Football Statesmen Honored at Annual "Block H" Gala

Last night the Statesmen Athletic Association ("the Team Behind Hobart's Team") hosted the annual "Block H" athletics award ceremony. Many student athletes from across all of Hobart Athletics were honored for their contributions and successes during the 2015-16 season.

From the Football team, Co-Captains SR QB/P Parker Thelander, SR LB Jacob Stanley and SR RB Conner Hartigan all received awards. SO OL Alex Helm earned a scholar athlete for excellence on the field and in the classroom.

Other awards were earned by SO WR Brandon Shed (Offensive MVP), SR LB Trayvon Toney (Defensive MVP), as well as SO P Rio Schmidt, SR TE Nick Liverio, JR OLB Marcus Jemison, SO TE Zach Withers, SR DT Tucker Gumkowski and FY RB Tynard Barfield. 

A link to the HWS press release on the overall SAA award winners can be found here. A football specific one can be found here.

Congratulations to these excellent student athletes and fine Statesmen.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

Statesmen Add Two More Strong Recruits

Two additional student athletes recently signed on to join Hobart College and the Statesmen Football family, including a young man from my (current) home state of Florida!

Attached below are the announcements OC Jon Drach posted on twitter:

O'Shea is very tall for a DB which is a rarity in D3FB and Hudgins comes from a top HS program that finished 13-1 in 2015. While it remains to be seen where they'll come out on the roster after preseason camp, it's certainly more strong players for DC Kory David to mold in the coming seasons.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

More Recruiting News!

Coach Drach tweeted out another crop of future Statesmen student athletes. A couple on this list I previewed in previous blog posts.

Check them out:

#GoStatesmen!

Statesmen Take to Twitter to Introduce Class of 2020

If you want to be on top of all things Hobart Football you should not only follow @HobartFootball on Twitter, but make sure you follow @CoachDrach too.

Coach Drach is taking the Statesmen further into the 21st century but announcing the latest recruiting class on social media. A flurry of tweets over the past couple of days show some very strong student athletes have chosen Hobart for their collegiate careers.

Below are just some of the Class of 2020 that have committed to come to Geneva. I'll have more input and analysis on these "rookies" in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

#GoStatesmen

Rondout Valley's Koonz Brings Brains & Brawn to Statesmen

Rondout Valley Central School (Accord, a suburb of Poughkeepsie, NY) has announced that SR WR/FS Andrew Koonz has accepted an academic scholarship to attend Hobart College this fall. Andrew starred for the Ganders in the classroom, football, lacrosse fields and the basketball court.

According to RVCS AD Jeremy Weber, Koonz "was recognized by the NY State Football Coaches association as one of the Top 30 student athletes in the state." Andrew also earned All Section IX awards in football and helped his lacrosse squad to a Section IX title.

A link to Koonz's highlight reel can be seen here.

What I can see from the film is Andrew uses his height (6'2") and excellent field vision to make plays, finding open lanes to gain yards. Defensively he can blitz, cover well and has good speed (4.6 FYD) that will serve him well in college.

Given his special teams experience at RVCS, I could see him get playing time early in his college career as a KOR or PR while he learns the playbook as an offensive or defensive player.

Either way, Koonz sounds like an excellent get for Hobart as a student athlete. Please join me in welcoming Andrew to the Statesmen Football family!

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

Spring Practice Underway

While the Hobart College Class of 2016 prepares to graduate in a few weeks, the work on the 2016 football season has commenced up in Geneva. Spring practice got underway last week with the rising SO, JR and SR classes already keying in on the season opener scheduled for Saturday, September 3rd at Brockport. The Golden Eagles are looking to improve upon last season's 5-5 overall campaign and boast one of the best RBs in the East Region in JR Dan Andrews.

Captains have been named (more on that in a future post) and competitions across all positions are underway. While all roles are important, the most significant position battles in my opinion will probably occur along the OL and LB corps this spring and into preseason camp.

The Statesmen have big shoes to fill with the graduations of Trayvon Toney and Jacob Stanley. Hobart sees three key players on the OL graduate including Brendan Casey, Emiliano Acosta and TJ Scammura.

The FB position is also up for grabs with the graduation of Christopher Holoman. Fortunately the Statesmen have developed a deep roster of talented players.

I'll look to post more recruiting and spring practice notes in the coming weeks. In the meantime, thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

Statesmen Sign St. John's Prep's Rodriguez

The Salem News (MA) reports that two St. John's Prep student athletes will continue their college careers at rival Upstate colleges. St. John's, located in Danvers, MA, is one of the top HS football programs in New England. ESPN.com ranked it fourth last preseason in their "Boston High School Report". The Eagles finished 8-3 overall in 2015, losing their final game 14-0 to Xaverian at hallowed Fenway Park (Go Sawx!).

Hobart enticed one Eagles player, DT David Rodriguez to join the Statesmen. He will be reunited with former teammate and St. John's alumni rising Hobart SO LB Brandon Kahari, At 5'10" 250 lbs. the Statesmen probably hope Rodriguez can grow into an interior problem for opposing offensive lines just like former standout (and MA native) DT Troy Johnson '15.

A link to Rodriguez's highlight reel can be found here. The film shows Rodriguez lining up typically on the right interior side of the Eagles 4x4 defense.

Please join me in welcoming David to the Statesmen Football family!

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!