Made in Newington
Thanks Sal!
Austin Knowlin's high school head coach is leaving the sidelines, at least for now.
Sal Cintorino coached Newington High School in Connecticut for the last five years. He was previously the head coach at Central Connecticut State University.
When a high school football player is able to combine his athletic and academic talents enough to get into and then excel in the Ivies, his high school coaches are usually a big reason why.
Austin Knowlin is a serious Bushnell Cup candidate after winning the Ivy Rookie of the Year award in 2006 and taking 1st Team All Ivy honors this past season as sophomore. Knowlin stood out despite competing against a field of upperclassmen wide receivers.
So we take this opportunity to thank Coach Cintorino and wish him all the best in the future on and off the field.
posted by Jake @ 3:13:00 AM
30 comments
30 Comments:
Jake:
what happened to your Thursday's blog post?
Anybody at the football dinner this week? Any news about anything?
How about news about Knowlin's classmate Justin Masorti. Is he in school? Will he be playing again for us?
to the poster who told me i was wrong in that Princeton is worst team in Ivy bball-touche. We lost to them too last night--disgraceful that Joe Jones can't get this team to play for him. he needs to go--he has had his shot with his recruits-guy just can't coach period...
It's all about recruiting and for whatever reason Coach Jones has been unable to recruit any outstanding point guards to Columbia in his five years. I have some misgivings about Joe as a game coach, but like him as person/motivator and thereore believe the emphasis should be on helping him to land a couple of big-time point guards and a talented center/big forward in the next two months. We already have commitments from three very promising players, but none of them are pure point guards or centers. Unlike football, two or three star players really can make a difference between a team finishing in first or last place. Let's get a couple of star point guards and a big guy already!
Masorti is one courageous ballplayer- hope he's back.
During first half of Lion-Quaker game,one of the Penn announcers, remarking on Asenso Ampim who had just missed a tough shot, "Now there's a guy who's 6'6" and 240 --you gotta wonder, how does a physical specimen like that go to Columbia? Well looking at that layup, there's your answer." Really ugly lack of class. Both announcers also spent a lot of time denigrating Big Ben, totally ignoring his many excellent efforts this season. Fortunately, Nwachukwu carried the Lions with a great first half. Hope he stuffs Penn good in the second and we end the season with a hard fought win and third place in the league.
Maybe the Penn announcers, who've lost some but not all of their smugness, were reacting to the fact that Penn also wanted Nwachukwu.
BB was 6and4 with the last 4games against teams with worse records and whom they had already beaten earlier.
They lost 3 of the games and played poorly only to hang on to win the other.
VERY, VERY disappointing
Jake (and to others)
Do you think a physically fit head coach (i.e. Tim Murphy, Les Miles, Bagnoli, Seidelicki, Joe Restic) has more credibility when it comes to recruiting over an out-of-shape head coach (i.e. coach at Kansas and Maryland). When you come down to it, recruiting is marketing and selling.
Are there any academic studies on the subject?
Hey Jake,
I hope your new baby is doing well. People often discuss the need for big, nasty linemen on the team. Someone should try to recruit CU Wrestling's Ryan Flores. He is a 285lb Freshman who is advancing to the NCAA finals. He would probably make a great noseguard.
Good things,
KT
I doubt Ryan Flores weighs anywhere near 285 pounds although he was the runner-up in the 285 pound weight class in the Eastern Intercolegiate Wrestling Association Championships held at Franklin & Marshall this past weekend. Flores was sensational upseting the second ranked Penn wrestler with a quick 35 second pin. Ryan lost his final match to the defending champion, Ed Prendergast of Navy, but won the admiration of wrestling fans for hanging tough against Prendergast, a nationally ranked wrestler who seemed to outweigh Ryan by at least 30 or 40 pounds. Finishing second in the E.I.W.A. as a freshman is a tremendous achievement and should make Ryan and Columbia sports fans very proud.
As for Penn, it is the most classless school in the Ivies and always will be. That attitude starts with the coaches; talk to some of the other Ivy coaches about Bagnoli and you will get an earful. As for the Penn announcers, they are probably a bunch of pimply faces kids from Great Neck who never played competitive sports, were probably rejected by Columbia, and are acting out. In other words, ignore them.
A friend in Florida just sent me an interview from a recent issue of the St. Petersburg (is that right?) Times with leading Tampa Bay Devil Rays prospect Fernando Perez, who was drafted in 2004 and is only Columbia's third baseball player to ever reach the majors. (Although personally I'm also rooting for John Baumann.)
Perez's lengthy remarks about how unimportant athletics seems to be at Columbia in general are spot on, if depressing to read.
