When I first toured the University of Hartford in my senior year of high school three years ago, I wasn’t necessarily sure what I was supposed to look for when making my selection of schools to attend.

Sure, I guess I was supposed to look at the different classes offered on campus, the numerous clubs for me to get involved in at one point or another during my tenure or even the majors they were offering the student body. At the young and naïve age of 18, what first caught my eye when I walked across the university lawn was, well, the lawn.

The luscious green, fresh grass stretch across the academic side of campus created a welcoming atmosphere that pulled me in aesthetically as I took in the view of the beautiful brick laden Harry Jack Gray Center and the trees placed across the academic buildings. I was pretty sold on the school before I even obtained any information about the courses offered, which is a strong selling point the University of Hartford offers its incoming freshman, a beautiful, relaxing and welcoming campus.

Since I first stepped foot on this campus as a freshman, the University has made great changes to improve the aesthetic appeal, as well as the function ability to create the most enjoyable learning/living environment for students throughout their tenure.

Within the last three years alone, the school has completely rebuilt a bridge for easier commute (amongst other things), replanted numerous trees across the walkways, put together the Shaw Center, created an “Alumni Plaza 2.0” near the street entrance to Commons and recently completed a “waterfall” near the Harry Jack Gray center, just to name a few major changes that have been made to the campus in recent memory.

Does our school still have things that could be improved, fixed or redone? Sure, I can agree with that, but the amount of labor, money and hard work that has gone into turning the relatively young University of Hartford into a school that people will flock to is remarkable.

Some of the pricier universities within Connecticut choose to allocate their funds elsewhere or in areas that may seem concerning, but not the University of Hartford. We as a private university are taking leaps and bounds to show incoming students and current students that their money is going to making the University a better place for everyone.

Would I not mind paying $10,000 less? You bet your backside, but I do say that I am proud to be a part of a university that doesn’t look like a dump or hardly worth the tuition we pay each year as far as their effort goes into creating the best school possible, or at least the best looking.

Only time will tell what will happen within the next 13 months that I’ll be attending the University of Hartford, but it does provide some hope in the school being even nicer than it is at the moment and in turn, lessen the amount of complaining that students have about the school in general.

All too often  I hear students who walk by me saying that this school sucks or isn’t worth the amount of tuition they’re currently paying, but, in all honesty, there isn’t much they can do about it other than transfer.

What they need to start doing is looking around at the scenery and how they feel on the inside walking around the academic side. Blue skies (generally), buildings made to student’s needs and feeling safe are some of the most overlooked things at UHa that other schools can’t even check off on their own lists of “haves.”

The weather hasn’t been better, it’s time to stop and smell the roses around you because you go to one hell of a university, so be proud about it.

Hartford softball has found its groove heading into the playoffs for the first time since 2007. Brian Izzo | The Informer

For the first time since the 2007 season, the University of Hartford softball team is bound for the America East championships after a three-game sweep of conference opponents UMBC over the weekend in Maryland.

Outstanding pitching was the story of the series, as Hartford (12-29, 8-7 AE) held UMBC to a total of one run over a 23-inning span, with the lone run coming in the fourth inning of the second game of the series.

In a game that went extra innings on Sunday, both teams were held without a run in the first seven innings before senior shortstop Kate Wacyk stepped to the plate in the eighth and became the catalyst for the Hartford offense.

After hits from Erica Phelps and Amber Andrews put runners in scoring position, Jenice Aloyo struck out, which put Wacyk in a position to do what no Hartford player had been able to do all day, send a runner across home plate.

Wacyk did just enough as she grounded into a fielder’s choice to the shortstop, which allowed Phelps to score from third and finally tally a run on the board for Hartford as pitching had dominated all afternoon. Andrews would score on a wild pitch from third with two outs in the top of the eighth to make it 2-0 going into the bottom half of extra frames where Zuzana Kudernatschova would retire the side in order to clinch a bid in the upcoming conference tournament.

On the afternoon, Kudernatschova allowed only a single hit as she pitched the entire game to improve her record on the season to 12-12, but has been the ace of the staff as far as consistency goes.

On Saturday, Hartford was able to cruise past the Golden Retrievers 6-0 in the first game and 2-1 in the second game. The Hawks never trailed against UMBC all weekend as timely hitting and dominating pitching performances summed up the Hawks’ success, as well as their season as a whole.

Turning the most double plays in the conference on defense, Hartford has been able to manufacture wins within the conference in an impressive manner while keeping games close enough to where at any moment, their offense could click, putting any opponent on their heels.

With five games left in the regular season, two against Marist and three against conference opponent Maine, Hartford’s seed in the tournament can only improve as they current rank fourth in the America East with an 8-7 conference record. What’s unique about this Hartford softball squad is that they haven’t performed well in their out-of-conference games, sitting at an 11-22 mark, but they’re taking care of business within the conference, which is all that counts.

