LETTER FROM THE EDITORS W
hen I joined the Red & Black in 2019 as a shy freshman, unsure even of what I wanted to major in, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I assumed the magazine consisted entirely of first person stories, and that I could write one and be done. It turns out I was only right about two things: First, it’s a sports magazine. Second, you get out what you put into it. Over the course of the past two years, from writer to photographer to student athlete liaison to co-editor, I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned how to push myself outside of my comfort zone, work collaboratively and make something great. I’ve discovered that the people I work with, despite our staff comprising fewer journalism and design majors than you might think, are incredibly talented and, more importantly, dedicated. Our staff has the phenomenal ability to turn anything into something great, whether it’s a story about Northeastern’s football team from 2002 or a fresh photo design in the magazine. So trust me when I say every single member of our staff has put in countless hours of work, and we are getting what we’ve put in. This stack of glossy paper may look pretty, but
it’s so much more than a stack of paper. It is a tangible piece of not only our history as a magazine but our efforts since January – all the late nights, hectic attempts to find photos of all the athletes we’re featuring, intense proofreading and so much more. As a first time co-editor being thrown into the only time in history all the athletic teams have been playing at the same time, I’ve gotten to see first hand how amazing everyone on staff is and how hard they work to put together the best issue possible. I hope this magazine gives you even the slightest glimpse of what I’ve been able to learn and a small piece of what the Red & Black is. But most importantly, I hope that in this strange year or so we’ve had, you can relive and learn about some of the moments of joy the world of Northeastern athletics created this past spring. While also looking forward to those new moments this fall. Go Huskies! Madison Neuner
STAFF EDITORS IN CHIEF
WEB EDITOR
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
ADAM GOSTOMELSKY, MADISON NEUNER
BRIAN SHIM
PHOTO DIRECTOR
SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM
JOSH CHASKES, JUSTIN CHEN, ADAM DOUCETTE, NOAH FERNANDES, ELIZABETH KLEMM, MATT LEVIN, HUY NGUYEN, SARAH OLENDER, MILTON POSNER, NICOLE READING, ANDREA RENNER, MICHAEL RUBERTO, BRIAN SHIM
CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
JUSTIN CHEN, ERIN SAVAGE
DESIGN DIRECTOR
DESIGN TEAM
COURTNEY LAPOINTE
NINA ELLERY, SAM KLEIN, COURTNEY LAPOINTE, AUDREY LEE
PODCAST DIRECTOR STACH JARAN
PODCAST TEAM
SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR
JOSH CHASKES, ROHAN CHATURVEDI, ADAM DOUCETTE, NINA ELLERY, STACH JARAN, AUDREY LEE, HUY NGUYEN, SARAH OLENDER, NICOLE READING
ERIN SAVAGE
STUDENT-ATHLETE LIAISON MADISON NEUNER
FIND US @NUREDANDBLACK NUREDANDBLACK.COM NUREDANDBLACK@GMAIL.COM
THE HOWL PODCAST APPLE
SPOTIFY
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS JORDAN BARON, MEGAN BARRETT, KATIE BILLMAN, DOM GALLETTI, CHRISTIAN GOMEZ, JAKE JORDAN, MARCO LAM, ZEKE LIBATIQUE, CONNOR LORD, MADISON NEUNER, SARAH OLENDER, SADIE PARKER
FACULTY ADVISOR CHUCK FOUNTAIN
The Red & Black would like to thank Northeastern Athletics for their support.
FRONT COVER PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ, PICTURED SPENCER SMITH BACK COVER PHOTOS BY MADISON NEUNER & KATIE BILLMAN PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
TABLE OF CONTENTS 02 06 08 10 12 14 18 20
HISTORIC HOCKEY After a historic season, Northeastern women’s hockey fights for the one piece of hardware that is still missing.
BRUSHING OFF THE CHIP
For Elly Morrison, diving success isn’t about proving anything; it’s about being the best version of herself.
BREAKING THROUGH Men’s cross country snaps William & Mary’s 20-year CAA Championship streak.
INSIDE THE IMPORTANCE OF HALFTIME More than just a water break: see what happens behind the closed doors at halftime.
BOXES ON BOXES Take a look at three Northeastern athletes who are never caught without a pair of shoes to rock.
ZEROES TO HEROES
From the “laughingstock” of college football to conference champions and school heroes.
A LITTLE SUPERSTITIOUS Many Huskies have developed pregame routines and superstitions to help them compete at their best.
GR8FUL FOR THE BATTLE Inside the journey of women’s hockey forward Andrea Renner as she battled back from injury.
24 26 28 32 34 36 40 42 43
HEALERS IN THE FAMILY How Northeastern’s athletic trainers heal their athletes and become part of the family along the way.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING The story of Northeastern’s inseparable twins.
HOW A BILL BECOMES A LEGEND Bill Coen breaks the Northeastern men’s basketball wins record — a feat 15 years in the making.
THE GK UNION An inside look into the lives and minds of Northeastern’s goalkeepers and goaltenders.
COLANGELO VS LEVI Husky teammates put aside their collegiate alliance to face off on the international hockey stage.
UNTRADITIONAL ROUTES TO D1 Transfer and international athletes discuss their journeys to Northeastern.
THE ROAD THEY PAVED Meet the three young Northeastern alumni who built the sports media tradition at Northeastern.
PRE-GAME PLAYLISTS Huskies breakdown their pump-up playlists in the locker room and on the field.
DEDICATION AWARD WINNERS Meet the winners of the third annual Red & Black Dedication Award.
PHOTO BY MEGAN BARRETT
BY SARAH OLENDER After a historic season, Northeastern women’s hockey fights for the one piece of hardware that is still missing from their shelf: the NCAA tournament championship trophy.
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t’s hard to find success in a competitive Hockey East conference during any season. But it’s even harder to win the Hockey East Championship, go 17-1-1 in conference play and 22-2-1 overall, take on the reigning national champion, University of Wisconsin, in overtime of the NCAA championship game and win countless individual, coaching and team awards week after week, especially in an unpredictable season during COVID-19. That’s exactly what this season was: unpredictable. Games were canceled, postponed and scheduled at the last minute. On any given day, there could be a game, and each player needed to be ready. “Since I’ve been a freshman, we’ve grown so much. We’ve come so far and I think that a lot of time and effort has been put in, especially this year with everything being so
SPRING 2021 WOMEN’S HOCKEY
unpredictable,” senior defender Skylar Fontaine said after a major win against Robert Morris University that propelled the Huskies to their first Frozen Four game. “I think it’s just a great feeling to come out here and everyone play with the biggest hearts and me as a senior, this is just a great experience and I’m grateful for it.” Senior goaltender Aerin Frankel had similar thoughts. “It was a bit different than some of the seasons we’ve had in the past,” Frankel said. “But I think ultimately, whatever team was going to be able to handle the adversity the best was going to be the most successful.” Frankel also happens to be the most successful women’s hockey player in the country. This past season, she broke the Hockey East shutout record, tallied the most wins in Northeastern goaltender history, unanimously earned
2021 SEASON
22
GAME UNBEATEN STREAK LONGEST IN THE NATION
4
EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
TH STRAIGHT HOCKEY
3 OF THE TOP 5 POINT SCORERS IN NCAA ALINA MUELLER – 1ST, 38 POINTS SKYLAR FONTAINE – 3RD, 30 POINTS CHLOE AURARD – 5TH, 28 POINTS
104
GOALS SCORED, MOST IN NCAA
37
GOALS ALLOWED, 2ND BEST IN NCAA
AERIN FRANKEL PHOTO BY CONNOR LORD
WINNER OF THE 2021 PATTY KAZMAIER MEMORIAL AWARD, WHICH GOES TO THE TOP WOMEN’S COLLEGE HOCKEY PLAYER
USHCO’s goaltender of the year and won the Patty Kazmaier Award, the most competitive and highest accolade a female college hockey player can win. Frankel may be one of the most awarded players in the country, but she’s also one of the most humble. In every press conference she attended this season, she always attributed her personal success to the team that skates in front of her. “It’s always incredible to be acknowledged for personal accolades,” she said. “I think a lot of the success that I’ve had is definitely due to my team and our coaches and the strong program that we have, and I’m not able to do what I do without all of them, so I definitely have them to thank for that.” Frankel wasn’t the only one to rack up rows of awards and accolades. She was joined by junior forward Alina Mueller,
who held the most assists on the year of any player in the country, senior defender Skylar Fontaine, who earned Hockey East Defensemen of the year, junior forward Chloe Aurard, who led the country in game winning goals (six) and the list goes on down the roster. As much as each individual player had highlights, it was the team highlights that stood out the most. “Probably my favorite moment that sticks out above all was our winning in the Frozen Four against Minnesota Duluth; it was a pretty crazy game,” Frankel recalled. “I think after going down 2-0, we’re all kind of looking at each other like, ‘Oh, what are we going to make out of this?’ But I think we never really lost hope.” “I think we regrouped in the locker room after the second period and we obviously came out in the third really strong,” THE RED & BLACK 3
Frankel said. “It was a pretty defining moment for us, to show us that we were capable of playing with those tough WCHA teams and that we were good enough to come back from even a two goal deficit to earn our spot in the national championship game.” It was a season highlight for anyone who had followed this team’s success throughout the year, which made the loss even more devastating. In a classic underdog story, Northeastern made it to the NCAA championship game for the first time in program history, even after previously fielding teams that rostered some of the world’s greatest hockey players like Kendall Coyne, Florence Schelling and more. Even when Northeastern had those players, they still didn’t make it to the championship, let alone make it past a Frozen Four game, showing that this team was something special. Though each individual player on the Northeastern women’s hockey team had strong individual talent, no coach can predict what exactly a team will look like together on the ice. But the build up to the championship game wasn’t one of chance: it was years in the making. A hard fought game against a well-coached Wisconsin group ended in a devastating overtime loss, as Wisconsin’s Daryl Watts bounced a puck in the net after hitting it off the back of a Northeastern defender. Hearts broke on the ice, in the stands and in the living rooms of Northeastern fans watching from home. It seemed impossible that such a successful season could end on a fluke, overtime sudden death goal.
PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
SPRING 2021 WOMEN’S HOCKEY
PHOTO BY SARAH OLENDER
“[I] wish it was maybe a better goal that ended that game, but that’s the way it goes,” said head coach Dave Flint in the post-game press conference. Flint’s right: that was the way the cookie crumbled this season. While the trophy shelves were lined with individual, team and coaching accolades, there was still a vacant spot that could’ve held the gold NCAA tournament trophy at the end of the season. But a runner-up finish doesn’t mean the team wasn’t proud of their stellar performance this season, and excited for what the next season has to offer. “We gave Wisconsin everything they could handle, so I’m proud of my team’s effort and what they’ve done all year long and all the accomplishments that they’ve had,” Flint said in the press conference that followed the Wisconsin game. “I told them the reason it hurts so bad is because they care about it so much and they’ve worked so hard to get to that point.”
“THEY’VE SET A NEW STANDARD FOR NORTHEASTERN WOMEN’S HOCKEY AND IT’S NOT THE LAST TIME WE’RE GOING TO BE HERE. [THIS LOSS] DOESN’T TAKE AWAY FROM THE AMAZING YEAR THAT THEY’VE HAD.” FLINT SAID And with the roster returning all but one team member next season, the Northeastern women’s hockey team is itching to get back on the ice for another chance at the top prize in college hockey. “Next year, we’re going to be even more motivated and we’re going to know that we deserve [it] and we’re good enough to play in those final games,” Frankel said. “And I think that we’re just going to grow from this loss and hopefully win a national championship in the coming years.” THE RED & BLACK 5
BRUSHING OFF THE CHIP BY BRIAN SHIM For Elly Morrison, success in diving isn’t about proving anything; it’s about being the best version of herself.
