Special events/announcements, spring 2020
COVID-19 forces cancellation of NCAA winter championships, spring seasons
Due to the evolving COVID-19 outbreak, Binghamton suspended its spring sports seasons effective March 12, in accordance with America East policy. The America East made its announcement shortly after the NCAA canceled all winter and spring championships.
“Effective immediately, all competition and practices for all teams and individual student-athletes at America East Conference institutions have been canceled for the rest of this academic year, including any spring sport events that occur beyond the academic year,” the release stated. “This is a proactive decision to protect the health, safety and well-being of everyone.”
“The welfare of our student-athletes, staff and fans remains our top priority,” Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott added.
Binghamton’s in-season sports affected by the announcement are baseball and softball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field and golf. In addition, all athletic-related activity have been suspended for Binghamton’s other teams who are in their non-championship seasons (fall teams) or who have completed their winter seasons.
Record $60 million gift to fund new baseball stadium complex
Binghamton University on Feb. 10 announced its largest gift ever — $60 million committed to a new Baseball Stadium Complex.
The University’s sports facilities in Vestal, N.Y., will be transformed with a $60 million anonymous gift that will create a new Baseball Stadium Complex. From admissions to athletics, this gift will have a positive impact across the entire campus.
“This gift will help put Binghamton University into the upper echelons of Division I schools,” said Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger. “This unprecedented gift perfectly matches donor passion and the strategic needs for the campus, and it is my hope that it will inspire others to give back to the area of campus that they are most passionate about. This is an exciting time for Binghamton University, and we are extraordinarily grateful for the generosity of our anonymous donor family.”
Binghamton continues to celebrate 50 years of women’s athletics
Binghamton Athletics is celebrating 50 years of women’s athletics at the University during the 2019-20 year. Look for a series of features, highlights, interviews and memories throughout the year at bubearcats.com and on the athletics social media channels. Beginning with the 1969-70 women’s swimming and diving team, more than 1,500 female student-athletes have competed as Colonials and Bearcats.
Former baseball standouts have 2020 pro seasons delayed by COVID-19
Former Binghamton baseball teammates Justin Yurchak and Ben Anderson were 13 miles apart in Arizona on March 12 when the news hit. Major League Baseball was suspending its Spring Training amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Yurchak and his fellow Los Angeles Dodgers organization began to disperse from Glendale, as did Anderson and his teammates within the Texas Rangers’ organization up the road in Surprise, Ariz.
The MLB seasons were scheduled to start on March 26 with the minor leagues soon thereafter, but one day after the NBA halted its season, Commissioner Rob Manfred announced he was canceling the rest of Spring Training and delaying the start of the regular season “at least two weeks.”
For 6-foot-1 first baseman Yurchak and 6-foot-4 right-handed pitcher Anderson, the announcement sent each back to the Albany area, where their offline prep has been made much more difficult due to the mandated closure of most area gyms and training centers.
“This whole situation everyone is in right now is quite unusual,” Yurchak says. “It’s a waiting game for the minor leaguers. For the most part we are as in the dark as all the fans. We are unsure of when our report day will be back to Arizona. Right now I’m trying to train as I did in the off season, but it’s a challenge. I’ve been doing some of my training workouts in my backyard.”
“It all happened pretty suddenly,” Anderson adds. “Once the news came out about the NBA season being cancelled we had a feeling our season was in jeopardy as well. After the news came out that our season was suspended, the next few days were hectic and the Rangers were trying to get everything in order to get people home and make sure we were safe. We haven’t been told much about when to return, mainly because no one really knows what the timeline is. “
Former basketball captain comes home from overseas professional league
Bobby Ahearn played four years at Binghamton (2014-18) before graduating in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He played 121 games, the second-most of any Binghamton University player in the program’s Division I era. Ahearn accumulated 721 career points and 454 rebounds (4th all-time). As a junior, hestarted 24 games and averaged 9.7 points on 54% shooting (5th in America East). He shot 80% from the free-throw line and had 12 double-digit scoring games. After graduation, Ahearn played one season for the Swords Thunder in Dublin, Ireland, while earning his master’s degree in global brand management from Griffith College. Since September, he has been in Malta playing for the Starlites Naxxar Basketball Club, averaging a double-double and helping the team to a regular season title before the league suspended its operations due to COVID-19.
Athletics hosts 15th Annual Celebrating Women’s Athletics Luncheon
Major League Baseball announcer Suzyn Waldman was the featured speaker at the 15th Annual Celebrating Women’s Athletics Luncheon on Monday afternoon at the Events Center. The luncheon, which had an event-record 810 attendees, was geared towards raising support for the Binghamton Bearcats Athletics Association (BBAA) Women’s Scholarship Fund.
Waldman is considered a female pioneer in the field of sports broadcasting. Since the 2005 Major League Baseball season, she has been the color commentator for the New York Yankees, working with John Sterling on radio broadcasts, first for WCBS-AM and currently for WFAN in New York City. She is the first woman ever to provide color commentary in the radio booth for a Major League Team.
Waldman was inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2016. In addition, she was part of the 2006 exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame exhibit entitled “Women in Baseball.”
Adler hired for collaborative engineering position with ITS
Binghamton athletics has selected Eric Adler to spearhead its broadcast and emerging technology support, the department announced Wednesday. Adler has more than a decade of broadcast technology experience and will serve as the Event Support and Integration Engineer.
A native of Waldwick, N.J., Adler comes to the University directly from nearby WSKG Public Television, where he was the director of engineering/IT and broadcast operations. In his 11+ years at WSKG, he designed and maintained the evolution of the station’s radio and digital television broadcast equipment and managed the organization’s computer systems. In the last two years, he also provided strategic direction and leadership.
“We are excited to welcome Eric to our athletics family,” Associate Director of Athletics John Hartrick said. “His vast engineering experience along with an engaging personality and problem-solving mentality will be a perfect fit. Eric will help us enhance our growing broadcast presence and lead us into the future of video and other technologies.”