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Dayton Sports Weekly Update: 6/28/2010

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Week four at the Weekly Update!  That seems like a milestone for me that I should probably write down somewhere.  Hope a couple of you went out and saw a game this last weekend despite the insane heat again.  Here we go.

Ouch, The Dragons had a rough weekend away from home against the Lansing Lugnuts.  They fought some hard games but alas were swept in the series.  This will make the third time this year that the Dragons have lost every game in a series against Lansing.  The only time they have been successful was actually their very first series of the year in which they swept Lansing.  The first game of the series on Friday was a 7-6 loss.  I’ve mentioned the last three weeks that Dayton’s losses frequently have been very close, usually coming by one run which can be difficult for a struggling team.  Out of the Dragon’s last 9 losses including this weekend, 6 of them have been by one run, one was by two and the other was by 4 back against Beloit earlier this month.  Of  course the other one was the Saturday game which was lost 4-1.  That’s not to say there wasn’t a fight, in fact, Friday and Sunday’s (a 5-4 loss) games were both taken into extra inning, and both time the Dragons fell short in the 11th.  I’ll spare you any of the details this week unless you’d like to go read the game wrap ups, but let’s just say there isn’t a lot of great news there right now.

The Dragons have got to show up against Fort Wayne early this week.  They just finished a series with them, all three games were decided by one run (1 win 2 losses) and that little bit of extra effort needs to show here or else this downward spiral might continue.  On the plus side, this weekend during City Folk, they will be home against the Great Lakes Loons again.  Despite the Loon’s great away win record, Dayton has had great luck against them all year.  Let’s hope they can keep it up.

UPDATE: 6/30/2010 Well apparently the Gems press conference was cancelled, stating “unforseen circumstances” as the cause. Your guess is as good as mine as to what this means. It could be someone couldn’t make it today, or it could mean something really big has happened, but we’ll let you know if anything comes up.

Hey guess what?  New head coach to be announced this Wednesday, June 30th.  Bout darn time right?  Check back here for an update on that on Wednesday.  There is also some interesting news involving an 18th team to the new CHL this year.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that two IHL teams would not be making the transfer over as a result of various problems, (Port Huron Icehawks and the Muskegon Lumberjacks)  As it turns out the single -A hockey team in Evansville has purchased the team and transferred them play for their own Icemen.  This means that Evansville will now be playing in the IHL, from the AAHL (getting confused yet?) and we have already mentioned that the IHL and CHL will be tenatively merging before the start of next season SO..  Muskegon will be with the new league in a sense, combine… sort of…, with the already existing Evansville Icemen.

Remember to check back, hopefully we’ll have some news on the Gems’ new coach

The Dayton Dutch Lions managed another loss-less week which included a tie against the Cincinnati Kings and a win against League leader, the Chicago Fire.  The only thing keeping The Lions out of first place right now is the amount of ties they have had.  Although this is definitely better than having a bunch of losses, you can see the main difference between the Fire and the Lions are the Fire’s two extra wins.  Even though they actually have 3 losses to the Lion’s 1, those wins make all the difference in the long run.  Still, the win against Chicago has put Dayton back within two points of the lead, which on the flip side makes having only 1 loss so important.

The Lions were in a prime position to have the lead in the League this week as a matter of fact, as they played a commanding game against Cincinnati.  They took a lead of 2-0 for the majority of the game, and looked as if win was inevitable but Cincinnati wasn’t going to go down without a fight and managed a score at the 70th minute of the game. Though a few free kicks were given to the Lions over the next few minutes, they could not capitalize on them and a potential 3-1 win went belly up as the Kings scored a second time in the 86th minute of the game.  Instead of going home with 3 points (which would put Dayton on top of Chicago this week by 1)  they had to settle for 1 point in a tie.  It should be noted that an estimated 75% of the fans in Cincinnati ths weekend were Dutch Lions fans.

