[media-credit name=”Photo Courtesy Drexel Baseball” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Sophomore Chris Martin works from the stretch during Drexel’s 4-0 loss to La Salle University Oct. 19. With a doubleheader sweep against Cairn University Oct. 26, the Dragons would finish the fall season 7-6.

America’s pastime and the autumn season have been linked throughout history. Major League Baseball’s World Series is played in the fall, but only two cities are lucky enough to have a team playing in the final series of the year. This year’s edition of the Fall Classic features the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, leaving Philadelphia Phillies fans longing for next season and some baseball to fill the void.

There is no need to worry, though. Philadelphia’s universities are wrapping up their fall seasons, and Drexel students need not look any further than their very own Dragons. The club baseball team sits at 5-6 on the fall season after a two-game sweep of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

The fall season can be used to discover team leaders and improved players heading into the all-important spring season beginning in March. Junior pitcher Varun Padmanabhan and pre-junior catcher and third baseman Cameron Goodell have shined this fall, becoming a couple of Drexel’s strongest weapons.

Padmanabhan has been mowing hitters down to the tune of 22 strikeouts over 19 innings while allowing only 13 baserunners. Keeping guys off of the basepaths has kept runs at a premium against Padmanabhan, as he has only allowed one earned run all fall for a dominant 0.37 ERA.

“Padmanabhan has anchored the already solid pitching staff so far,” team president and starting first baseman Sean Gallagher said. “After an offseason last year where he spent most of the year injured, he has come back stronger than ever, looking extremely sharp in every one of his outings.”

What Padmanabhan has done on the mound is the same kind of dominant performance that Goodell has been able to put together at the plate. Goodell has been a monster, hitting either leadoff or third in the Dragons’ lineup. With a .410 batting average and a whopping .625 on-base percentage, Goodell has been able not only to create runs on the basepaths but to knock them in as well. He has driven in seven RBIs on the season while scoring eight runs himself.

“His flexibility really adds depth to the lineup that hasn’t been present before,” Gallagher said of Goodell’s versatility in the batting order. “Having his bat at the top of the lineup provides a lot of pop.”

Gallagher’s bat has been an intimidating presence in its own right in the Dragons’ batting order. The junior has accumulated a .500 on-base percentage — helped by getting hit by a pitch four times — and has driven in four runs.

Although Drexel currently sits hovering around the .500 mark, the team has played some top competition down to the wire, giving the team confidence heading toward the spring season. In their season opener against the defending champion Pennsylvania State University, the Dragons held the lead into the sixth inning even though almost half of the team could not make the trip because of co-op obligations.

“We took a huge 2-0 lead in the first inning, and Padmanabhan held the Nittany Lions scoreless for the first four innings,” Gallagher said looking back at the Oct. 4 opener in State College, Pa. “The score was 2-1 heading into the sixth inning, when Penn State strung together a few hits and took the lead. It was a huge game for our team, and had we won, it would have catapulted us into contention for the tournament championship.”

Head coach Michael Ferretti is looking forward to the spring season after seeing a lot of promise from the team during the fall. The philosophy for the fall focused less on the wins and losses and more on playing focused and working hard as a team. Ferretti felt like playing different guys in the fall season would benefit the team in the long run.

“We believe that the best way to achieve our overall team goals is to build a team where every guy has a niche and role,” he said. “Giving guys an opportunity to play now should make that more clear come spring.”

The experiences that the team has had together during the fall will only make Drexel stronger in the spring. Ferretti said he already sees that strength among the players building.

“Heading into the spring, we want to make sure we learn from our experiences from the fall,” Ferretti continued. “As a team we need to focus on becoming consistent on a day-in and day-out basis [and] in every aspect of the game.”

The Dragons have two more games left in their fall season, an Oct. 26 doubleheader against Cairn University. With a sweep in that doubleheader, Drexel will have battled its way back to finish over the .500 mark. Either way, the team looks to build momentum toward the spring season, which begins March 1 with a tough test against Syracuse University.

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2010 was a pivotal year for the future of Drexel University. President John A. Fry was elected to his position, and it seemed like the construction began almost immediately and the building blocks were put in place to become a world-leading modern university. Little did we know at the time that there were more plans brewing in the athletic department, and the sport of squash would be a major piece of the broader Drexel puzzle.

Fry has been on the board of directors of U.S. Squash since 2010, and it is a widely known fact around campus that he is an avid fan and player of the sport. When Fry arrived at Drexel, though, squash was an afterthought to many, if it was even a thought at all. Squash was offered as a club sport but was still relatively young, with the men’s team beginning in 2005 and the women’s in 2007.

One year after coming to Drexel, Fry and Director of Athletics Eric Zillmer announced a series of plans that would change how the sport of squash was viewed on Drexel’s campus. Among the plans were a partnership with the local nonprofit organization SquashSmarts, elevating Drexel’s club squash teams to NCAA Division I status with former top-ranked player John White as head coach, building the $1.5 million Kline & Specter Squash Center within the rec center, and applying to host the 2011 Delaware Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships.

Fast-forward to the present, and everything seems to be working according to plan. Drexel and squash have grown up together in the last three years. The University is undergoing a massive redevelopment project that has included the recent openings of Chestnut Square and Gerri C. LeBow Hall.

