The Dynasty Lives on for Terrier Men’ s Soccer
There is no disputing that head men’ s soccer coach Tom Giovatto has built the model soccer program in the Northeast Conference. The Terriers( 14-5-1) made their fourth NCAA appearance in the past five years after winning the NEC title for the second straight season at Brooklyn Bridge Park in early November.
Giovatto was named the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Division I Coach of the Year following another tremendous season. On a personal level, Giovatto recorded his 100th career win on October 20 in a victory over Robert Morris.
Brooklyn Bridge Park has provided an unbelievable advantage for the Terriers since beginning play at their new home in 2013. The Terriers are a combined 33-5-4(. 825) playing on the waterfront during those five seasons, never losing more than one home match a season.
The Terriers are a combined 12-0-2 over the past two years in Northeast conference play. Over the past five years, the Red & Blue are a combined 23-6-6 against NEC opponents.
They’ ve outscored their NEC opponents 21-2 during the last two regular seasons and did not allow an NEC goal in all of 2016, a stretch which extended into the NEC post-season. This past season they owned a 9-2 scoring advantage and outscored their opponents, 8-0, in the 2017 NEC Championships.
A total of five Terriers were named to 2017 United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Men’ s All-Northeast Region Teams: Defender Faouzi Taieb’ 20 and midfielder Dominick Falanga’ 18 earned First Team honors, goalie Roberto Bazzichetto’ 18 and forward Ali Tounkara’ 20 received Second Team accolades, and defender Collyns Laokandi’ 18 was named to the Third Team. ●
Bowler Emma Catone Competes at Nationals
Bowler Emma Catone’ 18 competed in the United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Singles Championships, in Omaha, NE this April. Catone earned an automatic invite to the national event after placing seventh out of 174 competitors with a score of 1,240 at the 2018 Intercollegiate Singles Championship Sectional Qualifiers.
Catone, a Second Team All Northeast Conference performer, bowled the fourth highest score in qualifying, moving her to the second round of the national tournament where her tournament ended.
“ I’ m so proud of Emma this past year, especially the last few months where I’ ve seen some of the best shots ever from her,” said Terriers’ Head Coach Dawn Gugliaro.“ Her decision-making with on lane adjustments and ball selection have been on point. Her ability to stay in the moment and focused is the reason she has been able to put up the big numbers.” ●
Emma Catone’ 18.
St. Francis College Athletics ahead of the Curve on Mental Health
Mental health issues have always carried a certain shame in our society and that stigma, unfortunately, extends to college athletics as well. At St. Francis College, however, this is not the case. Last summer, Irma Garcia’ 80 made a bold decision that she hoped would make a long-lasting impact for her student-athletes and coaching staff. Instead of budgeting all of the department’ s precious funds for routine program upgrades, the Terriers’ Director of Athletics hired Dr. Jarrod Spencer to instill the revolutionary“ Mind of the Athlete Program” for the entire 2017 – 18 academic year.
“ The Northeast Conference recently instituted a wonderful new initiative to bring experts to our campuses to help student-athletes on a variety of different topics,” Garcia explained.“ Mental health was the one area I felt would benefit our student-athletes the most. We wanted to give them a tool to deal with a variety of problems that arise due to the stress of being a college student and a Division I athlete.”
“ Mind of the Athlete” helps improve the emotional health of athletes. The staff believes there is so much more possible within athletes. The belief is that this potential is often blocked by limitations of the mind. The program attempts to unlock that potential by equipping athletes with cutting edge sports psychology content, resources, and skills. The mission is to help athletes thrive!
Dr. Spencer focused the first year on three main areas: how the mind works best, sleep and how it effects performance, and how to manage performance anxiety.
“ I believe it’ s really been a huge positive for our program,” Garcia added.“ We have gotten great feedback from our student-athletes and coaches and we plan on continue our relationship with Jarrod next year.”
“ If you want your son or daughter to attend a school where they are honestly cared for, St. Francis College is the place,” said Dr. Spencer.“ The student-athlete is cared for deeply as a person, not just an athlete, and it’ s obvious from the top-down. It’ s a tangible vibe that you feel at this place and it gives me more excitement and the love to perform my job every day.” ●
Men’ s Track and Field Returns to the Penn Relays
Five members of the Men’ s Track and Field team ran in the 2018 Penn Relays, making it the second year in a row the Terriers competed in the prestigious event. The men competed in the 4 x 400 meter relay and the College Men’ s Sprint Medley. Paul Clarke’ 19 was the only one of the five who raced last year. The others on the 4 x 400 were Daniel Pagan’ 21, Feguy Magnan’ 21, and Joshua Beausil’ 21. In the medley, Clarke, Magnan, Pagan, and Matthew Nieves’ 21 raced, cutting more than four second off the team’ s time from a year ago.
Graduate Wagner Elancieux’ 18 also competed at the relays. He ran for Team Haiti in the USA vs. the World 4 × 100 meter event where he got to race against one of the world’ s fastest men, Justin Gatlin. ●
ST. FRANCIS COLLEGE TERRIER | SUMMER 2018, VOLUME 81, NUMBER 2 15