshman Matt Laut (soccer, lacrosse),
freshman Dan Lupi (hockey, lacrosse), sophomore Ryan McAllister
(football, baseball), sophomore Melissa Shamgochian (field hockey,
softball), freshman MaryEllen Sullivan (field
hockey, softball) and Sean Turnan (baseball, football).