This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in March 2018.

The NCAA’s men’s college basketball tournament starts next week. As it stands right now, the FBI should be everyone’s favorite to cut down the nets.

Last week, Yahoo! Sports reported that the FBI had obtained financial documents from former NBA agent Andy Miller that implicated approximately 20 collegiate programs and roughly 25 current and former players in a “pay-for-play” scheme to ensure that programs could lock up elite players. Notable players named in the documents include Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton, Duke’s Wendell Carter, Kentucky’s Kevin Knox and Dennis Smith, Jr., who played last season at NC State before being selected ninth in this past year’s NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks. Keep in mind that the FBI made several arrests last September in relation to this same scandal, and Louisville head coach Rick Pitino was let go by the university soon after. At the time, it was reported that an assistant coach had requested that five-star recruit Brian Bowen sign with the Cardinals with the incentive of a cool $100,000 bonus, by way of an Adidas executive.
The day after Yahoo!’s report, ESPN reported that Arizona head coach Sean Miller was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing a payment, also of $100,000, to DeAndre Ayton, a star center in the 2017 recruiting class. Ayton is currently a freshman at Arizona and could possibly be the first overall pick in June’s NBA Draft.

However, although the NCAA deserves to be a laughingstock and its president, Mark Emmert, has earned his reputation as a human punchline, are we jumping to a conclusion on this story too quickly?

These reports (if true, of course) are glaring because the NCAA proudly insists that players are not paid and goes to great lengths to protect the so-called “amateurism” of its organization. Just in the past year alone, the NCAA has ruled a player ineligible for monetizing his personal YouTube channel and suspended five Richmond University baseball players for the dastardly crime of playing fantasy football. And yet, somehow, some way, these infractions were more important than the under-the-table deals that were purportedly going on behind the association’s back. Whoops.

Even though Miller did not coach his team for the first two games after the ESPN story broke, he gave a press conference on Thursday in which he vehemently denied ever discussing or carrying out a payment to any player, let alone Ayton. When Miller’s press conference was announced, many assumed that Miller would be stepping down from his position or that the school would announce his firing. Neither one of those two things happened, and Miller even went into detail about one situation in which someone approached him about paying a player and he refused to do so. It is important to recall that Emanuel “Book” Richardson, one of Miller’s former assistant coaches, was charged by the FBI in its initial September sting on bribery, fraud and corruption charges, a rare college basketball triple play.

So, to recap: a major media outlet publishes a damning report about an authority figure, said authority figure denies that report and basically shouts “fake news” from his pulpit and the public decides who they want to believe regardless of the facts of the story. Stop me if you’ve seen this before.

I am inclined to believe ESPN’s report except for one – actually, two – issues. Both of these problems come in the form of seemingly minor retractions the company has issued in the past few days. The first is that ESPN changed its report to state that Miller was caught on the FBI wiretap discussing Ayton’s payment plan in 2016, not 2017. Then, the Worldwide Leader changed that date back to 2017, the original year they reported Miller was caught in the act of discussing the payment with Christian Dawkins, one of NBA agent Andy Miller’s assistants. Here is where the problem comes in: Ayton committed to Arizona on September 6, 2016. In an article published after Miller’s Thursday press conference, ESPN announced, unsurprisingly, that they were standing by their reporting on this story. If they are, then they are saying that Miller discussed compensation on the wiretap after Ayton committed to the school, which is certainly possible, but less plausible than Miller discussing a payment plan to ensure Ayton attended Arizona in the first place.

After Miller’s press conference, I saw many tweets saying that the conversation he denied really did happen. Naturally, all of these tweets came from people who weren’t in the room for that discussion, don’t own a copy of the wiretap and haven’t actually heard its contents. But why would that stop anyone? Sadly, many people have decided for themselves what happened between Miller and the agent. Their opinion of the issue was dictated by whether or not they were on the NCAA’s side or that of ESPN’s reporting, not the facts of the story.

