Statesmen Name Tri-Captains for the 2021 Season

Last Friday on Twitter, the Hobart Football team announced their captains for the 2021 fall season (the Statesmen's 127th). 

The three captains will be:

SR OLB Emmett Forde is a multiple All-American (AFCA & D3football.com) and not surprisingly will be a key aspect to the Statesmen's defense this fall. 

SR DB Jared Leake will lead the Hobart secondary once again and is a returning second team All East Region (D3football.com) and first team All-Conference player.

JR TE Mike Zaccone may not have the statistics or accolades as his fellow captains, but his selfless play as a blocker and leader on and off the field make this NJ native a strong choice.

Congratulations to these Statesmen on this recognition from their teammates and coaching staff. We're less than 100 days away from Week 1 vs. Alfred. 

Can't wait and go 'Bart!

Thank You to the Class of 2021!

One of the bigger graduating classes the Hobart Football team has fielded in some time, the Class of 2021 has had a roller coaster ride of a college experience. Recruited by former HC Mike Cragg, these Statesmen went 7-3 in their first season, then saw Cragg's retirement lead to the return of Kevin DeWall '00.

The 2018 season got off to a rough start - I remember because I was there - but this young team would persevere to eventually post a winning record in DeWall's first season as HC. In 2019 we saw continued improvement, and the team finished 9-2, bringing the program it's first postseason win since 2015 - the New York State Bowl championship!

Unfortunately with the cancellation of the 2020 season, the vast majority of these student athletes never got to have a true final regular season / Senior Day experience on the Boz. I understand over the most recent graduation weekend, there were a number of events held and this Class of 2021 was celebrated appropriately.

While I understand that there will be five 5th year SR players returning to campus this fall:

SR DB Cal Sullivan

SR DB Jared Leake

SR OLB Emmett Forde

SR DL Shane White

SR DL Isaiah Boone

Moving on from Geneva will be this group of fine Statesmen:

8			Andres Lopez	WR	SR	5-8	160	Damascus, Md.	Bullis School
9			Jabbar Morris	DB	SR	5-11	190	Amityville, N.Y.	O'Connell Copiague
11			Alex Milliken	RB	SR	6-0	204	Sparta, N.J.	Sparta
12			Jimmy Adams	WR	SR	6-3	220	Hopkinton, Mass.	Hopkinton

23			Mike Giacobbe	WR	SR	6-0	196	Medway, Mass.	Catholic Memorial
25			Matt Horgan	DB	SR	5-9	180	West Newbury, Mass.	Central Catholic
28			Ryan Rossiter	DB	SR	5-11	190	Sparta, N.J.	Sparta
35			Collin Urie	LB	SR	6-0	215	St. Johnsbury, Vt.	St. Johnsbury Academy

49			Mike Rossiter	LB	SR	5-11	215	Sparta, N.J.	Sparta
55			Dillon Carey	OL	SR	6-1	285	Ashburn, Va.	Stone Bridge
66			Josh Hylkema	OL	SR	6-0	280	Batavia, N.Y.	Alexander
71			PJ Tziachris	OL	SR	6-2	245	Cumberland, R.I.	Tabor Academy
74			Alex Lanzana	OL	SR	6-0	290	Mahwah, N.J.	Mahwah
77			Chris Ciurcina	DL	SR	5-11	260	Garden City, N.Y.	Garden City
88			Jake Bergmann	TE	SR	6-3	228	Leesburg, Va.	Gonzaga College HS
92			Zach Rudolph	DL	SR	6-2	250	Bethlehem, Pa.	Southern Lehigh
93			Kyle Hackett	K	SR	6-2	165	Charlton, Mass.	Worcester Academy
99			Yves Montissol	DL	SR	5-7	245	Spring Valley, N.Y.	Saint Joseph

I'd like to congratulate and thank these hard working young men and Statesmen for their dedication to HWS and the Statesmen Football program. We can't wait to learn of your future successes in life!

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart! 

Class of 2025 (Part VII)

Here were today's three latest Hobart Statesmen Football commits. There could be potentially 1-2 more over the coming weeks / over the summer:

HC Kevin DeWall '00 has always had a good eye for special teams talent, and it's interesting Hobart is going to places like Texas to find it. PK Justin Fahys will be the sole Texan on the roster, but the Statesmen have had some good success in the past with players like Rio Schmidt '18 from the Lone Star state.

A second CPHS player and another Bangaly will join the Statesmen as a CB. Bangaly Kante did a PG year and is a dual sport athlete, standing 6'3" and 185 lbs. Last decade former HC Mike Cragg used to joke about the undersized players in the Statesmen secondary. That's not the case today and Kante certainly fits the mold of what Hobart is building on defense.

Ethan Kowalski is a strong interior OL prospect (he played RG at LHS) with decent size (6'2" 250 lbs.) and solid technique. You can check his highlight reel here. A native of Western NY, Kowalski is staying relative close to home and appears to be a great student (4.0 GPA) to boot.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

Class of 2025 (Part VI)

20 names in with only 7 or  more to go. I am guessing that tomorrow the @HobartFootball twitter feed will reveal the final student athletes instead of the daily "four-blocker" we've been updating you on.

