As the Southern Tier rolls through the holiday season, the local university’s sports teams are finding themselves in a gift-exchanging mood.
Binghamton University’s men’s basketball team, led by first-year head coach Kevin Broadus, gave the local fans something to cheer about last week with a convincing win over two-time defending Atlantic-10 champions George Washington.
Meanwhile, the school’s women’s team got a gift of their own on Sunday, obliterating Colgate by 46 points, 74-26, at the Events Center. The Red Raiders scored a paltry seven points in the first half, giving coach Rich Conover an additional present: significant playing time for his backups.
The basketball programs unfortunately haven’t made winning the norm this year, currently sitting at a combined 4-15 with conference play just around the corner. But even with those disappointing out-of-conference performances so far, the BU athletics department has given its fan base plenty to cheer, and be cheery, about this year.
The biggest gift this year is the brand new Bearcat Sports Complex, the new home for the school’s men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse teams. In the facility’s inaugural season, Paul Marco’s men’s squad went undefeated at home during the regular season and reached their fifth straight America East championship game. Jeff Leightman’s women’s team won three games at the BSC and reached the conference semifinals.
Fans flocked to the BSC for the men’s soccer playoffs. More than 2,000 people spent a frigid Saturday night cheering the top-seeded Bearcats on. Despite their 1-0 loss, the perennial powers once again appear poised to make a run in 2008. The team also appears to have birthed a brand new version of the “BU Zoo,” with hundreds of fans, dubbing themselves the “Hooligans,” already preparing for next year’s conference slate.
The upcoming new year will bring even more excitement for the school’s athletic programs. With their new stadium and a strong core of young players, the men’s lacrosse team will look to improve on their 4-9 2007 mark. The women’s lacrosse team will hit the field with a new head coach, Tony Zostant, and a fresh feeling of optimism.
The lacrosse and baseball programs are among the school’s most popular spectator sports. As the Southern Tier’s snow cover melts away, coach Tim Sinicki and company will revive the familiar smells of pine tar and sunflower seeds in front of their passionate fan base. Junior starter Jeff Dennis, of nearby North Syracuse, will start the season on the “Wallace Watch” list of the nation’s top players.
But if indoor sports are more your speed, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will continue their quests towards the America East championship with five home meets in January, while the school’s track and tennis teams will host several contests in the Events Center.
With the shine finally seemingly coming off that state-of-the-art facility that was completed in 2004, it appears that the community is truly coming to embrace all the Division-I Bearcat teams as their own. With the BSC taking the spotlight off the pricey Events Center, it appears that Binghamton University sports are really becoming part of the local community’s fabric, and that acceptance is the best gift of all.
Strub is a copy editor at the Press & Sun-Bulletin. His column appears Thursdays.
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