Hartford has yet to play Maine (7-37, 3-12 AE) this season, but riding momentum into the conference tournament will be crucial for the Hawks as they look to make a splash against higher seeded opponents.

The Hawks take on Marist for their double-header on Thursday, May 2 starting at 2:30p.m. in New York, then head up north to Maine in their season finale games against Maine this weekend.

America East conference play begins on Thursday, May 9 with the teams and locations to be determined, but all we know is that the Hartford Hawks have risen into the tournament itself.

I would like to issue a public apology to the women’s soccer team and their coach, John Natale, regarding a column I posted last week. My intention was not to negatively portray the women’s soccer team, but write about an activity I observed during Spring Fling weekend. I understand students enjoy letting loose throughout Spring Fling, but as people in the public spotlight, you should be aware that people will hold you to a higher standard. I accept full responsibility for the way the story was depicted and have nothing but respect for their program as a whole. I look forward to continuing to grow as a journalist, a professional and a person, as well as remain with The Informer to deliver to best news on campus.

COURTESY OF LUKE DIORIO

After six years of being in existence at the University of Hartford, the Ultimate Frisbee team has finally made it big, as they will play in the USAU Regionals in Saratoga, New York this weekend.

The Ultimate Frisbee team has never reached the Regionals before, so although this accomplishment alone is monumental in the history of University of Hartford athletics, the players themselves aren’t letting the hype distract them from the next round.

“All of our veteran players are like, ‘do not let being in Regionals make you complacent, we can win this tournament,’” said junior Nitesh Desai, a player on the Ultimate Frisbee.

After having a fall season kick off with great success, their record carried over into the spring season where they had their first major tournament of 2013 two weeks ago in the USAU Hudson Valley D-III College Open. Going into the tournament 12 teams competed in a bracket format, where the top four teams would move on to the Regionals in New York taking place on Saturday.

Hartford competed against teams such as, Wesleyan University, Marist College, Rensselaer Polytech, Bard and Union, whom were all in Hartford’s pool. Overall, UHa finished 3-2 in the pool defeating Marist, Rensselaer Polytech and Union on their way to finishing fourth out of the 12 teams, qualifying them for the upcoming Regionals.

“Our goal was to reach Regionals before the season began and now that we’ve accomplished our goal, we’ve just been practicing hard to break seed,” said Taylor Campbell, a player on the Frisbee team.

The Regionals event will take place on Saturday with the first match being a 1:00 p.m., as the 12 remaining D-III teams in the New England region will go head-to-head and only two will move on to Nationals where only 16 teams from around the nation will get the opportunity to claim the title of Ultimate Frisbee National Champions.

Competing against Hartford in the Regionals will be Connecticut College, SUNY-Fredonia, Colgate, Stevens Tech and Stockton, as far as their Pool A match ups go. With only two teams moving on to play in Colorado, it will take everything the young UHa squad has to give the more experienced teams a run for their money.

“The whole team this year wants to win it for our seniors, so that’s the real motivation for us to continue working hard everyday,” said junior Luke DiOrio. Those two seniors being Lucas Hope and Adam Velk whom have been with the team since its infancy days back in 2010.

Win or lose, the University of Hartford Ultimate Frisbee team is on the map and is gaining popularity fast within the school and the USAU league itself, the rankings alone show a growing respect for the successful streak as of late.

“When we started, I think we were ranked like 540 in the nation, now we’re in the top 150, which is just crazy when you think about it. We can definitely compete with some of the best teams in the tournament, so now we just have to go and do it,” said Desai.

The two-day event will conclude on this Sunday, April 28 in New York as win or lose, UHa Ultimate Frisbee has arrived and they plan on staying relevant for years to come.

ELIZABETH KRAMER | THE INFORMER

Now that Spring Fling is over, normalcy has been restored to the University of Hartford campus and the last few weeks of the semester drag on as students are spending their days inside classrooms, instead of enjoying the beautiful weather outside.

That’s what the weekend festivities were for as the annual Spring Fling weekend hit the campus hard, well, it hit some harder than others. At least those who partook in getting blackout drunk and making a fool of themselves, or as they call it “having fun.”

It’s interesting, however, because as a Residential Assistant, I saw that many students on the athletics program acted…how should I say…embarrassingly immature in their drunken states throughout the weekend.

Yes, I am aware that more than just athletes consume a heavy amount of alcohol during the Spring Fling weekend, but bear with me, it gets better.

As someone in an authoritative position this past weekend, keeping everyone safe as they traveled about campus while I was on duty, I interacted with a large majority of the campus student body at one point or another. Some greeted me happily as they went on their merry ways, others leaned on me and mumbled a language that only the drunkest of drunk could interpret as an interpretable method of communication, then there was the women’s soccer team.