This is an interesting group to me, mostly because I hadn't been able to uncover any recruiting commitment news on these guys until today. The next group in the Class of 2025 is as follows:

DL Bangaly Stephan Berte is from my home state of CT, but attended a HS I haven't heard of before, Capital Prep Harbor (in Bridgeport). There isn't a lot of information on Berte online, but his size 6' 3" 245 lbs. is promising, especially in a position unit Hobart needs more depth.

Another good looking LB, Alex Dalton is coming up from MD to join the Statesmen. His Hudl profile says he played DE/TE at GHS, but at 6' 195 lbs. is better suited to move to OLB. His highlight reel shows him doing well at MLB also. 

Another recruit from NJ, Ryan Hinman received the "athlete" designation from the Hobart coaching staff. This means he could be looked at for a variety of role:, QB, RB, WR/TE, or DB/LB. He has good size at 6'2" 220 lbs. and his highlight reel shows his athleticism. I'll be interested to see where Ryan ends up.

Another Floridian (Boca Raton), Jovan Joseph is a nice add to the defensive secondary at safety. While his highlight reel focused mostly on his skills as a RB, Jovan's speed and athleticism will be a bigger asset on defense.

Only five more to go! Next week I'll do a special tribute to the Class of 2021.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

Class of 2025 (Part V)

We keep the recruiting updates going today with four more future Statesmen players. 

The first is a QB from CO I wrote about back in February. 

A teammate who'll be blocking for Colombi is from my old neck of the woods, in the west San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, Elijah "Planet" Christian. I wrote about him back in February also. 

The next is a LB from the North Shore of Boston, Anthony Romano. Based on his highlights Romano is an athletic player, blocking and receiving as a TE. It looks like the Hobart coaches see him on the defensive side of the ball to start his college career, and Anthony certainly fits the long-time mold of Statesmen 'backers.

DB Aaden Woodard also appeared on this blog back in February and looks like a strong candidate in the defensive secondary.

That's 20 down and nine more to go. This is shaping up to be a really strong class for the Statesmen football program!

Thanks as always for reading (on our way to 300k!) and go 'Bart!

Class of 2025 (Part IV)

We keep it rolling with the next (H) block of four new Statesmen starting with:

WR Di’Quann Baker from Towson, MD is a small but speedy guy who is also a strong cover corner. Time will tell were he lands on the roster, but he makes up for his lack of size with toughness and skill based on his highlight reel.

The first real ST add will be PK Tobias Wefering from West Islip HS in Long Island, NY:

I wrote about Kevin, a big LB from NJ, in early February along with another Statesmen recruit who'll we see show up on this list in the next day or so.

TE Luke Hescock is one of the more intriguing recruits in the Class of 2025, given his combination of size and the fact his big brother was a D1 athlete at UCF. I wrote about Luke back in January so he was clearly one of our early ED1 commits. His size and athleticism should help Hobart right away.

We'll keep the updates on the Class of 2025 coming tomorrow and throughout the rest of the week.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart! 

The Class of 2025 (Part III)

First off, congratulations to the Class of 2021 on their graduations from HWS yesterday. Second, it's hard to believe that my own graduation happened almost 25 years ago. Time flies, as they say. Third, I plan to do a tribute to the Class of 2021 later this week or early next, but for now we'll forge ahead on introducing these future graduates and alumni, in the Class of 2025.

Today's group has some "familiar" faces as we'll see in the links below:

Going into the fall 2021 preseason, the biggest area of need for the Hobart defense will be at DE. Josh Cox could be thrust into action quickly if he can learn the playbook and adjust to the college game quickly. I wrote about Josh (along with another big lineman from CA who I'm sure we'll "meet again" later this week) back in February. The second recruit from the state of GA, Cox brings the right measurables (6' 5" and 240 lbs.) to the table. I'm excited to see how this student athlete and young man develops.

TE Finn Foley is a new name (to me, anyway), but the Brookline and the suburbs of Boston are very familiar territory for the Statesmen coaches from a recruiting perspective. Foley has a few highlights out there that shows he's a tall (6' 5") and big (220+ lbs.), pass catching TE who can block. Based on the roster as it currently stands, TE is an area where Hobart could use a little more depth and competition. Finn certainly should bring that to the table.

I also wrote about LB Vincent Giordano back in February (a couple of days after Josh Cox, ironically). He's a solid 6' 1" 220 hitter who also starred in lacrosse for Sachem North HS. 

Last but certainly not least is Verona HS RB Frank Riggio, one of Hobart's first commits to the Class of 2025, based on twitter activity anyway. Riggio was recognized as one of the better HS players in the state of NJ, appearing in an all-star game (or two). The Statesmen have a pretty loaded RB unit already, but Riggio is no slouch and will probably work his way into some games over the course of the fall.

With 12 down and 17 more to go I expect to have updates on the Class of 2025 all this week and probably into the weekend (based on the math).

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!