Winter Games

By Eamon Ducey

Most students have been yearning to finish their classes and begin their laid-back, fun-filled winter breaks. But a part of the student body will still be working hard.

All of our winter sports teams will be competing during the vacation. They cannot have a lackadaisical type of attitude if they want to do well.

First of all, a significant part of the men’s basketball season is played during the break. They will travel to South Carolina to play Long Island University on Thursday Dec. 29 and either Charleston University or Longwood University the next day at The Charleston Saturn Shootout.

Then they play seven conference games during the first three weeks of January before classes resume. Three of these will be home games without the usual Bronc Zoo crowd.
They will play Fairfield on Jan. 10 and five days later they have another game at the Alumni Gym against Marist. Also, in a rematch of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship game in Buffalo, the Broncs will try to prove that they are the better team against Niagara University on Jan. 20.

Among the five conference games on the road in January, two games significantly stick out. Rider will look to stop MAAC Preseason Player of the Year Keydren Clark when it faces Saint Peter’s University, Wednesday, Jan. 4. The Broncs will also play the Jaspers of Manhattan, the team picked to finish second in the conference. The Jaspers are only two seasons removed from their magical National Colligiate Athletic Association tournament run.

Hopefully, Santa will deliver some offense to the women’s basketaball team so they can start to hit their stride during the break because they play six of their conference games during the break. They will face several middle-of-the-road MAAC teams during the break, hosting Monmouth, Niagara, Loyola and Manhattan.

Wrestling, Rider’s most prestigious winter team, will be racking up plenty of mileage during the break. It will go to Southern Scuffle in North Carolina on Saturday, Dec. 28. Then in after the New Year, it will head to Bloomsburg on Saturday, Jan 7. Next will be its Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) meet when it travels to Drexel University.

If that was not enough to test these wrestlers, they will travel to Virginia and face some of the best wrestlers in the country at the Virginia Duals. Then in the following week they will return to Virginia to compete in the CAA duals. They face George Mason University, Wagner, Binghamton, Old Dominion and James Madison.

The swimmers and divers will have three meets, the most important being against Loyola on Saturday, Jan. 14, at Coppola Pool. Their season has been going well so far, and they will look to continue their momentum into the spring semester.

So if you are starting to miss the Rider sports experience during your winter break, try to make it back to campus and support the teams.