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unior Elly Morrison’s diving career has been nothing if not exceptional, and exceptionally varied. Morrison first developed a passion for her craft while living overseas in the Netherlands. She dove in the Amsterdam and Eindhoven Diving Cups and the Dutch Nationals. Then, she forged a competitive five year career in Maple Grove, Minnesota as an All-State, All-Champion varsity athlete. That was before jumping to Huntington Avenue to clinch CAA Rookie Diver of the Year as a freshman in 2019, and becoming the lone Husky to qualify for the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships in 2020. Yet, Elly Morrison chooses not to let her past accomplishments dictate her future. Rather than fueling a desire to continue winning to motivate herself, Morrison harks back to her roots to drive her athletic philosophy. “For me, diving started very innocently,” Morrison recalled. “When I was seven, my older sister and I saw a commercial on Disney Channel about it. We got so excited by it that we showed our mom, who loved it and signed us up for lessons.” Since then, Morrison has decided that the only pressure set on her is that which she sets on herself. Her diving isn’t simply to win titles or collect accomplishments. Focusing on personal growth, consistency, and individual improvement, Morrison sets her goals on making herself better. “It’s more personal than just the numbers,” she said. “The places and the points do matter, but they come after my own goals and desires. Sometimes the only goal I’ll focus on before a meet is feeling good about one particular dive on my list or getting my competition anxiety under control.” This athletic dialect is one not particularly prosaic in competitive sports. Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and many more of the most accomplished athletes in history attribute their success to some all-consuming mania that drives them to show up and prove everybody wrong, regardless of what they’ve already achieved.
be less present in the moment and my performance would deteriorate.” Diving is a uniquely subjective sport. The scoring on an individual dive is drawn from a panel of seven judges who recommend a score between 0 and 10. The highest two and lowest two scores are dropped, leaving three scores to be averaged and then multiplied by the dive’s difficulty rating. This subjectivity in scoring and placement explains Morrison’s unique outlook on her craft. “You could champion a meet and still have had a horrible meet, or you could end up in dead last but still feel like you had a great one,” she explained. “For me, diving needs to be an individual thing. I can’t compare myself with everyone out there.” Northeastern diving coach Lauren Colby wholeheartedly agrees: “There are so many talented women in this sport. If you start to compare yourself, things can turn to a negative light very quickly.” For both Morrison and Colby, it is this priority on individual growth and developing the intangibles that truly translates to performance on the pool deck. “I go into every practice and every meet with the mindset that I want to get better, I want to feel better,” Morrison said. “And I believe that my scores will reflect the work I put into that.” Beyond performance, Colby believes this philosophy also cultivates the type of confidence and self-determination that coaches want to bring out in their athletes. “It’s just as important to grow outside of the pool deck as it is to improve in the sport,” Colby explained. “As my student-athletes go through the program, it’s ultimately more important for me to see them grow up as people than it is to see them excel in just diving. I really try to style my coaching around that philosophy.” As a former varsity diver herself, Colby feels strongly about the importance of personal growth – especially self-
“I DON’T NEED TO PROVE ANYTHING. I’M JUST COMPETING AGAINST MYSELF,” Morrison, on the other hand, doesn’t have anything to prove. She chooses to brush that chip off of her shoulder. “I don’t need to prove anything. I’m just competing against myself,” Morrison explained. “But at the same time, I don’t feel the need to outdo myself every time I get on the board. For some people, keeping that chip on their shoulder motivates them, brings out their best. I feel like if I did that, I would get so caught up in the number that I would SPRING 2021 WOMEN’S SWIM & DIVE
confidence – for her student-athletes. “The one thing I try to instill and coach in every athlete is confidence,” Colby said. “Being a woman and being 20-something years old – confidence is key. With the world that we live in, it can be extremely challenging for women to gain the confidence they need to excel. All of my athletes are wonderful, talented women. That’s something I truly want them to recognize in themselves, both on and off the deck.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHEASTERN ATHLETICS THE RED & BLACK 7
BREAKING THROUGH BY ADAM DOUCETTE
After seven straight 2nd place finishes, the Huskies finally snap William & Mary’s 20-year CAA Championship streak. PHOTOS COURTESY OF NORTHEASTERN ATHLETICS
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pandemic-altered season. An opponent’s 20 year conference championship streak. And a chance to cement a legacy in Northeastern athletics history with only a second ever conference title. An incredibly rare combination of variables that just happened to be the exact situation the men’s cross country team found themselves in last winter. While the Huskies have had their eye on William & Mary’s 20 year win streak for a few seasons, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cross country season, usually run in the fall, was shifted to the winter. After seven straight years of coming in second place, the Huskies, led by junior Alex Korczynski and graduate student Cam Dickson, finally won their first ever CAA Cross Country Championship. Korczynski and Dickson were the first two to cross the finish line for the Huskies, placing second and third behind Hofstra’s Alex Masai. “Turning around at the finish line was one of the best
SPRING 2021 MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
experiences I’ve ever had,” Dickson said. “Four weeks before that we didn’t know if we were going to be racing much at all this season. To turn around to see everyone come in together was awesome.” The Huskies placed five runners in the top 10, including sophomore Patrick Mullen in fifth, junior Matthew Schaefer in seventh, and senior Eric Clay in 10th. It wasn’t an easy year for the Huskies though, and the coronavirus pandemic altered many aspects of the season. “There was nothing typical at all about the entire year,” associate head coach Matt Lonergan said. “We practiced outside all year, regardless of the weather because we had zero indoor facilities.” In the fall, running outside wouldn’t be too much of a problem. But in the winter in Boston, things can get dicey. “It was kind of back to the high school hard winter training routes,” Dickson said. “It doesn’t matter what it is, on Tuesday and Friday you go outside and you run a workout. In Boston
“ONCE YOU HAVE A LEG UP ON THEM, ALL YOU’VE GOT TO DO IS NOT LET GO.” you get sleet and disgusting mush that you’re sliding around in and then all of a sudden it will freeze overnight and you’re in trouble.” It was often a challenge to find places where there weren’t cars that salted the roads and paths so they could run after a snowstorm. “It was a big task for us to actually make sure we got in the work in those types of conditions. A lot of times, it was really brutal,” Korczynski said. Another challenge posed by this season was the lack of meets, and the lack of knowing if and when those meets would happen. It was an ever-evolving situation that required everyone on the team to adapt and be flexible. Meets were prone to getting canceled and teams were sometimes forced to drop out when coronavirus tests came back positive and athletes had to quarantine. “I like to train for something, not just train for the sake of training,” Lonergan said. “So it makes it really tricky to structure the training and focus the training on preparing for events, when there are no events to prepare for.” Because of this, they structured in time trials to take the place of meets. It gave the team something to work toward. Although there were only two cross country meets, there were also track and field meets because the two seasons overlapped this year. This made training more difficult for some athletes because training for long distance cross country
races like the 8k looks different than training for mid distance track events. Masks were another hurdle that the team had to face over the course of the season. Playing a high intensity sport with a mask on is never easy, but the nature of cross country made it a particular challenge. “Other sports don’t run at a high percentage of their maximum output, as long as we do, as often as we do,” Lonergan explained. “It’s not like we run and then we just kind of stand there, we just keep going. As you sweat and the masks get wet, the guys have talked about how it’s like getting waterboarded.” For Dickson, one of the hardest parts of the coronavirus affected season was not being able to be with his teammates as much as usual. “The hardest part is definitely losing your teammates,” he said. “We were training with only the people we lived with for quite a while. We have two or three apartments on the team and we didn’t see each other for months.” Despite all of these challenges, the Huskies managed to secure their first CAA title in school history. In Dickson’s final season with the team, it was particularly sweet. “If you’re fit enough and everybody’s been working well enough together in training, eventually you find your groups in front of theirs… Once you have a leg up on them, all you’ve got to do is not let go.”
THE RED & BLACK 9
INSIDE THE IMPORTANCE OF HALFTIME
More than just a water break: see what happens behind the closed doors at halftime.
BY NOAH FERNANDES
W
hile halftime may mean a trip to the bathroom or concessions for the audience, that precious break in the action serves as more than just a long water break for the athletes and coaches. It is a time to regroup and see how they can improve, regardless of the score. The driving force behind this improvement is often the famed “halftime speech” from the coach. While every speech is custom made depending on what went well and what decidedly did not, each address has the same objective. As freshman men’s basketball forward Coleman Stucke said, “The goal for any halftime speech is to improve upon the first half performance.” The speech, ultimately, is an art. The coaches have to carefully craft them to relay an effective message to their players. They can applaud the team when it’s deserved, but they also have to know when to wake the team up if they’re not playing to
the expected standard. There’s a balance that must be achieved between praise and criticism. And not all coaches use the same approach. “Some coaches are yellers and some are more observers,” Stucke said. “Most coaches will pick their spots with yelling, because if a coach yells all the time it can have less of an effect, but if the coach is loud only at certain times, it can have a far greater impact.” Even before the speech starts however, there is a tone and energy displayed in the locker room amidst talk from the athletes themselves, one that is usually pretty reliant on the score at the half. “When we are ahead at the half, the discussion is a bit more calm and casual,” women’s soccer head coach Ashley Phillips said. “When we are losing, they typically communicate with a
PHOTO BY ZEKE LIBATIQUE
SPRING 2021 INSIDE THE IMPORTANCE OF HALFTIME
bit more urgency. They also try to pump each other up when we are down in games.” But there’s a balance to the locker room energy. If athletes lose composure, they risk taking their eyes off of the prize. “In the locker room at halftime, we are locked in whether we are winning or losing,” Freshman men’s basketball forward Kachi Nwagha said. “We know the job is not done. And that was apparent during our season because there were games that we dominated in the first half but got turned around in the second, and vice versa.” Although the coaches may feel comfortable with how their team is playing, they too must not get too comfortable. They need to make sure they are assessing what is working and not working, and make the necessary adjustments. “[Men’s basketball head coach Bill] Coen also does a good job of getting us focused and he studies the other team and tells us how we need to adjust, no matter how small the adjustment may seem. He will highlight key players and their strengths and weaknesses in addition to plays that are working or not working,” Nwagha said. While soccer and basketball have one long intermission, volleyball presents an entirely different challenge. Instead of one long halftime, they get just a few minutes in between sets. Due to this, they don’t have time to make big adjustments in the locker room – they are made on the court as the game goes on. Volleyball head coach Lenika Vazquez said that during the game she feeds the team specific information on how to win. During practice she puts emphasis on coaching “energy,” something she teaches them to create. Instead of having their halftime pep talk, they are able to tap into that energy that they create. The challenge is that the players have to know how to
adapt on the fly. “We only get 60 to 75 seconds for a timeout, so if we are in tough situations we have to know how to turn it around,” Vazquez said. Due to these short breaks, the coaching is a bit different than in other sports. “Because of these short timeouts, I like to be very specific and intentional,” Vazquez said. “If needed, I will pull the player aside and give her the direct information and coaching that she needs to make the proper adjustment.” For Phillips, there is more time to sit and make detailed and calculated adjustments at halftime. “If we are up in a game and not performing our best, we would definitely make changes,” Phillips said. “Changes at half when winning may also depend on our opponent [nonconference, conference, or playoff ], depending on what the result would mean for standings or if we are in a one and done type situation. Changes at half usually consist of formation adjustments, style of play adjustments, and/or player substitution.” The changes made can vary, depending on the score, opponent or even the sport. Sometimes, it is a small tweak to the formation, and sometimes it can be a wholesale change in the defensive scheme. These speeches not only give the players a time to rest, but also to provide time for self-assessment where they can see how they can change their play. Although it may seem like any pump up speech, halftime speeches are crucial in helping a team create the energy they were lacking and turn it into successful results. Phillips said, “The most important thing to us and this team is the rate they work and battle to succeed.”
PHOTO BY MARCO LAM
THE RED & BLACK 11
KENDALL CURRENCE
BY JOSH CHASKES
From functional to flashy, take a look at three Northeastern athletes who are never caught without a pair of shoes to rock. PHOTO COURTESY OF KENDALL CURRENCE
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or some people, a shoe is purely functional – just something “MY FAVORITE, FAVORITE PAIR OF SHOES? IT HAS TO BE to cover your feet while you go from point A to point B. CROCS. FOR REAL, I HAVE THESE FUR-LINED CROCS These Northeastern athletes couldn’t agree less. THAT I WEAR, I WEAR THEM ALL OVER THE PLACE.” “Outfits, they look nice,” said sophomore men’s basketball Nwagha has multiple pairs of Crocs that he loves, but the forward Alexander “Kachi” Nwagha, “but what makes or breaks fur-lined ones continue to be his favorites, especially during the an outfit is the shoes.” trademark New England cold weather. Nwagha, like many people, loves to express himself through “It has fur on the inside, so it’s almost like insulated Crocs. shoes. He has an ever-growing collection of them in his room, It’s comfy, I like it, and it’s just easy to wear,” Nwagha said. with stacks and lines of boxes adorning a shelf on his wall. The It’s an unexpected but very functional pick from a collection collection spans brands and types, from Converses to Nikes, that, by his best estimate, now contains around 30 pairs of including a pair of white and gold Kobes with spikes on them shoes. Junior women’s basketball guard Kendall Currence has a that he received through a trade with a friend. But Nwagha said he didn’t used to spend that much on shoes similar number, but she’s collected hers over a period of years. “I remember getting these in middle school,” Currence said at all. In fact, his collection is a burgeoning one; he started while proudly holding up a pair of red and green Christmasseriously building it this past year, when the pandemic started. themed Nike KD 6s, “and they still fit me. My favorite. I love, “I’ve always been interested in shoes, but in high school I love, love red shoes.” wasn’t a fashionable guy,” Nwagha remembered. “Whatever I But Currence’s love for shoes goes beyond just how good got from basketball games, basketball teams, I’d wear that … but they look. They can be a way to express identity. She’s made then when COVID happened, I was just at home, and online multiple custom pairs through the NikeID customization shopping … and I got my first pair of Jordans.” option, including a pair of blue Kyrie 1s with some meaningful But it didn’t end there. modifications. Her first and last name adorned the back of each “Honestly I kept buying shoes over quarantine,” he said. “I built my collection, so now I can come out and I can be coming shoe, but there was another important feature on the inside. “Inside on the tongue, I don’t know if you can see,” she said, out different.” lifting up the tongues on each shoe, “it says Rising Feather, that’s His favorite pair, though? Probably not what you’d guess.
