Future scholarships not going to affect the way they play

By Mick Kowaleski ’14

The football team had been hearing rumblings of scholarships for years.  Earlier this spring, the Patriot League officially announced that football scholarships would be allowed with the class of 2017. The ripple that was created reverberated across the league, but the members of the Lafayette squad claim to be unshaken by the reveal.

“I first heard the idea that we were proposing scholarships around the end of my freshman year,” quarterback AndrewShoop ‘13 said. “But it wasn’t until recently that I heard the idea went through.”

Shoop, who was recently named a captain for the 2012 season as well as the projected starting QB, claims that the decision doesn’t mean much in terms of changing his perspective towards the upcoming season.

“Not too much of a reaction,” he said via email. “It’s definitely a positive for the program and future players here. I can’t be disappointed in any way, because regardless of scholarships, I decided to attend Lafayette.”

“It’ll help us out down the road,” linebacker Colton Kirkpatrick ‘15 said. “And it’ll make everything more competitive. So that makes it a good thing to me.”

“It’ll help us catch up to the other leagues,” defensive lineman Skyler Lash ‘15 said. “We’ve closed a gap.”

Shoop did add that some players might have been initially off put by the announcement.

“I think there may be a few guys who wish they had the opportunity to play for a full scholarship program,” he admitted. “However, we are all aware of the circumstance and we all know there’s nothing we can do to change it. So I think everyone has done a great job of just accepting it and going about their business.”

Some members of the team’s class of 2015, who missed the scholarships by two years, reflected these sentiments.

“I mean, the money would have been nice,” Kirkpatrick said. “But we’re on the edge [of the “scholarship divide”], so it’s not going to affect us much. The next class of freshmen, they’re the ones who are going to have to deal with the issue of higher-quality players.”

“We have our spots,” James Coscia ‘15 said. “So it doesn’t change anything. It just got more competitive.”