RPI Pep Band (and
Friends) Alumni Newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 3
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Ahh summer.... Time for Student Orientation, roller coasters, and the long dark time between hockey seasons. Well, maybe not so dark. As we go through another off-season, our efforts move from Reunion Weekend to gearing up for our fall events. So with that in mind let's look at what RPI's been up to, and what's next from your fellow alums! |
Gearing up for Hockey in '05-'06 The 2005-2006 season brings big changes for the face of RPI hockey. With an athletic department that has committed even more resources to putting a successful product on the ice, the pressure and expectations have escalated for both the men and the women. Coming off of a disappointing season, the stage is set for Jordan Alford to show what he's made of in net. The highly touted prospect never had a chance to adapt to the college game, with most of the ice time going to transfer Andrew Martin. Now he'll have to compete for ice time with new recruit Mathias Lange. How this competition shakes out will have a large impact on the Men's hopes in the upcoming season. Highlights of this year's schedule include an exhibition game vs Ottawa before traveling to Alaska where the Engineers will compete in the Ice Breaker tournament. November 11th will feature the first ECACHL contest vs Quinnipiac. In December RPI will host RIT in their first season at Division 1. And of course the biggest night of the season will feature Brown in the Big Red Freakout on February 11th. Things are equally busy on the women's side of the ice. The women's team gave five of its players end of the year awards. Sophomore Sarah Daniel received the Most Valuable Player and Scholar-Athlete Award. Seniors Paula Durham and Lane Dielwart shared the Bill Cahill Memorial Coaches Award. Junior Jennifer Onksen was honored with the Most Improved Player Award. Senior Allie Cooper earned the Willie Stanton Award. Of course the big news is that the Lady Engineers will kick off their inaugural Division I season on October 8 against Sacred Heart at the Houston Field House. The women, who will be playing as an independent this season, have 29 games on the schedule, 15 at home. The ladies will be playing 22 games against D-I opponents, four games against D-III opponents and three games against Canadian teams. D-I opponents include two-game home series against Sacred Heart, Boston University, Union, and Quinnipiac, home-and-home series against Colgate, and away games against Robert Morris (2), Maine (2), Connecticut, Northeastern, Wayne State (2), Clarkson, Vermont and Sacred Heart (2). Unofficially (as of the time of this writing), the Engineers have four recruits coming in next year, two goalies, one defenseman, and one forward. The two goalies are Emily Ford from Tabor Academy and Ashley Mayr from the BC Breakers. The defenseman is Melanie Guillemette from the Stoney Creek Jr. Sabres and the forward is Nicole McDonald from the Ottawa Raiders. Schedules for both teams can be found in the files section of the Yahoo Group. Also check the group calendar in upcoming weeks for team schedules combined with alumni events and other interesting happenings. |
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Does anyone know what RPI football will look like in 2005? The 2003 team exceeded everyone's expectations, going all the way to the D3 semi-finals. The 2004 team, while not expected to reach the same heights as '03, missed the NCAA and ECAC playoffs entirely. So was 2004 a rebuilding year, a correction, or the beginning of the fall? It's hard to believe that Coach King would allow the team to slip out of the playoff picture entirely, and with a number of good recruits, many of which are local to the Capital Region, RPI looks to get back to their winning ways. The Engineers will retake home field starting September 10th vs Endicott and the following week vs Utica. RPI will start it's second season of Liberty League play with road games against Hobart and Coast Guard. The last and most important game of the regular season, against Union, will take place on November 11th. |
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PBAN3: Getting Ready for Some Good Times With a new season approaching it's time to start thinking about the third annual Pep Band Alumni Night. This year's event will be held either November 12th or October 29th. We expect the format to be similar to last year, which included rehearsal, the men's hockey game, and a post game student-alumni mixer. Expect more details as we get closer. Also, if there's any new things you'd like to see us do that weekend, please let us know. We're still soliciting your opinions as to which of the two dates to hold this event. If you haven't already done so, please go to the Polls section of the Yahoo Group and let us know which date you'd prefer. |