SPRING 2021 BOXES ON BOXES
my Native American name.” Those aren’t the only shoes tied to Currence’s family and upbringing. “Oh, these are a pair of shoes my dad gave me, that he used to wear,” she said while pulling out a pair of Nike Air Zoom Flight “The Glove” sneakers, a shoe with a futuristic look wrapped in a zip-up fabric covering. Currence doesn’t wear the hefty shoe in games often, but she loves that she can carry on her dad’s love of sneakers, as well as how unique the pair is. “They’re actually too big because they’re his, but … nobody really had them when I was in high school,” she said. “Obviously it wasn’t that long ago but they’re a lot different; you see these and you’re like, ‘What are those?’” A unique look, which “The Glove” definitely offers, tends to be the prime motivator to buy a certain shoe, often taking precedence over other concerns such as feel or ease of movement. On the flip side, men’s soccer freshman midfielder Zach Sauer proudly prioritizes look over everything else. “I don’t really care about comfort as long as it looks good,” Sauer said. “I usually like to know the meaning behind it as well, so if it’s a collab, or an artist that you like, or an athlete.” One notable collab sneaker Sauer’s impressive collection boasts is the white OVO Jordan 10s, a joint project with rapper Drake’s record label and a seriously coveted item among sneaker enthusiasts. But Sauer says one particular athlete speaks to him more than anyone else, arguably the most influential man in the shoe game. “Michael Jordan is my favorite,” he said. “That’s also why I like the OG colorways a lot more, because he actually wore those, like he wore those colors and that is an exact model of it.” Because of his love for OG colorways, colorways that accompanied a shoe’s initial release, a gem of his collection that he takes particular pride in are the highly sought-after Air Jordan 11 Concords. This grail for many sneaker collectors originally dropped in 1995, before seeing retro releases in 2000 and 2011, a low top edition in 2014 and another retro drop in
2018. Sauer isn’t the only Northeastern athlete who’s a fan of them, either. When asked what she would get if she could have any shoe in the world for free, Currence answered without hesitation. “Concord 11s, I’ve wanted those shoes since middle school,” she said. “It makes no sense. They’re my dream shoe but I don’t have it. I have everything else!” Nwagha’s dream shoe is also extremely prized in the sneaker community, even more so than the Concord 11s; and like Sauer said, his wish for it is influenced by its connection to someone he looks up to. “First and foremost would be the Yeezy Red Octobers,” Nwagha said. “That’s a holy grail right there … Kanye West is my favorite artist, that’s why I like Yeezys. And Yeezy and Nike? That’s a limited edition, so I’d get those.” Sauer says he used to buy sneakers and resell them, which is how many kids getting into kicks finance expanding their collections, but now he’s focused more on pairs he would want to wear himself. “Every single time you make a profit you end up just blowing it on more pairs for yourself,” he said. “It’s kind of an addiction. But now I just kind of buy to wear.” That flies in the face of one major criticism of people who collect sneakers: the premise that at a certain point they just become expensive collectibles that sit on a shelf. Many collectors today realize the issues with building a collection this way, and strive to keep the shoes’ original purpose of being on people’s feet. Currence echoed this sentiment. “I think the conception is that people are like, ‘Oh, you can’t wear shoes like that all the time, but shoes are meant to be worn.’” In that spirit, these three athletes, some of their teammates and many other sneakerheads at Northeastern will wear their sneakers and grow their stash. Don’t be surprised if you see them on the field, on the court, on Instagram, or around campus rocking a fresh new pair they’ve added to their collections.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KACHI NWAGHA KACHI NWAGHA
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ZEROES TO BY MATT LEVIN
From the “laughingstock” of college football to conference champions and school heroes.
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t was nearly 20 years ago when Northeastern football won their first and only conference championship in their 76 year history. November 23, 2002 is a day often forgotten in our sports lore after the school cut its program in 2009. But for Northeastern football alumni, the 2002 season is one they will never forget. For years, Northeastern was the laughing stock of Division I-AA (now FCS) college football. Between 1979 and 2002, they had only four seasons where they finished with a winning record. Northeastern joined the Atlantic-10 conference in 1997
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and until 2002, they had a record of 14-27 against other teams in the conference. So what was different about the 2002 team compared to any other team in Northeastern football history? It was their head coach, Don Brown. Brown became the head coach in 2000, with his main goal being to change the culture of the program and instill a winning mentality. “Everybody was used to losing,” safety Anthony Nolen, who played at Northeastern from 2001 to 2003, said. “By week three or four, he benched two senior starters and put in a freshman,
HEROES PHOTOS FROM NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY Shawn Brady, at quarterback. He opened everyone’s eyes. The best players play, seniority doesn’t get you anything.” Charles Hughley, who played defensive back at Northeastern from 2001 to 2006, reiterated Nolen’s point. “During that first year, a lot of freshmen ended up taking starting spots. A lot of players who didn’t have the winning fabric lost their jobs. Shawn Brady, myself, I can go on and on.” William Griffin, a running back at Northeastern from 1999 to 2002, noticed the change in his teammates’ mentality once Coach Brown entered Northeastern in 2000.
“My sophomore year was the transition year,” Griffin said. “Starting my junior year, to tell you the truth, everyone was dedicated. Senior year, we all had confidence. People knew the system and the plays.” In 2001, Northeastern went 5-6 overall and 4-5 in conference play. The team began to hit its stride towards the end of the season, winning four of their last six games. Safety Mike Jackson, who played at Northeastern from 2000 to 2003, described 2001 as the year when the team “scratched the surface.” By 2002, Northeastern football had a winning culture THE RED & BLACK 15
and the team was like a family. “The championship year was different. We had something to prove and we had the talent to do it,” Nolen said. “We had a year under our belt and had a team that no one had seen before. We knew we were good and the confidence was there.” Jackson also took notice of the team’s culture.
“‘WE FELT LIKE WE WERE WINNERS IN EVERYTHING THAT WE DID. WE WERE BROTHERS. WE TOOK CARE OF EACH OTHER,’ HE SAID.” We fought in a good way. We really pushed each other in the locker room and on the field. It is really because of our leadership. Our coaches deliberately made us feel uncomfortable to prepare us and it accumulated in wins.” Michael Rosenborough, a right tackle at Northeastern from 2002 to 2005, was a freshman on the 2002 team, but took notice of the leadership of the upperclassmen. “I always remember them being like veterans,” he said. “They expected you to show up, go to work, and give it your all.” Hughley emphasized how the team was like a brotherhood. “It was the best example of camaraderie of any team I’ve ever played on … Even to this day, I still keep in contact with a majority of my collegiate teammates more than any other team I’ve played on.” The 2002 Northeastern football team was one of their most talented teams in school history. The team would finish the year with six players making First Team All-Conference (Steve Anzalone, Liam Ezekiel, Tim Gale, Miro Kesic, John McDonald, and Art Smith). Three players would make Second Team All-Conference (Kurt Abrams, Tom Olivo, and Adam Walter) and an additional one would make Third Team AllConference (Adam Bourget). Entering the 2002 season, Northeastern was projected to finish 10th in the Atlantic-10 Conference preseason poll. Second to last. Again. But the people inside the program knew it would be different, especially after that first game.
“WE WENT OUT TO OHIO [UNIVERSITY] AND WE SMACKED THEM. THAT’S WHEN WE WERE LIKE, ‘OKAY, WE CAN PLAY WITH ANYBODY,’” NOLEN SAID. “WE HAD OUR MOTIVATION GUYS GIVE THE RA-RA SPEECHES. COACH BROWN WAS THAT GUY. YOU PUT A HELMET ON HIM, HE WOULD PLAY TOO.”
SEPTEMBER 7TH, 2002 PEDEN STADIUM, ATHENS, OH ATTENDANCE: 21,002
OHIO BOBCATS 0 NORTHEASTERN HUSKIES 31 A STELLAR DEFENSIVE DISPLAY POWERED THE HUSKIES TO A FAMOUS VICTORY ON THE ROAD. THEY SCORED 21 POINTS FROM TURNOVERS, INCLUDING DEFENSIVE TOUCHDOWNS FROM BOTH GAVIN POTTER AND ART SMITH. THE WIN, THEIR SECOND SHUTOUT IN A ROW, CAPPED OFF A RUN OF AN IMPRESSIVE 79 STRAIGHT POINTS. Hughley noted that the team was “focused on winning the national championship. There was cussing, I used to bark before every game because of that. People complained, but instead of reprimanding us, Coach Brown just told us that people were talking about us.” The 2002 team was the best team Northeastern put on the field. But they still faced an obstacle that previous teams had a hard time getting past: the field itself. Northeastern football practiced and played on Parsons Field. For some, it is hard to be motivated to play when one is playing Division I football on a field comparable to that of a high school field. “When I came to a field on a recruiting trip, I thought it was a practice field,” Griffin said. “Parson’s Field is located in Brookline; teams will usually take a bus to get there. The field is in the middle of a neighborhood, so games and practices are not allowed to be held at night.” When asked about playing on Parsons Field, Hughley started laughing. “It was a subpar collegiate field for most sports,” he said. “There were not too many fans.” But Hughley said Coach Brown taught the team to embrace the field, turning it into a home field advantage. “Coach Brown emphasized that this was the dogyard. When people came here to play, it was uncomfortable for them,” Hughley said. From 2001 to 2003, Northeastern would only lose one
A RECORD YEAR OVERALL
DIVISION
10-3-0 7-2-0 SPRING 2021 FOOTBALL
SET SCHOOL RECORDS FOR:
MOST OVERALL WINS (10) DIVISION WINS (7) POINTS (403)* RUSHING TD’S (27)* PLAYERS ON ALL ATLANTIC 10 TEAM (10)
non-playoff game at Parsons Field. Rosenborough reiterated that Parsons Field brought out the best of Northeastern football.
“PARSONS FIELD BROUGHT OUT THE BEST OF NORTHEASTERN FOOTBALL. ‘IT WAS THE GREATEST HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE IN THE NATION,’ ROSENBOROUGH SAID.” “As you played, you got to appreciate how much of a home field advantage it was. Teams were like, ‘What is going on here?’ Teams hated coming in there; the visiting locker room was so small. It sucked but it was ours.” Today, Parsons Field is still used by the men’s and women’s soccer and baseball teams, and was renovated in 2019 to include new state-of-the-art turf. Not only was the field subpar, but so were the fans; Northeastern students rarely came to games, if they came at all. The crowd at Parsons Field was “built up of cheerleaders, your parents, your family and your girlfriend,” Jackson said. Griffin said that the crowd at games before the 2002 season was “pathetic.” But when the team started winning in 2002, people began to take notice. “We had a packed stadium my senior year. They had to put extra seating in the endzone because it would overflow. It was awesome,” he said. “To us, it was like, ‘Protect our house;’ it was our home field. For my first three years, it was a complaining session. That field was an issue until our coaching staff turned a negative into a positive, made it a mentality of protecting our house.” In the 2002 season, Northeastern would finish with a record of 10-3 and a conference record of 7-2, the most wins they ever had in a season. In the Atlantic-10 championship, Northeastern had a matchup against James Madison University. The game wasn’t even close. Nolen remembers the game like it was yesterday. “We had black over black home field jerseys; we knew we had to win,” Nolen said.
NOVEMBER 23RD, 2002 PARSONS FIELD, BROOKLINE, MA ATTENDANCE: 4,825
NORTHEASTERN HUSKIES 41 JAMES MADISON DUKES 10 THE HUSKIES OVERPOWERED JMU TO CLINCH THE FIRST CONFERENCE TITLE IN SCHOOL HISTORY. THE GROUND GAME WAS CRITICAL, WITH THE HUSKIES RUSHING FOR FOUR TOUCHDOWNS, TWO OF WHICH CAME FROM SHAWN BRADY. THE WIN ALSO MEANT NORTHEASTERN WAS UNDEFEATED AT HOME DURING THE REGULAR SEASON. “Coach Brown taught me there was nothing that I can’t accomplish. He said to kick the door in, don’t wait for someone to open the door. This was the foundation for me as a coach. I didn’t realize how much I took from him until I started doing it.” Rosenborough also fondly remembers his time at Northeastern. “I miss the team. I legit miss Parsons Field. There is not a field like that anywhere else,” he said. “I am thankful for the opportunity. I would not change it, I would go back all over again.”
“IT WAS AN UNBELIEVABLE FEELING. WE WENT FROM SUCKING TO WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP.’” You put the hard work in and it pays off. By halftime, we were looking at the playoff game.” Northeastern would crush JMU 41-10, winning a conference title for the first – and only – time in school history. Though the team had expectations of a national championship, those dreams would fall short after a 29-24 upset loss to Fordham in the first round of the playoffs. The memories and lessons these players learned, though, was something that they would never forget. Jackson, who is currently the head coach of Towson University’s track and field and cross country program, uses what he learned during football in his coaching. “I learned a lot in my experience as a young man, to be ready for hard moments. It planted the seeds for my career,” he said.
