After his final collegiate ice hockey match – a dramatic double overtime duel won by top-seeded Quinnipiac University March 17 – Nick D’Agostino ’13 was struck by time’s incessant march.
“It seems like just yesterday I was just a little freshman and now it’s hitting me that my career here at Cornell is done. It was pretty emotional after the game. Just like that, we lost and the season was over,” he said. “What I’m going to miss the most is playing in front of the Lynah Faithful alongside some of my best friends.”
A team tri-captain, D’Agostino sparkled on the ice for four years. Now he is negotiating a contract with the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins for the next two seasons. “It’s an exciting time,” he said. “It’s obviously something that isn’t done overnight, and it’s a pretty unpredictable process.”
If he and the Penguins can’t reach an agreement by Aug. 15, D’Agostino becomes a free agent. His study of labor negotiations and collective bargaining at ILR might give him an edge.
After playing professional hockey, D’Agostino plans to pursue a law degree and stay involved in sports: “After all, sports is a business, and the presence and strength of professional league unions and management have created conditions where people with an expertise in labor relations are needed.”
Senior Kyle Dake is vying for his fourth NCAA Division I wrestling title in an unprecedented fourth weight class. Seven Big Red wrestlers are competing in the tournament March 21-23 in Des Moines, Iowa. Go Big Red!
Five broken noses later, JC Tretter ’13 remains committed to an NFL career. The Big Red offensive tackle was sidelined for the Jan. 26 Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., after a training camp mishap “moved my nose across my face,” Tretter said.
Surgery repositioned Tretter’s nose. “I have had much worse,” said the ILR student, referring to a torn meniscus repaired in his sophomore year.
He resumed training Jan. 29 and went to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Ind., where officials from all 32 NFL teams watch 300 elite football players perform before the 2013 NFL Draft, April 25-27, at Radio City Music Hall.
Tretter hopes the Indianapolis event makes up for being idled during the Mobile showcase. Missing the Senior Bowl “was a huge missed opportunity. Every team wanted to see me play against higher competition,” Tretter said.
If he isn’t drafted this spring, Tretter said, “I will look to jump on with a team as an undrafted free agent.”
Cornell Athletics is offering 2,000 FREE hockey ticketsto Cornell staff and faculty for this Friday’s women’s ice hockey game vs. Harvard. Cornell and Harvard are ranked no. 4 and no. 5 in the nation and are battling for the Ivy League championship. Information: Athletic Ticket Office, 255-4247.
As Olympic fever sweeps the globe, Kroch Library is bringing out some rare items to celebrate the London 2012 games.
A new exhibit in the reference room of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections features original memorabilia from Cornellians in the Olympics.
Its centerpiece is a solid gold medal, which Harry Reynolds Porter (Class of 1905) won at the 1908 London games. Photographs, two commemorative medals and a signed racing number from the 1920 games are also on display. Members of Cornell’s track and field teams contributed many of the items, which had been stored in Teagle Hall.
Venture down to level 2 of Kroch Library, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to check out the exhibition.
Cornell hosts the 2012 USPA National Intercollegiate Championships, April 18-22 at Oxley Equestrian Center.
On April 18, the fifth-ranked Big Red men beat the No. 4 SMU Mustangs, 28-19, sending Cornell into the men’s semi-finals, where they will meet No. 1 University of Virginia Cavaliers Friday, April 20, at 2 p.m.
Also on Friday, the No. 2 Cornell women will play their final four match at noon against No. 3 Cal Poly. The winner plays the No. 1 Cavaliers.
Jeff Foote ’10, a three-time All-Ivy League center at Cornell, will soon be donning a National Basketball Association uniform.
According to various online sources – including Foote’s Twitter account and that of the Springfield Armor, his NBA Development League team – the New Orleans Hornets will sign him March 9 to a short-term contract. Typical contracts of this nature are for 10 days.
In 29 games and 28 starts with the Armor, the 7-footer averaged 14.8 points and 8.6 rebounds in 32.9 minutes. He also averaged 1.1 blocks and shot 55.1 percent.
Between graduating from Cornell and signing with the Armor in December 2011, Foote played professionally in Israel, Morocco and Poland. Foote helped lead the 2010 Big Red squad on an unprecedented run to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen round.
About a month ago, a new electronic scoreboard was installed on Schoellkopf Field. Funded by gifts from friends and former athletes – including Art Wolcott ‘49, Dick Loynd ‘50, Mike Troy ’81, Rich Booth ‘82, Jay Carter ‘71, Andy Phillips ‘84, Peter Baccile ‘84, Brian Oliver ‘78, Marty Hanaka ‘71 and Doug Henderson ‘80 – the board is 38 feet high by 34 feet wide with video displays to show graphics and replays – and takes three people to operate it. Its 20-year-old, technologically obsolete predecessor, for which no spare parts were available, failed at an NCAA championship event. The football, sprint football and men’s and women’s lacrosse teams play on the field.
The New York Times drops in to the 92nd St. Y, where former Cornell basketball stars Jeff Foote, Ryan Wittman, Louis Dale, Jon Jaques and Aaron Osgood take yoga. Great update on their lives today.
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Posted by George Lowery