Surely, however, no major league players save other fellow former Ivy Leaguers would cite having a role in a h.s. production of "Six Degrees of Separation" as personally important to him, or would casually mention the poems of Robert Creeley as his bedtime reading. See, there really is a difference between "us" and "them."
rs
"It's just a climate where nobody cares about sports," Perez said. "Really, nobody cares. It's kind of like a thing where it's an activity. 'Oh, you play sports? Oh, well that's good, but that's not what this place is for.'"
Fernando Perez comments on athletics at Columbia.
Perez sounds like an ingrate. It wouldn't hurt to say something nice about the school that gave him a great education and a scholarship. Here's one Old Lion who couldn't care less whether a kid with that sort of attitude makes it or not.
Perez should tune in to this blog. Then maybe he won't sound like that football recruit that Penn unhooked from us after he was negatively indoctrinated about CU. Perez should also be made aware of the Campbell-led athletics campaign.
Perez didn't sound at all like an "ingrate." Or even like someone who probably should have gone to Penn.
Those are very unfortunate assumptions a few (or just 1?) posters made. He sounds like someone who actually attended Columbia, at least for a while. A place where an attendance of 812 students at a basketball game (as was cited for one recent game) is considered a good crowd. And we really should wish him well in the majors.
Well, Perez has been mentioned on the Columbia sports web site - but now you have to wonder if they will continue to.
Did he graduate?
If it is so lousy at Columbia, why is he in the major leagues? It's all him?
From my perspective, his remarks are ungracious at best. Way to back your school.
Perez is an ingrate. He went ot Columbia on scholarship. He developed his mind and his baseball skills. guys like this Old Lion have been supporting financial aid with our checkbooks for years. And it makes me pretty damn mad to see somebody bite the hand that feeds it. All it takes for a creep like Bagnoli to unhook a recruit is to show him some clippings from an ingrate like Perez.
Looking at the responses here - one can only assume that the most "loyal" Columbians hate sports at the school.
You guys are always bitching about YOUR FAVORITE TEAM - Joe Jones' coaching, Fernando Perez' comments, availability of recruiting information, Craig Hormann's mobility, Norries' weight, yada yada yada..
Take a look in the mirror. Who's really the ingrate?
Jake, great news about the new financial aid package: it is a tremendous development.
It definitely is amazing that posters here actually seem to resent Perez's opportunity to play baseball in the majors. Just the off-field reading he cited in the St. Pete Times interview seems to show the influence of his Columbia education. And how does anyone "know" that Perez is an ingrate, anyway?
And, as someone else noted below, there is much caviling here about things people dislike about Columbia athletics but little celebration of the good news. Which swimming, wrestling, track & field and, particularly, fencing and women's basketball all have to offer lately. Paul Nixon's success as coach is an especially uplifting, positive story.
As for the financial aid changes, I think and hope they'll benefit all deserving Columbia students in the future. Not simply athletes. (God bless Davidson and Princeton for helping kickstart this one into reality throughout the Ivy League in general.)
rs
Thanks Mar 11 7:58 poster!
We DO NEED to look in the mirror!!
There is way too much personal sniping and tearing down of others in the comments.
A good thing here -- I don't know if it's not typical of other Ivies, maybe it's that New York diversity, but we do get a wide range of opinion...something for everyone.
When all is said and done, biggest problem in bb appears to be Levien gym. Even posters from other schools are chiming in on that one. It's noteworthy that our most crushing defeats have been on our home court. Evidently the players are not inspired by the environs. Improvement could only help. Anyone know if there are plans in store to renovate, rebuild or relocate?
the best way to press for a new gym is to write to Lee and the Dianne, and perhaps to Bill Campbell.
The best way to get a new gym is to write a big check.
Someone said Perez is only the third Columbia baseball player to
reach the majors. That's baloney.
There were Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Eddie Collins, "Columbia"
George Smith, a pitcher in the
'30s, Gene Larkin, who won two World Series rings with The Twins
in 1987 and 1991, driving in the
Series-winning run to end the final game in '91, and a pretty good starting pitcher with the Mets and Padres in the '90s whose name escapes me.
As for Perez' remark that Columbia isn't for sports, no university should exist for sports alone. However, a university
without any interest in sports is usuallly a dreary place.
Go Lions!
Perez was, I believe, only the third Columbia baseball player ever drafted by the majors. And he was drafted in the 7th round, which usually isn't a guarantee of anything.
I also like the phrase "the Dianne," even if it was inadvertent. Easily replaces "the Donald."
rs
Was that '90's pitcher Frank Seminara?
LionFan
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