16
SPORTS
The Crusader
May 3, 2013
Purple Pennings With Andrew Fanikos A View From the Field and the Booth: Catching up with Mike Barry and Dom DiPersia This past week, I was able to catch up with Mike Barry, ‘14 and Dom DiPersia, ‘14, two individuals who know their way around Holy Cross Athletics. While Mike looks forward to the upcoming football season, serving as an intern on the coaching staff, Dom will look forward to covering the action on the gridiron as the new Director of Sports Programing at WCHC, with a staff including our own Zach Lanning, Patrick Kurr, and Eric Sherman. In two exclusive interviews, Mike and Dom weigh in about the upcoming athletic season and discuss the expectations of their respective programs. Interview with Mike: What does the team expect from its non-league opponents? We’re real excited about the opportunity to play some new out of league opponents this season. We’re actually playing a twelve game schedule, opposed to an eleven game schedule like years pasts. We hope to get competitive challenges out of each of these contests and hopefully come away with W’s. We’ll also be playing Monmouth out of league this season, which is a new game for us as well. Each of these opponents is strong in their own right so we’re looking forward to the challenge. With graduation in May, the 2012 squad will lose a number of talented seniors, including Gerald Mistretta, Tom Mannix, and Sean Whited. Who do see stepping up next season? Although we hate to see guys like that go, we have a strong senior class who is definitely up for the challenge. We’re strong across the board at Wide Receiver with senior starters Kyle Toulouse, Jon Smith, Mike Fess, and Nate Stanley all returning. We also have a handful of young wide receivers who will contribute a great deal this season as well. Tommy was definitely a big leader and impact player on defense last season, but our defense is all around solid with numerous Interview with Dom: What can you tell me about your time at WCHC? I’ve been apart of WCHC Sports for 2 years now. During my time with this campus organization, I have moved up from a rotating color commentator, to the Director of Hockey Broadcast, to now being named Director of WCHC Sports. It’s been a fun ride. The way I see it, as a broadcaster, you have families, alumni, and even scouts listening in to our broadcasts. I have tried to make it as professional as possible, trying to bring WCHC Sports up to par with some of the bigger college stations. The relationships with the coaches and players of the teams has been great, constantly getting to know them better as every game goes by. What do you hope to accomplish as the new Director of Sports Programming at WCHC? In this new regime, I plan to take
contributors in both the upper and lower classes. Seniors Gary Acquah and Mike Tucker will definitely look to fill leadership roles, while our younger guys start to contribute more on the field. We also have a great freshman class coming in this season that we’re really looking forward to, hopefully those guys can come in and compete right away, which would give the team a real nice jolt of energy headed into the season. What can you tell me about the incoming class? Our incoming recruiting class is very strong this year. We addressed needs on both sides of the ball and expect our incoming Freshman to make an impact with Holy Cross in 2013. The staff and players put a lot of effort into the process this year and we expect this to pay off with a class that’s both effective on the field and fits well with the character and chemistry of our team. The Patriot League decision to allow its member schools to award scholarships will take effect this coming season. Do you have any thoughts about the potential implications of this for the program’s future? Overall, I think its great for the league and the schools involved. There is always a new excitement around a program, which makes the decision to provide scholarsome of the new additions I brought to WCHC Sports this past year and keep making strides with them. After establishing the social media side of the club (Facebook and Twitter), we want to continue to grow that side of WCHC Sports. After getting close to 200 followers on Twitter in the first 6 months of it being up and running, we are shooting for over 300 by the start of football season. With getting the alumni that follow us game and score updates from all the games we cover, as well as conference updates, player interviews, and breaking news, we want to continue to give more live action news to the people that can’t listen to us for certain games. We are establishing a WCHC Sports Blog to give students who aren’t 100% comfortable behind the mic the chance to stay involved with the teams, players and coaches by writing short articles and player interviews. A well-rounded Sports Communication experience is what I’m hoping