The great victory this week was against the Chicago Fire.  It was a stunted first half however, as the score remained 0-0 after 45.  But shortly after the teams entered the field again, a cross kick from Bas Ent to Geert den Ouden would fly right past the King’s keeper to make it a 1-0 game after 55 minutes.  Defense prevailed for a while but as the 89th minute approached, and the game was winding down, den Ouden was there again, this time with the set up for George Davis IV, scoring another goal as regulation came to an end.  With 5 minutes of stopage time however the Chicago Fire managed to get a good shot off to make the ending result 2-1, and handing the Lions a great victory.  The next game up is against the Michigan Bucks on July 3rd.  I probably won’t be there as downtown will be calling my name, but best of luck to the Lions, another win will keep them in contention for the playoffs.

Would you believe there isn’t any new postings for the Raiders this week?  I had mentioned two weeks ago that former Wright State Pitcher Alex Kaminsky had signed with the Cleveland Indians earlier this year.  In his first game with the Indian’s Single-A affiliate, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, he threw 5 shutout innings, striking out  4, and won his professional debut game.  Congratulations!

Also it should be noted that Jon Durket signed with the Lake Erie Crushers of the Independent Frontier League as the 3rd free agent this year to enter into professional baseball.  This makes 5 Raiders that have joined the professional ranks this year, the most of any team Wright State has produced, best of luck to all of you guys out there.

Some good news for Flyers women basketball, as they have been awarded a grant for program funding.  This will hopefully build on a lot of momentum that Flyer’s women’s basketball has had over the last year or so.  The intention of the grant is to help increase awareness of the team and the games they play through various outlets and hopefully increase attendance at games.  People should know about this women’s team;  last year The Flyers won their first ever top 10 game with a victory over Michigan State, appeared in the AP and ESPN top 25 for the first time, held an average attendance of 3404 which was highest in the Atlantic 10, 34th highest in the country and if I might add, quite a bit better than some of Dayton’s professional team attendance from last year and this year, and finished last year’s season a staggering 25-8 which ties a modern-era record for most victories in a season.  Congratulations UD, that’s outstanding news.

That’s all for this week, I’m out!  Enjoy this weekend, City Folk is a blast, and with the new pavilion downtown, there isn’t any reason to not be there!

Dayton Sports Weekly Update: 6/7/2010

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Welcome to the first edition of the Dayton Sports Weekly Update.  Join us every Monday for a rundown of all of your favorite home teams from the UD Flyers to our newest club, the Dayton Dutch Lions.  We’ll try to keep you up  to date on anything you may have missed last week, and everything you want to know coming up this week from stats, and scores to the latest news.  Enough talking though, let’s jump right in.

The Dayton Dragons are still selling out games but are having a difficult time finding a good rhythm.  They’ve dropped six of their last ten games, and out of those, 4 of them have been by one run.  What makes that even more difficult is that those one run losses cost them 3 out of their last 4 series.  The Dragons play away from home for the next two weeks and won’t be back at 5/3rd field until June 18th.

This week they will be playing at Beloit and Wisconsin, and next week they’ll be playing at Fort Wayne.  Currently Fort Wayne is the only team out of those three that stand at a PCT of .500 or greater, so it’s a good week for the Dragons to make up some lost ground against some less challenging teams in the league.

The Dayton Gems had an interesting first year in Dayton.  After being competitive for half of the season they embarrassingly slid into last place in the league.  Ownership was at one time taken over by the IHL and then transferred to new ownership early on.  They also seem mired in an endless list of traded and cut players, which would be fairly typical of any first year team, especially if you don’t know who you’ve got playing for you.  Still, with such a difficult end to the year, the big guys upstairs clearly were not happy with Coach Marks and let him go, as well as several other staff members in an effort to right the ship before it falls to far.

If that wasn’t enough, the IHL’s contention as a league was in serious doubt at the end of the season with a flutter of rumors being passed around about their inevitable folding.  It was just recently announced however that the IHL and CHL intend to merge together into one large league similar to that of the ECHL, with two separate divisions.  This has a lot of implications for the Gems, namely their viability as a team in Dayton and how critical next year will be for them.  This will expand their playing area drastically, including a half dozen teams from Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Louisiana, and Colorado, to name a few.  Having said that, Dayton can no longer be considered in a “bus league” and will definitely have to hope fans will be curious about this new league to fill seats fast.  I for one encourage anyone who hasn’t seen the Gems play yet, do so next year when their season starts.  They did great things for the community last year, and though beleaguered as they were, deserve our support.

