Alumni Corner
Sept. 2, 2008
Welcome to the Alumni Corner! This "blog" serves to pass along news and items of interest regarding Bucknell Athletics alumni. It will be updated year-round as news comes to the attention of the Bucknell Office of Athletic Communications. Submissions are welcome. Please use the "Feedback" link at the bottom of the page to contribute. October 20, 2008 How about the start for John Griffin '08 in his first foray into professional basketball? Playing for Proveo Merlins Crailsheim in the German B Division, Griffin has scored 28, 29 and 36 points in his first three games of the season. His 31.0 ppg average leads the league. Obviously John has the green light to shoot the basketball with his new team. He has made 16 of 39 3-point tries so far, and he's 27 of 29 from the free-throw line. In his 36-point explosion against Landshut, Griff went 11-for-26 from the field (6-13 3FG), 8-for-8 from the line and also dished four assists. Click HERE to see an extensive package of video highlights, including a couple of John's 3-pointers and a terrific pass from John to a teammate on a fast break. Part of the package includes an interview with the team's general manager on the addition of Griffin and fellow American Sean Brooks to the team. Warning, the video is all in German, so if anyone can translate, please write us! October 1, 2008 Here's a nice "catching up with" piece on Len Bucher '79 in the York Daily Record. Len lettered twice in football and three times in baseball at Bucknell. He led the baseball team in hitting in both 1978 (.357) and 1979 (.369) as the team's starting catcher. Bucher graduated with a share of the Bucknell career doubles record (15), and his .333 career batting average ranked seventh in program history at the time.
September 18, 2008 Another alumni tip from Sid Jamieson. This time Sid passes along news on Jim Kirkley '73, who is the commissioner of the North Carolina High School Lacrosse Association and the head coach at Riverside High School in Durham. Jim and others are pushing for lacrosse to become an officially sanctioned championship sport in North Carolina, and the N.C. High School Athletic Association will vote on the proposal in December. Jim is an associate professor of religion and ethics at Shaw University. He has coached at Riverside since 1993 and he co-directs the Eye on the Goal lax camp in Virginia. At Bucknell, Jim was a defenseman who earned Second Team All-Middle Atlantic Conference honors his senior year.
September 15, 2008 Congratulations to former Bucknell baseball star Jason Buursma '08, who helped the Batavia Muckdogs win the New-York-Penn League championship over the weekend. Batavia swept the best-of-three series from Jamestown, winning 4-3 on Friday and 9-3 on Sunday. It was the first NYP title for the 51-year-old franchise. Buursma picked up the save in the Game 1 victory, and he also had a save against Lowell in the semifinal playoff series. For the season Buursma finished with a 1-3 record with three saves and a 2.35 earned-run average. In 23 innings he struck out 18 and walked only nine.
September 8, 2008 Former Bison standout golfer Charlie Waddell '07 has been playing professional golf on the Hooters Tour and some other mini-tours since graduating from Bucknell. His top finish on the Hooters Tour this season was a T-45th at The Orion Group Golf Classic in May. The highlight of his year has been qualifying for the Bank of America Open on the Nationwide Tour, which is just one level below the PGA Tour. The tournament was held at the end of May near his hometown of Chicago at The Glen Club. Charlie shot 76-73 and missed the cut, which was at 1-under. Still, that must have been a thrill for Charlie to compete against (and beat) a number of veteran PGA Tour pros back in his hometown. To follow Charlie's progress, visit his very own new Web site.
September 1, 2008 Former Bison standout defensive end Sean Conover '06 has signed with the Atlanta Falcons and will be a member of the team's practice squad. Sean, a Second Team All-American and First Team All-Patriot League selection in 2004, initially signed with the Tennessee Titans in May of 2006 and spent the last two seasons with the Titans. He played in the final six games of the 2006 season and in five games in 2007, but over the weekend Sean was waived by the Titans as they had to cut down to their 53-man roster limit for the regular season. A free agent for less than 48 hours, Sean was added to the Falcons practice squad on Monday. Now 6'5", 275 pounds, Sean began the 2006 season on the Titans practice squad, but was activated in November of that season.
