Stepien Named to Don Hansen All-South Region Team

LANCASTER, PA -- Franklin & Marshall College linebacker Chris Stepien (Sr., Fairfield, NJ/West Essex) has been named to the 2005 Don Hansen's Football Gazette NCAA Division III All-South Region third team.

The honor marks the fifth consecutive year a Franklin & Marshall College player has been recognized on the All-South team following first team honors for wide receiver Justin Salton ’03 (2003) in 2004 and second team recognition for defensive lineman Chris Gallino '03 (2001 & 2002), punter Mark Rowand '02 (2001) and punter Dan Eggertsson ’05 (2004). Gallino and Rowand's selection in 2001 marked the first for F&M since defensive end Mike Quartey '00, linebacker Joe Gillespie '00 and punter Andy Gilburg '01 were named to the third team in the fall of 1999.

A 2005 All-Centennial Conference first team selection, he registered 88 tackles (43 solo, 45 assist), with four sacks for 22 yards, three interceptions for 31 yards, four pass breakups, a fumble forced and a fumble recovery in 11 games as he led the team to the 2005 Eastern College Athletic Conference Southeast Bowl.

The September 25, November 6 and 13 Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week, he ranked third in tackles for loss in the CC with 12.5 (10 solo, five assist) for 42 yards, an average of 1.25 per game.

In Centennial Conference games, he finished with 51 tackles, five tackles-for-loss of 16 yards, 2.5 sacks for 15 yards, three interceptions for 31 yards, three pass breakups and a fumble forced as the Diplomats went 4-2 to finish second in the final standings.

The 2004 Al Brooks Defensive Player of the Year, Stepien compiled 54 tackles (27 solo, 27 assisted), including nine tackles-for-loss of 31 yards and 0.5 sacks for nine yards, with two passes defended, one fumble recovery and a forced fumble as a junior as he led the Diplomats to the 2004 Centennial Conference championship and the ECAC Southwest Bowl title.

One of 11 Division I-AA, II, III and NAIA football players named to the 2005 American Football Coaches Association's (AFCA) Good Works Team for outstanding performance on the field and in community service activities, Stepien concludes his career with 160 tackles (84 solo, 76 assist), 24 tackles-for-loss of 77 yards, five sacks-for-31 yards, three interceptions for 31 yards, eight passes defended, two fumbles forced and two fumbles as he led the team to a 21-21 record.

A total of 75 players were chosen for the Football Gazette All-South Region team from the 63 schools that sponsor football in the South Region. The All-South first and second team selections will now be on a national ballot to choose the 2005 Football Gazette All-America Team

This year marks the 14th straight year that Don Hansen has selected an All-South Region team.

The Football Gazette website is at http://www.donhansen.com.

F&M Goalie Robyn Jones Featured in Lancaster Sunday News

LANCASTER, PA - Franklin & Marshall College soccer coach Steve O’Day had an opening for a goalkeeper this offseason.That it’s been filled in spectacular fashion is not because of O’Day’s recruiting brilliance. His program and school were recruited by the new goalie, not the other way around.

Robyn Jones spent the last two years as a starting keeper on half-scholarship at Division I Rutgers.

In 2003, as a freshman, Jones helped the Scarlet Knights reach the second round of the NCAA tournament, compiling an 0.92 goals-against average.

Last season the team wasn’t quite as good but Jones was better, with an 0.82 goals-against and shutouts of national power Santa Clara and eventual NCAA champion Notre Dame, the only game all year in which the Irish failed to score.

“She really is a national-class goalkeeper,’’ O’Day said.

Now she’s at F&M, where she is, uh, not on scholarship. No athletes are at Division III schools.

“I was on half-scholarship there, and here, I had to take out a loan,’’ Jones said Wednesday.

She said that when the folks at Rutgers found out she was thinking about leaving, they offered more scholarship money.

So you’re thinking: Is this kid nuts?

“A lot of people have wondered that,’’ Jones admitted. “Money really wasn’t an issue for me.’’

It was for mom and dad, of course. They were foremost among those questioning their daughter’s sanity when she decided to transfer here.

“They’re a lot more on board now that they’ve seen the school, where I’m living here and everything,’’ Jones said.

Jones attended a small private high school in New Jersey, the Pennington School. Rutgers’ student body is about 90 times the size of Pennington’s and 20 times the size of F&Ms.