Meanwhile, squash has been on a meteoric rise of its own. White has taken the program to new heights, and the Squash Center has played host to various squash events in the Philadelphia area, including the U.S. Open Squash Championships, an internationally renowned tournament that Drexel has hosted for the past three years.

Even student involvement in the game is growing, White pointed out. The club team has over 40 players, and recreational use of the new squash courts has far exceeded anybody’s expectations.

“We actually need to build more courts because they’re being used so much,” White joked. “With the U.S. Open and with the courts being built downstairs two years ago, squash at Drexel has really picked up.”

The U.S. Open has really afforded Drexel the opportunity to use the sport to grow. White called it one of the top three tournaments of the professional season. Having the best players in the world use Drexel’s facilities has only helped squash’s reputation at the University.

This year, squash at Drexel took two major steps forward. Fry was named chair of the board of directors for U.S. Squash, and Drexel was announced as the U.S. Open host for the next 10 years.

“We know it’s only going to get bigger and better,” White said of Drexel’s extension as the host of the U.S. Open. “It’s going to help with recruiting. It’s going to help the athletic department.”

White said that Fry and Drexel’s devotion to the sport have helped create a sense of pride across all parts of the campus, and he and his players are grateful for the University’s commitment to squash. While hosting the U.S. Open signifies growth for Drexel’s squash program as a whole, the tournament also offers the players a unique opportunity to grow as individuals and as athletes.

“The whole team is volunteering every day, which is awesome,” White said. “They get to see matches, hang out with the pros, and see how the game should be played. They’re able to hear it and see it, I don’t think any other college has an international event of any sort where team members can see it and volunteer for 10 days.”

Aside from the growth, the U.S. Open is a great fit for the University in terms of its mission. Drexel has long been known in the world of athletics as one of the most gender-equitable universities in the country. Prior to the start of this year’s U.S. Open, it was announced that players would play for the largest purse of prize money in the tournament’s history — $230,000 would be up for grabs, $115,000 each on the men’s and women’s sides. This marks the first time that an international squash tournament is awarding equal prize money to men and women.

The men’s and women’s champions of the 2013 U.S. Open Squash Championships will be decided Oct. 18.

We can be sure that as Drexel looks back on the growth of its squash program over the past three years, it will see great successes. Fry’s plans for the University have led with a little-known sport at the forefront, but if the growth of the squash program is any indication, the next 10 years for Drexel look bright.

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Sitting on Drexel’s West Philadelphia campus, it is easy to see that athletics do not play along the narrative of being the lifeblood of a modern-day college campus. Drexel has not fielded a football team since 1973, and the basketball teams play in a deteriorating mid-major conference. It can be difficult to understand the role that college athletics play outside our comfortable bubble, but you do not need to use a microscope nor do much digging to realize its breadth.

Photo Courtesy EPIX. “Schooled: The Price of College Sports” investigates the multibillion-dollar industry of college athletics. The film includes footage of athletes like former UCLA teammates Datone Jones and Johnathan Franklin, who were both drafted to the Green Bay Packers this year.

“Schooled: The Price of College Sports” is based on the work of renowned civil rights historian Taylor Branch in his e-book “The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA” and his influential long-form article “The Shame of College Sports” that appeared in The Atlantic in the fall of 2011. Legendary Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford called the latter “the most important article ever written on college sports.”

“Schooled” premiered Oct. 8 at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. Among those in attendance were Andrew Muscato, the producer of the film; Domonique Foxworth, the president of the NFL Players Association, who is quoted in the film; Devon Ramsay, former University of North Carolina football player whose story was told extensively in the film; and the aforementioned Branch. The four appeared on a panel following the film, which was moderated by Time magazine sportswriter Sean Gregory.

College athletics are a multibillion-dollar industry. This industry has been — and continues to be — built on the backs of unpaid athletes. When you uncover your eyes, that grim reality is easily recognized. The premise of “Schooled” is that although the college athletic industry continues to grow, the athletes continue to reap none of the rewards.

Unpaid is the shortcut way of explaining it all, though. Under the guise of amateurism, these athletes are modern-day indentured servants, as NFL running back Arian Foster explained. Indentured servants are forced to work under the terms of a contract for a specific period of time, usually with the promise of training, not cash. Sound familiar?

These athletes do not have a seat at the negotiating table. They have to deal with financial shortfalls on their scholarships, scholarships that are not guaranteed year-by-year, and are forced to pay their way through the exorbitant costs of the medical industry in the event of injury. They have no right to prosper from their endeavors. They have fewer rights than the very same students they attend school with and fewer judicial rights with the NCAA than a mass murderer has with the federal courts.

Sports Illustrated writer Mike Rosenberg brings up a classic example. If a math student comes up with a groundbreaking formula and has the opportunity to profit from it, then he can do so with much applause from his university. College athletes, however, are not allowed to benefit a penny beyond their scholarship.

Foxworth, the NFLPA president and former NFL player, displayed the stark reality of the relationship that student-athletes have with academics. “Cs get degrees,” he said, was the motto for him and his college teammates. As long as an athlete upholds a C average to remain eligible and makes a big play on game day, the fans are happy. If a student earns straight As and does not come up with a big play, then the fans are far from pleased.