NOVEMBER 30TH, 2002 PARSONS FIELD, BROOKLINE, MA ATTENDANCE: 6,848
NORTHEASTERN HUSKIES4 24 FORDHAM RAMS 29 THE FORTH SEEDED HUSKIES’ HOPES AT A FIRST EVER NATIONAL TITLE FALL SHORT AGAINST THE RAMS IN FRONT OF A PACKED HOUSE AT PARSONS FIELD. TIM GALE SCORED ATOUCHDOWN WITH 52 SECONDS REMAINING TO BRING THE SCORE TO 24-29. BUT FORDHAM RECOVERED THE ENSUING ONSIDE KICK TO END THE GAME. THE RED & BLACK 17
A LITTLE SUPERSTITIOUS BY MICHAEL RUBERTO Many Huskies have developed pregame routines and superstitions to help them compete at their best.
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
ANGELINE FRIEL
TESSA MCCLAIN
PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHEASTERN ATHLETICS SPRING 2021 A LITTLE SUPERSTITIOUS
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
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ny athlete would agree that when it comes to sports, competing is just as much a mental challenge, if not more so, than it is a physical one. Performing at the highest possible level requires both conditioning and composure. To that end, many Huskies have developed their own pregame routines and rituals to help bring themselves into that competitive mindset. “We get to the field many hours before the game, so as the starting pitcher there’s a good amount of downtime where you’re just relaxing,” freshman pitcher Wyatt Scotti said. “I like to sit on the bench, be outside, and just keep my body somewhat moving.” About 80 minutes before the opening pitch, Scotti begins his routine of static stretches and practice throws. This is a regimen that he follows closely, as it has developed over years of pitching to help him ready his right arm for the game ahead. “My only superstition is that I always throw a certain amount of minutes before the game because I know how to pace out my time,” Scotti said. “I’ve been doing the same routine probably since the beginning of high school.” Most athletes have a certain warm up routine before their games to get their bodies ready, but Scotti feels that going through this process gives him a mental edge on the mound as well. “For me it’s a balance of staying relaxed before a game, but also being mentally ready to compete. You need to be ready when the game starts physically and mentally, where you’re not overthinking things.” While Scotti may not consider himself superstitious, plenty of other Huskies have some “less traditional” game day rituals. Take, for instance, freshman distance runner Tessa McClain on the track and field and cross country teams. “On meet days I wake up and have oatmeal with peanut butter and banana,” McClain said. “I normally don’t attempt to do any sort of school work; I try to zone out and just focus on getting ready to compete.” Closer to the actual events, McClain and the other Huskies clear their minds with some lighter activities. “Some pre-meet hair braiding with the team is always fun. If my race is later in the meet I’ll try and start a game of cards or something,” McClain said. Whether it’s a game of UNO or chess, McClain and her teammates play these games to help relax and stay ready to perform their best. Though these activities may not be physically conditioning them for a race, she believes they do make a difference, and her fellow Huskies rely on each other in that way to get themselves prepared. “A lot of times in high school I’d go to meets on my own and I wouldn’t have teammates with me to do those types of things,” McClain recalled. “[At Northeastern], you’re [competing] for the team – it’s not completely individual.”
While track may seem like a far more individual endeavor than some other sports on the surface, this calming pregame routine is a shining example of how teamwork and camaraderie are still crucial aspects of success. Pregame rituals aren’t just important on the mound or on the track. According to women’s soccer sophomore goalkeeper Angeline Friel, they’re important in the net as well. Over her time as a Husky, she’s developed multiple superstitions of her own. “Every morning we wake up at 7:30am no matter the time of the game, and we get the exact same Dunkin’ order, which is a caramel iced latte,” Friel described. The goalkeeper has multiple rituals that get her and her team ready to compete, including listening to Lil Jon and wearing a lucky piece of clothing: a pair of socks with flame patterns which she describes as “Guy Fieri-esque.” Friel traces these patterns back to the team’s first home win of the season. “We had just gone to get coffee randomly that morning, and since then we haven’t wanted to break the tradition,” she said.
“SINCE WE GOT THAT WIN WE KNEW WE HAD TO KEEP GOING BACK AND GIVING DUNKIN’ BUSINESS… I ACTUALLY HAVE A WIDE VARIETY OF SOCKS ALSO, AND I HAVE NOT WORN ANY OTHER PAIR BECAUSE I ONLY TRUST THE FLAME SOCKS.” While superstitions like this may sound silly from the outside looking in, many athletes know that having a routine and sticking to it can be a big help on game days. For Friel, a 0-3 loss to Hofstra University serves as concrete evidence that her team’s rituals make a difference. “I have a couple Lil Jon songs that I listen to … and I didn’t listen to them before the game and we ended up losing, so I will not be making that mistake again,” Friel lamented. Not completing pregame routines can be shaking for all athletes. “If I can’t do those distracting things I feel like I psych myself out,” McClain said. “Once you start doubting yourself when you get into the actual race, you’re more likely to let those types of thoughts win.” Friel sees herself as being partially responsible for getting her teammates going before games. “Being the goalkeeper, you usually have to be the craziest person in the bunch and always bring the energy,” she said. Whether it’s something as matter-of-fact as a warm up routine, something as calming as a game of cards or something as wild as Lil Jon and Guy Fieri-esque socks, pregame rituals and superstitions help Huskies across sports build a sense of stability and keep their eyes locked on the prize. They allow the athletes to better focus, and to perform their best, both for themselves and for their team. THE RED & BLACK 19
GR8FUL FOR THE BATTLE BY ANDREA RENNER Inside the journey of women’s hockey forward Andrea Renner as she battled back from injury.
PHOTO BY JAKE JORDAN
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ne piece of advice I would give my younger self is this: Be grateful every time you step onto the ice and value every second spent with your teammates, because hockey can be taken away at any moment. Hockey has been my whole life since I was seven. It’s made me into a relentless competitor, taught me valuable lessons and has allowed me to grow. It’s brought me numerous success stories, but also heartbreaking failures. The feeling of success is tremendous, and one I don’t take for granted, but I learn more about myself in times of adversity and struggle. When I get knocked down, I climb back up; that’s when I test myself the most in life. Hockey, similar to any sport, is physically demanding, and has taken a toll on my body over the years. I’ve had severe injuries, multiple surgeries, concussions, broken bones and the list goes on. But all the physical pain I’ve experienced in
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hockey gets washed away when I think about having fun with my teammates or hoisting a championship trophy. No adversity is more fresh in my mind than the recent injury that kept me on the sidelines for an entire season. It tested me physically, mentally and emotionally and I’m proud to talk about what struggles I went through because it wasn’t easy to return to the game that has taught me everything. The season of 2019-2020 was my senior year, and I was determined to have a great season. After my junior year, I was eager to go home and start summer training. But in May 2019, I started to feel severe sciatic pain from my low back down my left leg and foot. It limited my training and kept me off the ice most of the summer. My low back was bothering me with every move, and whether I was walking or sitting I felt like a fragile 80-year-old. Additionally, my glute, calf and foot all completely shut down
“I WAS DONE SUFFERING IN SILENCE. I WAS DONE LETTING THIS INJURY CONTROL ME AND WHAT I DO AND HOW I THINK ABOUT MY LIFE.” - ANDREA RENNER
on me, and I was not able to activate any of those muscles. My foot felt like it had pins and needles in it constantly. My calf always felt tremendously tight and had minimal strength. I couldn’t activate my glute in exercises and it felt weak constantly. The only way to take away my pain was to fall asleep, even that was challenging. From the moment I woke up and placed my feet on the floor to start my day to the time I went to bed at night, my life was painful. It made me unpleasant to be around and was exhausting physically, but even more mentally. I spent my entire summer trying to pinpoint what exactly was causing my pain. I was going to multiple doctors’ appointments and eventually discovered a fracture in my lumbar spine. This injury takes about five to six months to heal, and unfortunately I have had this injury in the past. But
in the back of my mind I also felt that something else was wrong. Injections, physical therapy and treatment didn’t help, and I felt hopeless as the summer began to come to an end. Doctors told me to “hang up my skates” and start thinking about something else. Hearing a doctor tell you to quit something you dedicated your whole life to is crushing, and I didn’t want it to bother me but it did. When I returned to school in the fall, I made the tough decision to take a medical redshirt year. Still unsure where to look next, I eventually decided to look into getting my hip evaluated as it could’ve been causing my back pain. In late November, I was told that there was a severe amount of damage in my hip that could be causing my sciatica and could have led to my spine fracture. It was not guaranteed, but a great possibility. Surgery was encouraged so I could play again, which was all I wanted to do. With some uncertainty in correlating my back pain with my hip, I felt like I could’ve been taking a big risk. But I went with my gut and scheduled a 7am hip surgery, hoping I made the right choice. On December 24, 2019, I had a six-hour hip surgery. Before being put to sleep, I was told that the surgery would only be about two hours - but afterward, the surgeon explained to me that once he started the procedure, it was worse than what the MRI showed. The labrum was completely torn and I had a significant amount of additional bone being grown on the femoral head and pelvis. This bone-on-bone contact occurred every time I extended my leg outward. In relation to hockey, every time I took a stride on the ice, my hip and pelvis were smashing against each other, which would misalign my spine and eventually created a spinal fracture as well as my sciatica. All in all, the surgery included labrum anchors and complete reconstruction of the hip and pelvis. Unfortunately, I struggled coming out of surgery so I was not released until 9pm. It was one of the most difficult surgeries to recover from. My heart rate was dropping on and off for hours, and I was put on oxygen from the time I woke up to the time I left the hospital - around seven hours - because I wasn’t able to breathe well enough on my own. I was constantly in and out of consciousness, and every time I fell asleep to rest, I was awoken because I would stop breathing. The entire day was exhausting. I had no feeling in my left leg, but my hip and back gave me the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. Every couple hours my painkillers were increased, and eventually I was put back to sleep again because I needed the strongest medication possible. I was told that if I was awake while receiving this pain medicine I may hallucinate and it could make my state even worse. I wouldn’t wish my experience that day upon anyone. At the beginning of this story, remember that piece of advice I wish I could tell my younger self ? Well, as I was laying in the hospital bed, this was definitely a moment in time where I wish I knew to value that last time I stepped on the ice. My THE RED & BLACK 21
sport had just been taken away from me for a long time, and I had no clue when or if I could skate again. I was going to be on the sidelines for a while and had to adapt to a new way of life. While thinking this, I still knew that I was going to come out of this injury but I needed the right mentality and significant guidance. Although from the outside perspective it may seem that an injury only affects an athlete physically, injuries also take a mental and emotional toll. When a competitive athlete is stripped from their environment, it can spark negative thoughts and emotions. Early on in my injury, in the summer and fall months before my December hip surgery, I was constantly questioning myself and whether or not I was capable of getting through the injury. I wondered if I would ever play again, why this was happening to me, what was even wrong - it ran through my mind every day. When I made my decision to take a redshirt season, I was so torn mentally over the choice I’d made. I felt like I’d let my team down by not playing. Additionally, it was my senior season, my last year to play with some of my closest friends, who were also seniors at that time. I felt guilty and selfish, and began to believe I wouldn’t ever figure out what was really wrong. Although the choice to redshirt made me feel this way, I still received nothing but love and support from my friends, family and teammates. That allowed me to forgive myself for taking the tough route, skipping the season of playing and focusing on getting better. After months of question mark mentality, my quality of life started to become poor early into the injury. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m an energetic, goofy and positive person looking at the life glass as half full instead of half empty. I will be the first person to hug when you are doing something amazing, and a shoulder to lean on when you are going through a tough time. I always aim to help others
before I help myself. But going through mental and physical pain every day changed me immensely for the worse. When I was with others I could fake a smile and try my best to stay within the lines of “me.” I felt this was something I had to do, especially at the rink, because I was also a team captain at the time of my injury. As a captain, I have obligations and responsibilities to uphold for the team. I knew that at the end of the day I had a job to do, and I was trying to do it to the best of my ability. Even though I wasn’t skating or lifting with the team, I still had to know what was going on. When I didn’t understand what was happening within our team because I wasn’t involved, it made me feel lost. Being in the training room alone while my team was at practice or lifting, hearing them have fun, was something that crushed me because I was missing out on the experience of the season.
