SCU Blog

Caitlyn Murray is headed into her final season of softball at Carteret High School (NJ). Emotions will run high all season for her, and when asked what she’d miss most of all, she couldn’t just pick one thing. “I am going to miss everything about playing high school softball,” she said. “These past four years have flown by so fast and luckily I was able to enjoy every moment.  I'm going to miss the fact that I grew up in Carteret playing on the same softball field my whole entire life. So going to a whole new state playing for a different team will be different, but I know for a fact that I will love it,” she added. “Just being in Carteret and being able to look in the crowd and see my friends, family, and teachers every game is going to be the hardest part. I received so much support throughout my career and I know it'll carry on to college.” Murray announced via Instagram on Oct. 31 that she had committed to East Stroudsburg University. Before she goes off to...

Carteret High School Ramblers softball pitcher Caitlyn Murray committed to East Stroudsburg University last week. She first made the announcement through an Instagram post. “I can not thank my family, coaches and teammates enough for everything,” she posted along with a photo of the university’s logo. “Shoutout to my parents and siblings for being my backbone in this whole process the last 13 years. I wouldn’t be half the person I am today without you! HUGE thanks to Makenzie [Atherton] and Miss Mac for allowing me to realize what I want to do in the future and for reminding me to never lose hope in my dreams! Go Warriors!” “These past couple months I have been in contact with ESU coaching staff and they were making every attempt they could to come see me play,” Murray told me. “To me, if someone is going to try that hard to give you a shot, then I am 100 [percent] going to put on a show when they finally get to see me.  “I grew to love the school academically and ...

(main photo credit: metalinjection.net) On Oct. 21, 2014, Slipknot released their fifth official album, .5: the Gray Chapter. The album name, as all fans know, is a reminder of the band’s darkest days.  On May 2, 2010, bassist Paul Grey was found dead in a hotel room. Autopsy released that Grey had died from heart failure due to a drug overdose. The death shook not just the bands or fans, but also the metal world. Through 2011 and 2012, Slipknot wondered if they would ever be one again. They did tour, using former guitarist Donnie Steele as their bassist. However, Steele left the band in 2013. That wasn’t the only loss the band suffered. On Dec. 23, 2013, news broke that Slipknot had also fired Joey Jordison for unknown reasons. Neither Joey nor the band would speak of it. It looked as if it was the end of Slipknot for good. However, just after the new year came around, guitarist James “Jim” Root posted a photo of his arm holding a guitar. The caption read #S...

Caitlyn Murray is headed into her senior year, her final year at Carteret High School. This year is different than the last three for many different reasons, but none are bigger than the absence of  "If you know me, you know how important Ms.A is to me. She is so much more than a athletic trainer for me," she said. "During the school year she is my 'mom' when my mom isn't around, and I know she will protect me like my own mom would.  "It's crazy to think that these past three years I have spent the majority of the time sitting in her office. I have learned so much from her over the years, in and out of sports. Whenever I was down or having a bad day she knew right away, and always knew how to put a smile back on my face. "I could go on and on about how much she has done for me, [but we would be here forever!] I just hope she knows how much of an impact she has had on my life, and that she is truly irreplaceable," Murray con...

Caitlyn Murray wrapped up her best season of softball yet this past Friday. However, one thing Murray will never forget is how she prepared for the season before it even began. "[I took this preseason] a little more seriously knowing I could do big things in such a short amount of time," she said. "I trained extremely hard since I didn't play basketball this past season. I had to make up for that so I could go into the season ahead. So what better trainer is there to have than Miss Mac.  Since she knows [me] very well and only wants to see me succeed, practice wasn't always all fun and games, but it allowed me to go into the season physically and mentally ready.  Murray said she did all sort of activity from working out to practicing with the Ramblers softball team to even practicing with a travel team on the weekend.  She even reached a milestone, recording her 100th hit. However, there was a technicality on when she actually recorded the 10...

Carteret High School varsity softball pitcher Caitlyn Murray will be playing what she calls her most stressful season this year, her junior year. "Junior year has always been known to be the most stressful year for a student athlete," Murray said. "Between school, jobs, softball and family it's very hard to manage your time wisely. But it's better to learn now so that when college comes around your prepared." Murray visited the University of South Florida this past fall for not just a softball tournament, but also a campus visit. She's also visited East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania for a college visit as well as softball camp.  She will also be making a trip to Orlando, FL for a campus visit on the University of Central Florida. While this year is a stressful one when it comes to softball, the stress began before Murray even began practicing. "I hits some bumps in the road before pre season but overcame it and I'm happy to sa...

The women's volleyball team traveled to play Bucks County College on Sept. 24. The team was looking for their second consecutive match win. They played possibly their best match of the season against Bucks. They won the first set by a final score of 25-14. They improved in the second set, holding Bucks to just nine points in a 25-9 set win. The Colts clinched the match with a 25-15 win in the third set. Amber Rauh led the team with 17 kills in the match. That was the most by far on the team. The second leading player on the team was Jahmeice Coleman. She recorded seven kills. Only two other players recorded kills for the Colts. Kali Snook recorded three and Genesis Mora recorded two. Mora also led the team with eight digs.