Perhaps the most powerful and enduring image of the film is of Kent Waldrep. Waldrep played for Texas Christian University in the mid-1970s. In a game against The University of Alabama in 1974, Waldrep’s career came to a tragic end. Late in the second quarter, Waldrep broke his neck rushing toward the sidelines. Waldrep emotionally walks the audience through how the play changed his life and left him a quadriplegic. A court ruled that both the NCAA and TCU were not required to pay worker’s compensation because Waldrep was not considered an employee of the university, merely a student participating in an extracurricular activity.

All too often, when people speak of the injustices against college athletes, the words lack humanity. Oftentimes we hear about the money-grubbing, morally corrupt suits at the NCAA’s headquarters in Indianapolis taking advantage of college athletes, and it all sounds unreal. “Schooled” made the issue feel real again, arguing not as much for payment of athletes as it does for the basic civil rights of athletes. This is where Branch’s influence shines through.

A scene early in the film showed an athletic director walk up to Branch after an event and say that schools “can’t let the animals run the zoo,” referring to affording athletes further rights and compensation. During the panel discussion after the film, Foxworth invokes the rights and compensation of the NFL players that he oversees and said, “The game doesn’t change just because the athletes are younger.”

It makes you think whether the men in charge of the money in college athletics are just blind or perhaps the animals that are already running the zoo.

“Schooled: The Price of College Sports” airs Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. on Epix.

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[media-credit name=”Ajon Brodie” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Marcela Rosales reached the finals of the Flight 1 singles draw at the Saint Joseph’s Invitational. Nicole Pivonka and Fiorella Coria took home the Flight 2 doubles title.

Tennis is an intensely individual sport. Players need to have a special mindset and focus to be the only person out on the court defending the 39-by-27-foot box on their side of the net. Groomed as singles players from the time they first pick up a racket, tennis players who throw a second player on each side break the mold that they learned to create and maintain during competition. Now there is a certain level of chemistry that must be reached to be successful, which is easier said than done in most cases.

For Drexel junior Nicole Pivonka and freshman Fiorella Coria, the chemistry has come naturally, and it has shown in their recent success. Last weekend, in their first tournament paired together as doubles partners, Pivonka and Coria won the Flight 2 doubles title at the Saint Joseph’s Invitational over a duo from the host university by a score of 8-5.

“We came together as a team a little better than the previous weekend because we knew each other a little better,” Pivonka said. “With doubles, I was able to get a better connection with my partner, we were able to pull through, and we actually ended up winning.”

As a freshman and sophomore, Pivonka quickly developed into a dangerous doubles player. Paired with Emma Brook in her first two seasons, the two racked up a dozen doubles victories when Pivonka was a freshman before being named a Second-Team All-Colonial Athletic Association doubles selection last year. Brook’s eligibility has since run out, leaving Pivonka in search of a new doubles partner.

Enter Coria.

A left-handed player, Coria was recruited by Drexel after a successful high school career in which she was ranked in the top 100 in recruitment for United States juniors. Partnered with Pivonka in only the second tournament of her young collegiate career, the duo came out victorious.

“We’re starting to learn each other’s games and [be] able to communicate,” Pivonka said of the natural chemistry the two have developed. “Communication is big in doubles, and we are growing on that.”

Having a freshman as a partner has also allowed Pivonka to take on more of a leadership role on the court. It is a change that the Sarasota, Fla., native has welcomed with open arms so far.

“With [Coria] being a freshman, I just try to stay positive and keep her ready for the next point while not worrying about the past,” Pivonka said. “She did a really good job with that, and I think that’s why we work well as a team.”

Although Pivonka may be the leader between the two because she is two years older than Coria, that does not mean Coria does not help boost Pivonka’s game. Head coach Mehdi Rhazali has taken notice to what both players bring to the court, and he is already impressed with their results.

“They have interesting game because one sets up the other really well,” Rhazali said of Pivonka and Coria. “For example, Nicole is tall; she’s 5-foot-11. Having a person that tall in women’s tennis standing right there at the net with a lefty serving, you have to work so hard to make that return perfect, so that’s already an advantage.”

Rhazali has also been impressed with Pivonka’s backhand, which he called one of the biggest that he has seen in women’s college tennis. With many opponents serving more comfortably with what is called a “kick serve” to the outside boundary of the serving box, Pivonka’s strengths are maximized during doubles play. So far this season, she has been able to capitalize on it.

The Dragons came up empty-handed in the singles draws, however, leaving Rhazali admittedly disappointed. Pivonka fell in the Flight 1 quarterfinals to a player from the University of Delaware. Marcela Rosales made a strong run to the finals but fell to Nataliya Nauomva of the University of Delaware in straight sets following a long semifinal match.

Erin Bowsher, who has impressed Rhazali so far in her first season back after a medical redshirt sidelined her for most of last year, reached the Flight 3 quarterfinals. Alex Bell fell after three sets in the Flight 4 finals after winning her previous two matches, each in three sets.

Rounding out the team’s doubles results at the Saint Joseph’s Invitational were Rosales and Zeynep Mafa falling in the quarterfinals of the Flight 1 draw, Bowsher and Lea Winkler going down in the second round of the Flight 1 draw, and Bell and Amanda Tilles falling in the first round of the Flight 2 draw.