Both nights I was on duty, Friday and Saturday, it was my duty to ask any and all residents/guests to pour out any alcohol that wasn’t in an allowed red solo cup. I took the job quite seriously as it is my duty as an RA to try keeping everyone safe on campus and because I didn’t want to have to deal with my bosses had something occurred as a result of my laziness.

On Friday night four soccer players on the women’s team whom were extremely intoxicated and carrying, extremely large containers of alcohol, which were not permitted to be on campus during the Spring Fling weekend, greeted me in the E-Complex courtyard. I politely asked them to dump out whatever was in their containers and continue on their way, yeah…it sounded like a great idea in my head too.

All I received in return was a flood of expletives, child-like scowls and having to ask them numerous times to follow a simple direction.

As the Sport’s Editor for The Informer, I knew all of the girls were indeed on the women’s soccer team and old enough to legally consume alcohol, but that doesn’t give wthem the right to cuss me out or not follow University policies. Aren’t you supposed to be the role models on campus? Those whom are most likely receiving athletic scholarships  for being the outstanding leaders both on and off the field and this is how you’re acting?

Don’t give me the “well, I was drunk” card, because I can care less and you’re still responsible for your actions. So, after a few minutes of using words that even the most scurvy sailor would find offensive, they dumped their cups and stormed off pouting.

Guess what happened the following night?

Yup, the same plastered girls on the soccer team were at a party that I had to breakup because they wouldn’t follow the rules and when we asked them to leave, guess what happened again? At this rate, if you get this one right you’ll be 2-2 and you win a small prize.

So, lets play a game. I’m Tim Rizzo and let’s play the game Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader. Here’s your final question: What did the drunken, stupid women’s soccer girls do when I asked them to leave?

Obeyed and skipped away merrily to go study in the library

Punched me in the gut in an inebriated stupor

Yelled more expletives about what RA’s are and acted more childish than before

Well, if you guessed B then you’d be wrong, but I’m shocked that you guessed they would assault me. The correct answer was C and boy; it was a hell of a scene.

The girls, followed by a few men on the basketball team wobbled in an intoxicated manner out of the apartment and started to give me a piece of their mind. More yelling and swearing ensued as I just stood there with a blank face waiting for them to shut up and leave the apartment. They did leave, but not without more whining and complaining. Thus, that was my weekend in a nutshell.

Memo to all athletes on campus: whether you want to be seen as role models or not, a lot of people at this University look up to you when it comes to holding a higher moral standard than the average person. So, when you act in the idiotic way that you did over the weekend, you set a bad example for athlete’s everywhere who don’t even partake in the activities or personality issues that you have.

Oh, and you’ll end up in the newspaper with the campus reading about your lack of maturity. Keep up the good work and consider yourselves lucky that I chose to not include your names in this piece.

Monday was an iconic day at the University of Hartford as President Obama spoke at the Chase Family Arena and boy was there a crowd.

An estimated 3,100 students, parents, White House special guests and many more flooded the arena within 90 minutes of allowing entry as the excitement within the building was unlike anything this school had ever witnessed.

Numerous times before the President even set foot on the bullet-proof stage, the crowd was antsy, willing to cheer at any given moment.

When any announcement was made or someone of semi-importance got up from their seat, everyone stood up in anticipation that the show was about to start.

Unfortunately, more false alarms were had than a girl who missed her period, as time and time again, el Presidente didn’t show.

When the announcement was finally made by a parent of a Sandy Hook victim that President Obama was about to come on stage, you could feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

The student sections on both sides of the arena exploded with cheers, roars and chants as just the near sight of the President made everyonew go into a mad yelling frenzy.

It was amazing. It was awesome. It should happen a hell of a lot more often.

Actually, lets make it happen again in the fall.

Why can’t that many students show up to a men’s or women’s basketball game each week and give that type of intensity to motivate their Hawks to take the next step?

I mean, the Chase Family Arena’s seating capacity is 4,017 people and we didn’t even fill three-quarters of it when Obama came and that place felt packed from wall to wall. Imagine another 1,000 people? It would be insanity.

Opposing teams would concede at just the near thought of having to play the Hartford Hawks on the road with the Dirty Birds giving them hell for all 40 minutes.

I’m not saying we’d be similar to the Cameron Crazies for the Duke Blue Devils, but it’d be something fierce if we packed the arena during each home game.

I know most of you didn’t come to the University of Hartford because of their athletic program, but we do have some up-and-coming teams that will soon gain national attention and a high-class facility that is nicer than most.

Would it kill you to just take a few hours out of your day to just go to a basketball game with friends and cheer your fellow peers on? If your answer is “yes,” then maybe you should consult your nearest physician.

