Published: April 13, 2008 11:21 pm            

Springcoming a success for Falcons

FAIRMONT — Mike Lopez barely had time to catch his breath.

Fairmont State's spring drills had just concluded on a beautiful spring Saturday afternoon with the annual Maroon-White Game and he had just finished addressing 15 to 20 members of his 2008 recruiting class.

And still people were lined up waiting for a moment of the young FSU head football coach's time.

“Whew,” gasp Lopez looking side to side, scratching his head and cracking a small smile. “This all went pretty well.”

The “all” Lopez was referring to was “Springcoming 2008” — his vision and plan to try to re-connect himself, his staff and players with Fairmont State's football alumni and the Fairmont community in general.

The weekend began with the first annual Fairmont State University Friends of Football Golf Classic chaired by Lopez's close friend Matt Lowther and held at the Bel Meadow Golf Club. Among the 65 participants were several former Falcon football players, including the school's all-time leading passer Jarrod Furgason and all-time leader in yardage and touchdowns Todd Anderson.

The event was won by a foursome which included former Falcon golfer John Aman, Jr. and ex-FSU men's basketball point guard Steve Petitto.

Saturday morning's events kicked off with an obstacle course challenge for FSU football alumni as well as the first annual flag football game for former Falcon players. Several alumni players were on hand, but only 16 took part in the game which was divided into teams of 2002 and below and 2003 and above. The older alumni, who had 2006 player Pat McClintic on their squad, won 6-5.

The winning red squad included: Lopez, McClintic, Mike Fortier, Ray Frazier, Todd Anderson, Jeremiah Ferrell, James Harper and Germaine Johnson.

The gold team members were Nick Washington, Nick Shreve, Shahram Shafii, John Marano, Josh Skidmore, Mark Ostrowski, Allen Jewell and Kyle Robinette.

Then came the annual Maroon-White Spring Game which was played in front of a good crowd and proved to be very entertaining with the offense emerging with a 43-33 victory.

“I've had a very enjoyable weekend,” said Anderson, who starred at FSU from 1998-2001 and now lives in Charlotte, N.C. where he is the director of sales for a health care software consulting company. “It's nice to come back and actually meet and see some of the guys you read about in the paper playing for Fairmont now. We also wanted to show them that us old guys still have the competitive juices flowing and still have the ability to play ourselves in the flag football game.

“I think what Mike is trying to do with this program and with this “Springcoming” is a great idea. He's reaching out to the alumni, bringing us back and wanting to keep us a part of what's going on here. I played in the golf tournament and had a good time and I've enjoyed myself today. They say they're going to do this the second week of April every year so guys can plan on it and make a weekend of it. That's fantastic. Like I said, it's been a lot of fun for me reliving the old days and I also get a chance to see what our team is going to look like for this fall.”

Like Anderson, Jeremiah Ferrell, a standout safety/linebacker for the Falcons from 2000-03, says he likes what Lopez is doing with the program and how he is reaching out to involve the school's alumni.

“It was really great to see everyone this weekend,” said Ferrell, who now resides in Columbus, Ohio and works as a construction administrator for a company called National Church Residents which builds low-income housing for senior citizens. “Some of these guys I haven't seen in three or four years and to have the opportunity to come back here, play some golf and play a little football was a lot of fun. I felt like I was on the team again.

“Coach Lopez is a class individual and he's going to do things the right way. When you look at the big Division I universities they do things like this all the time and now he's giving our alumni a chance to re-connect with the program and be a part of stuff going on here at Fairmont. He wants people to believe in him, support him and support the program and this weekend is a great way to start that.”

The weekend will help subsidize some of the costs of running a small college football program, but more important to Lopez is trying to re-connect with the school's family of football alumni.

“It's not all about finances but at the end of the day you do compare yourself to other teams in the league and see that they have more of this or more of that, but to me this weekend was more about re-connecting with our alumni,” said Lopez. “Guys who have blood, sweat and tears in this program and have played here under coach (Rusty) Elliott and the other coaches before me. They're the guys who when it's all said and done really have an ability to care about what's going on here with this football team and this football program.

“The golf tournament went well for us. We had 65 golfers and to be honest, that was a surprise to me. We got good support from Harrison County, Marion County and our alumni. Now we'd just like to build on that.

“The flag football game was fun and I'd love to see that grow and grow in the future and then of course we had a pretty good spring game. I'm excited about connecting with our alumni. That's vital to our success. Anything is possible if enough people care and most of the people who are really going to care about us is people who have played here and been in our shoes.”

        

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