Rhazali said that the week of practice leading up to this weekend’s slate of matches would continue to be tough in an effort to build physical fitness and stamina for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals at the end of October. The women will now travel to Rider University while the men face a tough test at the Lehigh Invitational.

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[media-credit name=”Ajon Brodie” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Senior Zeynep Mafa, pictured above, and junior Nicole pivonka advanced to the Round of 16 in the Flight a main draw of the Cissie Leary Invitational Sept. 20-22.

Badr Ouabdelmoumen has come a long way. Now a junior on the Drexel tennis team, Ouabdelmoumen is a long way from his hometown of Rabat, the capital city of Morocco. His tennis game has also come a long way in a short amount of time, defending his Flight 1 singles title and adding a Flight 2 doubles title with partner Daniel Hansen at the Saint Joseph’s Invitational Sept. 20-22.

Junior Dan Koehler also added a title for the Dragons, winning the Flight 2 singles title.

The Saint Joseph’s Invitational was the first tournament of the fall season for Drexel’s men’s tennis team, and with Drexel University operating on the quarter system, the Dragons only had one week to prepare. For a player that head coach Mehdi Rhazali thought was “lazy” at times, Ouabdelmoumen’s preparation and determination impressed the young coach.

“He actually came back early this summer asking to train, and that’s surprising because he can be a lazy guy. He needs to be pushed at times,” Rhazali said. “He was asking for matches every day; he lost a lot of weight; he looks fit.”

Ouabdelmoumen’s improved fitness level surely helped him win his two titles. On Sunday, the final day of the tournament, Ouabdelmoumen played his final two doubles matches and his semifinal singles match. The only reason he didn’t play a fourth was because his opponent in the singles final forfeited after a long and tiring match in the semifinals. That was fine with a tired Ouabdelmoumen, although he would have loved to compete fairly for the final.

“I really wanted to play,” Ouabdelmoumen said. “The guy that I was going to play, I played him last year and beat him in two sets, so I was feeling pretty comfortable about that. I was hoping to play it actually because it feels better to actually win it.”

To win, Ouabdelmoumen beat Henry Jang-Milsten of the United States Military Academy 6-1, 6-4 in the first round; Zack Niklaus of the University of Delaware 7-6, 6-2 in the second; and another Blue Hen, Troy Beneck, in a three-set contest 3-6, 7-5, 11-9. Jose Sierra of Saint Joseph’s University was supposed to be Ouabdelmoumen’s opponent in the finals before dropping out to give Ouabdelmoumen the title.

There are high expectations for Ouabdelmoumen this season. As a freshman he was named Third Team All-Colonial Athletic Association. Last season, as a sophomore, Ouabdelmoumen became the first Drexel men’s tennis player to be named first team all-conference. This year he will need what Rhazali calls Ouabdelmoumen’s biggest strength, his confidence, if he wants to achieve his goal of competing at a high level at the all-important Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals.

“He has a lot of confidence [and] is one of the most mentally tough players that I have ever met,” Rhazali said. “He can tell the other player that he’s going to beat them and then do it. Before the tournament he said that he was going to win the title and defend his title from last year, and I told him that I think he can do it.”

For his efforts, Ouabdelmoumen was named one of three Colonial Marble & Granite Athletes of the Week by Drexel Athletics, joining golfer Christopher Crawford and field hockey player Elise DiDonato.

Ouabdelmoumen is not the only Drexel tennis player playing with confidence, though. Rhazali was impressed with the women’s team’s showing at the Cissie Leary Invitational, which was hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Sept. 20-22. Rhazali said that the Cissie Leary Invitational is the best competition the team will face prior to the ITA Regionals at the end of the fall season.

Senior Zeynep Mafa and junior Nicole Pivonka had strong showings in the Flight A main draw, both advancing their way to the Round of 16. Both received a first-round bye before Mafa beat Cassandre Thebault, a strong freshman from the University of Maryland. Pivonka, a Third-Team All-CAA selection last year, beat Melissa Kandinata, a Richmond University junior and the 2012 Atlantic-10 Most Outstanding Rookie Performer.

But the performance of sophomore Erin Bowsher specifically stood out to Rhazali. Coming off a medical redshirt, Bowsher beat her first opponent from St. John’s University before falling to a player from Maryland in the Flight B Round of 16.

“For me, putting her in the tournament, my biggest hope is that she gets one win,” Rhazali said. “That’s going to help her confidence, and that’s going to be huge after one year off the court. The Drexel doctors and trainers really helped her out. She came back fit, she lost a lot of weight — she looks good. Then she won her first match.”

The Dragons were not to be outdone in doubles, either, with the team of Pivonka and Marcela Rosales advancing to the Round of 16. The duo of Mafa and Fiorella Coria were also able to notch a victory before they were stopped in the second round.

For Drexel tennis, the road ahead is bright. The women’s team plays next at the Saint Joseph’s Invitational Sept. 27-29, while the men’s team has a week off before playing Oct. 5 in the Lehigh Invitational.