The environment at Hartford Hawks’ basketball games are always fun, friendly and can be a great way to just unwind after a stressful day filled with classes.

If we can even get half of the attendance that showed up at the Obama speech, it would be fantastic and I know it would the team would thrive under such circumstances.

Both the men’s and women’s teams already made deep runs in their America East Conference Tournaments this past season, so why not put them over the edge with a fan base that shows up to each event by the thousands and gives their opponents hell?

Hmm, at the University of Hartford the student body is around 6,500+ students, so if just one of out every two people come to each game or even one out of every three people come, then we’ll have the biggest cheering section in the conference by far.

So, grab some friends, grab a Hartford Hawks’ tshirt and get your butt out to the Chase Family Arena to watch some kickass basketball and socialize with your friends at the same time.

Believe it or not, it is possible to be social at the University of Hartford without getting drunk and wandering around the village and basketball games are the perfect way to do so on those nights of the week where going out just isn’t convenient or for those who choose not to do such activities.

Oh, and it’s free. All games are free for students who show their student ID’s, so you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain by going out to these games.

Just imagine all that cheering for Obama on a weekly basis during the regular season at each home basketball game, it could turn this school around completely and give UHa the boost of school spirit it deserves.

Coaching an athletic team takes certain talents that most individuals in this world don’t possess and that’s a fact.

It takes someone passionate enough, articulate enough and powerful enough to bring the best out of their players, to push them to new heights and have a mutual understanding between the two parties that winning is the ultimate goal.

Rutgers’ men’s basketball coach [or should I say “ex” as of this morning], Mike Rice has none of those unique character traits and is, in matter of fact, a bully. Although, the word “bully” doesn’t hold the weight it used to when Scott Farkus roamed the streets bullying kids, so instead I’ll just call Rice a more appropriate name “coward.”

Those unaware with what I’m talking about, I’ll fill you in quickly: Mike Rice had been the head basketball coach of the Rutgers’ men’s basketball team since before the 2010-2011 season. He was suspended by the university for three games last season for an undisclosed reason. Rice has been known as a hot-head, who generally lets his emotions get the best of him on the court as he has been seen going on mini-tirades on the sideline throughout basketball games. The ESPN daily show “Outside The Lines” received a 30-minute video of Rice during his practices with the basketball team a few days ago where he was shown throwing basketballs at players, cursing them out and being physical with them during practice for no apparent reason. He was fired this morning, one day after the video leaked on Tuesday.

Ohhhhhhhhhh, so that was the “undisclosed reason” why he was suspended last season. Hmm, seems appropriate, but also does firing his ass for treating human beings like dogs. Although, I’m not even sure that dogs get treated like that.

The video, which surfaced, was hard to watch. A grown man throwing basketballs at player’s heads for doing…something wrong, maybe? There seems to be no reason for his madness, which is why I think he should get a call from the nearest psychiatric ward within the next 24 hours or rent an armored truck to protect himself from the millions of people who witnessed his “coaching style.”

Boy, that wasn’t a quick summary at all, but I digress, because anymore talk of him and I’ll throw a basketball through this computer screen in anger at such classlessness.

Here at the University of Hartford, our men’s and women’s basketball teams both have fiery coaches in John Gallagher and Jenn Rizzotti, who flaunt confidence and success. The difference between them and Rice is, well, a whole lot.

Gallagher and Rizzotti are some of the most vocal coaches in the America East basketball conference, but they know when enough is enough. Sitting down and talking with both of them over the years, it’s clear they have the utmost respect for their players and see them as a second family.

Both coaches could be yelling on the sideline at the officials or at their players to get a message across, but that’s where their boisterousness ends. They respect the officials and love their players. Never have I seen the coaches yell something inappropriate at their players or officials during games that would require censoring or reprimanding from the athletic director. That’s now what they represent.

Rizzotti has played enough college and professional basketball in her career to know that the game demands respect, and so do those who you play with and against. Gallagher radiates confidence and has a strong relationship with his players that comes with trust.

The University of Hartford hired them for a reason and are paying them what they are because they not only bring success on the court, but have pride off it. The day I were to see either coach put their hands on a player is the day hell freezes over. Granted, I don’t attend their practices and am not at every road game, but it just speaks to their class that I can make such claim to their incredible character.

Hartford may not bring in the revenue that Rutgers’ athletic department does, but it dominates in the most important value: class.

For the athletic director to continue to allow Rice to coach as long as he did, even after watching the videos of his practice antics is stunning and speaks to something much larger about what Rutgers’ values.

That will never happen at the University of Hartford, because although we have two coaches who aren’t afraid to give their all on the court, once the buzzer sounds, they remember that their players are human.

Stay classy Hartford.