The Dayton Dutch Lions are doing an amazing job in their first year in Dayton.  In the giant unending tangle of a mess that is the United Soccer League, Premier Development League, the Dutch Lions find themselves in second place in the Great Lakes Division, suffering not a singles loss all season.  For those who might be unfamiliar with soccer, the Dutch Lions hold a record of 3-0-3 or 3 wins no losses and 3 draws.  As a result they are one point behind the Chicago Fire.  They tied their last game this weekend against Forest City London 1-1.

With their winning record so far this year, the Dutch Lions have also found themselves qualified for the 2010 U.S. Lamar Hunt Open Cup.  As one of 8 PDL teams to make the Open Cup, make no mistake that this is a prestigious honor.  The US Open Cup is the longest running cup series in the United States, dating back to 1914.  Qualifying teams can be from any tier of the United States Soccer Federation, from amateur teams to the MLS.  Since the inception of the MLS back in 1996, they have won the cup every year except 1999, in which the Rochester Rhinos beat out four MLS clubs to claim the championship.  The luck of the draw has placed the Rhinos as the Dutch Lions’ first opponent in the tournament starting June 15th.

The Dutch Lions have an exhausting schedule ahead of them before June ends.  On the 9th they play an away game against the Indiana Invaders, but return home this Saturday the 12th to play Toronto.  Then on the 15th they’ll be travelling to Rochester to take on the Rhinos in the first round of the US Open Cup, followed by an away game on the 17th against the Cleveland Internationals.  This will all be topped off by a home game (they are the away team however) against the Columbus Crew at Baujan Sports Field at The University of Dayton.  I’ll have my tickets for that one, I hope you will too.  All in all one heck of a next few weeks, all the best to the DDLFC.

What to say about university athletics in our town?  There is a heck of a lot going on and I will not do them justice here, but I will try to capture what I can about what is going on right now around town.  Though inevitably our thoughts will drift back to Basketball here in Dayton, I’ll try to be true to all the student athletes out there who play hard for WSU and UD.

Recently Raider’s Baseball found itself in the Horizon League Championship game after finishing the regular seasons with a 29-23 record.  On May 30th however they stumbled against Milwaukee 14-7 to end their season.  Though a disappointing end, the Raiders have found themselves as perennial contenders in the Horizon League, finishing the last 5 years over .500.

Women’s Softball also find themselves in the Horizon League Championship this spring, and after winning 4 out of 5, advanced to the NCAA Regionals in Ann Arbor.  Though they ended their season there, the Raider posted their second ever NCAA tournament win this season, an encouraging end to a great season.

There is more to mention here about upcoming news for the Raiders, but we’ll have plenty of time to get to it.  Check back soon.

The Flyers equally will have plenty to talk about in the upcoming months, especially as fall sports start to pick up steam so bare with me for now.  The Flyers had a more difficult time this year in both Baseball and Softball, both finishing with losing records, but the Flyers soccer team faired better in their spring training, going undefeated, and shutting out the likes of Ohio State and Wright State, and finishing with a 2-2 tie against Kentucky.

Dayton has also had great success this year in Track and Field.  This week two members will be competing  in the upcoming NCAA Championship in Eugene Oregon; Junior Mallory Barnes (hammer throw) and freshman Katie Nageotte (pole vault).  But there have also been several other distinguished athletes from various events noted this year, including Ashley Cattran and Sarah Allen who were recieved ESPN acedemic all-district honors this past week.  Cattran was also recently announced as the A10 student athlete of the year.

Well that’s it for this week, come back again and we’ll let you know what’s going on in the Gem City.  Show your pride for Dayton and those who play here, get out and watch a game!

It’s a Different Kind of Summer Now

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University Hall

Where did ten weeks go? Oh that’s right, they went into writing papers, studying for tests and giving presentations. Another quarter is completed and it is time for summer. Summer doesn’t have the same traditional activities for college students as it used to. No more running in sprinklers and chasing down the ice cream truck, for some of us its time for graduation and off to the real world. For some of us it is time for a summer vacation, relaxing on a beach and sipping on margaritas. And for the rest of us, it might mean working or taking more classes. For some or most of the students at Wright State, our lives don’t change much from the rest of the year. We’ll continue to work, live in the same house or apartment, and go to class, whereas other students have to fight the complications of moving home with mom and dad, finding a job, and even finding things to do around the home town again.