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This quarter's edition of Pep Band Stories brings us a special tale from Ex-Manager Mark Matarazzo. So Mark, what really happened with those pep band shirts? Some of you more observant alums might have noticed that new band members over the years 2001-2002 (and a bit into 2003) didnęt seem to get new Pep Band shirts. Well, Ięm here with the help of my partner in mangling, Erica Baer, to tell you why. Donęt look at this piece as if weęre covering our asses, because, well, just donęt. AnywayÄ Erica and I were elected managers at the end of spring semester 2001 in one of the closest and Pep Band elections in recent memory. That being said, one of the first tasks ecstatic-to-be-ex-managers Johnny and Dave set to us was the procurement of more Pep Band shirts to bolster the waning supply we had on hand. I mean, sure, we could have given out the XXXLs, but we only had one Mike Sell, and I expect him to kill me for that little joke. It was supposed to be simple. Dave had the information from the last order, including the number of shirts of each size that we needed and the supplieręs contact info, and he also passed on the experience he had gained from working with the Union staff. So, Erica and I, under Daveęs supervision, put in all the paperwork with Martha at the Union, and all seemed well. Later in the summer, Erica and I came back for Student Orientation, of course, and we checked in with Martha about the shirts. Not much had gone on since the initial order, though, so we shrugged it off and decided to give it a little more time. Surely the shirts would be there by the time we got back to school in late August. Surely. Or not. During SO4 I walked over there and still nothing had been heard. This was getting a little suspicious, so we had Martha start making inquiries on our behalf. Wow, did she ever get the runaround. First he told her that the shirts were nearly done, they just needed sleeves. Then he told her that they didnęt have the colors that we wanted. Yes, AFTER he said they just needed sleeves. Finally, he just stopped returning our calls. Well, it turned out that this guy was so slick that he even turned 9/11/2001 to his advantage, and in the confusion he shut his company down and ran off with our money! Or, you know, maybe his company just went bankrupt. Whatever the case, we kept trying to get our money back for a while, and then finally in March 2002 we pulled out the lawyers. Sue, lawyers, sue! By this time we had finally procured emergency funds from the E-Board, which really didnęt get allocated to us until April, just before GM Week. We left the lawyers in charge of getting the original funds back, and by the time GM Week was over, it was time to elect new managers. So, in what we hoped would not become a Pep Band managerial tradition, we started the entire process of shirt ordering over. –Yuri, Ben, hereęs a giant bag of money and a catalog. Have fun.” So, after that, when someone asked either Erica or I why we didnęt have shirts, we simply responded –Ask the managers!” like all ex-managers do, bound by tradition, of course. They came through wonderfully, and soon they had received plenty of the new shirts that you see the band wearing today. If you've got a favorite story or memory from your time with the Pep Band you'd like to share, please e-mail us at pepband@azhrei.net and we'll include it in the next edition of the Pep Band Alumni Newsletter.
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Hey Everyone, We hope that everyone's summer is going well. Ours is going pretty well so far. In the spring we were informed that we had some extra money in our budget and we had to buy some things. Well all of our packages have arrived and were happy to report our purchases. First we bought risers for all or our trumpets, so they no longer have to stand on those field house chairs. We also noticed that the tri-toms have seen better days so we upgraded a little bit and bought brand new red quint-toms. We also wanted to dress up the band a little bit so we bought some trombone and sousaphone covers that are very nice. And last but certainly not least, we purchased a t-shirt cannon, and we will be going out onto the ice at the beginning and in between the 2nd and 3rd periods of each men's hockey game to launch t-shirts into the crowd. Tim is also redoing out active set to accommodate for the ten new songs we bought. Some of the new songs include Cleveland Rocks, Stacy's Mom, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Sweet Home Alabama, and Are You Gonna Be My Girl. On July 16th we will be playing at one of the SO's. Anyone who would like to join us is more than welcome. We will meet at West Hall at 8:30am and play at the footbridge from 9-11. Also Friday night, July 15th, at 7:30 weęre going to have a get together with pizza. Again all of you are invited. We also have some of the things were looking at for the future. The second week in September is the Uncle Sam Parade in Troy. Were going to try to get into the parade and ride on the back of a flatbed tractor trailer. Were still working on some of the details so the parade is not finalized yet. We have rambled on long enough so we look forward to hearing from you and seeing all of you. THE MANAGERS |
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Wow, that's a lot of stuff. Some quick points and a recap:
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