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If you're a student, alumnus or even a fish that someday will be tossed on the ice after a goal at a Wildcats hockey game, you have to be excited about what's happening with University of New Hampshire athletics. The football team is good again. When was the last time we could say that? The answer is 1990 and 1991, when current quarterback Ricky Santos was 6/7 years old. Today the Wildcats are an offensive powerhouse with a 6-1 record and fans are once again flocking to the games at Cowell Stadium. Saturday's effort was yet another stellar performance by Santos and Co., as the Wildcats handed Northeastern a 52-21 beating. Imagine if they had a shiny new stadium to accommodate the happy madness? Football isn't the only program thriving in Wildcatville. The men's hockey team played powerhouse North Dakota tight over the weekend, showing signs it likely will stay its usual course and have another good season. Ditto for the women's skaters, who crushed Niagara, 8-2, on Saturday night. Oh, and UNH women's hockey also was ranked fifth in the nation as of Sunday. Remember when Dick Umile's boys were the only show in town? Gone are the days. Yes, ask director of athletics Marty Scarano and he'll say what he's been saying all along: This is what is supposed to be happening. It's part of the plan. "We've built slowly because of our limited resources," Scarano said. "But we want to have the best mid-major athletic department in the Northeast." Scarano knows there were whispers when head football coach Sean McDonnell didn't produce a consistent, winning program until last year. But he knew McDonnell eventually would come through. Eventually is now, and Scarano is unconditional in his support of McDonnell. And the winning bug hasn't just infected the football and hockey locker rooms in Durham. In case you haven't noticed, the men's soccer team is coming into its own as a legitimate America East title contender. After playing Boston University to a 0-0 tie on a miserable Saturday, the Wildcats stood at 8-4-3 overall, and continue to flaunt one of the premier defenses in the conference. If that doesn't mean anything to you, allow head men's soccer coach Rob Thompson to explain it. "Our soccer conference is unbelievable," he said. "I feel that men's soccer is the best sport America East has." Thompson's enthusiasm comes despite the fact that his team doesn't have as many scholarships as the rest of the conference. "We have 30 to 35 percent of everybody else," he said. "We're significantly underfunded as far as scholarships go. But we don't use that as an excuse. Talentwise we're just like everybody else." "They have two scholarships," Scarano said. "They just work their butts off. And Rob just works a little bit harder and he's a little grittier than most." That's just how it is at UNH these days. The women's soccer team is playing .500 ball and with a strong finish could still make some noise in the postseason. The volleyball team has struggled, but the super-young team is starting to put some wins together. In fact, they had won three in a row after Sunday's 3-1 victory over Maryland-Baltimore County. As foliage season comes and goes, we're already beginning to think basketball. And while the women's team is usually competitive - you'd better sit down for this one - the men's team isn't far from being the same. Long considered basketball Siberia and the brunt of sarcastic comments by media outlets from local papers to ESPN, the Wildcat brass finally hired a legitimate Division I coach in Bill Herrion. That isn't meant to be a dig at former head coach Phil Rowe, it's just that his style was better suited for small college basketball. There's no shame in that, as many Division I coaches would be horrible at the small-college level. Imagine Bobby Knight working today at a small, private school. Yikes. Once your team is losing every year, as UNH men's hoop has been doing for too long now, it's tough to attract quality recruits. "We feel we are at a crossroads with the men's basketball program," Scarano said. "Let's face it, it's been 100 years of mediocre basketball." But with Herrion comes new hope. Mediocrity isn't reflected anywhere on his resume or in his coaching style. And new hope is all the rage in the world of UNH athletics right now. The UNH ticket gods are so confident in this feeling they're practically giving away season tickets for basketball. The school is offering a package right now in which fans can purchase a seat for every men's and women's basketball home game for $35 total. That's like a buck a game. Granted, UNH hoops hasn't exactly been a drawing card, but the evolving landscape of the school's athletic department has to make you think this might be a bargain. "When my marketing staff came to me with this, I didn't think it was a good idea," Scarano said. "My first thought was ‘We're going to lose our shirts on this'. But for the long term we want people to have an opportunity to get in on this now. Win or lose, you're going to see kids diving all over the floor and putting on a good show." That may sound like any athletic director giving his best public-relations pitch - hey, that's part of the job - but it's difficult not to believe Scarano. You can hear it in his voice. The man is genuinely excited about what's happening to State U sports, and he knows what he's doing. The Wildcats are no longer an automatic win for any team in any sport. Don't expect that to change anytime soon, either. This is how it is supposed to be. Patriots safety Rodney Harrison may be out for the season, but he's still making an appearance at the Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem Tuesday night. Harrison will be signing autographs and greeting fans from 6 to 8 p.m., courtesy of New England Picture and Nashua Sports Collectibles. Mike Sullivan is a Herald columnist. He can be reached at mikesullivan@seacoastonline.com . Seacoast Online is owned and operated by Seacoast Media Group. This is cache, read story here
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