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[media-credit name=”Courtesy of Drexel Baseball” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] The 2012-13 Drexel baseball team poses at Campbell’s Field. The stadium, which is located in Camden, N.J., is home to the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League of professional Baseball.

You can just imagine the scene. College baseball players are gathered around, maybe in the dugout or maybe after a long and hard-fought game to end their season. Their uniforms are probably dirtied and grass-stained, smudged eye-black on both cheeks. Instead of the manager walking in to go through the customary postseason speech that says something about having a great season and looking forward to next year, the athletic director walks in.

He tells the players that they have just played their last game ever because the school is dropping their NCAA Division I baseball program.

That was Drexel in 2003. Along with the women’s volleyball team, the Dragons’ baseball team was cut for Title IX compliance. Drexel’s athletic director, Eric Zillmer, expressed an interest in competing at a higher level in the Colonial Athletic Association, the conference that Drexel joined in the 2001-02 academic year, and the money saved by cutting the baseball and volleyball teams would help the University do so.

Title IX is part of the 1972 Education Amendments. It states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” By competing in collegiate athletics, student-athletes are covered under Title IX. Drexel has long been recognized as a leader in gender equality, being ranked No. 1 in the category by U.S. News and World Report in 2002.

In the season before getting dropped, the team went 12-34 overall with a 3-17 record in the CAA.

Although the baseball team was dropped in 2003, the dream was never lost. All the players wanted to do was keep playing, no matter what level. They loved the game of baseball and that was it. “The other sports are just sports,” broadcaster Bryant Gumbel once said. “Baseball is love.”

In 2006 the baseball dream was revived at Drexel. Baseball became recognized as a club sport, as it is still recognized today, and a member of the National Club Baseball Association.

“The quality of the competition is comparable to [NCAA] D-II or D-III,” president of Drexel Baseball and finance major Sean Gallagher said. “We actually play D-II and D-III teams every once in a while, and [we compete] for the most part.”

Club sports are separate from the University’s athletic department, are funded by the Drexel Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee and are completely student-run. All scheduling, travel arrangements, fundraising, equipment management, marketing and coaching is done by the team’s president, vice president and treasurer, who juggle their administrative responsibilities on top of playing and being students.

Fundraising has been a major focus for the baseball team over the past few years. SAFAC’s allotted budget for the baseball team is large in relation to other on-campus student organizations, but it is less than a quarter of what club baseball teams at some other big-budget universities get. This means that players are paying annual dues and carpooling to practices and games. Forget about a per diem like Division I athletes are afforded on road trips; these guys are forced to operate more like a local little league.

To bring in enough money to make ends meet and begin to ease the financial burden on the players, Drexel Baseball has held a variety of events. Last year the team held its first annual Alumni Weekend. Over the course of two days, the team reconnected with its roots, holding an alumni game and an alumni golf outing. When paired with the team’s yearly merchandise sales, Drexel Baseball is able to fundraise more than the amount allocated by SAFAC.

The club’s fundraising efforts have helped the recent growth of the program. Last year they finished with their best conference record ever in the NCBA’s North Atlantic East Conference at 10-2. The North Atlantic East Conference is comprised of Rutgers University, the University of Delaware, Towson University and the recently added Hofstra University. In fact, the program has grown so much over the past few years that players need to try out for a chance to play on the team.

“It started out that we just had enough guys to play when they first started the program,” Gallagher said. “Now it is to the point where we have to turn some guys away from playing. We’re taking the best of the best at Drexel that want to play baseball.”

Tryouts for the fall team will be held during the first two weeks of fall term, and there is a $25 tryout fee.

Now, they know that if they want to take another step forward, they need to hire a full-time coach. Since becoming a recognized club sport at Drexel, the baseball team has had either a player or a recent graduate of the program act as coach.

“Our main goal right now is to get a head coach, which is what we have been searching for all this summer,” Gallagher said. “We recognize that a coach is a huge part of our game.”

A coach is next on the list of things to do, but there are visions of getting Drexel Baseball back to its place in Division I where it once was. Drexel recently expanded its athletic department to add men’s and women’s squash in 2011, so the willingness to grow is in place. If Drexel Baseball continues to grow, then maybe they will be next. For now, though, they will gladly continue playing for the love of the game.

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[media-credit name=”Kameron Walsh” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Former Dragons forward Taylor Wootton takes a contested shot against the University of Florida during Drexel’s 67-57 victory over the Gators April 3 in the semifinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Drexel defeated The University of Utah three days later in the championship game by a score of 46-43.

There is something special about the last memory of your college basketball career being cutting down the nets after winning the Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship that makes you never want to leave. For former Drexel women’s basketball player Taylor Wootton, leaving Drexel was just not an option.

After all, why would she want to leave? She became the 16th player in Drexel history to reach 1,000 career points and appeared in her school-record 131st game in the team’s WNIT championship victory over The University of Utah, which was the first national women’s basketball title ever won by a school in Philadelphia. Her 12 points and 4.7 rebounds per game last season earned her Third-Team All-CAA honors.

The magical run to the championship as a senior was too much to leave behind. Beginning with the upcoming 2013-14 season, Wootton will stay with her Drexel family and serve as the coordinator of women’s basketball operations.

“I love Drexel; the athletic department is like a big family,” the 6-foot-1-inch Wootton said. “Everybody knows everybody, and I really wanted to stay [here].”