I definitely find this an advantage to being a Wright State student, living locally, and having a secure job. I personally am not taking any summer classes this summer. I take 16 credit hours the other three quarters of the year and work part time. Summer is my freedom, it’s my time to travel and relax and save up that money for fall quarter’s books. But here are some summer plans of a few Wright State Students.

Lindsey Satterfield, Organizational Communications

“I plan on working at JC Penny to save up money, go to some music festivals, and travel to Florida to see my best friend. I also have signed up for one summer class to move things along.”

Joel Hangen, Management Information Systems major

“I’m just working full time this summer, have a couple trips planned to Canada and Vegas”

Nicole Anderson, Communication Studies

“This summer I have an internship, work and classes so I can graduate in March of 2011”

Alex Vanioukov, Business Management

“I work all summer unfortunately”

So it’s an array of plans for Wright State students this summer. We will be in and out of Dayton for the next three months. We’ll be working hard and saving that money for our schooling and of course, we’ll be soaking up the activities Dayton is offering this summer.

As We Go On, We Remember…

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The popular song “Graduation” by Vitamin C will be ringing in the ears of many Wright State students Saturday, June 12.

We go through many graduations in our lives. It beings when we are five, in kindergarten. We have just learned our alphabet and the colors and were advancing on to elementary school to learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. We make it all the way through to 8th grade after our awkward pre-teen years and step through the doors of high school. We learn more advanced math and English skills, learn to drive, and experience our first loves. For most of us, after four years and a bigger graduation celebration than the one we had as a kindergartener, it is off for more schooling. We all choose different institutions to go to depending on which area of study we want to pursue. Now for thousands of Wright State students, it is time for their biggest graduation yet: college graduation.

Senior Kim Collins will be amongst those graduating this year. She will receive a Bachelors Degree in Business Management and Human Resources Management. She will walk across that stage and whereas before, she would be more prepared for more schooling this time Collins has plans of getting an entry-level human resource job and an HR Assistant. This graduation ceremony is completely different than the others before. Collins feels that Wright State has prepared her for the upcoming adventure known as the “real world”. “WSU has prepared me for graduation in a few ways. First, in most of my business classes, we worked in groups, and I know in the business world teamwork is essential” said Collins. Not only was teamwork learned in Collins’ classes, she got hands on experience as well. “In one of my classes I was able to help make a human resources manual for a local business, so that gave me valuable hands-on experience”.

So as some say good bye to Wright State and hello to new experiences, Wright State will always have a close spot in us. It is and has been teaching and preparing us for what is outside of the walls of the campus buildings. The instructors and staff have been responsible for creating the future employees of local Dayton companies. The Wright State graduates will be entering the work force in Dayton. With many skills and accomplishments on their resumes, they are ready to shine their bright white smiles and give you what they have to offer. Any they will be ready to accept what this world has to offer them.

*Commencement is Saturday, June 12th at the Ervin J. Nutter center. The ceremony begins at 10 am and lasts about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Doors open at 8:30 am to the public but graduates are to report NO LATER THAN 8:30 am.

Scene It: College Edition

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For each student the “college experience” is different, some live on campus, in an apartment or the dorms while others commute from home. Some students are fresh out of high school while others are coming back because life took them an alternative route after high school. Whatever the story might be, no way of college is the “right” or “wrong” way of doing it. I, personally, am a commuter student. I live at home, rent free, with my parents. I work at a restaurant and go to school full time. I wonder sometimes about how my college experience might be different if I had chosen to go to a big university and live on campus. But with Wright State in the Dayton area, it gives Dayton somewhat of a college scene, maybe not your “typical” college scene but it is a college scene.

There are students working in department stores and restaurants making money to pay for their books, tuition, or rent. But what makes the college scene different for the Dayton area is that we, the students, come from all different places. We all aren’t from the Beavercreek, Fairborn area. For sophomore Jessica Olson, it’s a twenty minute drive from Centerville, but commuting works out for her. “I guess I like that I can still go to school, but not be emerged in all the drama school can offer,” said Olson.

