Tradition • Character • Service

Tradition • Character • Service

Monday, March 27, 2006

Ft. Wayne Freedom Report: Skelton Throws Game Winner 

Former Hillsdale Quarterback Bill Skelton got the start for the Ft. Wayne Freedom of the United Indoor Football league and picked up the season's first win. 

Skelton, trailing 21-23 with 21 seconds left hit Adrian Reese for a 7 yard score.

Listen to the full game report

Story from Ft. Wayne.Com


Keith Recker in UIF debut

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Former Chargers Impressive as Freedom Begin 2006 Season

Receivers catching attention
2 newcomers try to stick with Freedom

By Stacy Clardie
The Journal Gazette
Adrian Reese knows the task will be difficult.

Replacing a franchise’s all-time leading receiver should be.

But without Jeremy Dutcher this season, new Fort Wayne Freedom coach Dan Pifer had no choice but to try to fill a void.

Pifer’s solution: a pair of players new to Fort Wayne but not to him.

Dan Musielewicz and Keith Recker have been getting the most reps during training camp to play alongside Reese and returning starter Luther Stroder. Musielewicz and Recker played football at Hillsdale College in Michigan, the same school that produced Freedom quarterback Bill Skelton and Pifer spent time at as an assistant coach.

Musielewicz played part of the season for Peoria’s United Indoor Football franchise last year, and Recker just wrapped up his collegiate playing career in the fall. Both have been impressive in camp, so much so they appear to have locked up the No. 3 and No. 4 receiver slots.

Full Story

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Neller Sticks it to Collegian

A couple of weeks ago, the Hillsdale Collegian ran a whiney editorial asking all Varsity athletes to form their own intramural sports leagues because they are too good and "sucking the fun" out of the IM program.

That is one thing, but the author or authors then tie somehow a lack of student support for sports at Hillsdale as a backlash for dominating intramurals.

"Who knows, if varsity athletes stepped away from the IM world, maybe it would encourage the rest of us to spend more time going to support our fine Charger athletes at home events—rather than chasing them up and down the basketball court when they’re already beating us non-varsity athletes by 25 points."

Senior tailback Brett Neller fired back this week with a great rebuttal, stressing the points that struck me when I read the initial editorial. Read it here.

A. This only isolates the varsity athlete more from the rest of the student body than he or she already is.
B. I thought the whole message of Hillsdale College was to expect the same from everyone, to rise to a challenge and not receive special treatment.

Some of Brett's quotes:

On equality of expectations:
"Your proposal suggests there be separate leagues for student athletes and for other students. Your reasoning is that you feel you don’t match up with our “superior” athletic ability. Have you ever heard of a challenge, or do you just roll over and play dead all the time?"

"Many of the students here at Hillsdale were in the top of their classes in high school. I propose that athletes be allowed to take a different curriculum because some of us find the classes to be difficult, considering our time constraints and the fatigue we battle daily as we choose to pick up our books rather than rest.

Deep down, however, athletes would not want an easier curriculum because we are up for the challenge and we do not think we deserve special privileges."


On segregation:
As a student athlete, my frustration lies deeper than my response to the editorial written on IM basketball. My frustration arises from the segregation we have at this school between students and student athletes. We should be one and the same, but we are currently not.

Instead of trying to put us in a different IM league, accept us and try to get to know us. We all pay the same tuition and take the same classes."

"IM basketball provides one of the few chances at this school for student athletes to interact with non-athletes."

On apathetic student support
"Because we win in IM basketball is no reason not to cheer for us on a game day. On those Saturday home football games, put down that book and slide that board game back under the bed: Come out and support your fellow classmates, your friends, your student athletes who are giving it their all to represent you. Come tailgate and socialize at the sports events and have fun.

You do not know how much it means to Hillsdale student-athletes to see classmates in the stands cheering our names. The little support we currently get means a lot to us all.

Hopefully we can increase that support. We need to bridge the island student-athletes find themselves on. When this happens, Hillsdale College will be a much more enjoyable place."

Read Neller's complete editorial here. Jeers for Collegian IM Proposal.

I will address this issue and more in next month's edition of "The Charger Comment" podcast now online at chargercomment.blogspot.com.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Charger Football Recruiting Articles

Here are a couple of articles to pass along regarding a couple of Charger recruits.

The Cadillac News had a write-up on Tight End Billy Kanitz.

The Grand Rapids Press article featured Saugatuck's James Bild, a defensive end who just happened to be a member of the 10-11 Year Old Rocket Football team I coached back in 1999.

Podcast Now Online!

Visit The Charger Comment at chargercomment.blogspot.com and listen to the kickoff episode.

New episodes will be posted monthly throughout the offseason and weekly during the 2006. If you would like to contribute of offer feedback, send me an email or comment on the postings.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Chargerblue.com Wallpaper Now Available

Check out the new Wallpaper section of Chargerblue.com. The first two are now posted. Download instructions are listed and more designs are in the works. Have an idea for one? Email me.

Search The Chargerblue.com News and Comment

The Web Chargerblue.com News and Comment

Blog Archive

Google Analytics