The Voice of the Gators, Ray Reisdorph has prepared a look back at Gator Football this year.

2009 Football Season in Review Part 1

By Ray Riesdorph

What a year for High School & College football on the Allegheny News-Talk-Sports-Network. Part 1 will focus on the Gators season. Allegheny College was coming off of back to back 5-5 finishes the past 2 seasons. The standards are much higher for head coach Mark Matlak & company. However coach Matlak was cautiously optimistic as the season began with concerns about depth, in particularly the offensive line. But what would transpire in 09’ would exceed everyone’s expectations, including coach Matlak’s.
The Gators would wind up 8-2 overall, with a record of 5-2 in the NCAC, good enough for 3rd place in the conference (their 1st 8 win campaign since 1998). Allegheny was an impressive 4-1 on the road, 4-1 at home, and 3-0 in non-conference games. The signature win coming on Halloween against arch rival Wooster, on Senior Day at Frank Fuhrer Field. The Gators trailed 21-7 at the half, but would rip off 17 unanswered in the 2nd half. The Fighting Scots game tying field goal attempt would sail wide right late in the game to seal a 24-21 win in the home finale.
There are almost too many key players to mention for the Gators, I will mention a few. As far as the offense is concerned it starts with quarterback T.J. Salopek, who completed 65% of his passes for 2,374 yards and 19 total touchdowns as a dual threat. He also cut down his turnovers in 09’ (there is speculation that he may return as a 5th year senior). The Gators also possessed one of the best wide receiver tandems in the NCAC. Senior Jake Vite and junior Terry Hartford combined for over 100 catches, 1,300 yards and 8 touchdowns. Vite would wow Vic Kress and me with highlight reel catches, seemingly on a weekly basis. Including the play of the year, a one handed grab in the back of the end zone, in a come from behind win against Carnegie Mellon.
Defense & special teams would play a huge role in the Gators success. Seniors Nick Silva and Andy Schleihauf excelled on the D-line and line-backing core. In the secondary, senior corner Kyle Wilson and junior safety Sid Facaros led a secondary that seemed to come up with a clutch turnover whenever needed. Special Teams wise, two super sophomores, kicker Ryan Zipf and punter Andrew DeJong delivered all year. Zipf won the Fred Mitchell award in October, and only missed 2 field goals in 09’. While DeJong, was ranked in the top 10 in punting in all of Division III football throughout the season. The Dutchman was also a master at pinning opposing teams inside the 20, helping the Gators control field position.
About the only disappointing thing for the Gators this year was their two lopsided losses to perennial NCAC powers Wabash and Wittenberg. Both teams made the D-III postseason (as of the writing of this blog entry, Wittenberg won big in round 1, and Wabash lost in double OT). So there is still work to be done as coach Matlak would elude too during many of his entertaining post game interviews. Coach is very clear about his intentions, to return Allegheny football to the top of the NCAC and back into the NCAA playoffs. Don’t bet against it……as the coaching staff hits the recruiting trail.
All in all this team took huge steps in 2009. It was so much fun to be a part of. All of those sea-saw battles and exciting plays. Vic Kress (who buy the way just finished his 20th season in the booth for Gator football, WOW!), and myself look forward to next year already………can’t wait.

I realize that its been a long time since my last entry, but we have been busy. Football Season is here and between coordinating the games in Crawford and Venango Counties, I have has Allegheny Gator Football to arrange, and setting up the Sunday Afternoon Double Headers of the NFL as well as Sunday and Monday Night Football. And this past week we started Hockey, Too! Meadville Bulldogs and the Pittsburgh Penguins. I have been as busy as a one legged man in a ....shin kicking contest.

But I did find time to accept the gracious invitation of the Meadville High School Music Department to co-host their annual Band Show at Bender Field tonight. Bands included were Mercer, Conneaut Valley, Ft LeBouef, Linesville, Oil City, Titusville, and the Host Band Meadville. I gotta say that each band got better than the last. Im not blowing smoke, they really were! Im glad it wasnt a competition and that I wasnt a judge. They were all very good with a wide variety of music. I must admit when I think of marching bands I tend to think of Sousa Marches. Boy was I wrong, everything from Pop, Rock, Jazz, and some great arrangments. I must admit I was blown away when they started up with Bill Chases "Get it On". I have always loved that song, and they nailed it! As for Showmanship...Meadville High School Band blew me away!  Credit needs to be addressed to the Band Boosters at each of the schools, they keep the band running and providing all the support they need.

Its sneaking up on us....High School Football is 26 days away at this writing. I am frantically getting things ready. We lost four great guys from our football announcers ranks this year.

• Jack Hyland has chosen to retire. He wants to spend more time with his family, and who can fault him. He has put in his time on the Field and in the Press Box.
• John Cannon, the Voice of the Meadville Bulldogs for the last three years has done too well in his day job. He has gotten a promotion that would prevent his committing to this season.
• Tim Shaw and his partner have decided to move on, too.

Thats why we had our New Voices of the game competition and will be announcing the new Broadcast Teams on August 21st.