I would typically side with ESPN because the NCAA is up there with FIFA and United States Gymnastics as one of the most corrupt sport organizations in the world right now. But I also believe that Miller wouldn’t defend himself that vehemently and confidently if he didn’t sincerely believe in his own innocence. I also think many citizens have decided who they side with, regardless of what really happened.

Sean Miller is digging in to defend himself against ESPN. ESPN is standing by their reporting. The stakes could not be higher for both. Get your popcorn ready, but don’t decide who to believe until you know what the facts are.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in February 2018.

The Fordham men’s squash team is still rolling.
The squad won the Northeastern Round Robin this past weekend against Northeastern University, Brandeis College, Boston College and Boston University. The team only lost a single game in Friday night’s match against Northeastern. These wins bought Fordham squash to 18-3 on the season as they can begin preparations for the College Squash Association team championship, which will be held Feb. 23-25 at Trinity College’s Kellner Squash Center. The team is hot heading into that tournament, as it has won 13 of its last 14 matches.

All of the usual suspects were in action and firing on all cylinders for the Rams this weekend. The only loser over the course of the three days was junior Will Pantle, and his loss at the start of Friday’s match put the Rams down one game to nothing. Then, Fordham reeled off 35 individual wins in a row to sweep the weekend and win the Northeastern Round Robin to close out the regular season. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

After defeating Northeastern on Friday, the Rams took home victories against Boston College and Brandeis on Saturday, and closed the weekend with yet another 9-0 victory over Boston University. The team will now begin to set its sights upon Hartford, Connecticut as it participates in the College Squash Association Team Championships at the end of the month.
Fordham’s year is particularly impressive when you consider that many individual contributions have come from freshmen.

The first-year trio of Justin Deckoff, Griffin Fitzgerald and Tommy White has combined to go 46-7 on the year, but Fordham’s individual success has run both ends of the experience gamut. The three Rams in their final season with the program (Joseph Hughes, Peter Yuen and John Lennon) are a combined 41-13. In fact, the Rams have lost just 31 individual matches on the season, and were one win away from defeating Bryant two weekends ago, which would have put them at 19-2.

Another person who deserves immense credit for the Rams’ success is new head coach Sahel Anwar. Anwar, in his first season with the Rams, has led the team to their 18-3 mark after it went just 10-9 a season ago. Anwar is very familiar with Fordham, as he also serves as the head coach of the squash team at Fordham Prep. That being said, Anwar deserves his share of the credit for helping the Rams move forward and into the CSA team championships with just three losses on a season, including just once after Veterans Day.

The Fordham men’s squash team will need to maintain its momentum if it wishes to ascend to new heights as a team and a program. We’ll find out in a week and a half whether or not they do.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in January 2018.

Michigan State has been one of the most successful sports programs in the country over the past 20 years. From three Big Ten championships in football to seven Final Four appearances in men’s basketball, the Spartans have become one of the most respected programs in college sports.

Over that same period of time, though, they willfully whitewashed the wrongdoings of multiple staff members and let a sexual predator roam their campus under the guise of “medical attention.” And that’s a little more important.

Yes, while the Spartans were cutting down the nets and going to major bowl games, their university engaged in a cover-up to protect university physician and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar from losing his job after he sexually assaulted at least 150 underage girls, including U.S. Gymnastics medalists Aly Raisman, Simone Biles and many, many others: The breadth of the individuals Nassar abused could fill the length of at least three of these Overtime articles.

Nassar was sentenced last week to 40 to 175 years in prison, and will likely never see life outside a prison facility ever again. Had it not been for the complaints of two American gymnasts in September 2016, Nassar would likely still be practicing medicine today. The Nassar trial has been exhausted thoroughly in the media, and the exploits of a predatory clown like him do not deserve to be rehashed here.

This is not just about Nassar. It’s about a larger pattern of injustice and lack of institutional control that has taken place at Michigan State over the past 20 years. Not coincidentally, the same amount of time that their stock has surged as one of the best programs in the country.

