COURTESY QUINNIPIAC COLLEGE Braves' sports have improved by leaps and bounds.

Quinnipiac b-ball making an impact on DI scene

While U.S. News and World Report may consider Yale to be the top school around New Haven, Quinnipiac College is trying hard to challenge that perception. Once a Division II school, the Braves have made the leap to Division I smoothly, finishing at the top of the standings in a number of sports, including a conference championship for the men's hockey squad last season. When Yale's basketball squad showed up for an early season game with the Braves, they became another victim of the upstart program, falling 87-69. "We've really had a lot of growth in a little time," Quinnipiac basketball coach Joe DeSantis said. "It really says a lot about how hard all our players have been working."

In October 1996, Quinn-ipiac made the decision to jump from Division II to Division I, not based on the school's athletics program, but rather on its reputation and status as an educational institution. "The change really was an institutional decision," Jack McDonald, Quinnipiac's director of athletics and recreation, explained. "As a school, we've grown quite a bit from a regional school to one with more of a national reputation. The athletic department has always tried to keep up with the academics."

Within three years of the change, the school's athletics are stronger than ever. The men's basketball team jumped out to a 11-4 start this season before dropping three out of their last four games to tough regional foes such as Central Connecticut College. In addition to an impressive 6-3 record within the Northeast Conference, the Braves have taken down such Ivy League schools as Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale, with an average margin of victory of over 10 points. "The transition and the strengths we've shown in games we've played have really been remarkable," McDonald said. The Bulldogs were also impressed with what they saw. "We've played with them informally," Jason Williams, PC '00, said. "We knew they could really play and they got they best of us that night."

The Quinnipiac hockey team shattered several team records last year, including the record for single-season wins en route to a 26-victory MAAC championship. This season, the squad has already racked up an impressive 19-4-2 record. The baseball team hopes to put together their fourth 20-win campaign in a row in a season that includes a match-up with the Elis.

One reason for the Braves' continued success at the higher level has been their increased ability to recruit. "Good student athletes want to compete against the best," McDonald said. "The fact that we can compete with schools such as Yale and Fairfield has brought even better student-athletes to our school."

Both McDonald and DeSantos expressed hopes that more of a rivalry can be developed. Yale men's basketball coach James Jones agreed. "As of now, there hasn't been too much fan support for our games against them," he said. "There really isn't any history. But I do hope people come out to see us play them in the future and that it develops into more of a local rivalry."

But Jones wasn't too impressed with the Braves. "Some of the lower-level DI teams aren't too difficult to defeat," Jones said.

Back to Sports...