“I HAD TO WORK TWICE AS HARD TO BE A LEADER BECAUSE I WASN’T ABLE TO LEAD ON THE ICE. I HAD TO FIND A NEW WAY TO LEAD, WHICH INVOLVED MORE THINKING ABOUT WHAT MY LIFE WAS GOING TO BE LIKE GOING FORWARD.” I still wanted to make an impact even though I was never going to touch the ice. Being a captain of the Northeastern hockey team is a role I always humbly accept and value that responsibility. But dealing with my injury, my own self pain, along with keeping up with the role of a captain took a toll on my overall well-being. I was hiding my pain from everyone because I didn’t want them to believe the injury was getting the best of me, but it was consuming me. Behind closed doors I was a wreck, and for somebody who doesn’t shed many tears, I cried almost every day because of my pain. I became temperamental, angry and bitter about my life. Pain ate at me every second of the day and I felt hopeless. I
PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
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was putting on a happy front when I was in public, while really living this life where my habits became very unhealthy. I never discussed my emotions with anybody, and I truly believe that was my biggest mistake. I bottled every single emotion up, and kept it to myself. Early on in this injury, I started to not even recognize who I was anymore. After months of unhealthy behavior, one night it all came out, I exploded and everything I felt and thought caught up to me and I felt completely broken. This moment was the turning point in my journey to coming back to who I really needed to be. I was done suffering in silence. I was done letting this injury control me and what I do and how I think about my life. The next morning I reached out for help, and eventually discussed every detail with a tremendous mentor on the Northeastern staff, Katie Brooks. Katie pushed me to be better every time we talked. A key discussion we had every single time we met was telling each other what we were grateful for; it could be anything, big or small. This was her way of showing me the positives in my life. At first this was very difficult for me because I saw my life in a negative way all the time. But as the months went on, I became more open minded and trustful in the process. Without Katie Brooks, or ultimately somebody to talk to, I really don’t think I would be opening up and sharing my story at all. To Katie Brooks, I am beyond grateful and lucky that you are able to positively affect my life. All it takes is a simple conversation with somebody who cares, and from then on I learned that there’s peace in healing the wounds in your mind and body on this journey if you can acknowledge every thought and feeling. Ignoring the tolls taken only adds up more stress physically, mentally and emotionally. It is an unhealthy way of treating yourself and I had to learn that the hard way.
Throughout my injury, I found myself trying to find books or articles that I could relate to when it came to learning how to handle all the mental, physical and emotional pain that my injury brought me. Sadly, I found nothing, which yet again made me feel alone. It is a sensitive topic to open up and discuss, which is understandable. It’s been a long journey to be able to come full circle and accept my struggles, be comfortable with the mistakes I made and now be open enough to share everything. All I hope for is to help at least one person and make them feel understood and not alone. I hope my story allows people to learn from my mistakes and be better than me at handling adversity. In the end, you’ll look back and realize it was another part of your life that taught you so much about yourself. I am proud of my struggles. They made me realize how important it is to talk about mental health; it is now my first and foremost priority, whereas before my injury it was something I barely acknowledged. Personally, I feel that mental health is under-discussed in regards to athletes dealing with injuries. Although I never hope anybody experienced what I did, I know at one point or another everybody goes through challenges in life. I want to tell you that you are strong enough and the light does come at the end of the tunnel. To athletes going through serious injuries, don’t believe for one second that you’re alone in your recovery because you will always have someone to talk to, and you will conquer your adversity. Suffering in silence is something I want to end for everyone. This story isn’t about me; it’s about helping the athlete who reads this story and in result chooses to put their mental health first. Believe in yourself, trust the process and be proud of what your struggles show you. From one athlete to another, you got this. THE RED & BLACK 23
NATE BOCKO
HEALERS IN THE FAMILY BY HUY NGUYEN
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
How Northeastern’s athletic trainers heal their athletes and become part of the family along the way.
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sprain. A tape job. A tear. A rehab session. There are a variety of reasons an athlete enters the Michael and Dr. Deborah Gries Center for Sports Medicine and Performance inside Cabot. And in the following days, weeks, months, or even years, athletes come out healed and ready for peak performance. That is the result of the athlete’s work with the athletic trainers, the people behind the magical healing process, which includes more than just putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Mike McKenney has been the Director of Sports Medicine
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and an athletic trainer at Northeastern since 2013, and he currently works with the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams. He developed a strong interest in researching athletic performance in college, investigating the effects of consuming pickle juice while exercising as part of his master’s degree. He describes the time he spends with athletes as more than just the moment surrounding their injury. “We are responsible for their medical care the day that athlete steps onto campus for the very first time,” McKenney said.
In fact, by the time an athlete is hurt, the athletic trainers and athletes have already developed a strong and friendly relationship, one that has value outside of work. Jai Chopra, an athletic trainer at Northeastern since 2017 who currently works as the primary athletic trainer for the women’s basketball team and the coordinator of care for the men’s soccer team, describes the way McKenney interacted with his patients when he first took Chopra under his wing. “The way he thinks, the way he talks to athletes, is just so progressive and patient friendly that I was almost taken aback,” Chopra recalled. “I was just so impressed by that.” Nate Bocko, an athletic trainer at Northeastern since 2016 and the primary athletic trainer for the men’s basketball team, emphasizes that an athlete’s relationship with trainers differs from that of a typical doctor-patient relationship. “By building their trust, we developed a really good kind of working, friendly yet professional relationship,” Bocko said. “It’s really awesome, and probably the most fulfilling part of my job.” When an athlete is going through a mental or physical struggle, whether it be from an injury, a loss, or something outside of sports, trainers pay attention to how the athlete is feeling and the best way to approach them. “An athlete is still coming through our doors and seeking resources from us,” McKenney explained. “Whether it’s the mental health side of things, how to better myself as a team captain, how to learn to be a leader, how to manage stress – we help a lot of people with those things above and beyond.” For Chopra, treatment for athletes isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Every athlete he works with has different characteristics that make each of his treatment methods unique, and he shapes those methods when he becomes more familiar with each individual athlete. “I’m with them pretty much every day on a typical season, and you start noticing and getting more information on their personalities and stuff,” Chopra said. “You learn how to treat them because you notice different subtleties and personalities and characteristics, which helps you gain information on, ‘What is this person going to respond to the best?’” McKenney recognizes the vulnerability that some athletes may carry when they’re in a bad spot, especially when they’re injured.
“WHEN SOMEONE GETS HURT, THAT COULD BE THEIR WORST MOMENT,” MCKENNEY SAID. “THERE’S A LOT OF GROWTH THAT CAN OCCUR EMOTIONALLY AND INDIVIDUALLY WITHIN A GAME, AND BEING SEPARATED FROM THAT CAN BE REALLY DAMAGING TO PEOPLE. WE’RE THERE TO HELP BRING THEM BACK TO SOMETHING THAT THEY DEEPLY VALUE AND LOVE.” McKenney describes Northeastern’s rehabilitation center as a learner centered model, focusing on the educational aspect of the trainer-athlete relationship. While it may seem that their sole job is to rehabilitate injuries and improve performance,
their day-to-day interactions are filled with educational guidance, which helps the athlete to grow to be self-sufficient while providing insight about how their body operates. “The kind of holy grail of what we do is educating athletes about themselves, about how they can be very self-sufficient throughout their four or five years here,” Chopra explained. “Educating them on sleep, nutrition, and things like that helps you stay healthy.” Bocko makes a point to dive into the aspects of life outside of practice and games, which may be affecting performance and overall health, from workout regimens and techniques to their posture in class. Teaching them to take care of themselves outside of sports, he believes, helps them develop the toolset to better themselves years after they’ve left Northeastern. And after spending countless hours with their respective teams, the trainers have also grown to appreciate the athletes and teams they work with and the relationships they’ve garnered, highlighting many things that differentiate Northeastern from other schools. “One thing about Northeastern compared to any other place I’ve seen is the engagement of the athletes and their sort of intrinsic motivation to be better,” Bocko said. For Chopra, the teams he’s worked with have provided him with a warm welcome and made his experiences at Northeastern unforgettable. “They were so open to accepting me within their group,” Chopra recalled. “They didn’t see me as a staff member; they were just like ‘Hey, you’re going to be with us every day. We’re going to be great friends with you. We’re going to tell you everything.’ That was just a great feeling.” Even when he was reassigned to the women’s basketball team mid-season, he was met with the same open arms. “They were already in the thick of things, and they were just so welcoming.” Chopra said. “’Jai’s a part of the group, he wants us to be successful. Let’s make sure he feels welcome.’” While Chopra loves the energy of the team, they feel the same way about his presence. Junior guard Katie May credits her return to basketball following two surgeries to Chopra and his high spirits. “Jai has become a friend; his kindness, joy, hard work and sense of humor make him someone everyone wants to be around,” May said. “He attracts positive energy because of the energy he brings to practice every day.” While the trainers’ job is to educate, rehabilitate, and keep the athletes in tip-top shape to compete, the close relationship between the trainers and the athletes is what solidifies Northeastern’s sports teams into one big family. Chopra even has a loving nickname. “They were just like, ‘Jimmy Hoops,’ and it stuck,” Chopra laughed. “They’re just like your family, almost, you know? You have those weird quirks with them, like this nickname for this person, or this handshake with this person. That’s just what happens when you work in athletics and you see the same people every single day; you just become a big family.” THE RED & BLACK 25
DOUBLE OR NOTHING
TY JACKSON
BY NOAH FERNANDES
The story of Northeastern’s inseparable twins.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHEASTERN ATHLETICS
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ortheastern men’s hockey got a unique twist when they landed Dylan and Ty Jackson. The Jacksons have been side by side every step of their hockey journey and embody the classic perception of twins, playing together on the rink and rooming together off of it. Growing up in Oakville, Ontario, the twins started playing young, following in the footsteps of their dad Paul, who played professionally in the Central Hockey League. This mentorship proved to be incredibly helpful. “Our dad taught us a lot growing up,” Ty said. “Having the same teacher teaching you to play in the same ways … I feel like we have the same skills, which helps us develop chemistry.” With hard work and teamwork, they created a close bond. For their father, coaching was a breeze. “It was easy, really. They worked hard all the time and were always focused. They supported each other on the ice all the time,” Paul said. “They had great chemistry and they always found a way to help each other if one of them wasn’t having a great game.” This chemistry has been cultivated through the years. After playing in the Ontario Junior Hockey League, they moved away from home to pursue their hockey careers; this landed them in Dubuque, Iowa. As they joined the United States Hockey League, they moved in with the same billet family, their family away from home, while they played. From a parental standpoint, this was not the easiest task by any means. “It was very difficult for us as parents to send our sons 12 hours away to another country at the age of 17,” their mother,
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Dana, said, “but it was what they wanted and needed to do to continue to grow as hockey players.” Hitting the road together, the brothers had to rely on each other, but knew they could also build off of each other. “Joining a brand new team, you get a lot more comfortable when you have someone that you know,” Dylan said. Together, they took on a new role. Growing up on the road with the Dubuque Fighting Saints, the Jackson twins established a distinctive identity. Playing as line-mates and using their long-held chemistry, they built a name for themselves. “When people think of the Jackson twins, they think of small players that surprise people and are able to play well despite their size,” Dylan said. Dylan is a 5’10”, right-handed right winger. Ty takes faceoffs as a 5’8” center and is left-handed. Despite those differences, their playing style is almost identical. The best way to put it, as Dylan said, was “skilled, offensive players.” Dylan sees himself as a winger who likes to shoot and put pucks on net. Aside from taking the faceoffs, Ty has more responsibility in the defensive zone and relies on edgework and quickness as a centerman: “As a smaller guy, I need to battle hard and work hard to make up for my size.” Their desire to push each other has always remained with them. Whether it’s in the weight room, on the rink, or outside of hockey, they have been side by side. At home, they got along just as well as they do on the ice. “Ty and Dylan do compete with each other, but in a positive way,” Dana said. “They push each other to do better whether it is for hockey or for school. They do have their fights, too, but it’s
DYLAN JACKSON
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ usually over PS4.” She recounts when, at a young age, Dylan pushed Ty to stick with hockey. “Ty actually wanted to quit hockey when he was six years old,” Dana recalled. “He didn’t like getting up for 6am practices on Saturdays. Dylan got really upset because he didn’t want to quit, but he didn’t want to play without Ty, so Ty finally agreed to keep going for Dylan.” This close bond also heavily factored into their college decision. “We were definitely going to play together, 100 percent. The reason we chose Northeastern is because we love the coaching staff, they know about the game of hockey, and they have a ton of value and can teach us a ton,” Ty said. In November of 2016, the twins verbally committed to Northeastern. With their sights set, they have specific and clear goals for their time here. “We want to be the best players we can be and help the team win,” Dylan said. Ty added, “We just want to be confident and play to our strengths and help the team however we can. Being on a winning team helps us younger players get valuable experience.” However, for Hannah and Elyse Szych, freshmen twins on the women’s rowing team from Lebanon, New Jersey, the path was not as clear cut. Elyse recalled that “growing up we didn’t always want to row. Because we were tall, we played basketball and we were known as the Twin Towers,” while Hannah also swam for 12 years. Rowing didn’t enter the equation until later.
“We had a friend who told us we had the body type of a rower,” Hannah said. “But it was far away from us [two-hour commute], so we had to be sure that we really liked it.” Convinced, they took the opportunity and started their rowing careers. Rowing alongside each other naturally led to competitiveness. This competition was a common aspect of their relationship. “We had the same numbers on the ergometer and were right next to each other. It felt like we were always head-to-head,” Hannah said. On the boat, they had to find a way to differentiate themselves. They made it easier for coaches to tell them apart by wearing different earrings and hairstyles. Because they were similar in so many ways and always together, the two actually thought they would end up electing to go to different schools in order to “do our own thing,” as Hannah put it. Fate ultimately kept them together, however. “We really matched the energy on the team,” Elyse said, “so it was easy to see ourselves here, especially with the academics.” They have kept their goal clear and simple. “It has been two years since we have raced, so our goal is to just be able to race,” Hannah said. As the Jackson and Szych twins look to continue competing at the highest level of college athletics, they use their strong bonds to continually push each other while contributing to their teams. “We are competitive players,” Dylan said. “And we use our close relationship to help us compete against each other to become the best players we can be.” THE RED & BLACK 27
As Bill Coen breaks a wins record leftover from Northeastern basketball’s “Golden Era,” players and coaches past and present reflect on the coach and his legacy.