On Friday, ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” published a report stating that a former assistant basketball coach was allowed to stay at the school after punching a female student in the face at a bar in 2010. This report comes on the heels of the resignations of both the athletic director and the president of the university. There were other cases as well; the questionable handling of a sexual abuse case involving two basketball players, the accusation of 16 football players committing sexual assault and, of course, the Nassar case.

And where was the NCAA in all of this? Well, all of these accusations say nothing of the fact that Mark Emmert was personally notified of the Nassar allegations all the way back in 2010. In response to this, the NCAA – and this will absolutely shock you – did nothing. That may be a lesser-publicized aspect of this horrific story, but it’s true. While the natural inclination is to burn Emmert in effigy every time a controversial incident occurs involving the NCAA’s incompetence, the organization’s board of directors holds equal, if not more, culpability in allowing Nassar to continue his practice when they knew very well that his “practice” involved abusing literally hundreds of underage girls.

We live in a fascinating time in sports, culture and the world. The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have transformed Hollywood and alerted the world to an epidemic of sexual misconduct amongst actors, directors and other industry powers-that-be. Those movements have come to sports too and they even forced an NFL owner (the Panthers’ Jerry Richardson) to sell his team. This reckoning is long overdue, and while sports has not seen as extensive of an impact from it, players, coaches and executives could learn a thing or two from it. One of the people who falls into that group is former Michigan State President Lou Anna K. Simon.

In her statement announcing her resignation from the university over this mess, Simon said that “as tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable”. With respect, ma’am, the people placing blame on you for this situation are absolutely right. While much time has been spent dissecting Nassar’s actions over the past 20 years or so, he had his fair share of enablers. Those include Simon and recently-resigned athletic director Mark Hollis, who oversaw Nassar’s predatory behavior and purported sexual misconduct by multiple members of the football and basketball programs. And frankly, enough people have been accused of these crimes for anyone to figure out that this a troubling pattern of behavior and not an isolated incident involving just one or two Spartans athletes.

Larry Nassar is an abhorrent human being and deserves to be eviscerated for what he did as a “doctor”. But let’s not forget about his enablers in this situation. This was the classic case of a difficult situation that should have required a very simple solution on the part of Michigan State’s administration and governing body. The move should have been to investigate Nassar and, when the hypothetical probe found his wrongdoing, to fire him. How difficult is that? But Michigan State’s administrators continually stepped around this situation and others at the university. Instead of holding those involved accountable for their actions, the school turned a blind eye to the matters at hand.

Last week, the law finally put Larry Nassar to justice. Now, the NCAA needs to do the same to Michigan State.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in January 2018.

The Fordham Men’s Golf team looks to pick up where it left off in the fall when it starts its spring slate at the Lafayette Invite on April 1-2.

The team had a strong fall showing, highlighted by an opening-weekend win at the Ryan T. Lee Invitational and third-place finishes at the Bucknell Fall Invitational and the Lehigh Invitational. The team was spearheaded this spring by seniors Joseph Trim, James Mongey and Matthew Schiller, all of whom averaged under 75 per round in the fall. Mongey also earned two Atlantic 10 Player of the Week nods and won the Lee Invitational with a four-under 140, three strokes ahead of the second-place finisher. That tournament was the only team victory of the season for the Rams.

In terms of his approach as the spring season approaches, Mongey had this to say: “I think my sense of urgency, knowing it’s my last semester of golf, will help me keep my performance up. I know myself and the rest of our team, especially the seniors, have some pretty high goals for the season and A10s, and we are looking to finish strong.”

However, the fall season wasn’t all positive for Fordham. The team fell into a cold spell at the end of September and finished 11th and 12th, respectively, at the Quechee Invite and the Yale Invitational to close out the month. “I feel like we can improve on everything honestly. I can’t remember a time where myself, Joe and Matt all played our best during the same week,” Mongey said. “We have a lot of good young players and Tommy Hayes’ return will help. We are all very competitive amongst each other so that will bring out the best in us.” The team corrected itself, though, towards the end of the season and picked up back-to-back third place finishes at the Bucknell Invitational and the Lafayette Invite in October.