August 27, 2008 Mathew Wilson '08, the hero of the Bucknell baseball team's NCAA Tournament upset of Florida State, finished the season with the Rockford RiverHawks of the independent Frontier League. Mat made four appearances for the RiverHawks, including three starts, and went 1-2 with a 4.91 ERA. He struck out 18 batters in 22 innings and held opponents to a .250 batting average. Earlier in the summer, Mat pitched for Team Canada (he's a Toronto native) against powerful Team USA on at the World University Baseball Championships in the Czech Republic. He took a shutout into the eighth inning before an error opened the door for three unearned runs. Mat got a no-decision as the U.S. team went on to win 4-3 in 11 innings. Of course, Mat is best known for his epic, complete-game 7-0 shutout of Florida State, the nation's No. 1 hitting team, back in May.
August 25, 2008 Andrew Copelan '03 has carved out quite an impessive coaching resume since his days as an All-Patriot League midfielder for the Bison men's lacrosse team. A four-year starter on four Bison league championship teams, Andrew went on to Marist as a graduate assistant coach in 2004, but he was quickly named interim head coach before his first season in Poughkeepsie. As the youngest head coach in the country, he led the Red Foxes to the MAAC regular-season title with a perfect 8-0 conference record, and a year later he guided them to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Prior to the 2006 season, he joined Dave Cottle's staff at Maryland, and he was named the Terps' offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator prior to the 2007 season. Now, Andrew is back in the head coaching ranks at Fairfield, where he becomes the third head coach in Stags history. August 24, 2008 Former Bison hoops star Kevin Bettencourt '06 is joining the coaching ranks full time. He has been named an assistant coach at Division II power Bentley under longtime coach Jay Lawson. Bentley has gone 66-2 over the past two seasons, has won 54 straight regular-season games, and has a string of four straight Northeast-10 regular-season titles. Kevin, who was a part-time assistant at Salem State last year, co-captained Bucknell's 2005 and 2006 teams that captured Patriot League championships and went on to post first-round wins over Kansas and Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament. With 1,577 career points, Kevin ranks fourth on Bucknell's all-time scoring list, and he is the program's No. 1 3-point shooter with 294.
August 19, 2008 Former Bison quarterback Travis Kopp '95 is now the girl's golf coach at Delone Catholic High School in McSherrytown, Pa. Travis coached Delone to its fourth YAIAA Western Division championship in as many years last season, and The Hanover Evening Sun thinks the team can do it again this year. "Football was my passion at the time. Now it's golf. That tends to be the case as you get older," Travis said in Sam Latter's piece.
August 18, 2008 Sid Jamieson has passed along news that former Bucknell men's lacrosse player Dan Nourse '72 has been named head coach of the highly regarded men's club team at Cal-Berkeley. Dan was a team captain and Honorable Mention All-Middle Atlantic Conference selection at Bucknell in 1972. As a midfielder he led the team in scoring as both a junior and senior with 24 and 19 goals, respectively. Dan has remained active in the sport of lacrosse and now has more than 25 years of coaching experience at the junior and collegiate levels. He had been the offensive coordinator and interim head coach at Cal before recently being named the full-time head coach. August 18, 2008 J.R. Holden's remarkable Olympic journey has come to an end. Russia's 91-78 loss to Argentina left it with a 1-4 record in pool play and out of the medal round. Nonetheless, J.R. performed very well in his Olympic debut. He started at point guard in all five games and averaged 38.6 minutes, 17.6 points and 4.8 assists per game. In his Olympic debut, he had 19 points in Russia's victory over Iran, then he added five points against Croatia, 25 against Lithuania, 20 against Australia and 19 against Argentina. Among all Olympians in pool play, J.R. was the fifth-leading scorer, and he also ranked No. 1 in minutes played and tied for third in assists.
Alumni in the Pros:
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