Working as a nursing assistant for Fidelity Healthcare four or five days a week, Olson says that her college experience would be “a lot different, a lot worse is my guess. I’m sure my relationship with God would suffer”. She feels this ways because she said she would probably have slipped into the partying if she weren’t maintaining such a busy schedule.

So Dayton, you do have a college scene. It’s just different than that of say, Oxford’s. You have students who go to school, work, take care of families, and still some how make time for leisure. Talk about time management skills! Having a smaller university around gives the students the opportunity to have the choice of such a school. It gives students who have chosen to come back to school after years down a different path the opportunity to do so. It also gives students who might just need that extra push to continue through college, the opportunity to go somewhere where they don’t feel so overwhelmed.

Lights, Camera, Action!

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Everyone loves a good Tom Hanks movie every now and again. You’ve Got Mail, Castaway, or That Thing You Do will satisfy any Hanks fan’s need.  He’s such an appealing actor and seems to have a movie that everyone loves. But what people don’t know is that Tom Hanks has a scholarship program for students in major arts at Wright State University. In 2005 Hanks and his wife donated nearly $5,000 to the Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures. This was the beginning of the Tom Hanks Scholarship and Visiting Artist Fund. After collaborating with Erik Bork, an alumnus of Wright State, on the television series Band of Brothers and hearing about his experience at WSU, Hanks was bound to create a scholarship program for the students. In May of 2005 a black-tie affair raised over $20,000 for the scholarship.

The quarter I transferred to Wright State I was walking through the Union looking for something good to eat when swore I saw a high school friend by the name of  Baxter Stapleton. To my surprise, it indeed was him. We met up for coffee one day and he informed me that he had just transferred to Wright State as well that quarter to attend the film school. In a recent chat with my long time friend he told me why exactly he chose Wright State for his studies.  “I decided to transfer since Wright State’s programs  complemented perfectly with what I want to do after I graduate. I was immediately attracted to the  film program because of my interest in documentary filmmaking and the amazing work I had seen come out of the program” said Stapleton.

Wright State students have been acknowledged for their work in producing and writing feature-length and short form films and winning Golden Globe and Emmy awards.  Their work has also been in multiple film festivals winning various awards. Students get the opportunity to work in all different aspects of the film industry through the program, everything from a producer of features to being the director.

Stapleton informed me that the students in the film program work a great deal with FilmDayton and that this year; the students’ work will show up at the FilmDayton Festival this weekend. This is their second annual film festival and is an awesome opportunity for the young film makers of Wright State to get to show their work. “Not only does Wright State have great academic programs, but the University also does a great job of immersing the students into the community” said Stapleton. So if you get some free time this weekend, stop by the film festival and take a look at what the talent of Wright State has to offer!

Wright State & Downtown Dayton

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Ohio State, University of Kentucky, and even University of Dayton are all located in the middle of a city. Clubs, restaurants, and bars are all in walking distance from the campus and students are offered much to do close by. Having a large number of non-traditional students, Wright State students seek different forms of entertainment. Being located in a suburb rather than downtown of a city, WSU students turn to downtown Dayton as an option to go out. I personally have been downtown numerous times to go out. I feel fairly safe with a group of friends and have a lot of fun at the local dance clubs. But, I wanted to see what other WSU students thought of downtown. So I turned asked some questions regarding downtown and got some answers. I thought that many people would not like downtown, but I was surprised by students actually going downtown.

Junior Caitlin Buenning, enjoys going down for the theater productions. “I generally like Downtown–I think it’s come a long way. The Schuster Center and Victoria Theater bring in a lot of business and really bring a rich variety of arts to Dayton.”  Along with theater productions the festivals and shows bring her downtown. “I’m pretty familiar with Downtown. I love Riverscape in the summers, and I really love going to the Schuster Center. There are some good places to eat, too.” Buenning doesn’t worry too much about the crime, she says that “there is some crime in some of the parts of the city, but mostly just in neighborhoods.”

Sophomore China Taylor has some thoughts regarding the crime downtown. “I really think that people should visit Downtown more. The crime rates scare people away, but in all honesty crime happens any where. Downtown is a fun place to hang out even as college students and I really think people and students should take advantage of all the events Downtown, Dayton.”  Just as Buenning, Taylor enjoys the festivals and shows downtown has to offer.