Her position entails lots of hard work in a variety of areas, none of which are filled with the fame and glory that you may expect from a coaching role at an NCAA Division-I institution. It will be a little bit of everything for Wootton, including tasks like taping the Dragons’ practices and games, cutting and editing film for players to study, getting film from opposing teams, organizing trips and food arrangements, and sending recruiting letters.

The hard work does not bother her, though, as Wootton has her eyes on a much larger prize.

“It’s just the first step,” she said. “Coaching is what I really want to do.”

Serving in a basketball operations role is a stepping stone into the coaching profession. Last summer, the Drexel men’s basketball team promoted its operations assistant, Bobby Jordan, to assistant coach after two seasons. Similar to Wootton, Jordan had also played four seasons with the Dragons.

Just as Jordan had played under and now coaches with men’s basketball head coach James “Bruiser” Flint, Wootton will work with the same head coach whom she played under. Denise Dillon has led Drexel’s women’s basketball program to heights previously unseen, and Wootton is excited for the opportunity to learn under her tutelage.

“I wouldn’t want to be under any other coach,” Wootton said. “I loved playing for her and all of the other coaches. They are great coaches on and off the court, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but Drexel right now.”

For Wootton, there is no better coach to learn under. Dillon has deep basketball roots in the Philadelphia area, having played at Villanova for four years in the mid-1990s before jumping right into a coaching career of her own. She has now spent a dozen years at Drexel as either an assistant or the head coach, building the Dragons’ program into one with national success.

In a news release from Drexel’s athletic department, Dillon said of Wootton, “As a player, she was always an extension of the coaching staff on the court, with her knowledge of the game and strong leadership qualities. Her transition from player to colleague will bring a strong addition to our staff.”

That transition from player to staff is one that Wootton describes as “a little weird.”

“It’s a little different on the [coaching] side because you were friends with the players last year, but now you’re on the professional side of them,” Wootton said. “I just need to get used to that part, and hopefully I can still help bring success to the program.”

Her youth, though, could end up being a benefit as she begins her journey through the college coaching ranks. Just last year, Wootton was feeling exactly what this year’s new crop of players is feeling.

“I haven’t been out of school for more than two or three months now, so I really know what they are going through,” Wootton, who graduated with her bachelor’s degree in sport management this past June, noted. “Hopefully they will look up to me because I was in their shoes not too long ago.”

Preparing for her new position, Wootton said she credits her role as the team’s captain last year as having a major impact.

“We had to tell the girls what we have to do as a team and make sure they do it, and I think the coaching is the same way,” Wootton said of transitioning from one leadership role to another. “You have to tell your players what to do, and hopefully they accomplish that and do what they are told.”

From leading on the court to leading on the sidelines, Wootton will continue to be a valuable asset for Dillon. The opportunity to join the women’s basketball coaching staff means that Wootton can make sure that the success she brought to the program continues.

Joining the coaching staff also means that Wootton is not leaving Drexel. And for the former player who bleeds Blue and Gold and has won on one of college basketball’s biggest stages, why would she ever want to leave?

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Ken Chaney, The Triangle – Drexel senior attack Alyse Maiden carries the ball against La Salle University in the Dragons’ 12-6 win over the Explorers Feb. 20 at Vidas Field.

They still have nearly six months until they don their game jerseys again and zip the ball through the air, but the Drexel women’s lacrosse team is excited — very excited — for the 2014 season. Last week’s big announcement that Hannah Rudloff would be the Dragons’ next head coach contributes to a greater anticipation.

In terms of distance, Rudloff hasn’t traveled far, and she hasn’t had to. Graduating magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 with degrees in communication and anthropology, she also played lacrosse for the Quakers and reached three NCAA semifinals, including one NCAA championship.

Building off an impressive college career, success has been the name of the game at all of Rudloff’s stops. In 2010, while serving as an assistant at Marist College, Rudloff helped lead the Red Foxes to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Then, in 2011, Rudloff returned to University City on the opposite side of 34th Street as an assistant coach at Drexel. Prior to her arrival, the Dragons had never reached the CAA Tournament. Over the past three years, the Dragons have reached the CAA Tournament every season.

“I know myself, and all of the girls are really proud of the fact that we made the CAA Tournament the past three years and just really raised our competitiveness level across the board,” Rudloff said.

Anna Marie Vesco, who had been with the program since 2003, was the head coach for the three CAA Tournament runs. The University did not renew her contract this offseason, according to a statement from the athletic department. Rudloff had served as the interim head coach for two months before being named to the position full-time beginning Aug. 1.

In terms of her career, it’s a road that she has navigated quite well at high speed. Only a handful of years removed from her own playing days, Rudloff has become one of the youngest coaches at the Division I level. Her youth, she says, is one of the big advantages that she brings to the Vidas Field sidelines.

“Every year we have rule changes and dramatic shifts in how the game is played,” Rudloff explained. “I think that gives younger coaches the advantage, quite frankly. No one in the game can say, ‘I’ve been in the game for 30 years, and this is how I do it.’”

Along with her youth, Rudloff also cites her Ivy League pedigree as a strength when the team steps off the field.

