MOVING FORWARDE: A Column by Athletic Director Warde Manuel

"SEASONS OF CHANGE"

When you live in Western New York you become very familiar with the changing seasons. In fact, sometimes, as the old Western New York adage goes, you can have all four seasons in 24 hours.

Like the weather, athletic seasons turn just as rapidly. We wait all summer for our fall sports to get underway, and before we know it, it's time to think about Holiday shopping, while wondering, "where did the fall go?"

While it's fresh in my mind, I thought I'd contemplate the changing seasons on both fronts. Our fall sports had many nice accomplishments, but as a whole, did not achieve all of our goals. At Buffalo, those goals will always include winning Mid-American Conference Championships and sending athletes to NCAA Championships.

That doesn't mean that there wasn't progress made. Our men's soccer team had another memorable season and had more players earn All-MAC honors than at any point in our nine-year association with the league.

Our volleyball team won more matches (14) than at any time in our MAC history and had several impressive early-season victories, including a sweep of in-state rival Syracuse.

Our women's soccer and football teams - both extremely young - showed flashes of brilliance, while going through the inevitable growing pains that come with youth and challenging schedules.

Regardless of the sport, the roadmap for success does not change. For each of these sports that wrapped up in the fall, the recruiting season is in full swing and the ingredients for success remain the same for all Buffalo sports: recruiting quality student-athletes that can and will compete in both the academic and athletic settings.

The other major stride being taken right now is the work of our strength and conditioning unit. With the Robert and Carol Morris Sports Performance Center scheduled to come on-line in January, our strength and conditioning space will double and our athletes will be expected to make full use of the state-of-the-art equipment at their disposal.

While the fall teams continue to recruit, our winter teams are already well underway in their seasons, and so far the results have been promising. For our winter sports, the changing of the calendar can mean only one thing: the beginning of the always competitive Mid-American Conference portion of their schedules. For our winter sports, there are always three seasons: preseason, conference season and post-season. While preseason usually involves some fun travel and interesting games (like the tremendous men's basketball contest against Pittsburgh), its conference play that will likely define your success. I look forward to seeing our teams grow and be tested in the coming months.

Yes, it's true the seasons change quickly around here. Then again, how much fun would it be if it were just one season all the time!

Happy Holidays from all of us in UB Athletics.

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