BY MILTON POSNER
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF NORTHEASTERN ATHLETICS
ON MARCH 7, AS THE BUZZER EXPIRED AND THE NORTHEASTERN MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM POCKETED A COMEBACK CAA TOURNAMENT WIN, IT ALSO SECURED A PROGRAM RECORD FOR HEAD COACH BILL COEN, WHO EDGED PAST JIM CALHOUN’S 35-YEAR-OLD MARK WITH HIS 251ST WIN.
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ophomore guard Tyson Walker said they’d wanted to win it for him. In the locker room, the players erupted into a shout, leapt up and down, and poured water over the 15-year coaching vet. Coen wiped the water off his head and face mask, threw his hands skyward, and … talked only about the team’s resilience. On the postgame presser, Coen extolled Calhoun’s résumé and credited the wins to his assistant coaches, the university, medical and support staff, and his players – the same answer
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he’d been giving for almost two months. “Coaches get way too much credit,” he noted. “I haven’t scored a basket or grabbed a rebound in a long time. These guys do all the work.” “Everybody around the program – assistant coaches, players – we all were very aware of 251,” assistant coach Brian McDonald admitted later. “Coach Coen, on the other hand – that was probably the last thing he was thinking about. And he’ll deflect any kind of credit at any opportunity. He’s the last one to ever want to talk about himself.”
THE BEGINNING “As a kid, you remember your really, really great teachers, but you remember every one of your coaches,” Coen said. “When people show you that type of concern and care in your own development, it attracts you to the profession.” For Coen, no one was as prominent as Tom Murphy, who coached him at Hamilton College and has been on Coen’s Northeastern staff every step of the way. “Since I was 17 years old, I never made a big decision in my life where I didn’t at least ask what he thought,” Coen said.
“MOST GUYS, WHEN THEY GO TO COLLEGE, HOPE TO HAVE A MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR HEAD COACH. VERY FEW GET THAT IN FOUR YEARS. I HIT THE GRAND SLAM BECAUSE I GOT A LIFETIME RELATIONSHIP.” “He learned a lot or most of the things he does from Murphy,” Matt Janning, who played at Northeastern from 2006 to 2010 and became the most prolific scorer of the Coen era, said. “You see the resemblance, you see the care Murphy gives to all the players too. Coen has the same thing about him.” For Janning, that care made a difference when he trekked to Boston to meet Coen. “Having my dad there and him meeting Coach Coen, I think that was the ultimate ‘okay’ for me to go from Minnesota to Boston,” he said. “It was them knowing I’d be with Coach Coen, it was like a father figure away from home.” Quincy Ford, who notched two all-conference team appearances and led the Huskies in their 2015 CAA title game win, got the same vibe. “It was an organic connection,” Ford recalled. “The things he told me were things I needed to hear about my development, how he sees me, how he sees me in the future and what I could do for the program. That was the biggest thing that attracted me. I remember telling my mom, ‘This is where I need to be.’” “I thought he was extremely honest, wasn’t trying to upsell me,” former Husky forward and current assistant coach Manny Adako said. “A lot of coaches try to upsell you, tell you they’ll make you this or make you that, just to try to get you on campus. It was refreshing to have an honest recruiting process with Coach.” That wasn’t the only thing that stood out to Adako. “Coaches are constantly calling you, and they love to see who you were getting recruited by,” he explained. “You give them a school and they’ll throw some dirt, some offhand, backhanded comments. But every time you bring up Coach Coen, they either couldn’t say a bad thing about him or they had a compliment. If someone’s in competition with you and all they can do is give you a compliment, that says a lot.”
THE STRATEGY When Coen took the reins in 2006, it was tricky to know exactly what he was getting into. The Huskies were entering just their second year in the Colonial Athletic Association, and JJ Barea, the second-leading scorer in program history, had just signed with the Dallas Mavericks. And, as former assistant coach and fellow Hamilton alum Jim McCarthy points out, Coen was a first-time coach in a conference that wasn’t exactly teeming with them. He had to build. “He had come from Boston College where they ran a flex offense, a lot of size,” McCarthy said. “In our first couple recruiting classes, we had a lot of size and multidimensional players with less emphasis on the three.” Coen said he used the BC staple as “more of a gamecontrol offense when we got a good lead.” McDonald emphasized the two-big, slow paced, defensively stingy approach, which his teammate Adako attributes partly to the longer shot clock of that era. But you don’t succeed at this level by playing the same system for a decade and a half. “We spend a lot of time in the summer watching NBA film, watching high-level European basketball, trying to get an idea of where the game is going,” McDonald said. “Now, in contrast, we play a four-out or five-out, ball-screen-heavy offense.” Adako added that all five positions have become more skilled, and everyone must “create, pass, dribble, and make good reads in a shorter period of time.” But the change wasn’t just about winning. “The analytics, the spacing, the three-point shot — future professional opportunities are looking for certain skills and understandings and structures.” Coen said. “We felt we had to change with the times and play a little bit more of a modern game because it was more suitable for the guys who were coming up. It would give them the best opportunity, once they left our program, to continue playing professionally.” More than 20 of his players have, and those players have fueled Coen’s run to two CAA Championships and the second-highest win total in conference history. But that isn’t his only goal. Many college coaches laud the university ethos and the life lessons their program instills. Doubly so for someone like Coen whose university touts its co-op program as evidence of its commitment to employment. They aren’t clichés for him. He wants bigger things for his athletes.
THE LEGACY On February 15, 2020, Northeastern held Charleston scoreless for ten straight minutes in the second half to earn the sort of aggressive, hard-fought win any coach would love.
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But after the game, Coen’s mind was elsewhere. Larry Kollath, an All-American college teammate Coen called “an all-universe human being,” had passed away.
“IN THE LONG TERM, WE’RE TRYING TO CREATE UNBREAKABLE BONDS BETWEEN TEAMMATES, COACHES, STAFF, RELATIONSHIPS THAT LAST A LIFETIME … THAT SOMEDAY, WHEN ADVERSITY HITS THEIR LIVES, THEIR TEAMMATES ARE THERE BY THEIR SIDE.” This is a hard thing to measure, but his players said he succeeded. “Pros that come back,” Adako said, citing Jared Dudley from Coen’s BC days, “they hunt Coach down to come sit in his office. That shows you the kind of relationships he builds with his players and the respect they have for him.” McDonald cited a lively group chat including himself, Adako, and about 20 other players spanning a decade of Northeastern basketball. “Those guys were just as excited to see that Coach Coen broke the record,” he said. Ford added that “the wins are cool, going to the tournament is cool, but the fact that I could call him right now and everything would be all good, I can call any of those guys and everything would be perfectly fine.” It’s the product of the sort of longevity that only a certain kind of dedication can foster. “He loves Boston; I don’t think he’s moved in 25 years or something, which is crazy for a college coach,” McCarthy noted. “He likes to build. He’s not someone who goes somewhere every two years and takes recruits with him.” And they all returned to the same two points, the two points that say everything: how impressive the record is and how little it matters to Coen. “Every day he was working for others; nothing he does is for himself,” Janning said. “He probably didn’t even know about these records that he’s setting. Honestly, he probably doesn’t care … He’s more interested in turning out good people, good basketball players. That’s satisfaction enough for him.” “Big-time congratulations,” Ford added. “He deserves everything.” Jake Egelberg contributed reporting for this story.
ALL-TIME NORTHEASTERN RECORD
251 WINS 2018 CAA
COACH OF THE YEAR
2010 & ‘ 13 USBWA
DISTRICT I COACH OF THE YEAR
2013 HUGH DURHAM
NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR FINALIST
2013 & ‘ 18 NABC
DISTRICT 10 COACH OF THE YEAR NO. 2 ALL-TIME IN THE CAA
(REGULAR SEASON + POSTSEASON)
WITH 172 For more on Coen and his legacy, plus sights and sounds from along the way, check out this companion video. SPRING 2021 MEN’S BASKETBALL
WINS
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THE GK UNION
An inside look into the lives and minds of Northeastern’s goalkeepers and goaltenders.
BY SARAH OLENDER
“DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO MAKE SURE THEY DON’T SCORE.” That’s the message from any goalkeeper or goaltender coach to their star student. And at the end of the day, that’s what the main objective of goalkeeping is: don’t let the other team score. Even with all there is to the role, from technique to positioning to communication, it is the pressure, both external and internal, that is a major stressor for goalies across all sports. Think about it: a forward could make 10 mistakes, and none of them would matter or even be remembered if they score once to win the game. A goalkeeper could make 10 great saves, but no one will remember those if the opponent scores. Unlike any other position, every mistake a goaltender makes is projected on the scoreboard. Pressure is the reason why sophomore women’s hockey goaltender Gwyneth Philips didn’t start goaltending until later in her hockey career. From the beginning of Philips’ career, her father wanted her to play anywhere except in the net. “He didn’t want the pressure on him, of being the goalie’s father,” Philips said. “He was so against it for so long but we eventually tricked him.” She recalled that when she was younger, there was a period of time during which her team’s only goalie was away for two weeks, and her coach let her give goaltending a try. “I played goalie for those two weeks and I was pretty good. And all the parents were like, ‘She’s really good. Let her do this,’” Philips said. “I think then his pride overpowered his fear, and he was like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna roll with it.’” Despite the pressure on Philips and other goaltenders, she said it’s one of the reasons why she loves goaltending so much.
COLBY HEGARTY
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“I just kind of like the butterflies in my stomach for the game, you know?” she said. “Obviously there’s such a great team in front of you, but it does really fall back on you. Sometimes [I] like that pressure, most people crack on it, but goalies thrive on that and I thrive on that.” Men’s soccer redshirt freshman goalkeeper Colby Hegarty had similar thoughts. He admitted that he also enjoys the pressure of being the very last line of defense. “There’s times where it’s almost overwhelming. But that’s why if you ask any athlete, especially at this level,
YOU CAN’T REALLY PLAY AT A LEVEL LIKE THIS AND NOT HAVE A PART OF YOU THAT LOVES THE PRESSURE,” Hegarty said. “No one wants to make a mistake and let the pressure get to them, but at the other end of that, it’s like a risk/reward.
THERE’S A TON OF RISK INVOLVED IN MAKING MISTAKES AND DOING ALL THIS, BUT AT THE OTHER END, YOU KNOW, IF YOU PLAY A FANTASTIC GAME, THE REWARD IS UNMATCHED.” To a lot of people, being a goaltender sounds crazy. Who would want to put their body in front of fast moving objects with the intention of getting hit? The training to be a goaltender is different from that of any other player on the team. A goaltender doesn’t always have to run sprints up and down the field or rink; rather, they have to learn how to see the game from a different angle, prepare their fast twitch muscles and master how to communicate effectively with their teammates. “There’s definitely always going to be a large emphasis on the goalkeeper being the loudest person on the field, because you see everything,” women’s soccer sophomore goalkeeper Angeline Friel, said. “Coming into freshman preseason, I was only 17 years old, and to know that I was gonna have to pretty much boss around a bunch of girls up to 22 years old was kind of daunting, but it definitely comes with a lot of respect between teammates. If you earn their respect quickly, then they know that what you’re telling them is going to help the overall team performance.” It’s certainly daunting to be the loudest person on the field. A goalkeeper is the only person on the field who can see the
whole picture, so most coaches designate them as a leader on the field who tells everyone where to go, who to cover and what to do. “At the collegiate level, I was noticing how many goalies are a captain or assistant captain,” Philips said. “They are very authoritative. They’re not afraid to tell a [defenseman] to do this, do that. And I think that translates off the ice too, which makes them good leaders … I definitely think there’s some connection between a strong goalie and being a strong leader.” Learning how to communicate and be assertive with teammates is intimidating, but the link between being a great communicator and great leader is evident. A key part of goalkeeper training is learning how to coach teammates to where they’re supposed to be on the field, but with that responsibility comes a necessity to be mentally strong. “It’s all mental, and you have to be able to really let go of mistakes quickly, because you could let in a goal but you can’t lay on the ground and cry about it,” Friel said. “So mentally, it’s definitely been hard because being a younger player on the team, there’s a lot of pressure from upperclassmen to perform.
