Best and Worst of 2006
2006 has come to an end and what an interesting year it has been. We have had 2 coaching searches in which went two totally different ways. We had the basketball search that went all across the country with all different names being leaked before settling on NC State’s own Sidney Lowe. Then we had the football search in which everything was kept quiet until we hear, in a very short time frame compared to the basketball search, that Tom O’Brien of Boston College is going to be named our coach.
The past year has been full of all kinds of different things! Here is my list of the best and worst of 2006.
Let’s go ahead and get some of the disappointments out of the way…
Most Disappointing Team: Obviously the 2006 Football team that finished at 3-9.(I wasn’t expecting much out of the volleyball team with their track record and the new coach even though they didn’t seem to be much better than the football team)
Most Disappointing Loss: Not very obvious on this one. Could go back to last year’s basketball team and the Seton Hall loss, or even the unc-ch losses by fairly large margins. Then there is the Akron loss, the Southern Miss. blowout, and the ECU loss from our football team.
Best Team: I’m going to go with the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams as both won ACC titles this season. Way to go runners!
Best Individual Performer: Cullen Jones from the Men’s Swim team who also is now training for the 2008 Olympics in Bejing!
Best Hire: Tough one here. There are 4 hires that stick out in my mind. Tom O’Brien, Sidney Lowe, Charita Stubbs (volleyball head coach), and Tom Holliday (Baseball, Associate Head Coach. I know he isn’t a major hire or even a head coach, but for him to leave Texas to come here to NCSU 2 years after they won the CWS. Check out his bio here. I still think he should be considered) This is a tough one since only 1 has completed a season and we haven’t seen two even in action yet, so from what I’ve seen, I’m going with Sidney Lowe. I’ve been impressed with the way he has turned the attitudes around for this team. This year’s team seems to be having more fun and they are fun to watch. Lowe has come in with ZERO college coaching years, but has been able to pull together a top 20 recruiting class his first time out! Great Job Coach Lowe!
Best Win: Again a tough decision. Two football games stand out in my mind, the Boston College game, and the FSU game. Beating FSU has become pretty regular with Amato, it was one of the few teams, if not the only, in our Division he had a winning record against. The Boston College win was impressive because of the way we won. The long touchdown pass and the great catch by Dunlap. But my best win of the 2006 year is going to come from the Diamond and it’s going to be a tie. The first is the win in the ACC tournament against unc-ch and their ace Andrew Miller and the second is the win over Texas in the NCAA tournament. Great Job baseball team, I look forward to this season.
Best Photo: Ok, and now for a personal favorite, the picture of the year. Not only is it a great picture, but check out that cool kid right over Dunlap’s helmet! (that’s me, and I don’t think I’ve jumped that high since I quite playing soccer)