A fairly positive response to downtown if I do say so myself. From Dragons games to clubbing and theater performances to fireworks shows, Dayton really does have a lot to offer for college students to do. We just have to get up and go rather than expecting the entertainment to come to us. Some WSU students commute up for 45 minutes to come to class, we are all different students. The “traditional” student isn’t necessarily “traditional” for Wright State.  Downtown offers much variety for us when we need to close the books and have some fun.

Ten to Fourteen

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WSUFall of 2012, Wright State will join the rest of Ohio universities on the semester school schedule. Nearly 90% of Ohio’s higher education institutes are on the semester schedule. With everyone on the same school schedule, transferring credits will become easier. A semester credit hour weighs more than a quarter’s credit hour. Wright State is doing everything they can to ensure that the students who will be affected by the semester change don’t fall behind. It is encouraged to meet with university advisers to create a plan to stay on track. I have my own transfer story.

I began my college career at Miami University Middletown, a semester school. When I made the decision to transfer to Wright State I had a year and a half of credits earned. My parents and I were highly concerned that I would lose some, if not all, of the credits I had just earned. Luckily for me, I did not lose a single credit and kept on track for graduation. I didn’t mind the semester schedule. I actually really enjoyed the semester schedule. Being in a class for 14 weeks allowed me to really get to know my classmates and feel comfortable with my professors. I felt like I had all the time in the world to accomplish work and things were slower-paced. Once I transferred to Wright State it was a huge shock. I had been used to having four extra weeks to accomplish work and get used to my classes. Now I was down to ten weeks to do everything I was used to doing in 14. But after one quarter I was hooked on the quarter system. I felt like time flew by, my classes never felt as though they were dragging on and just as they began to, it was time for finals and either winter, spring, or summer break.

AJohn Parkinson lthough he won’t be affected by the change, senior John Parkinson said “I think  overall the change to semesters will help Wright State University. It will allow transferring to be done more smoothly as well as making classes not so rushed. Students will be able to breathe and not always rush to get things done.”

Michelle Coale But for sophomore Michelle Coale, an education major expected to graduate in 2013 the semester   switch is a bit fearful. “I absolutely am fearful that the semester switch will affect my grades. I care a lot about my academic performance, and I try to keep my grades high. However, I’ve often found myself in a class where I’m slowly slipping farther and farther towards a lower grade. I feel semesters will only worsen this habit.”

Watch out Ohio, all of the college kids will be away at school and back at home during the same time soon! Brace yourself!

5-0 WSU Raiders still “Undefeated since 1967”

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2009 Wright State Club Football Team (Photo by Chris Mallets)

2009 Wright State Club Football Team (Photo by Chris Mallets)

Autumn is the favorite time of year for many people, bringing out some of the best in American traditions and folklore.  It’s the time of year when the holidays slowly creep into our thoughts; when pumpkin pie and apple cider is plentiful; turkey, squash and all manner of food is enjoyed seemingly only for a few months until the following year; when ghost stories and old legends start cropping up again, and family comes together as the wind gets colder.  But for many, it’s considered the best time of year for one simple reason; football.

Indeed die hard fans from all over the country will warm up their newly purchased hi-def television, bought specifically to watch the game on, and sit glued to a chair until the end of January while cursing at the guy in their fantasy football league who has kept hold of Tom Brady for the last five years.  Others will find time to make it to the field at 8AM on a Saturday morning to tailgate with friends and family before watching their Alma Mater lose to their oldest rival for the seventh consecutive time.  Tradition is the name of the game, whether college or professional, but nowhere in Dayton has that particular tradition been missing more, than at Wright State University.

For years there have been a number of rumors and reasons given as to why one was never established.  Whatever that reason may be however, action was finally taken with a help of a student government initiative that was headed by former student government president Mohammad “Moody” Kassem.  As a result, an established club football team is playing its first season for Wright State.

