Chris Lamica’s eyes noticeably welled up after he was presented with his senior photograph this weekend before the Badgers took on the Elms College Blazers. The fact finally hit home that “These could be the last truly competitive games I ever play in,” said the 5’10” point guard from Averill Park, NY. “It really hit me after the game … that I would never put on that home uniform again,” said Charlie Viana, the schools 3rd all-time leading scorer.

This is life for DIII basketball players. As their eligibility runs out, seniors have no NBA draft to look forward to, no shoe deals in place, and no agent with which to sign. “These players don’t get paid to play,” emphasized Athletic Director Barbara Lougee after the game. DIII schools cannot offer athletic scholarships. With no financial incentives to look forward to, the longest season of any college sport (bridging large portions of both fall and spring semesters), hours of practice time, sacrificed holidays and school breaks, and off-season workouts that last from the day after the last game until the first day of tryouts in October, why play? Ask any one of JSC’s senior student-athletes and they will give you the cliché and completely appropriate answer.

“We are trying to be flexible and team players,” says SHAPE Facility Coordinator and Intramurals Director Wendy Brothers, regarding changes in the building to accommodate the Stearns renovations project.

“There is going to be a lot of traffic in and out of the building.”

As the Stearns project gets underway, SHAPE is beginning to absorb some of the resulting dislocations, with the prospect of more to come.

It was over before it even started. They were untouchable, and more importantly, they were unbeatable. Not since 1972, when the Miami Dolphins went 17-0, has an NFL team done the unthinkable: go the entire season undefeated.

The New England Patriots ran the regular season with a perfect mark of 16-0 (in 1972 there were only 14 regular season games). After defeating the New York Giants 38-35 in the regular season finale, it seemed like anyone and everyone who talked, followed, or lived football were giving the Patriots the Lombardi Trophy.