ships in football. I think its good for the school, the athletes, the alumni, and the students alike to be excited about Holy Cross football again. I think it’s an incredible opportunity not just for Holy Cross football, but for Holy Cross athletics as a whole. By adding up to fifteen scholarship players starting with the 2013 class, Holy Cross and the entire Patriot League will be able to compete on the highest level in the FCS and seek possible opportunities to compete with FBS schools down the line. The hope is that by recruiting at the highest level in attracting the best studentathletes possible, the Patriot League can maintain or hopefully elevate its status as a strong and competitive FCS League. In my eyes its a win for all involved, the players, school, and league as a whole all stand to elevate their potential as both students and athletes at the college level. It will also be exciting to hopefully rekindle some old rivalries from the glory days of Holy Cross football. Do you have any funny stories to share with the readers of The Crusader? Depends what kind of stories, I think it would be best to keep the social life stories between myself and the holy ghost. But football wise, we always have a lot of fun, funny traditions that go on at practice and during meetings. Most of to give back to everyone involved. Professionalism is what I’m attempting to install. Do you have any funny stories from the booth? On a road trip down to UConn with the Men’s Hockey team, the equipment had been acting up. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but by the end of the 1st period, the system had died. Thinking on my feet, I called into the radio station and did the final 2 periods of broadcasting from my phone after being connected to the phone line back at the radio station. You never know what’s going to happen in this field of work. How many games do you typically broadcast in a semester? We try to do all the home games if possible, as well as an average of 35 away games depending on travel accommodations. Over the course of football, basketball (men’s and women’s), and men’s hockey, plus any conference championship
the time coach Gilmore likes to run a tight ship but sometimes when we get a few minutes to kick back we get to have some laughs together. Most of the time this usually ends up being dance offs, or story telling contests, or one time we had a rap battle which was hilarious as you can imagine. The team lost a lot of close games last season to some really good teams. Asides from staying healthy, what can the team do to build off of last season? Yeah, I mean, we lost a ton of close games which came right down to the wire, this was really disappointing and disheartening because we really felt like we were headed in the right direction but just couldn’t get the W’s in the win column. There were at least five or six games where we had more than a good chance at winning and just didn’t come away with it because of a handful of plays, which could have easily gone our way. On the same token, I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses. We need to get better in specific areas to make sure those handful of plays in fact go our way this season. Its unfortunate we couldn’t come away with the wins last year, but 2012 is in the past, and the best we can do is learn from those experiences and apply them to our efforts in 2013. Hopefully in doing so we can come away with those close wins game, we get to log in a good amount of broadcasts spread out between 3-4 broadcasters per sport (give or take). What’s the best Holy Cross game you’ve ever been in the booth for? HC Men’s Hockey played No. 15 ranked Yale at the New England Sports Center in Marlboro, MA just before the New Year. Senior Brandon Nunn was just coming back injury and Holy Cross was on the cusp of breaking into the Top 20 in the nation. Going into the 3rd period, the teams were tied 2-2. Brandon Nunn scored his 2nd goal of the game to get the game-winner with 6 minutes left as Holy Cross went on to upset Yale 3-2, moving them into the Top 20 for only the 3rd time in school history. What can students do to get more involved with the WCHC sports? Contact us about wanting to do
next season against tough opponents. What are the goals of the team for the upcoming season? Like every season our goal is to win each game every single week. We put a lot of time and effort into preparing for the season and we plan on winning every game we prepare for. Our goals are always to win the Patriot League and compete for a National Championship in the FCS playoffs. Hopefully we can achieve these goals collectively and all improve on our mistakes from last season to produce a more exciting and well-deserved outcome this season. It would be great for this senior class to leave Holy Cross with a championship ring and I know everyone involved with the team is dedicated to that task. Do you have any final thoughts? Lastly, I’d just like to ask all of Sader Nation to remember to support the program this upcoming fall. I know it means a lot to the guys that you come out and support them. It’s important to have a strong fan base and your guys support really does keep them program going and energized. It would be great to see more faces from campus out there at Fitton field every Saturday. I speak for everyone associated with the program in saying it means a lot to us and we really do appreciate it. certain sports that interest the students. Also, wait for the info session in the fall and constantly check emails for updates and news regarding the broadcasts and training sessions. What are your goals for the upcoming year? We are trying to get sponsors for WCHC Sports (unlikely as of right now, but still pushing hard for it), as well as going on more road trips with the teams and expanding out social media outreach. The main goal is just to establish WCHC Sports as a prominent, professional college broadcast station and attempting to “keep up with the Jones’ ” as we grow bigger.