But they always have your back and usually your perception of the pressure on you is greater than [what] was actually expected of you.” There’s no position like goaltending. It is so unique and distinct that people often say there’s a certain personality type one needs to be a goalie. The stereotype in most sports is that goaltenders and goalkeepers tend to be “weird,” and many say that you have to be a little crazy to want people shooting pucks and balls at you as hard as they can. Perhaps you do have to be a little crazy to want to be in goal, but it’s easy to get addicted to the adrenaline rush that comes from making the amazing, game-winning saves. This is the type of rush that members of the goalkeeper union love. “People often think it’s like a very individualized position. They think since you get special training and you wear a different jersey than other teammates, that it’s kind of isolated,” Friel said. “But for me, it’s been probably the best position I could have played because I get to talk to everybody on the field and have a personal relationship with all my teammates. So I just think it’s a great way to be the leader, but also just to make a lot of friends.”
“OBVIOUSLY THERE’S SUCH A GREAT TEAM IN FRONT OF YOU, BUT IT DOES REALLY FALL BACK ON YOU. SOMETIMES [I] LIKE THAT PRESSURE, MOST PEOPLE CRACK ON IT, BUT GOALIES THRIVE ON THAT AND I THRIVE ON THAT.” - GWYNETH PHILIPS
PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ THE REDTHE & BLACK 32 33 RED & BLACK
COLANGELO VS LEVI BY JUSTIN CHEN
Husky teammates put aside their collegiate alliance to face off on the international hockey stage.
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n December 12, 2020, after numerous postponements, the Northeastern men’s hockey team was set to finally start their highly anticipated 2020-21 season. But instead of suiting up to skate against Merrimack, a pair of freshmen, forward Sam Colangelo and goaltender Devon Levi, were off in Michigan and Alberta, respectively, preparing for the 2021 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (WJC). Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this installation of the WJC would be held in a bubble in Edmonton, similar to what the NBA and NHL did for their respective playoffs. Colangelo, representing the United States, and Levi, playing for Canada, would be in bubble-like environments
during training camp and the tournament – over a month total – as they competed on one of hockey’s biggest international stages. How big? “Yeah, it’s really important,” men’s hockey head coach Jim Madigan said. “It’s rewarding to the players and allows you to test your skills against the best in the world.” The precautions that were taken because of the pandemic were felt throughout both player’s experiences. When Levi traveled to join his team at training camp, he was subject to two weeks of isolation per Canada’s policies. Just when that was complete, he was sent right back for another two week quarantine when two positive tests were found on Canada’s roster.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NORTHEASTERN ATHLETICS DEVON LEVI
SAM COLANGELO
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“That was pretty tough,” Levi reflected, “but it was definitely worth it because I knew it was just an obstacle to get through to pursue a dream.” While he was unable to hit the ice in his month-long quarantine, Levi kept himself mentally engaged by reading books about hockey and preparing for the tournament. Going into training camp, Canada did not have a predetermined starting goaltender, and Levi only had a handful of practices and scrimmages to make an impression. “I was invited last minute to camp; the coaches did not really know who I was coming in,” Levi said. “All I knew that I could control was my performance and capitalizing on opportunities.” Levi ended up getting into two scrimmages, and ran away with the starting job. Though this may have shocked the hockey community, Madigan wasn’t surprised. “I saw him for three years so I knew how good he was,” Madigan said. “It was going to be hard for [Canada] to not name him their starting goalie.” Though he and the Americans did not face as many logistical setbacks, Colangelo still faced mental challenges in the bubble and isolation. “The biggest thing was probably being away from family and friends for so long,” he said. “Once the games started it kind of felt more normal, but it was still quieter in the rink as well.” Once he entered the USA training camp, Colangelo would not see anyone outside of USA Hockey for the next 40 days, but it allowed for more bonding time with his teammates. After facing the logistical and mental hurdles the pandemic brought, the tournament started and allowed Levi and Colangelo to settle in more. Like other major sporting events, the WJC was held without fans, and instead of drawing energy from the crowd, athletes had to get their adrenaline going themselves. Colangelo recalled a team meeting with one of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s assistant coaches to discuss how their team brought their energy and mindset while winning the Stanley Cup in the NHL bubble a few months earlier. “The biggest thing was to [think about] playing for the guy next to you,” Colangelo remembered. The team’s slogan, “gold medal standard,” was also in the back of his mind the whole time.
“WHEN YOU’RE IN A USA JERSEY, IT’S PRETTY EASY TO GET HYPED UP. THE MAIN MOTIVATION FACTOR WAS THAT GOLD MEDAL AND PLAYING FOR THE PEOPLE BACK HOME.” For Levi, the lack of a crowd was a blessing in disguise. “Honestly, I found it easier to focus on my game with no distractions around the rink,” he said. “[But] I still knew that there were a lot of people still watching and felt their
presence, even though the fans weren’t physically there.” During the tournament, the two freshmen played very different roles on their respective teams. Levi started in net for Canada and saw major minutes, while Colangelo anchored USA’s fourth line. For Levi, this role was a familiar one as he was projected to start for the Huskies, but Colangelo, usually penciled in by Madigan on the first or second lines, had to make adjustments to his mindset when playing on the back end of the lineup. “In the gold medal game I played a minute and 48 seconds, and that’s a lot different from the 20 minutes I was used to playing,” Colangelo said. It was also tough for him to stay focused while not playing regular shifts, but he had to be ready when his number was called. “I thought he handled his role well,” Madigan said. “If anything, there was more hunger for him to get back into the lineup and game.” Despite the lack of minutes, Colangelo still made an impact for the USA, including scoring a goal against Germany on his birthday. The tournament culminated with Levi and Colangelo, roommates at Northeastern, facing off in the gold medal game in hopes of winning the championship for their respective countries.
“I TEXTED HIM BEFORE THE GAME: ‘WHEN WE GET TO THE RINK, WE’RE NOT GOING TO BE FRIENDS UNTIL WE’RE BACK IN SCHOOL,’” COLANGELO SAID. “HE HAD AN UNBELIEVABLE TOURNAMENT AND I COULDN’T BE MORE PROUD OF HIM.” Despite taking the loss, Levi still enjoyed the experience of playing against his roommate in the championship game. “It would have been nice to have bragging rights,” Levi said, “but I guess I’ll have to live with that.” Because of his historic play in the tournament (.964 GAA, 3 SO; both tournament records), Levi also received an influx of media attention during and after the tournament. “I actually didn’t have my social media during the tournament because I didn’t want any distractions,” he said, “but after the tournament it was really cool to see how far I managed to reach out to.” As they prepare to play in the World University Games in Switzerland in December, players like Levi, Colangelo, and junior defenseman Jordan Harris (who played in the 2020 WJC) know that leadership and knowledge of round-robin and sudden death tournament styles are important. “This experience will help the rest of our team go through the process [of learning to play in a sudden death tournament],” Madigan said. THE RED & BLACK 35
UNTRADITIONAL ROUTES TO D1
BY ELIZABETH KLEMM Transfer and international athletes discuss their journeys to Northeastern.
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hen redshirt sophomore center fielder Ben Malgeri steps up to the plate, it is the culmination of a circuitous route to batting leadoff for the first place Huskies. Malgeri, a kind of student-athlete nomad, began his collegiate baseball career at Holy Cross, then transferred to New Mexico Junior College for his sophomore year before finally finding a home at Northeastern. “During the summer, I just kind of decided that [Holy Cross] wasn’t really the fit for me,” Malgeri said. “So I decided to take a different route, and I ended up going to junior college, because it was kind of late in the summer and I just wanted a place to play without having to sit out a year.” Despite losing most of his season due to COVID-19, Malgeri believes he grew as a player at New Mexico Junior College, and was ready to make the jump back to the Division I level. He put his name in the NCAA transfer portal, and Northeastern assistant baseball coach Nick Puccio soon reached out to Malgeri to organize a campus visit. After his visit, Malgeri knew this was where he wanted to be. “I think being in multiple places and maturing those extra two years kind of helped me figure out what I really wanted in a school,” Malgeri said. Transferring academic credits adds an additional dimension to the recruitment process. “Northeastern is a tough school to transfer into from an academic standpoint,” baseball head coach Mike Glavine admitted; it can be hard for the academic pieces of the puzzle to line up. Malgeri was able to work with academic support staff to make sure that he took the proper courses before arriving at Northeastern, and was able to come in as a junior academically. Then, teammates and coaches helped Malgeri integrate into the team, as well as focus on just playing the game. “I try to just play my game. I’m playing baseball regardless, so I think that that has really helped me because I feel like if I think too much about, ‘oh, I’m a new kid at a new program,’ I think that applies extra pressure, and to me that’s just not necessary,” Malgeri said. This mindset led to lots of success on the field, with Malgeri’s contributions to the team leading him to be named CAA Baseball player of the week on March 30, before being
SPRING 2021 UNTRADITIONAL ROUTES TO D1
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
THE RED & BLACK 37
named Most Outstanding Player at the CAA Tournament after their championship run. Although getting the pieces to come together so an athlete can transfer into Northeastern can be challenging, from a coach’s standpoint, the benefits are clear.
“YOU’RE GETTING SOMEONE THAT IS POLISHED PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY THAT’S BEEN THROUGH IT ALL, KNOWS WHAT TO EXPECT, AND CAN REALLY JUST HIT THE GROUND RUNNING,” Glavine said. “It’s not like you have to get them up to speed in college life, you just have to get them up to speed in how we do things here at Northeastern, and that’s usually a pretty quick learning process. It certainly was for Ben.” Though the transfer portal is one route to the Division I level, another way coaches can fill rosters is by looking overseas. Senior rower Braeden Camp, who hails from Cambridge, New Zealand, represented his country at the 2015 and 2016 Junior World Rowing Championships before coming to Northeastern. Camp was exposed to US collegiate rowing programs through his older sister, who rowed at Oregon State, and presentations by Harvard rowing alumni at his high school. “They were just showing or exposing us to what is actually out there if we know where to look,” Camp said. “And what options would be available and can be available to us.” Northeastern coaches were some of the first that Camp talked to. His decision to commit to the program ultimately came after an official campus visit where he got to see the university, interact with the team and learn more about the various student-athlete support systems. However, Northeastern was always a front runner for Camp. “They just kept on touching base and we kept on interacting throughout the whole process, whereas I had other universities who basically came to me and said, ‘Hit this mark and once you hit that mark we’ll talk to you, but until then, good luck to you,’” Camp said. Camp also appreciated the opportunity to row at a high level while being able to hold a full time job on co-op, as well as the number of international students on the team. “I know people in England who have struggled to kind of row and train full time and keep their rowing at a full, high
SPRING 2021 UNTRADITIONAL ROUTES TO D1
level, but also maintain a full 40 hour week at work,” Camp said. “So to be able to do that here as well as also getting my degree was also just one of the parts that drew me to coming here.” Senior women’s rower Emma Samek from Hanau, Germany, agrees. The unique opportunity to not only study and row but also gain co-op experience drew her to Northeastern. In Germany, high performance rowing and university studies do not work together smoothly. “I get to do my sport at a high level, I get to study and I can do co-op, so I thought it was a great combination,” Samek said. Prior to rowing at Northeastern, Samek qualified for the German junior national team. She represented her country at the 2017 European and World Junior Championships as a senior in high school. Rowing at a Division I program like Northeastern can provide the opportunity to study and row at an elite level simultaneously, but it also complicates athletes’ future rowing plans. While New Zealand has become more accepting of its athletes leaving the national team to study and row in America, it hasn’t always been the case. Rowing for a college in the US made it significantly harder for athletes to be named to the New Zealand national team again once they returned, so Camp decided to start rowing for Leander Club in the United Kingdom during his summers to keep his options open. Graduate student rower Ole Kruse, one of Camp’s teammates, faced similar difficulties in his home country of Germany since the national team and coaches were not able to work with him throughout the year. Despite these obstacles, he has been able to continue rowing internationally for Germany during the summers at events like the European and World U23 Championship events. Kruse and former Northeastern teammate Jasper Angl both helped Germany win the 8+ event at the 2020 European U23 Championships. Preparation for these events begins shortly after the NCAA season ends, so it can be a challenge for the German coaches to not be able to monitor the collegiate athletes training in the United States throughout the year. But Kruse
PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHEASTERN ATHLETICS
“IN GERMANY ON A CLUB TEAM, YOU’RE TRAINING MORE FOR YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU WANT TO ADVANCE AND YOU WANT TO BE ON A NATIONAL TEAM. IT WAS MORE ABOUT THE INDIVIDUAL, BUT HERE IT’S MORE ABOUT THE TEAM AND THE COMMON GOAL.” - EMMA SAMEK believes these difficulties are short term, and will not affect his international rowing career long term. At Northeastern, Samek instantly noticed a change in the training environment and methods. In Germany, her club team comprised of five athletes all training to individually make the national team, but at Northeastern she has close to 40 teammates all training together. “It was really different because with such a big team, everybody is supporting each other and really working for a common goal together,” Samek said. Kruse also noticed the difference, but notes that his teammates’ varying backgrounds help the team grow. “People from different backgrounds bring different ideas,” Kruse said. “You see that there’s some ideas that are seen as common in Germany, be it about recovery or something, whereas there are some ideas that are seen as common in America, which is about hard work mostly. Those two working together can create something really good.”
