The KTR event, tonight, at Tavern on George was a rousing success with Doug supporting a great event, as usual, with good food and drinks and somebody in the crowd volunteered the cash to pay for the entire bar tab, which was pretty cool. Jon Newman (
@RUJON) and Danny Breslauer (
@rutgersfandan), the hosts of the great Scarlet Spotlight podcast and key drivers of KTR were both there tonight as were other members of the executive committee and probably 150+ guests who have all signed on to support the effort. Jon made a comment that many of them worried they might only have a dozen or so people joining by now and have been floored with the response to date, with over 300 people signing up.
After a lot of mingling, where I ran into and hung out with two great RU fans for much of the evening,
@LeapinLou and Dave from TOS (CornerTavern over there, I think), the main event began with Jon making some opening remarks, followed by a Q&A with the four RU athletes who were there. Was pretty cool as all four had their own styles and personalities, but you could clearly see that they all loved being at RU and are very happy (and grateful) to be involved with the NIL program. All of them talked about what brought them to RU, what a typical day, in season, is like, what their coaching staffs are like and where the see themselves headed in the short and medium term.
Taj Harris talked about how it now feels like he's really back home after transferring in from Cuse, especially given he's a fairly new dad and both he and Noah Vedral lauded Coach Schiano's honesty and integrity and how hard he works to make them better players and men - and how good he is at reading players and knowing when they might need a bit of a kick in the pants or some love and support. Paul Mulcahy said some similar things about loving being home at RU and how Coack Pike is so good at teaching and supporting his players - and he revealed an interesting nugget: Coach is a really good juggler! Cassidy Spilis (one of the best players on the women's lacrosse team) echoed what the others said about RU being like home for them (she's from SNJ, like Taj, while Paul is from Bayonne and Noah from the Land of the Corn) and talked about how good their coaches are at being there for them as players and people.
With regard to the future, Cassidy also talked about wanting to be a teacher (and sports coach), like her mom, after her playing days are over (perhaps in the women's pro league), while Taj and Noah talked about aiming for pro football, but recognizing how hard it is to make and how they'd like to be football coaches someday. Paul was probably the only one who made it clear his only focus, for now, is getting into the pros (NBA). After the Q&A, the players did more mingling and we got to talk with Paul, briefly, and Noah, at more length. Paul loves the support of the fans at the RAC and thinks they have a chance to be really good this year, while Noah said the talent level has been boosted quite a bit, especially with regard to depth (and on the lines) - and he said his favorite spot to eat is Tacoria on Easton. Said his ankle is about 100% and smiled/grimaced when asked about that MD player twisting it 2 years ago, saying that kind of thing shouldn't happen, but it's done.
There were a few other tidbits shared, but we've all been sworn to secrecy. Anyway, thought folks might like a report on the event. Finally folks should really think about signing up and supporting our athletes, as, like it or not, NIL is here to stay and we need to work the system well in order to remain competitive. Membership starts as low as $10/month, which many should be able to afford...
https://knightsoftheraritan.com/#faqs