Although she spent two years at Rutgers’ sprawling campus and the soccer experience was fine, Jones never managed to feel at home there.

“In high school, everybody cared about you as a person,’’ Jones said. “At Rutgers, professors would say, ‘Don’t ask if I remember you, because I won’t.’ “

Jones chose F&M because she has some personal connections to the school. She e-mailed O’Day last spring, and sort of walked him through the steps required to make the transfer happen within NCAA rules. O’Day couldn’t communicate with Jones without receiving approval from Rutgers’ athletic department, for example.

“I was impressed with how methodical and professional she was about the whole thing,’’ O’Day said. “It was like a quick tutorial for me.’’

A junior, Jones is already experienced at the highest level of soccer she’ll see in college. Rather than the awful break this could have been for the two freshman keepers O’Day did recruit — Erin Roy and Miriam Marcus — it’s turned out to be a giant positive.

Jones was of course the starter when F&M’s season opened Friday, but O’Day said that, “I don’t see her playing every minute of every game.’’

Jones has also been a leader, which matters a lot because no matter how good a freshman could be, she couldn’t replace the intangible contributions of last year’s goalie, Melissa Ruff, a four-year starter and team captain.

“An instant leader,’’ O’Day said of Jones. “She’s totally embraced that role with the new players, and they [Roy and Marcus] have raised their level as a result.’’

A stocky, powerfully-built kid, Jones is not a goalkeeper from Central Casting. She is a pure athlete, though. She was a four-year starter in goal for high school soccer teams that reached the state final four times, winning it twice.

She also played basketball and softball at Pennington, and did winter track her senior year, specializing in that classic combination of sprints and … shot put.

Jones has been bugging O’Day about leaving the net once in a while and playing in the field. She’d like to play softball at F&M this spring.

Not a couch potato.

“What sets her apart is her athleticism,’’ O’Day said. “I’m convinced she could excel at any sport.’’

Still, from big-time D-1 on scholarship to D-3 in the middle of a successful college career? Imagine, for example, a Penn State football player starting as a freshman and sophomore, and then transferring to F&M because he felt like a number in Happy Valley.

“This came out of nowhere,’’ O’Day admitted. “It might be a little more common in women’s soccer than in big-time football, but not much.’’

One wonders if it doesn’t have something to do with the difference between men and women, men seeing a team as a means to an end and women seeing it as a family.

“No question, there are differences between male and female athletes,’’ O’Day said. “That family atmosphere is something we very much try to cultivate.’’

“Actually, the team at Rutgers was very close,’’ Jones said, “but I didn’t have as much of a voice as I will probably have here.’’

On the other hand, she added that, “A Penn State football player can think about the NFL. Women don’t have that opportunity to play professionally.’’

Jones still wants to play professionally some day, perhaps before or during a career as a counselor and coach, if pro soccer is then an option for women. It isn’t now, at least in America, with the folding of the Women’s United Soccer Association two years ago.

For now, though, there is a new and happy family.

“I felt really welcome here right away,’’ Jones said. “I knew right away this setting was better for me as a person.

“As far as how good the soccer can be, that really depends on how much you put into it.’’

2005 Football Season Preview Now Online

The 2005 F&M football season preview is now available online at http://server1.fandm.edu/departments/athletics/football/stories/05D4026823.html

F&M Announces 2005 Athletics Hall of Fame Class

The Franklin & Marshall College Department of Athletics & Recreation has announced the 2005 Athletics Hall of Fame inductees.

The class of 2005 consists of Jerome Maiatico ’00 (men’s basketball), Lee Belknap Lionetti ’91 (women’s squash), Tanya Blakeman Ikeda ’84 (women’s swimming) and Lt. Col. Louis Martucci ’79 (track & field).

The inductees will be honored at a dinner event on September 30 beginning at 6:30 p.m. and during a halftime ceremony at the Franklin & Marshall College versus Muhlenberg homecoming football game on October 1.

Go to http://server1.fandm.edu/departments/athletics/releases/05CE579DB6.html for more information on the inductees and the Hall of Fame.

Centennial Conference Fall Preseason Polls

Follow all of the action as the Centennial Conference releases the fall sports preseason polls at www.centennial.org/polls/fall05.html