Sports

Football

‘Returning With Depth’

LEADER: Coach Mark Kreydt ’88 says he’s optimistic about the 2003 football season.

The last game the Yellowjackets football team played in 2002, against Carnegie Mellon University, resulted in a satisfying 39–35 come-from-behind victory. But the win came a little too late to prove the team had hit its stride.
“It made us wish we had 10 more games to play after the one against Carnegie Mellon,” head coach Mark Kreydt ’88 says of last year’s 2–10 finish.

He and the team hope to pick up where they left off and turn the 2003 season into a winning one.

“Past seasons have been tough,” says Kreydt. “The bottom line is we haven’t won more games than we’ve lost, and we need to get that [winning edge] back. Football at Rochester has a longstanding tradition—we’ve had a team here for more than 110 years, and it’s our goal to get the program back to being a winning program.”

In 2002, 11 members of the team earned 20 honors from the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association and the University Athletic Association; many were named first- and second-team All-UCAA and All-UAA. While individual successes were impressive, the team still had a ways to go collectively. But there’s good news for the upcoming season, Kreydt says.

“I think all the components for a successful season are in place,” he says. “Leadership, experience, recruiting, and a good off-season training program.”

Kreydt says he expects “big things” from his returning starters, especially the captains, defensive lineman Sam Snowden ’04 and defensive back Kassim Howell ’04, as well as wide receiver Brian Ferris ’04, defensive backs Isaac Standish ’04 and Buck Pederzolli ’04, and quarterback Pat Manuel ’06. Last year’s freshman starters, including Manuel and linebackers Jeff Leslie ’06 and Matt Simon ’06, now have more experience, more off-season training this summer, and consequently more confidence heading into the 2003 season, he says.

“We were a young group last year,” Kreydt says. “We had an offensive line with two freshmen, two sophomores, and one junior. We were thin before, but we’re returning with depth this year.”

Recruiting for the new team also went well, Kreydt says; 40 freshmen from six states were set to train for the coming season, which begins with the first game against Johns Hopkins University on September 6.

“We’re anxious to see what they can do, how prepared they can come into the season, how fast they can learn our system—our terminology, the way we do things—to have enough confidence to get on the field and win,” Kreydt says.

“This is the strongest group of players I’ve seen assembled in my six years as coach here,” Kreydt says. “In the past I looked at the upcoming seasons and was hesitant, unsure whether we could overcome our challenges, and to be honest, we haven’t. But this year I’m excited and optimistic.”

Highlights for the upcoming season will be games against Carnegie Mellon, longstanding rival Hobart College, and St. John Fisher College, which beat the Yellowjackets for the first time last year. Kreydt says they’re looking forward to taking on Fisher again.

But for now, he says, “We’re focused on the entire season.”

—Jayne Denker