Of course, while the trio of Mongey, Schiller and Trim are skilled and accomplished, the Rams will also need contributions from other players if they want to ascend to new heights this spring. This was perhaps best evidenced at the Lee Invitational. While the senior troika was a combined two-under par, they were not the only ones to turn in solid performances for Fordham. Sophomore and Miami native Tomas Nieves as well as junior Josh Madarang both fired a 36-hole score of four-over, and freshman Mithran Denbow finished at just five-over. With the three seniors playing as well as they did, the Rams were dangerous. With the entire team clicking, the Rams were deadly.

That being said, it will be interesting to see how fresh the Rams are when they begin play at the Lafayette Invite. While having over five months off can help a team get healthy and rested, there is something to be said for not having played a tournament in that long of a period. The break likely served Fordham well, but it remains to be seen how they will start the season once April comes around.

The Rams’ spring season begins on April 1-2, when they take part in the Lafayette Invite in Hellertown, PA.

If the Rams’ stellar seniors play up to par, the team will be competitive. If those seniors get help from some of their rising underclassmen, the squad may very well be unstoppable.

Now, the team looks to pick up where it left off in the spring.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in January 2018.

The Fordham Men’s Squash team won three matches in the Bronx this weekend in their first competitive action of the 2018 calendar year.

The team notched their three victories against Bard University, Colgate University and New York University. The first two matches against Bard and Colgate took place on Saturday while the final match of the weekend against NYU occurred on Sunday.

On Saturday morning, the Rams easily dispatched Bard without so much as losing a match. Six of the nine Fordham players won their matches in straight sets, as did junior Justin Esposito in his exhibition match. The highlights of that one for the Rams were five-set victories by senior Peter Yuen and freshman Griffin Fitzgerald.

With one win already under their belt on the day, Fordham looked to continue their success in their afternoon matchup with Colgate. It is safe to say they did just that.

Even when it did not look like the Rams could be more dominant, they were, as they finished off Colgate without even losing a set. In fact, two Rams, Will Beatrez and Esposito, won their matches by default, as Colgate did not field a player for either of the final two matches of the afternoon. The two wins were indicative of the team’s larger success this season, as they pushed the Rams to 12-2 on the year and extended their winning streak to seven matches. They would look to make that eight straight victories on Sunday against NYU. However, unlike the matches against Bard and Colgate, this would prove to be no easy task.

The two teams went back and forth over the first six individual matches on Sunday, and a three-set victory for NYU’s Shane Fries over Fordham’s Tommy White tied the match at three points apiece. On this day, Fordham would need to win two of its final three matches to earn their eighth straight victory. The team needed some of its best players to step up in the clutch. They did.

Fifth-year senior Joseph Hughes defeated New York’s Michael Kumar in straight sets to give the lead back to Fordham; with the victory, Hughes went to 13-2 on the season having won his last eight matches. Next up for Fordham was freshman Justin Deckoff. He played with poise and defeated Paul Yoon in straight sets to clinch another win for the Rams. Despite junior Will Beatrez’s loss in the final match of the day, Fordham won the contest and moved to 13-2 on the season.

The Rams’ next matches are also at home, as they face off against Bryant and Bucknell this Saturday. After that, Fordham has two weeks off before the Northeastern Round Robin, which will take place February 9-11. This tournament will feature Northeastern University, Brandeis University, Boston College, Minnesota University and Boston University. After that, the team will look to qualify for the College Squash Association national championship, a tournament that features 64 teams. Fordham is currently ranked 36th in the CSA rankings and should make the cut if they continue to play the way they have to this point in the season.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in January 2018.

Joe Conlin was introduced as Fordham Football head coach at a Thursday “meet-and-greet” in advance of the 2018 season.

Among the dignitaries on hand to introduce Fordham’s newest head coach were Athletic Director David Roach and Fr. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university.

In a speech given at the event, Conlin noted that he wants to build Fordham to be the best program in the Patriot League and a consistently successful football school. He also said he wants to make sure the team is less outcome-oriented and more focused on a “defined process” of becoming successful and being a better team.