“Drexel’s a very challenging academic school, and coming from Penn, I had a very similar experience in terms of the time commitment and having to balance that with your athletic commitments,” Rudloff said. “I think that’s where we can have a lot of frank conversations and make them feel comfortable coming to me with their struggles that pertain to both academics and lacrosse.”

Although she has only been on the job for a little more than a week, Rudloff is already feeling the bond with her players. Just as Rudloff makes the players feel at home with her relatable age, the players have made her feel at home as the team’s head coach by sharing in a mutual anticipation for the upcoming season.

“The girls have already come in and said, ‘Hey Coach, we know you’re going to push us really hard and we know it’s going to change a lot, but we’re ready,’” Rudloff said. “So I’m looking forward to challenging them and seeing how ready they are.”

The biggest test for Rudloff and the Dragons will be a tough team from Towson University. For the past three seasons, Drexel and Towson have met in the CAA Tournament, and for the past three seasons, Towson has pulled out a one-goal victory en route to three straight CAA titles. Rudloff says that the sting of those losses is all the motivation the team needs.

For now, though, six months away from the first game of the season, the Dragons remain excited — excited by the momentum that comes with the best three-year stretch in Drexel women’s lacrosse’s history and by the youthful invigoration of a newly named head coach with a successful past that is trending upward.

Rudloff is just as excited as her players are. With a team that is poised for a breakthrough and maybe its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth, the young coach is ready to lead the Dragons into a bigger, brighter future.

“I’m excited every year, whether I’m an assistant or a head coach,” she said. “I just really [want to] put my stamp on what we’ve already done.”

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[media-credit name=”Paul Childs Action Images via Zuma Press/MCT Campus” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Caddie Jim Mackay congratulates Phil Mickelson on winning the Open Championship at Muirfield in Gullane, Scotland, July 21. With the win, Mickelson clinched his fifth career major championship on the PGA Tour.

The story from Muirfield was not how Englishman Lee Westwood, who is now 0-for-62 in PGA Tour majors, failed to hold a two-stroke lead heading into the final round. The story was not how Tiger Woods let another major slip from his progressively loosening grasp, leaving him stuck on 14 for his career and four behind Jack Nicklaus. The story was not the number of shots that rolled over the impossibly fast greens or fell into one of the many impossibly deep bunkers.

When the final putt had been rolled in to conclude the final round from Muirfield in Gullane, Scotland, the story of the 2013 Open Championship was simply about the man they call “Lefty.”

Phil Mickelson is one of the top golfers of the past two decades, but for so long, victories at the majors eluded him like a curse. After a dozen trying years, Mickelson finally broke through and won his first: the 2004 Masters. With a Masters victory under his belt, Mickelson has gone on to add two more green jackets and a PGA Championship. But the Open Championship, also known as the British Open, has been anything but kind to the 43-year-old San Diegan.

Open Championships are played on hard links-style golf courses that let the ball roll for miles and reward players who find the fairway. Links courses are unlike the softer American-style courses that allow the ball to stop on a dime, thus rewarding precision around the greens. Mickelson’s game has been groomed for the American courses, while links courses all but neutralize his extraordinary wedge play.

Entering the final round of the Open Championship, the feeling was that Mickelson would once again fly back to the States disappointed and empty-handed. Trailing by five strokes and tasked with a daunting comeback at a major that he had historically struggled in, Mickelson seemed doomed as Ivor Robson, the famous first-tee announcer of the Open Championship, announced his name for his 8:30 a.m. final-round tee time with playing partner Francesco Molinari.

The Open Championship is known for its natural beauty. With vast, open layouts that are typically set seaside, the scenery is oftentimes more breathtaking than the actual play on the course. But what Mickelson did next on the golf course was truly beautiful in its own right.

Mickelson birdied the par-5 fifth hole and was immediately in the hunt. With Woods and Adam Scott faltering from the very first hole of the final round, the top of the leaderboard opened up like the usually ubiquitous rains of the Open Championship. Another birdie on the par-5 ninth brought Mickelson to two-under after the front nine.

Starting off the back nine with a bogey, Mickelson fell off of his pace but certainly not out of the hunt. In fact, there was something in the warm 70-degree air that just felt like it was his day. Breaking his personal Open Championship curse on the hallowed grounds of Muirfield seemed not just possible; it seemed inevitable.

After Mickelson shot par on the next two holes, the battle for the Open Championship was ultimately down to him and Henrik Stenson. With six holes left, the tournament was one of theirs for the taking.

Before Stenson could even look up, Mickelson put together a six-hole stretch that will go down in golf lore as one of the best ever in a major. Stringing together four birdies over the final six holes to take a tournament-leading three-under score into the clubhouse, Mickelson had taken it.

“That was a bit sneaky of him,” Stenson told reporters after his round.

Mickelson knew that the round he had put together was good enough to win. After rolling in his final birdie on the final hole of the day, Mickelson raised his arms over his head with his putter still grasped tightly in his right hand to the roar of a crowd that understood the magnitude of the accomplishment.

With his arms still raised, Mickelson was met by his caddie of 21 years, Jim “Bones” Mackay. The two men hugged, and Bones shed tears of happiness onto Lefty’s shoulder; the monkey was finally off Mickelson’s back.