BEN MALGERI’S ROUTE
1
ST
BEGAN HIS COLLEGIATE BASEBALL CAREER AT HOLY CROSS
BRAEDEN CAMP’S ROUTE
1
ST
REPRESENTED HIS COUNTRY (NEW ZEALAND) AT THE 2015 & 2016 JUNIOR WORLD ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS
EMMA SAMEK’S ROUTE
1
ST
QUALIFIED FOR THE GERMAN JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM
OLE KRUSE’S ROUTE
1
ST
ROWED FOR RUDERVEREIN MÜNSTER UNDER COACH THORSTEN KORTMANN
2
ND
2
ND
2
ND
2
ND
All athletes joining the Huskies bring their own unique experiences and training background, but having transfer and international athletes in a program adds an additional layer of diversity, making the team that much stronger. Malgeri took a circuitous route to Northeastern, playing for two programs before finding a home on Huntington Avenue. Samek, Camp, and Kruse took lengthy flights following successful international careers. But Northeastern has helped all four develop into the athletes, scholars, and people they are today. The benefits aren’t one sided. Malgeri’s additional experience and maturity helped the Huskies to their first CAA Championship. Camp, Kruse, and Samek brought valuable international rowing experiences and training methods to their teams, aiding the Huskies to many victories over the past four years. Collectively, their non-traditional routes to Northeastern athletics have made the Huskies howl even louder.
TRANSFERRED TO NEW MEXICO JUNIOR COLLEGE FOR SOPHOMORE YEAR
EXPOSED TO US COLLEGIATE ROWING PROGRAMS THROUGH OLDER SISTER
REPRESENTED HER COUNTRY (GERMANY) AT THE 2017 EUROPEAN & WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS AS A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL
NATIONAL TEAM AND COACHES WERE NOT ABLE TO WORK WITH HIM THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
3
RD
3
RD
3
RD
3
RD
TRANSFERED TO NORTHEASTERN
COMMITTED TO NORTHEASTERN AFTER AN OFFICIAL CAMPUS VISIT
COMMITTED TO NORTHEASTERN
COMMITTED TO NORTHEASTERN
THE RED & BLACK 39
THE ROAD THEY PAVED BY NICOLE READING
Meet the three young Northeastern alumni who built the sports media tradition at Northeastern.
PHOTO BY JUAN OCAMPO
T
he Red & Black is full of creative stories and profiles of our Husky athletes, but rarely do we speak of the sports media prowess behind the scenes. Our staff writers, podcast hosts, photographers, editors, and designers work tirelessly to craft the incredible stories you’re flipping through right now. The sports media industry is often misconstrued as glamorous and flashy, but the grind that is sports reporting, journalism, in-game announcing, radio and TV broadcast is a craft that requires extensive practice and dedication. While The Red & Black is only three years and seven issues old, Northeastern has a proud tradition within the sports media industry. Alex Faust, Class of ‘12, is the television play-by-play voice for the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL. Jason Mastrodonato, Class of ‘11 is the Boston Herald’s lead Red Sox columnist. Rachel Holt, Class of ‘13, is a lifestyle host and reporter for CBS Boston after previously serving as a video host for NESN. These three young alumni’s rises in their respective careers have helped blaze the trail that The Red & Black was ultimately founded upon. During their time at Northeastern and still to this day, the trio keep tabs on one another, rooting for each other’s success in an uber competitive industry. Three trailblazers, role models and icons that continue to inspire the next generation of sports media professionals. When Faust, Mastrodonato and Holt came to Northeastern from Brooklyn, NY, Rochester, NY and Princeton, NJ, respectively, none of them ended up studying journalism. Faust majored in political science and economics, Mastrodonato business and Holt communication studies, but none of them were sure what they wanted to do in their post-graduate lives. The same sentiments echoed through all their stories. They wanted something more; they wanted to do something that at the end of the day made them happy. “I was in search of that thing that would make me love what I do,” Holt said. Inevitably, it wasn’t until the three began exploring their hobbies outside of their academic endeavors that they began to hit their stride. The one constant in their extracurricular interests? They grew up loving sports. Faust, Mastrodonato and Holt all grew up participating in the sports world in some capacity. “I played some baseball growing up,” Faust said, “and before you ask, yes, I rooted for the Yankees.” SPRING 2021 THE ROAD THEY PAVED
ALEX FAUST
RACHEL HOLT
PHOTO COURTESY OF RACHEL HOLT
JASON MASTRODONATO
PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON MASTRODONATO
Holt grew up with two athlete brothers, and whether she liked it or not, sports were simply her life. “I grew up in one of those sports households. Every weekend was a tournament and every weeknight was a practice. I’m not surprised it influenced my career choices,” Holt said. Mastrodonato might be the ultimate baseball guru. Creating fantasy baseball websites from scratch and basing almost his entire college decision off the walking distance to Fenway Park, he’s a baseball guy through and through. At the time, fresh into their 20s with no intent of making a career out of it, the three stumbled across the sports media opportunities offered at Northeastern. Faust found himself calling color and play-by-play for WRBB at hockey and basketball games, Mastrodonato covering everything Husky athletics for the Huntington News and Holt reporting on the sideline for everything from women’s volleyball to men’s ice hockey for what is now NUTV. They each referred to their Northeastern athletics media journey as their “passion project,” “side hustle” or “sense of belonging.” Sports media gave them what academia didn’t: something that made work fun. The trio recalled their roads to where they are now with fond and not-so-fond memories. But not one followed a linear path, because when it comes to the sports media industry, there is no such thing as linear. Upon graduation, Faust took his Jim Nantz Award, a prestigious honor given to the nation’s best collegiate sportscaster each year, and began working as a data analyst for PricewaterhouseCoopers, thinking he would “go into an industry that I could actually use my [economics] degree in.” But he kept calling games on the side, staying close to home by serving as the voice of the Staten Island Yankees, a minor league baseball club that he’d grown up watching. He covered the American Hockey League on weekends out of Utica, NY and even did a stint as the voice of the Northeastern men’s basketball team. Then, in a stroke of luck in 2017, Faust was handed the call for NBCSN of what turned out to be an electric match-up between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks. Legend has it that Faust’s call of
Lightning forward Yanni Gourde’s game-winning goal in overtime sent chills down the spine of one King’s executive. From there, Faust said,
“IT JUST TOOK ONE PERSON BELIEVING IN MY POTENTIAL, AND THE REST IS HISTORY.” Mastrodonato caught the sports journalism bug a bit earlier, after he did his final co-op at the Boston Globe in his fourth year. From there he freelanced and clawed his way to the top. He worked for MLB.com, covering the Red Sox all the way to the 2013 World Series. Then he shifted to MassLive.com, where he travelled alongside the team for 156 games. He put down roots in his current position at the Boston Herald in 2015. Holt has a similar tale to Faust, as she found her passion for TV broadcasting following a co-op at Cox Sports in Rhode Island. But contrary to Faust’s “stay close” mentality, Holt took a giant leap and went where the first callback took her: Twin Falls, Idaho. There she learned the intricacies of the industry and gained the repetition she needed as she continued to hone her craft. While in her role in Idaho, Holt was a one-woman show – she found many of her own storylines through in-depth research, wrote most of her own content, and when reporting on-site she was often her own camera-woman. In 2017, she became a part of the NESN team covering everything from Super Bowls to the Stanley Cup Final. Now working for WBZ-TV, Holt hosts her own Lifestyle show called “New England Living.” While the road to success has never been easy – Mastrodonato emphasized that being “resilient in the face of rejection” is a prerequisite for the good things that will come later – all three’s roads, however many twists and turns and roadblocks they have had to endure have lead them to a place that they love, that they call home. And the paths that they have forged will help inspire the next generation of Northeastern sports media, just like they’ve inspired us at The Red & Black.
PLAY IT BACK
BY ADAM DOUCETTE Huskies break down the pump-up in the locker room.
MEN’S HOCKEY DESIGNATED DJ: Grant Jozefek. “This year I was shocked, nobody really wanted to do it. We were trying to convince guys to do it. Jozy has good music but it was really only him. Usually there are a couple guys who fight over it.” -Jordan Harris WIN SONG: “Rattlin’ Bog” by Carlyle Fraser. It changes every year. TEAM PREGAME SONG: “Dreams and Nightmares” by Meek Mill.
BASEBALL DESIGNATED DJ: Jeff Costello. “[It]puts a lot of pressure on me, because every time there’s any kind of swear word my head coach finds me wherever I am and stares into the depths of my soul.” WIN SONG: “Tsunami” by DVBBS and Borgeous. This one has been used for years. TOP GENRES: “Baseball in general is pretty synonymous with country music, and that leaks into our locker room. We also have, rap, hip hop, EDM. We’re a very musically tolerant team, which is nice because there are some great ones on all sides of it...I think there is definitely a stereotype and preconceived notions on country music that people just immediately hate on and I used to be the same way.” - Jeff Costello
MEN’S BASKETBALL DESIGNATED DJ: Rotating cast. PREGAME SONGS: “The Trillest” by Meek Mill, “One Take” by Lil Tjay, “Awesome” by Shy Glizzy TOP GENRE: Rap… lots of Future, Kodak Black, Lil Durk. “There are some European songs that Q [Quirin Emanga] or Vito [Cubrilo] would play because they’re from Germany and Croatia. They often play some tracks that you don’t know what it’s saying but it’s a vibe. Usually someone different takes the aux at practice each day. You get to see the different tastes because we’re all from different places.” - Alexander “Kachi” Nwagha
WOMEN’S HOCKEY DESIGNATED DJ: Mia Brown. “We have a giant speaker that I drag behind me everywhere I go.” WIN SONG: “Rattlin’ Bog” by Carlyle Fraser TOP GENRE: “We listen to a lot of mixes and mashups. We’ll decide if we want to listen to music or a mix and then decide. Sometimes for practice we’ll have country Thursdays. If people are in their feels we’ll listen to something a little slower. But I can’t play sad music because then people sulk around and won’t be ready for practice. It actually really affects people which is interesting.” - Mia Brown
SPRING 2021 PLAY IT BACK
WOMEN’S SOCCER
MEN’S SOCCER
DESIGNATED DJ: Rotating cast. PREGAME SONGS: “Black Skinhead” by Kanye West. TOP GENRE: “Classic songs that everyone would know. Any Sean Kingston, and California Gurls [by Katy Perry].” - Kayla McCauley
DESIGNATED DJ: Ty Benjaafar. “I know what the boys want to hear… When I was a freshman they kind of just gave me the reins.” WIN SONG: Mo Bamba “For some reason it’s our coach’s favorite song. It’s the one explicit song that you can play out loud that he’ll tolerate for some reason.” - Ty Benjaafar
DEDICATION AWARD
Meet the winners of the 2021 Red & Black Dedication Award. Presented during the annual Howlin’ Huskies Awards, to the male and female athlete deemed most dedicated to their sport and their Northeastern academic and athletic lives, as determined by their peers.
ERICA BELVIT
TRACK & FIELD, THROWER GRADUATE STUDENT, FINANCE & MIS
THROW THROW NORTHEASTERN RECORD NORTHEASTERN RECORD 64-1.75’ WEIGHT 219-7’ HAMMER 2021 JAMAICAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS GOLD MEDALIST: HAMMER THROW HUNTINGTON 100 MEMBER PART OF NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY BLACK ATHLETE CAUCUS EXECUTIVE BOARD 2020-21 CAA INSTITUTIONAL FEMALE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR “Erica is tirelessly working hard to be a better athlete and person. She inspires everyone on the team with her dedication and confidence.”
“Erica is a natural leader with an inspiring work ethic. Not only is she an incredible athlete, but she is an amazing friend who will take the time to help you through any problem you might have and support you in all of your endeavors. Her drive on and off the track has pushed me to become a better athlete and a better person. I’ve been grateful enough to have grown so close to her over the course of our time on the track and field team together, and if anyone is deserving of this award, it’s her.”
BRAEDEN CAMP 2
YEARS AS TEAM CAPTAIN
5
ROWING, SIXTH SEAT GRADUATE STUDENT, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
YEARS OF ROWING ON VARSITY 8
ALUMNI TROPHY WINNER AS NORTHEASTERN OARSMEN LEAD THE HUSKIES TO THREE STRAIGHT TOPSEVEN FINISH AT THE IRA CHAMPIONSHIPS HELPED NORTHEASTERN SECURE THE DREISSIGACKER CUP 2017 WINNER OF THE PARKER AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING FRESHMAN
“Braeden is the epitome of what it means to be a husky. Dedicated all 5 years of his collegiate experience to this team through the good times and the extremely difficult. Never wavering even after dealing with health issues he battled back and came back stronger helping lead our team to the highest finish at the IRA in program history (4th place). This award deserves to go to Braeden for so many different reasons but the most important being his incredible leadership skills and strength of his husky spirit.”
“Braeden is the most well rounded individual I have ever meet! 3.5 gpa in engineering and rowed in the varsity that was a double grand finalist. The man also rowed in the varsity for 5 years. Basically the mvp of the team for 5 years straight.”
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NORTHEASTERN ATHLETICS
THE RED & BLACK 43