Fourteen Stories of 2014
As calendars change to 2015, here are fourteen stories that highlight the 2014 athletic year at Alfred State.
New Leadership - 2014 marked the addition of new college President Dr. Skip Sullivan and new athletic director Dr. Kelly Higgins to the Alfred State community.
First NCAA Wins - Men's Swimming (75-59 over Wells on January 21st), Wrestling (37-21 over Penn State DuBois on January 22nd), Softball (5-4 over St. Joseph's on March 17th), Baseball (5-2 over Hamilton on March 20th), and Lacrosse (13-8 over Houghton on March 25th). Men's basketball earned their first win over a NCAA Division III opponent, December 1st in a thrilling 77-76 buzzer beater over Wells.
New Coaches - The athletic department hired two new full time coaches. RC Weston (swimming) and Paul Reid (Wrestling) became full-time additions to the Pioneer coaching staff in October.
First Wins for New Coaches - The men's swimming team earned Coach Weston his first victory on November 8th (139-74 over Wells) while the wrestling team earned Coach Reid his first Alfred State victory on November 18th (28-22 over Penn College).
New Fitness Center - This fall a new fitness center was opened in the old bookstore in the Pioneer Center while the old fitness center was converted to a strength room to allow more access to our student-athletes.
Special Olympic Track & Field Spectacular Earns Award - The number of participants and schools in the 2nd annual Special Olympics event in May doubled in 2014. The event also was selected as the NCAA Division III Special Olympic spotlight event in November and the department was awarded $500 to help with the event in 2015.
ECAC Firsts - Alfred State has only been a member of the ECAC for a year and a half and 2014 featured two significant accomplishments by Pioneer athletes with the ECAC. The volleyball team hosted the college's first postseason tournament and Rasheed Williams and Kali Muhleisen earned the college's first postseason All-Star selections.
USCAA Championship Success - This fall Alfred State sent four teams to USCAA Championships. The women's soccer team returned to Nationals for the 2nd straight year, the volleyball team made their first trip and finished 4th, men's cross country finished 3rd at Nationals, and women's cross country finished 10th.
Athletic Achievements - Twelve Pioneers were named USCAA All-Americans in 2014. Pioneer athletes also earned player of the week honors from the USCAA, ECAC, and D3football.com.
Academic Excellence - Eleven Pioneers earned USCAA All-Academic honors and six athletes were named the outstanding student in their major in May.
Feed the Sheed - Football fans got to witness history as senior running back Rasheed Williams rewrote the record book. Williams tied or broke 11 different season/career records as he rushed for over 100 yards in eight of the Pioneers nine games.
Volleyball Firsts - The volleyball team qualified for the ECAC Tournament and the USCAA National Championships for the first time. The Lady Pioneers finished 4th at the USCAA Nationals and advanced to the ECAC Metro/Upstate Semifinals.
Three Peat - Junior soccer player Kali Muhleisen was named 1st team All-American for the 3rd straight season. With her 1st team USCAA All-American honors in 2014, she becomes the first Pioneer athlete to earn All-American honors three times.
Technology Blitz - The athletic department added the option for fans to purchase the video feed of home contests on-line. www.alfredstateathletics.com had over 1,000,000 hits in 11 of the 12 months in 2014 including a high of 3,775,707 hits in September.
Looking forward to what might be in store for 2015!
