Olivia DrakeAfter 37 years at Wesleyan, John Biddiscombe, director of athletics and chair of the Physical Education Department, is retiring at the end of this academic year. Biddiscombe came to Wesleyan in 1974 as a three-sport coach of football, wrestling, and track and field. He was head coach of wrestling from 1974 to 1989 with a won-loss record of 128-85-3, and in 1984 the team won the New England championship. He was voted New England wrestling coach of the year in 1984 and 1989, and was inducted into the New England Collegiate Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2004. As director of athletics,…
Brian KattenJeff McDonald, an assistant football coach at Wesleyan, will have a trio of instructional DVDs and an article produced by American Football Monthly (AFM) magazine, one of the premier trade magazines for football coaches in the United States. The article will appear in the August issue of the magazine and will be accompanied by online promotional samplings of the instructional DVDs, each of which will run approximately one hour. McDonald flew to Florida in June to help prepare the DVDs. In each he presents instruction on different techniques and defenses, including defensive schemes, unique approaches to eight-man defensive fronts, and…
Approximately 115 students from the Woodside Intermediate School in Cromwell joined Wesleyan student-athletes from the men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s ice hockey, football, softball, women’s tennis and wrestling teams and the rugby club for an hour in the Bacon Field House for “recess.” Three play stations were set up, allowing groups of third- to fifth-graders from Woodside to interact with the Wesleyan students in kickball, capture the flag, red light/green light and basketball. The Wesleyan football team, through an arrangement between assistant coach Jeff McDonald and Woodside principal Bo Ryan, who met during their college years in the…
Kate Mullen, who recently completed her 19th year in charge of the Wesleyan University women's basketball team, was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame at its 24th annual induction ceremony April 13. Coach Mullen was honored as one of seven inductees. She was the only individual inducted as a college coach. Two others were honored as high school players, one as a high school coach, one as a college player, one as a referee and another in the honorary area. Hired as an adjunct assistant professor of physical education at Wesleyan in 1992, Mullen guided her teams to nine consecutive winning…
Gale Lackey, in her 33rd year of coaching at Wesleyan, and her 26th season at the helm of the women's volleyball Cardinals, will be inducted into the Connecticut Women's Volleyball Hall of Fame during its 13th annual induction ceremony Tuesday, Nov. 23. The ceremony will take place at the Aqua Turf Country Club in Southington, Conn. In total, six individuals will be enshrined this year, bringing the total in the CWVHOF up to 80. Coach Lackey will become one of only six who are inducted as college coaches. Others this year are being added to the Hall of Fame in the…
The softball team claimed a NESCAC tournament title and automatic bid to the NCAA championship May 14. Recovering from a disappointing 5-2 loss to Bowdoin in a potential title game, the Cardinals came back to trounce Bowdoin 10-1. Wesleyan softball, coached by Jen Lane, adjunct associate professor of physical education, joins the 2005 men's soccer team and 2009 men's lacrosse team as NESCAC titlists. The Cardinals will play Kean University of New Jersey in the NCAA first-round game May 14 at Rhode Island College (R.I.C.). (more…)
The Wesleyan baseball diamond on Andrus Field was named in honor of Jim Dresser ’63, P’93 during a ceremony May 1. Six generations of Dresser’s family has coached, played, or watched games on “Dresser Diamond.” Baseball began at Wesleyan – and on this ground – in 1865. Two years earlier, Dresser’s great-grandfather, James Cooke Van Benschoten, arrived at Wesleyan to teach classics, which he did for almost 40 years. He named the team “the Agallians.” (more…)
Keisuke Yamashita '10 of Yokahama, Japan; Jory Kahan '10 of Norwich Vt.; Clare Smith '10 of Lexington, Mass.; and Beth Kenworthy '10 from New York, N.Y., were named the recipients of Wesleyan University's Roger Maynard '37 Memorial Award for the 2009-10 academic year. The award is presented annually to the outstanding male and female scholar-athletes in their last year of eligibility. Yamashita, Kahan, Smith and Kenworthy represent the finest combination of athletic accomplishment and academic achievement at Wesleyan. Kahan and Yamashita were starters on the 2009 men's soccer team that posted the first undefeated regular-season since 1940 and set a school…
Ben Cohen ’10 was chosen to receive the 2010 Bill Esposito Memorial Award by the Eastern College Athletic Conference - Sports Information Directors Association (ECAC-SIDA). Named for long-time sports information director Bill Esposito, who served in the profession at St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. for 25 years, the award recognizes the outstanding contributions of a senior student among the ECAC membership (more than 300 East Coast Colleges from all NCAA Divisions) who plans to pursue a career in sports information. Cohen has been a stalwart of Wesleyan's sports information student staff for three years. A staff sportswriter for the…
Wesleyan women’s tennis posted a 4-0 mark during its fall dual-match schedule, then added four victories in Orlando, Fla. during its spring training trip in March to head into the meat of its schedule with an 8-0 record. The rest of the season features matches against nine consecutive NESCAC rivals. The outcomes of this part of the schedule will dictate qualification for the NESCAC tournament. Women’s tennis is one of three Cardinal squads to inaugurate the season with an 8-0 start. Both the baseball and softball teams also have started 8-0. The 8-0 record is the best ever season opening records…
David Pesci[youtube width="640" height="385"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9LdSAiX2yQ[/youtube] Mike Whalen ’83 was named assistant athletic director and head coach of Wesleyan University’s football team. He will assume this post on April 1. Whalen was introduced to the campus community at a ceremony on Monday, March 8. Whalen, the 2006 NESCAC Coach of the year, comes to Wesleyan from Williams College, where he had been the head coach since 2004. During that time, Whalen’s teams posted a 38-10 record. “It is an honor and a true pleasure to welcome Coach Whalen back to Wesleyan,” says John Biddiscombe, director of athletics and chair, physical education. “He left…