Husson football team building schedule for 2003

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The Husson College football team has seven games already scheduled for next fall and coach Gabby Price would like to add two or three more.

Two of the seven games are home games.

Price said rival coaches have been “very receptive” during the scheduling process and he is “looking forward” to playing.

Bangor-based Husson re-instituted football last fall for the first time since the early 1940s when the school was known as the Maine School of Commerce.

The team practiced, but didn’t have any games as Price laid the foundation for the fall of 2003.

The Braves will open at Buffalo State on Sept. 6 and will travel to Kean College of Union, N.J. the following Saturday (13th).

The Braves’ home opener will be against Mt. Ida (Mass.) on Sept. 20.

There is nothing currently scheduled for Sept. 27, but the Braves will hit the road for games at Utica (N.Y.) on Oct. 4 and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (Conn.) on Oct. 11.

They don’t have anything scheduled for Oct. 18, but the Braves will play host to Wesley College (Del.) on Oct. 25 before traveling to play New Jersey City College on Nov. 1.

“We’re going to keep working on the schedule. We want to fill those two open dates,” said Price.

He said all of the teams on his schedule, except Kean, have a home-and-home arrangement with Husson.

Plymouth State (N.H.), a former NCAA Division III power in New England, is on the schedule for 2004.

Price said there was no chance of scheduling in-state schools Colby, Bowdoin and Bates because they are locked into their New England Small College Athletic Conference schedules and don’t have any non-league games.

Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, 41 miles from Bangor, has a busy New England Football Conference schedule, but did play Mt. Ida, an independent, this past fall.

“At some point, we would love to have a rivalry with Maine Maritime Academy,” said Price. “But I know they have league considerations.”

He said they are continuing their quest to get into a league and that they would like to play an entire schedule against New England Division III schools in the future.

The 53-year-old Price and his assistants have been busy on the recruiting trail. He said they have visited over 50 high schools in the state.

“We’re doing everything we can. We have 25 players with us right now and we’d like to have 60-65 in camp next summer,” said Price.

He said the high school coaches in the state have been “phenomenal” to him and his staff and that “there’s a lot of exciting things going on in high school football in the state these days.”

“There are some great coaches and very good players and some new programs,” said Price who also credited University of Maine coach Jack Cosgrove and his program’s back-to-back NCAA Division I-AA Tournament appearances with generating more interest in the sport across the state.

“Jack has been a tremendous leader for all of us,” said Price.

The Braves have an impressive new locker room facility and Price also said administrators at Husson have been “very supportive.”

He hopes to add a couple more assistant coaches and some more lockers in the future.

He currently has six assistants.

Leavitt trades Bears for Bangor

The distance between Division I and Division III college basketball wasn’t too great for former Piscataquis Community High School star Buddy Leavitt.

It was only about a 25-minute drive, in fact.

After playing for the University of Maine men’s team Saturday in a win over Binghamton, Leavitt was on the Husson College bench Tuesday night watching his new team lose to the University of Maine-Farmington.

After spending the last year and a half on the Black Bears’ bench and logging occasional game minutes, Leavitt decided to pick up stakes and move from Alfond Arena to Newman Gymnasium.

As much as he wanted to play Division I ball, Leavitt couldn’t resist the allure of playing with and against many of the top players he went head-to-head against in high school.

“Well, that and just being able to play a lot on the court. I miss being out there,” said the 6-foot-6, 235-pound Leavitt.

Husson head coach Warren Caruso, who is actively recruiting big players to fill several frontcourt holes which graduation will leave, is thrilled to have Leavitt join his team.

“He’s a real quality guy to add to our program and to go with that, he has tremendous basketball skills,” Caruso said. “You look at the real benefit of spending the last year and a half with a Division I program and competing and practicing at that level, and now coming to us I think is a big advantage to him.”

Leavitt appeared in eight games for the Black Bears, averaging 2.1 minutes and 1.4 points per game. Leavitt hit three of seven 3-pointers (42.9 percent) and grabbed three rebounds for the Bears this season.

“He got better every day in practice, I’m sure,” said Caruso. “He possesses the ability to shoot the ball well and he’s a big body out there on the court. He reminds me a lot of [Husson assistant] coach [Rick] Sinclair: A big player who can play people inside and still step out to the perimeter and shoot as well.”

The freshman swingman is expecting to play for Husson next winter. He will have three years of eligibility at Husson, where he plans to major in physical education.