Its going to be a great season, and we welcome you to join us Sept 4th for the kickoff Meadville vs Oil City at 6:40.  Then join us the next day for the Allegheny Gators vs Juniata at 142:40.

 See Ya

Hi Gang,
We just got done with the New Voice of the Game Open Auditions. We had 7 guys show up to show us what they got. They are brave guys because the test wasnt easy. I had a video clip of the last few minutes of a College game from several years ago. They didnt know they players, they didnt know the teams, they had to call what they saw on the screen. This is a ton tougher than calling a real game, but they stood up and took on the challenge. Please take the time to go the the Online voting, listen to each audition, and vote for the top three you think will make it.
Then listen to the Allegheny News Talk Sports Network on Friday August 21st at 6:05 to see who wins, and the chance to find our more about them. We will be filling a Play by Play spot for the Meadville Bulldogs and Play by Play and Color Commentator for the Franklin Knights/Oil City Oilers.

Hi Gang
Spent the last Saturday in Oil City for the big Parade. We had a great time, it was a much bigger parade than I expected. Stosh and I felt very welcome. Stosh is still nuts.
Thanks to everyone who helped us get on the air Saturday, especially "Bob" and everyone at the Arlington Hotel. They gave us the space on the second floor balcony which was a great place3 to do a parade. I really like Oil City, it has a real neighborhood feel to it. The old buildings are great and well taken care of. Ill be back.

2009-06-28

I just got home from a great evening at the Franklin LibertyFest Parade. To say it was fun is an understatment. Its one of the nicest parades I have seen in quite a while, and the crowd seemed to echo that statment. It wasnt big and flashy like the Mummers Parade, but it was what it was...an old fashioned Fourth of July Parage. All the Fire Departments were there and all the civic groups has floats. It was a great piece of Americana, the kind of thing we do well in Northwest Pennsylvania. This is why this is one of the best places to live anywhere. The number of smiling faces I saw tonight, and the sheer number of people who stopped to say hello was enought to warm an old Radio Guys heart. 

And I had the opportunity to bring back an old voice the valley knows well, Stosh! A staple a few years ago of WFRA along with Denny Woytek, who we will be attempting to lure up for other broadcasts this summer. Maybe a six of Iron City and a Hot Sausage sandwich? I was happy to introduce this old friend to Titusville, Oil City and Meadville, too.

Till Next time

KAA

2009-06-28

First off I want to apologise. The system we had to get the signal to the WFRA transmitter was bad. We knew it and wanted to fix it, bad! So we did! WFRA sounds better than it ever has! The signal is clear, the processing is top of the line, it just plain sounds good! If you haven't listened in a while, try it out. We think you will like it.
Our lineup is a good solid one with Beck, Rush, Hannity, Jim Bohannon, George Norey, and yours truly in the morning.

Our next target is WOYL. It is our top priority now. Oil City deserves nothing less than the best. Bear with us, it may take a while, but we are aware and working on the problem.  Check back from time to time. Ill keep you updated.

KAA

As the Program Director of the Allegheny News Talk Sports Network, I get questions from listeners all the time. This week the question is "Why dont you play the daytime Pirate Games?"
The answer to that one is interesting. We are the victim of our own success. We have strived to offer the best programming available to appeal to the largest number of listeners. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are the number one and number two talk shows in the country, and in Northwest Pennsylvania. They both have very rabid fans who "need" their daily dose. When we interrupt either show for a Pirate game, the phones light up, and since my job is to keep the audience happy, we have chosen not to do the daytime games.
I will let you in on something from behind the scenes. If the Pirates start looking like a contender in August and September, we will revisit this policy.
If you have a question about your radio station, just drop me an email at wmgwboss@yahoo.com.

Over the last several weeks I have had the chance to talk with the announcers from Pirate Camp in Bradenton. I am struck by the new attitude of the managment of the team. Instead of the McLatchy Administrations acceptance of medicracy, we now are seeing Baseball Guys working at developing their own talent. Unlike the New York Yankees, the smaller clusbs must develop their own futures stars. This is why the Farm System exists. You draft a young kid, give him experience and time to develop and refine his talent, then, if all goes well, you bring him up to the Show. For the last several years, the Farm system was left to languish, while the managment tried to buy middle class talent for a quick fix to the Pirates Problems. Then, as soon as you mediocre player started to show some promise....BAMM!!! He is traded away. I am not saying that the Bucs will be contenders this year, but for the first time since the early 90's, they may be on the right track.

If you want to try something exhausting sometime, MC a 9 hour radio auction. You may be sitting all day, but the energy level is very high in the room between our General Manager Jim Shields and our Production Director Don Patrick and myself. We are all three old radio guys who want to entertain at the same time we are selling the various products. I didnt believe all the products we sold over the course of the day. A swimming pool, a Steeler couch and chair, 2 huge refrigerators and all. Plus coupons, coupons, coupons. I wanted to take this chance to thank the office people, and our sales staff who did the grunt work of answering the phone, keeping track of the bids, taking your money, etc.
Though we sold just about anything that wasnt nailed down, we still had some items left, so we are putting them up online and selling them for 50% off. Just go back to our home page and click on the banner to see the list. Happy Buying, and look for the auction again next year.