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Dear Minutemen,
As the New Year begins, I’d like to recap some of the best “UMass Moments” from 2012, and to thank and honor all the Minutemen who had a part in them.
-Alumni Victor Cruz and James Ihedigbo meeting in Super Bowl XLVII
-Marcel Shipp’s induction into the UMass Hall of Fame
-1ST ANNUAL SPRING FLING
Captain’s Breakfast – 21 former captains attended.
Alumni Game - 33 Alums played in the game, over 100 attended.
Post-Game UMass Football Family Reunion – over 300 active players, alumni, coaches, staff and families attended.
-550+ Community Service Hours performed in the Spring Semester by UMass Football Players.
-Awarded CHAMPS Cup Community Service Category for leading all UMass Athletics team in community service hours.
-Bob Foote’s $500,000 contribution to the new Football Training Facility.
-11th Annual UMass Football Golf Classic had 92 golfers participate.
-UMass Football Experience, which was a string of summer camps held on campus and at Gillette Stadium for boys of all ages with over 500 participants.
-First Home Game at Gillette with Alumni Tunnel against Indiana University.
-First Win as a FBS School against the University of Akron on November 10th, 2012.
-Perry McIntyre, Darren Thellen, and Colter Johnson first All-MAC football players.
-Re-instituting the “lost” tradition of awarding Varsity Letters.
-7 Minutemen active on NFL rosters.
-4 Minuteman active on CFL rosters.
-11 New Graduates! Four in May, Nicholas Gottshall, Jesse Julmiste
Sean O'Connor, and Caleb Violette; seven in December, DJ Adeoba, Julian Colarusso, Quinton Sales, Darren Thellen, Jeremy Horne, Tyler Holmes, Charles Thompson.
SAVE THE DATE
The 2nd ANNUAL SPRING FLING will be on Saturday, April 20, 2013.
Many more details to follow during the coming weeks…we do plan on playing the Alumni Game again this year, due to the amount of interest we have received over the last several months. Just like last year, please RSVP your intentions so we can plan accordingly!
Go UMass!
Charley Molnar, Head Football Coach
University of Massachusetts
The second MINUTEMAN UPDATE highlights Massachusetts
great, Phil Roland, ‘75 BS, ‘77 MS.
Phil played Runningback for Coach MacPherson from 1971 to 1974. After his playing days were over, he began his career as a football coach at UMass, first serving as a Graduate Assistant for the 1975 season and the Runningbacks Coach for the ‘76 season. After that, Phil moved on to the New England Patriots as a Quality Control Coach for the 1977 season, and his last stop was at Maine Central Institute as an Assistant in 1978. While at MCI, Phil was offered a job with Honeywell and it was then he began his business career. He stayed at Honeywell for 5 years before taking a job at ABB for another 5 years.
In 1986, Phil became owner and President of Aquest Corporation, a successful environmental engineering firm based in Somers, CT. In his spare time, he is the Head Lacrosse Coach at Wilbraham & Monson Academy.
Phil sums up his life this way: “Everything I have was because I received a football scholarship to UMass”.
Phil is married to 1976 UMass graduate Linda. They have three grown sons, Matthew who graduated from Colby where he played varsity lacrosse, Andrew, another Colby grad who played varsity football and Steve, a Springfield College grad who played varsity lacrosse,
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ESPN says sources saying the Big East is close the to a TV deal with ESPN. If UMass should get a Big East offer now, or in the future, when the league expands, the media $$ would make a big difference in UMass Sports. Current Big East members may lament the decline in revenue now that the Catholic Seven have left, but it would be a godsend for the Minutemen.
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The New England Patriots Report has an update on the NFL Combine including a paragraph about Stephane Milhim.
The Dayton Daily News has a paragraph on the MAC players in the NFL combine (at end of linked article).
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NJ.com report that John Mara hopes Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz are Giants for a long time.
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Phil Steele has UMass as #109 in FBS in defensive YPG vs offensive YPG. In the Minutemen's case it was four BCS games and a lack of offense than with the defense.
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