Conlin and the Rams hope to improve off of last year’s 4-7 showing. After last season, head coach Andrew Breiner resigned and joined former Fordham head coach and university alumnus Joe Moorhead on his staff at Mississippi State. This is Conlin’s first college head coaching job, as he has spent the last four seasons as the offensive coordinator at Yale.

When asked whether or not he would call plays offensively, Conlin replied that he was unsure but he also said that the offense would have “(his) stamp on it” and that he would be “involved”. Conlin led Yale’s offense to 12th in FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) in total yards per game last season, one that culminated in Yale winning its first outright Ivy League title since 1980.

Conlin also said that his work is starting immediately, as a team meeting is scheduled on either Monday night or Tuesday morning to meet the team and hit the ground running in preparation for next season. At Thursday’s press conference, Roach praised Conlin’s “X-factor” for being a successful coach, and McShane said that Conlin was “the right man for Fordham”.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in December 2017.

The Fordham squash team pummeled Duke University by a score of 9-0 at the Lombardi squash courts on the Fordham University campus last Saturday afternoon. Then, the Rams followed that with a 9-0 victory against Penn State University and an 8-1 triumph over New York University on Sunday. All matches took place at Fordham University.

The team came into the weekend with a 7-2 record after strong showings at its first two tournaments of the season. Coming into this group of matches, head coach Sahel Anwar decided to keep the same lineup he used for most of the beginning of the season. That decision paid off in a big way.

Senior Peter Yuen started Saturday with a straight-sets victory over David Laub which included a thrilling 13-11 triumph in the second set. Next up for the Rams was fellow senior and Broomall, Pennsylvania native John Lennon, who, after dropping the first set 12-10, won three in a row to defeat the Blue Devils’ Samir Agadi. Lennon’s first-game loss to Agadi would be the only game the Rams would drop all day.

In the cleanup role, Madison, New Jersey’s Bruce Czachor conceded just 16 points in his three-set victory, and freshman Griffin Fitzgerald allowed just ten points in a win of his own. Tommy White, in the sixth spot in the lineup, swept Duke’s Shivaan Tandon in straight sets, graduate student Joseph Hughes, freshman Justin Deckoff and junior Will Beatrez all were able to do the same. At the end of the day, Fordham had lost just one set and won all nine of its individual matches en route to a 9-0 victory.

On Sunday, the Rams picked up right where they left off with another clean sweep victory over Penn State. The most thrilling victory of that matchup once again belonged to Lennon, who came back from two games down to defeat Penn State’s Tomoki Takasawa in five games. Every other player for the Rams completed his match in three games. In the final matchup of the weekend against NYU, the Rams were slightly less dominant but were still able to cruise to an 8-1 victory. Beatrez won his match against the Violets’ Giles Perkins in five sets in an otherwise relaxed and business-like affair for a Rams squad that now finds itself at 10-2.

Fordham Squash does not have any events scheduled for the remainder of 2017; the next matches scheduled for the team will take place on Jan. 20 and 21, against Bard University, Colgate University and New York University.

Fordham Men’s Squash finished with a record of 3-2 at last weekend’s Navy Round Robin in Annapolis, Maryland.

The team started it’s weekend with a 9-0 loss to Navy, the tournament’s host.  The team’s fortunes turned slightly on Saturday, though, with an 8-1 triumph over Georgetown Universit followed by a 7-2 loss at the hands of Haverford University.  But the Rams had their best day of the weekend on Sunday, with a 9-0 win over Johns Hopkins University and an 8-1 victory over Navy’s “B” Team.

Freshman Griffin Fitzgerald lost just one of his matches in the four recorded contests; individual stats were not kept for Sunday’s match against the Navy “B” team.  The New Jersey native credits his high school experience with helping him adjust to college life: “I went to a boarding school, Blair Academy, for my four high school years, so the adjustment to college life has been easy. My teammates also made the transition wonderful, as they reached out to me right when I got to school. Allison Levine from the student-athlete department has helped me transition academically by helping me organize my time with practices and matches.” Fitzgerald, fifth in Fordham’s lineup, is 6-1.

