COVID Causes Cuts at the Colleges (and Elsewhere)

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Memorial Day. Thanks to the brave soldiers and all who've made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure our safety and lives of liberty.

Back on May 19 Hobart Football HC Kevin DeWall '00 notified the extended Statesmen family of some staff changes, which we learned from last week's Finger Lakes Times article, is because HWS is facing a significant budget deficit due to impacts from the COVID-19 epidemic.

The end result is that "Aaron Backhaus ’00 and Art Garvey ’13 will no longer be serving as full-time coaches for our program. John Manley and Walt Bennett ’05 will not be returning as part-time assistants."

In his address, Coach DeWall further stated:

"We are very grateful for the service and commitment of these four men. Words cannot accurately describe my appreciation for their years of investment into our football family. All are great men who deeply care for our student-athletes, their development, and overall well-being. Aaron, Walt, and Art were all great student-athletes during their careers at Hobart, serving as captains and important members of past championship teams. Coach Manley brought significant perspective as our most experienced coach on staff. Their impact has been substantial, and their departures will leave large voids. As I work trying to fill these positions, we will plan to assemble the best staff we can moving forward."

HWS is certainly not the only college or university having to make cuts. Liberty League foes RPI and Rochester have taken similar measures over the past several weeks. While HWS has not yet released any plans regarding the fall semester, neighbors such as Syracuse University do intend to have students back on campus. All of this is preliminary, however, as plans could change depending on how things progress (or regress).

I remain hopeful that HWS will determine a plan and communicate the same in the near future. In the meantime, we just have to wait and see.

Ithaca Plants Their Reopening Flag (and the Elephant in the Room)

The questions surrounding the 2020 D3FB season continue to swirl about and unfortunately there are no concrete answers. Ultimately the Statesmen Football coaching staff are likely not going to worry about things out of their control, and will remain focused on preparation for the upcoming season, especially once they receive direction from the NCAA and the HWS administration.

Conference rival and nearby Ithaca College announced today that they plan to reopen on Monday, October 5 for in-person, on campus classes. While I do believe this to be very premature by the IC administration, I also wouldn't be surprised if more colleges, HWS included, follow suit. HWS has formed it's own "reopening committee" and will likely take factors such as Ithaca's approach into consideration. 

Regardless, the NCAA will be making key decisions in the next 6-8 weeks, starting with the Board of Governors and D1 providing guidance in the next few weeks. From what we can gather, the confidence in there being a D3FB season is high, but the powers that be feel it's too early to make any final decisions. There are a multitude of variables at play, ranging from what the wide variety of school and conference decisions will be, different parts of the country being on different reopening time tables and criteria, are fans (and how many would be) allowed, etc. among many other scenarios.

So before the end of June, if not sooner, the NCAA is going to have to decide if they'll mandate a shorter or modified season (e.g., starting in October, with preseason practice in September) in D3; and/or if they'll just determine what playoff criteria will look like and when they'd aim to start the playoffs (e.g., if the regular season goes into December with the playoffs and Stagg Bowl occurring after and into January or a shortened / modified season would require updated playoff selection criteria - the latter is the more interesting scenario to me based on the question how would the Committee look at a conference champion that's played 7-9 games vs. ones that only play 5 or 6?).

Anyway, for the short term, all we can do is speculate. Hopefully we'll have some information on the remaining commits to the Class of 2024 (I captured about 14-15 of them so far this off-season) in the near future.

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!

Chatham's Cunco Signs with Statesmen

Tap Into Chatham, an online local news source, reported yesterday that Chatham HS (NJ) SR DB/KR Charles Cunco has decided to attend Hobart College and play football. May 1st was decision day for seniors across the nation to officially decide (and place a deposit) on where they plan to go to college.

Cunco's highlight reel shows he has solid coverage skills and closing speed. He is also a sound tackler. At 5'10" 167 lbs. Cunco is on the smaller side, but he plays much bigger from the film I saw. I trust Coach Gray will bulk him up in no time while maintaining his impressive 4.6 speed.

Please join me in welcoming Charles and the extended Cunco family to the Hobart Football one!

Thanks as always for reading the blog and go 'Bart!

Former Hobart OC Loving Life in NEPA

Longtime former Hobart QB coach and Offensive Coordinator Jon Drach and his wife Janelle were recently interviewed by DiscoverNEPA.com - an online magazine covering Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Coach Drach is going into his third season of the HC of the Wilkes University Colonels, turning around an 0-10 program to one that earned an 8-3 record in 2019. Former Statesmen Tom Elder '13 and Kelvin Cruz '12 are also on staff as the DC/LBs and TE/FB coaches, respectively. Jack Phohl '17 worked as a WR coach for a couple of seasons before heading back home to the Syracuse area to pursue a career outside of coaching (anyone that has any sports mgmt/business/operations contacts please let Jack know).

Just like every other program in the nation, the Colonels (and their cross-town rivals Kings College), are managing the off-season in the COVID-19 pandemic the best they can. 

While I'll get back to featuring Hobart-related news in the near future, it's always good to see former Genevans and extended Statesmen families doing well, especially during these times.

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!