There were Big Doin's at the UMass Friends of Football Spring meeting last night. The Friends sponsored a well attended gathering at the UMass Club at the State Street Bank Building in Boston.
The Friends of Football are rapidly becoming the premier athletics booster organization at UMass. Formed three years ago by former UMass Coach Mark Whipple, the Friends seek to support UMass Football and the athletic dept.
All UMass football fans should be a member. They have had a major impact on UMass Football (just see the news later in this blog).
Stadium Renovations:
UMass Athletic Director John McCutcheon confirmed that UMass has sent out bids for the installation of Field Turf at McGuirk Stadium!! This is the first major renovation at McGuirk since it was built in 1965 . The Gladchuck Practice Facility will also receive field turf. This will be a big boost to the football program. No more commuting between three or four venues to try to find a suitable field for practice.
Brown stated that our motto was "“Play Fast". Field Turf will really help our football team do that!
Installation is scheduled to begin the day after Commencement and be ready for the opening home game with Colgate.
Lights: McCutcheon said that funding for permanent lights was not complete at this time. However, UMass is still working on raising funds and lights might still be part of the 2006 renovations. He said if they were not installed in 2006, the lights were still a priority item and would definitely be installed at a later date.
Football news:
Coach Brown gave a talk on the 2006 recruits. UMass has added two new recruits. Offensive line men Kyle Lightner 6-2 290 and Kevin Macon 6-6 325 will be joining the Minutemen in September. I'’ll be blogging about each recruit separately later. See this link for the UMass article.
Brown stated that there are more recruits in the works. Possibilities are a fullback and quarterback. NCAA regulations prohibit any details until all the paperwork is completed.
Brown stated that winter conditioning went well. See this article from the Springfield Republican that covers some of the topics he talked about.
Other Football News:
Brown confirmed that the UMass Spring Game will be on May 6th. The UMass Football banquet will be Friday evening May 5th. UMass Friends of Football will have a meeting at 9:00 am on the 6th.
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