Also starring for Fordham in the first two tournaments was Whitestone, New York native Will Pantle, who won seven of his first eight matches in the third spot. Pantle won three of his four matches this weekend, including three in a row after a loss to Navy’s Jack Herold last Friday night.

In the leadoff spot, senior Peter Yuen split his four matches and now sits at 5-3 on the season; sophomore Bruce Czachor also split his four matches and now finds himself at 6-2.  In the second slot, senior John Lennon went only 2-2 for the weekend but won a thrilling five-set match over Georgetown’s Michael Ficca on Saturday (6-11, 11-4, 11-6, 7-11, 11-3) as part of the Rams’ 8-1 victory.  Continuing this theme, freshman Tommy White split his four matches, as did graduate student Joseph Hughes.  Finally, junior and Ohio native Will Beatrez lost his only match of the weekend, and junior Justin Esposito lost his first and only match of the season to Navy’s Greg Hyer on Friday.

And as for the group’s success up to this point in the year, Fitzgerald credits his coaching staff for its encouragement, as well as the team’s structure at practices. “I can’t explain how influential these words and my teammates support was to my success,” Fitzgerald said.  “Practices are run by both (head coach) Sahel (Anwar) and our assistant coach Scott (Young) and they have run practices in an organized way that has enabled me to work on each aspect of my game, and they have pushed us physically to get into D1 shape.”

Fordham’s squash team will return home for its next matches against Duke University and Penn State University the weekend of Dec 2-3.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in January 2018.

The Fordham Squash team started its season by going undefeated at the Hudson Valley Team Tournament hosted by Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The team started its weekend with wins on Saturday over Vassar College and Swarthmore College.  In the first matchup against Vassar, the team only dropped one game en route to a 9-0 victory.  After losing the first match of the second contest, Fordham won the final eight matches to beat the Garnet by a score of 8-1.

Perhaps more impressively, the Rams were forced to play at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning against Lafayette University and Boston University, respectively.  This quick turnaround had no effect on the team, as it pulled a repeat performance of Saturday with wins of 9-0 and 8-1 against the Leopards and the Terriers.  These matches, like the ones the day before, were held at Vassar College, which is just a 70-mile trip from Fordham’s Rose Hill campus.

The success of the team this weekend was a collective team effort.  Senior Peter Yuen won three of his four matches at the number one position, and senior John Lennon matched that effort in the number two spot; Lennon defeated Vassar’s Mathieu Rizk in five sets on Saturday and came back from a 2-1 deficit in the process.  Junior and Whitestone, New York native Will Pantle won all four of his matches without dropping a set, while Madison, New Jersey sophomore Bruce Czachor also went undefeated and finished off his run with a five-set victory over Boston University’s Joel Lavoie on Sunday (1-11, 4-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-4).

Freshman newcomer Griffin Fitzgerald won all 12 of his sets en route to a 4-0 start to his season, and fellow first-year Ram Tommy White did the same in the sixth slot.  Senior Joseph Hughes also went 4-0 without dropping a set, as did freshman and Red Hook, New York native Justin Deckoff. Instead of speaking about himself, Hughes chose to praise his teammates: “We have excellent senior leaders who were able to coach some of the younger guys in their first collegiate matches which led to a team victory.”  Last but not least, Will Beatrez, occupier of the ninth spot in the Fordham lineup, went 3-0 over the weekend but did not get a chance to improve that record because Lafayette had only eight players in its contest.  The Rams rolled out the same lineup in all of their games over the weekend as first-year head coach Sahel Anwar did not want to mess with a winning formula.

Next up for the Rams is a trip to the Navy Round Robin this weekend in Annapolis, Maryland.  The team will compete against the United States Naval Academy, Georgetown University, Haverford University and Johns Hopkins University.  “We have Navy coming up and they are an extremely fit team and so we are going to have to play smart and be prepared to fight through some long matches,” Hughes says.  The team will look to build off a weekend that saw it go 4-0 and earn victories in 34 of a possible 36 individual matches. In the same tournament last year, the Rams dropped all four of their matches in Annapolis against Navy, the University of Washington, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in October 2017.