Stenson went on to bogey back-to-back holes to drop back to even par before adding a late birdie, and it was Mickelson who raised the Claret Jug at the end of a long week in Scotland. The win marked his first in the Open Championship and his fifth career major. The win immediately vaulted Mickelson’s name into the conversation as one of the top 10 golfers of all time.

The man used to be “Tiger’s No. 2,” but Mickelson has now won two majors since Woods’ last major victory at the 2008 U.S. Open. No longer stuck behind Woods’ mountainous shadow, Mickelson is now enjoying the prime of his career once robbed from him by his longtime rival.

America has been searching for a man to take the PGA Tour by the reins for five years now. The story from Muirfield was that America has found its man: Lefty.

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[media-credit name=”Wally Skalij Los Angeles Times/MCT Campus” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Mexico’s Oribe Peralta, left, and Brazil’s Juan Jesus battle for the ball in the gold medal match at the Summer Olympics August 11,
2012, at Wembley Stadium in London. Mexico topped Brazil by a score of 2-1, as Peralta scored twice.

Rarely does a country have the opportunity to host a FIFA World Cup, and rarely does a country have the opportunity to host the Summer Olympic Games. Even more rare, and almost unprecedented, is the opportunity to host the World Cup and the Olympics only two years apart. This is the opportunity that Brazil will have when it hosts the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is the first country to host the two mega sporting events consecutively since the U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup and then the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Both the World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games are held once every four years, and with the way the events are scheduled, the two occur interchangeably with two years between.

Exactly one year from this month, the World Cup will kick off to much anticipation and hype. The host country will certainly field a strong team with a chance to win it all on the foot of its superstar forward, Neymar.

In one year, Brazil will look to begin its two-year transformation from crime-ridden, poverty-stricken South American land to “the country of tomorrow” and an international power leading the emerging South American countries to a position of respect. It is a grandiose plan, indeed, the kind of long-term vision that is inherent with winning the bid to host mega sporting events.

Brazil, though, is facing issues more immediate than the exorbitant costs of hosting mega sporting events during trying economic times. The people of Brazil are protesting the excessive government spending and corruption in connection with the events, and they are not backing down.

“Technically, the protests began because of a 20-centavos (equivalent to 10 cents, give or take) increase to the bus fares, which was considered to be the tipping point for Brazilian people,” Kevis Pinto, a junior in Drexel’s sport management major who is from Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, said. “The protests going on in the major cities in Brazil are multifaceted, in the sense where the people aren’t simply protesting for or against a single subject. There is a lot in play.”

According to a recent op-ed in The New York Times by Brazilian journalist Elio Gaspari, “The cost of public transportation for a family living in Rio or Sao Paulo is, proportionally, higher than in New York or Paris.”

Although the increased price of public transportation gave the people of Brazil a universal rallying point, it would be wrong to say that the increased fare started the protests because frustration began much earlier. As is often the case when accepting a bid to host the World Cup, FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, demands “FIFA-quality stadiums.”

Multiple reports from Brazil have said that the people on the streets have twisted FIFA’s demands and made a slogan of their own, saying, “We need FIFA-quality hospitals and schools.”

“Yeah, soccer is this nation’s [top] religion, and everyone is excited about new stadiums and high-quality matches coming [up],” Pinto said. “But that doesn’t mean we forgot who we are and what needs to be done.”

This is how mega sporting events work, though. Event organizers act as what is often referred to as a “neoliberal Trojan horse” because of the way they dictate a government’s policy leading up to the event, while placing the monetary burden squarely on the shoulders of the taxpayers of the country. In the event of the 2014 World Cup, FIFA has gone into a Brazil that is already ravaged by poverty and slow economic growth. Brazilians simply cannot handle the increased burden.

By the middle of June, the message of the protesters had been heard. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff overturned the fare increase in attempts to restore peace within the country. The nonviolent protests had begun to take an ugly turn toward violence, so the government was forced to give in.

Some are skeptical of which party started the violence. Pinto noted, “There was a news story not too long ago that had some recordings of police officers changing from their uniforms into street clothes to vandalize parts of the city in order to damage the image of the peaceful manifestations. Police brutality has been a real issue throughout Brazil during the past few weeks.”

Despite the overturned fare increase, the protests continued into the Confederations Cup that ended in June. The Confederations Cup is essentially a warm-up tournament that is held the year before the World Cup for national teams to prepare and for the host country to have a lower-level run-through of what it will face. Brazil, the host nation, beat Spain in the championship June 30. According to BBC News, Rousseff did not attend the Confederations Cup final after being mercilessly booed by the home crowd in the opening round.

Out on the streets, thousands of Brazilians who were not among the 50,000-plus inside the stadium for the final match aired their grievances against the government and against FIFA. After getting the fare increase overturned, the masses demanded an end to the political corruption; the resignation of Sergio Cabral, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro; and improvements to the aforementioned health care, education and public transportation systems. The protests again planned to be nonviolent, but some took a violent turn.

As the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics near, Brazil is in a battle with its own citizens more so than the normal trials and tribulations that come with hosting a mega sporting event. With the original goal of becoming “the country of tomorrow,” Brazil’s revised goal might simply be to avoid disaster.

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