Thank You, Bulls

I didn’t think I had anything to say that others wouldn’t, but I just want to say thank you. I’ve tried in my time at Bull Run to cover all of UB’s teams, both because I like talking about sports, and because I’m just as honored by the soccer players and rowers and everyone that comes to our community to represent us with pride as I am those who get more mainstream attention.

So thank you, Joe Kuta, Alec Fisher, Daniel Cramarossa, Ryan Pereira, Fox Slotemaker, David Enstrom, Russell Cicerone, Hunter Walsh, Braden Culver, Rikard Lindqvist, Austin Place, Michael Juszczak, Steven Stryker, Nick Forrester, Tommy Fogarty-Cameron, Felipe Vieira, Ryan Aspenleiter, Scott Doney, Ethan Witkowski, Cameron Hogg, Nick Giordano, and Braden Scales.

Thank you Stu, Cody, Matt Brown, Davie Carmichael, and anyone I’ve forgotten. Thanks for being pure class, from beginning to end.

Thank you to the Men’s Soccer alumni, whether you were part of the group that made the MAC final in 2007 or not, whether you played four years or one, or only saw time in spring action. Thanks to Bobby Shuttleworth for paving the way, and to Russ for representing us at FC Buffalo, the highest levels of US Amateur Soccer, and now in the pros.

Thank you, Greg Dunham, Eddie Edwards III, Alec Tuohy, Brian Dudek, Ben Haefner, Brent Cleland, Tom Taplin, Chris Kwitzer, Kyle Norman, Andrew White, Alex Thrower, Ben Vey, Wyatt Myers, Shawn Dubin, Bo Nesci-Cruz, Mike O'Connor, Jeff Palczewski, Garett Simmons, Sean Dunne, Matt Lowery, Tyler Utz, Connor Regan, Phillip Tomasulo, Charlie Sobieraski, Brian Wasilewski, Vinny Mallaro, Caleb Kish, Kyle Brennan, Don Kilian, Logan Harasta, Chris Miranda, and Andrew Taft.

Thank you, Coach Torgalski and Steve Ziroli, and anyone I’ve forgotten.

Thank you to the alumni, whether you were part of the group who overcame the most egregious lack of funding support in the department to win 59 games in 2013 and 2014, part of the group in 2000 that brought Baseball back, or a JUCO guy who we could only cheer for for two years. Thanks to Jason Kanzler, Nick Sinay, Mike Burke, and others who ripped up the MAC before going pro.

Thank you, Charles Barry, Troy Birdsall, Hudson Carroll, Garrett Clarke, Andrew Cole-Goins, Itai De La Vega, Aaron Durrence, Luther Gordon, Ryan Gordon, Nick Hooper, Scott Huang, Eric Jensen, Martin Leigh, Callum Liddiard, Mason Miller, Luke Otto, Joseph Puglessi, Tudor Puszet, Dan Roche, Nick Rodriguez, Kristian Santos, Zachary Towers, and Reid Zyniecki. I imagine Coach Bashor and most of his staff will stick around, but thanks to you, too. And anyone I’ve forgotten.

Thanks for the MAC Championship in 2011, when those were even rarer than they are now. Thanks for being exciting as hell even when I only know you as a series of names and numbers and never figured out how to cover you properly.

Thank you Dania Abul-Enin, Dowlette Alam El Din, Abbie Albright, Maha Benyoussef, Ellie Bortiatynski, Sarah Brill, Graceanne Brown, Stephanie Busha, Maria Chinnici, Dana Cowley, Veronica Czarnik, Isabella Goldberg, Juliana Gomez, Elisabeth Good, Eden Griger, Caeleigh Heavey, Alexa Hillis, Natalie Howk, Rylee James, Mourin Jarin, Sydney Jones, Mackenzie Junjulas, Ankita Kelkar, Paige Krohn, Danielle Kwong, Sara Lesold, Ally Mayo, Jillian Michael, Emma Napper, Victoria Nehls, Hayley Nieves, Erin O'Connell, Lauren Roth, Becca Rozeski, Maddy Saporito, Marissa Scaduto, Sam Schultheiss, Haley Sheehan, Emily Sheetz, Madeline Sheffield, Elizabeth Shilling, Anna Shugayev, Melissa Stein, Anna Sviripa, Veronica Trzeciak, Sophie Wisoff, and Hannah Zuckerberg.

Thank you to Coach Brace and Coach Bailey, and Coach Calfo before them. Thank you to the Alumni. And anyone I’ve forgotten. Thanks for those CAA and Dad Vail Championships that no one seems to remember. Thanks for being some of the best UB fans on Twitter.

There’s a talking point floating around today that if all the feelings we have today had been support in the past, we might not be here. I can’t disagree. Sometimes it’s been easier to show support and find time cover our teams here and sometimes it’s been harder. If we could have done more at Bull Run, please accept my apologies. Buffalo gets a shit rap and I am so grateful you came here to represent us. Thanks.