Fordham Men’s Golf is wrapping up its fall slate of tournaments this weekend in Pennsylvania. Its early-season success has been spearheaded by senior James Mongey, who is coming off a record-setting performance at the Bucknell Invitational on Columbus Day weekend. Mongey was named the Atlantic 10 Conference’s Golfer of the Week for the week of Oct. 3, and his exploits previously helped the Rams to a team victory at the Ryan Lee Invitational in September. In light of these accomplishments, The Fordham Ram sat down with Mongey to find out a little bit more about him.

TFR: How did you get into golf?

JM: I played baseball until I was 12 or 13. Honestly, I kind of just got tired of it and switched over to golf. My dad introduced me to it, and from there, I kind of fell in love with it, and I’ve been playing it ever since.

TFR: What made you decide to come to Fordham?

JM: I always wanted to go to college near a big city. All the colleges I was looking at were near Boston, Washington D.C., or New York, and I wanted to go to business school too.

TFR: When did you come to realize that you could play golf at a college level or beyond?
JM: As I moved through high school and I got a little better, I started playing in some metropolitan tournaments and state events. I just kind of knew that if I kept working at it, I would be able to play at the college level.

TFR: How was the team able to return to form after the middle of the fall season?

JM: With golf, there is a lot of ebb and flow; some weeks you play well, other weeks you don’t play well, and you can’t really put your finger on it. Joseph Trim has been playing really well, he’s had probably even a better fall than I’ve had. He probably hasn’t gotten that recognition, but he’s been playing great. Matt Schiller’s been steady. So some of the senior guys have been steadying the ship, and we did play well last week, which is nice.

TFR: What has been the main reason, if any, for your success this year?

JM: I would say that I am just that much more mature. This is the second or third time I’ve seen all of these courses, so I’m pretty comfortable on all of them. I’ve been putting pretty well, and that’s what it comes down to, and that’s why I’ve been playing well, I would say.

TFR: How have you adjusted to having a leadership role on the team?

JM: As you get older, you have more perspective on what is to be expected at Fordham Golf. You kind of know how it works every year. You also try to be a role model for the younger guys and do the right thing.

TFR: How will you stay prepared to play golf during the winter break?

JM: I always think it’s nice to have a winter break and take a few months off to kind of relax and get your mind off golf. I’ll do some other things; I’ll probably play a lot of basketball, and then I’ll try to be as fresh as possible for the spring.

TFR: You had talked earlier about Fordham’s business school being a big factor in your decision to come here. What do you plan on doing after you leave Fordham?

JM: I am a finance major. It’s been a busy fall because I’ve been trying to look for a job. I think golf works great with business and I’m hoping to use that skill to find a job where I can play some golf or something like that.

TFR: What is your most memorable moment at Fordham, golf or otherwise?

JM: I would say so far, my most memorable moment was going to the Atlantic 10 Tournament in my sophomore year. It was by far the best college competition I had ever seen. Flying down to the tournament and staying there for almost a week was cool, and it was a new experience in which I didn’t know what to expect. Although I didn’t play as well as I was hoping to, I think I came away from it a better player and I learned from it.

TFR: Do you have a favorite golfer that you model your game after?

JM: I like watching Jordan Spieth a lot. He seems to have a mental edge over anyone. He doesn’t really do anything that wows you, but at the end of the day, he always seems to have one of the lowest scores at every tournament on tour. He’s gritty, and he’s able to get it done; whether it be making putts or having that mental edge, it is very impressive to watch.

TFR: What have you taken away from your entire experience here at Fordham?

JM: It’s crazy to reflect on all of this already. Overall, there have certainly been ups and downs. You miss out on stuff here when you’re away, but having the highs of winning tournaments is a lot of fun. I think it’s been a very positive experience. I think it’s taught me how to balance a schedule so that when I’m out in the business world, I feel like I’ll be able to manage my time. I think the other thing would be that you always feel accountable for your teammates and you try to be the best person you can be.