Vice President for the team, Steve Jones discussed how the team was established; explaining that there had been previous attempts to create a club team before, most notably back in the 80s.  “It was really just a lot of talk back then, as far as I know, but there wasn’t any real action taken.  Moody and Eric Corbitt were the ones who did all the initial work and started creating the program this time around.”  The word was spread and as try outs started, more than 100 young men showed up to try and make the team.  “We had a spring game,” says Jones, “and we did lose it, but at the time we were having some initial difficulties internally.  For a number of reasons our head coach left, and it seemed that we might not have anyone to lead the team.  A number of schools on our schedule dropped us for fear that we would disband before the season started, and it left us with only 5 scheduled games.  We also didn’t have a permanent place to play home games.  We had asked to play at Alumni Field, but Campus officials were concerned that the field would be ripped up too much.  That might change in the future however; we’re still in talks with them.”

QB Nick Worley completed 17 of 30 passing attempts for 301, yards no interceptions, and one touchdown pass to Jovan Tolbert last Saturday against Miami University (photo by Chris Mallets)

QB Nick Worley completed 17 of 30 passing attempts for 301, yards no interceptions, and one touchdown pass to Jovan Tolbert (photo by Chris Mallets)

The difficulties subsided and a new head coach, Paul Grimes, took the reigns.  Two more games were also added to the season at the last second, rounding out to a reasonable seven, and they opted to play at some local high school venues for their home games.  The Raiders play in the Midwestern Club Football Conference, North Division with Marquette University and Ohio State University.  The South Division includes Miami University, Xavier, The University of New Orleans and Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville.  Wright State is enjoying a 5-0 start, and is the only undefeated team in the conference to date.

“This is an amazing group of guys,” says Jones, “There is chemistry between them that has led to this 5-0 start, and that includes the work of Coach Grimes.  They are extremely dedicated, and they have to be.  Nothing is given to them here because we don’t have the funds to provide it.  Each player is expected to pay for their entire uniform, including helmets and pads, and that comes to about $425.00 a guy.  We were very thankful that the Ohio National Guard has agreed to sponsor us, and most of that cost was taken care of, but there is no guarantee that that will happen again, and they know that.  Honestly all the work I do for the team is because these guys are so great, so dedicated, and they deserve to be able to play.  It’s amazing what they’ve been able to do so far.”  When asked about how he hopes the team might evolve next year, he said, “Well, we have learned so much this year, we are going to be a lot better prepared when next season comes around.  We’re still in talks to find a permanent home on campus, but also are working on increasing exposure and support.  We’ve talked with the cheerleaders and dance teams to see if they would want to come out and perform at games, as well as the pep band, and just try to get some of the pageantry and help create a better atmosphere for both the fans and players.”

He also mentioned he’s already been approached by high school students wanting to learn more about the program.  “Some of these guys are being scouted by some D-2 and D-3 schools, but they are coming to us and asking us if they can play here because just like those schools, we can’t offer scholarships to them, but it’s far cheaper to come to Wright State and play football than it is some of those other schools.  It’s pretty exciting to know there is already that interest even though we haven’t finished a full season yet.”

The fledgling team has a long way to go, and though the first year has been shaky at times, there is no doubting the commitment and love for the game by all those involved. They have started an amazing season, and their victory this week has propelled them to the top of the conference.

Running Back Stanley Frazier ran for 168 yards on 31 carries and scored 2 touchdowns last Saturday against Miami University (Photo by Chris Mallets)

Running Back Stanley Frazier ran for 168 yards on 31 carries and scored 2 touchdowns last Saturday against Miami University (Photo by Chris Mallets)

The Raiders won at home last Saturday 31-14 versus the Miami Redhawks.  Wright State Quarterback Nick Woley completed 17 of 30 passing attempts for 301 yards no interceptions, and one touchdown pass to Jovan Tolbert.  Running back Stanley Frazier had a stellar day with 168 rushing yards on 31 carries and two touchdowns.  Ryan Johnson also returned an onside kick for a touchdown in the last quarter.  The Raiders totaled 458 yards of offense while the defense limited the Redhawks to only 228 yards, and caused two fumbles and one interception for the night.

The Raiders will finish their season at home on November 15th against the Ohio State Buckeyes.  The game will be held at Bellbrook High School at 1pm, tickets are on sale for $5.00.

We will fight right and be true, So let’s go, fight, win. Let the action begin, We’re from W-S-U!