Sports

Column: Looking at storylines for athletics

Posted on April 26, 2010, at 12:57 a.m.

It seems like just yesterday I first stepped on the University of Maine campus as a freshman in the fall of 2006. I was a wide-eyed 17-year-old kid who knew what I wanted to do for a career once I graduated college. I wanted to be a sports writer, which led me to The Maine Campus.

When I came to the first meeting for new writers, I was assigned the club football beat in its inaugural season, and they advanced all the way to the championship game. Since then, I have covered the varsity football and baseball teams and have written numerous other stories, in addition to sports editing duties I took on in fall 2008.

The past two years as sports editor have been memorable. Here are some of the top storylines at UMaine during that time:

Football advances to FCS playoffs in 2008 – Coming off a disappointing 4-7 campaign in 2007, expectations weren’t really high for coach Jack Cosgrove’s squad in 2008, although they retained the bulk of their team. There were questions at the quarterback position and early in the season, star tailback Jhamal Fluellen went down to an injury.

After faltering to a 2-3 start, there was no room for error for the Black Bears headed into an early October matchup at Delaware. Starting quarterback Adam Farkes went down with a season-ending injury in that game, and Mike Brusko stepped in to lead the Black Bears to six straight wins.

UMaine was anchored by a running attack led by redshirt freshman Jared Turcotte and a defense consisting of menacing pass rusher Jovan Belcher, who is now a linebacker for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.

UMaine fell to the University of New Hampshire in a snowy game, and it seemed as though the season was over following the loss. The selection committee gave UMaine an at-large bid into the 16-team field for the playoffs and although the Black Bears dropped a 40-15 decision at Northern Iowa, it was their first appearance in the playoffs since 2002.

Volleyball, Men’s soccer cut in 2009 – As schools around the nation began cutting athletic programs due to the budget constraints affecting all colleges, it finally hit the UMaine athletic department last April.

Athletic director Blake James was faced with the tough decision of cutting the athletic budget and was forced to eliminate two programs, bringing the total number of varsity sports down to 15.

Although the volleyball and men’s soccer team had their fair share of struggles, it’s always difficult to see programs eliminated, especially when you see those student-athletes putting in all that time and dedication and seeing it evaporate.

You can’t fault the athletic department because times like these happen, and all schools were facing, and still are facing, this crisis.

Gustav Nyquist named 2009-10 First Team All-American – Swedish forward Gustav Nyquist stepped foot on campus in fall 2008 and immediately made his presence felt on the ice, leading the Black Bears in points during his freshman season. Although the Black Bears struggled for the second straight year, Nyquist and his young teammates brought optimism to a sagging fanbase heading into the 2009-10 season.

Nyquist and the Black Bears advanced all the way to the Hockey East Championship Game against eventual national champion Boston College and fell in overtime 7-6.

The sophomore Nyquist was named a Hobey Baker Award finalist for his exceptional season. He led the nation in points with 61 and assists with 42. The Detroit Red Wings draft choice was the only unanimous selection to the 2010 Hockey East First Team and was the runner-up for Player of the Year.

Nyquist is expected to return for his junior season.

Riley Masters breaks a four-minute mile – A lot of people do not follow track because it’s not a mainstream sport. UMaine should probably start following the sport with the emergence of Riley Masters.

On Feb. 13, the sophomore standout became the first Black Bear to break the four-minute mile barrier, breaking the school record with a time of 3:59.97.

He went on to place fifth at the NCAA Championships in the mile and was named an All-American for his efforts. Masters has two years remaining as a Black Bear and the sky is the limit for the Bangor native, as he is only poised to get better.

While those are the top storylines for the past two years in UMaine athletics, Black Bear fans will certainly have something to cheer about in the upcoming season. The football and men’s hockey teams return most of their key players to teams that showed promise last season. The men’s basketball team only lost one starter off a squad that won 19 games. The baseball and softball teams will have to deal with a few losses, but are currently in the midst of successful seasons at the top of America East.

I’ll be graduating in less than two weeks and hopefully moving on to greener pastures — although that will probably not happen.

It’s been a good ride at UMaine, though, and I will always be a Black Bear.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010, 12:57 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.