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…
Olivia Drake
Brian KattenJohn Raba, head men's lacrosse coach at Wesleyan since 1997, has been selected as one of seven inductees for the University of New Haven Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2010. John is a 1993 graduate of U.N.H. and a former standout in both football and lacrosse there. Coming aboard the full-time Wesleyan staff in 1996 and now an adjunct associate professor in the physical education department, Raba enters his 14th season as head coach of men's lacrosse during 2010. Raba has a 155-67 record at Wesleyan, including an 18-3 mark in 2007, the best season ever at the college, and a…
Rick McCarthy, who recently completed his fifth season as an assistant coach for Wesleyan's highly successful men's lacrosse team, was one of seven individuals inducted into the Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame during a ceremony Jan. 10 at Yale University. Serving as the head coach of the men's lacrosse team at Western Connecticut State U. for the 2004 and 2005 seasons, McCarthy came back to join the Wesleyan staff in 2006 after serving in that capacity during the 2003 campaign. In December 2006, McCarthy was honored by the Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA) as the Division III assistant coach…
Wesleyan head women's ice hockey coach Jodi McKenna returned from the 2010 Olympics with a silver medal for Team USA. In May 2009, McKenna was asked to serve as an assistant coach for Team USA during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. While in Vancouver, Team USA demolished China (12-1), Russia (13-0) and Finland (6-0) during group play to earn a spot in the medal rounds. In the semi-finals, Team USA defeated Sweden, 9-1, to move into the Gold Medal Game vs. arch-rival Canada. Despite the 10-goal-a-game average for Team USA entering the Olympic Gold Medal Game, the Americans were shut…
In the past decade, the Wesleyan Men's Water Polo Club captured two titles and appeared in six Division III National Collegiate Club Championships. For their efforts, the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) named the team the "Collegiate Club Division III Team of the Decade" for 2000-09. Unlike many teams in their conference, the Wesleyan club runs its program without monetary or administrative support from the Department of Athletics. The students are coached by team captains, and occasionally a graduate student who has played on the team will coach without compensation. Nevertheless, the team won the 2004 and 2005 Division III…
Jodi McKenna, head coach of women's hockey, is taking a leave from Wesleyan to coach the U.S. Olympic women's ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. The games open Feb. 14. In a Jan. 10 Hartford Courant article titled "Career Path Continues to be Covered with Ice," McKenna says, "It's not something, when I got into coaching, that I would even conceive of, being in this situation. It became more of a possibility the more I became involved in the national program." McKenna was named an assistant coach in May, right before her Wesleyan players went home…
Three times a week, a group of Wesleyan sailors travel 21 miles to Essex, Conn. for a three-hour practice on the Connecticut River. On the weekends, the students tackle the waters in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont or Maine. The Wesleyan Sailing Team, which recently completed its second year participating in the competitive New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA), finished its season in 26th place. Forty-two collegiate teams are registered with NEISA. This fall, the student-run group competed in nine regattas and 10 last spring. They finished three ranks under Amherst College, one rank under Middlebury College and four ranks above Williams College. "We started at…
Men’s soccer had its outstanding season come to a close in the sectional semi-finals, dropping a double-overtime contest to the University of Rochester Nov. 21. Keisuke Yamashita ’10 gave Wesleyan a 1-0 first-half lead, but Rochester tied the game in the second half and won it just 38 seconds into the second sudden-victory overtime. The team ended its campaign with a final record of 12-2-5, went undefeated in NESCAC regular-season play and earned the top seed in the NESCAC tournament. (Game and fan photos by Cora Lautze '11)
Wesleyan men’s soccer has accomplished two feats never before witnessed by Cardinal faithful: they have yet to lose after 15 games, and have set a school record for shutouts in a season. Now they are looking for a NESCAC title, something that has only been done once before (in 2005) by Wesleyan Men’s Soccer. Their campaign has in no way been easy. They opened the year on Sept. 12 facing perennial power and Little Three rival Williams College on the road. In that match the Cardinals came back after being down 1-0 to forge a 1-1 tie. Over the eight…