The Blue Colts women's soccer team faced off against Essex County College in Newark, NJ on Sept. 24. The Lady Colts, like the men's team, were looking for their fourth straight win. Essex's Taylor Linghart scored the first goal of the game 32 seconds in the game. Sherise Hoppins was credited for the assist. In the 12th minute, Linghart scored her second goal of the game to give Essex a 2-0 lead. Natsuki Nagai was credited with the assist.  The Colts got on the board with a goal in the 25th minute with a goal from Lucia Belen Cagnani. The assist came from Odalis Montes Cisner.  In the 35th minute, Tia Henry scored Essex's third goal of the game. The assist came from Dora Perez. Nagai, who assisted Linghart's second goal, scored a goal of her own in the 39th minute off a penalty kick. An offense-packed first half had Essex leading 4-1 at halftime.  There was no offense at all in the second half and neither the Colts nor Essex could score. The 4-1 half...

The men's soccer team hosted Sussex County at Thomas Edison Park in Edison on Sept. 24. The Colts were looking for their fourth win in a row.  Muhammed Jawneh scored the first goal of the game for the team. The goal was unassisted. Idrissa Kamara scored the other two goals for the Colts. The first goal was assisted from Luiz Rosa. The second goal was assisted by Collins Aidoo.  Though the Colts goalies gave up two goals to Sussex, they were able to hang on for the 3-2 win. The Colts goalies recorded seven saves. Kamara's two goals came off of five shots. The five shots was most among the Colts in the game. Jawneh's goal came off of his only shot of the game. The only other player that attempted shots was Jemaul Weir. He attempted three shots, two shots on goal, but did not score a goal.

The women's volleyball team traveled to take on Ocean County on Sept. 17. They were looking to get back to .500 at 3-3.  The Colts would take the first set by a final score of 27-25. Ocean County, however, took the next three sets to win the match. They won the second match by a final score of 25-19 to tie the match at one set apiece. Ocean County dominated the third set, winning by a final score of 25-11. The Colts would need to win the fourth set to make it a best-of-five. They were unable to. Ocean County won the set by a final score of 25-19 to win the match.

The Blue Colts women's soccer team hosted Bucks County at the College on Sept. 17. They were looking for their second straight win after an opening loss.  The first goal of the game came from Ciara Alston on an unassisted kick into the net. The Colts weren't done there. Melissa Ciacio scored the second goal of the game. The Colts led 2-0 after 45 minutes. Alston, who scored the first goal of the game, scored two goals in the second half. The Colts won by a final score of 4-0. The win was their second in a row after they fell in their opening game against Brookdale. Colts goalies recorded an outstanding 19 saves to complete the shutout. Bucks goalie Holly Bowser recorded 15 saves, but also gave up the four goals

The men's soccer team played Passaic County College at Pennington Park in Delanco, NJ on Sept. 17. The men were looking to get back on the winning side after suffering their first loss of the season against Bergen. In the 12th minute, Mused Mohamed scored the first goal of the game for the Colts. The assisted was credited to Vlad Niculescu. The next goal was scored in the 31st minute, also for the Colts. The goal was scored by Osam Jouejati with the assist coming from Luiz Rosa. Idrissa Kamara scored the Colts' third goal of the game in the 69th minute. The assist came from Jorge Sanchez. In the 82nd minute, Mohamed scored his second goal of the game. The assist for this goal came from Collins Aidoo. The Colts won in a 4-0 shutout over Passaic. Goalie Christopher Curton didn't need to do much work in this game. Passaic attempted just five shots, all of which he saved. 

Nine year old Audrey Walker of Campbell, CA is a miracle of God. Walker was born with several medical conditions that caused her to be born without eyes and she had immediate open heart surgery after she was born.  The troubles didn't stop there, however. 10 days after the surgery, Audrey's throat began to close. Breathing became impossible. She once again had to have emergency surgery to remove what her father, Jim Walker, called the "abnormal blocking growth" in her throats that closed it up and prevented her from breathing.  The story begins before she was even born. When Jim and his wife Heather went for the ultrasound, doctors said that Audrey would come out dead or would need emergency life-saving surgery the moment she was born. Doctors also gave her only two years to live if the surgeries she endured didn't go as planned. Jim found a doctor, Dr. Frank Hanley, who could save Audrey's life through a procedure he created called unifocalizat...

The Colts volleyball team traveled to take on Raritan Valley Community College on Sept 8. They were looking for their first win of the season.  The Lady Colts would go on to win the match by a final score of 3-0. In the first set, the Colts won 25-19. They won the second set 25-17. In the third set, they swept the match in a 25-18 win. Amber Rauh led the ladies with five kills. Jahmeice Coleman followed her with four kills. Stefanie Iglesias, who recorded two kills, led the team with four assists.

During her time at The College, Lena Buccigrossi played three sports - volleyball, softball and basketball. She is no longer at The College, but she is still playing multiple sports. She currently attends Rosemont College in Bryn Mawr, PA.  While attending Rosemont, Buccigrossi continues to play volleyball and softball. As for basketball, the decision to play that as well is up in the air. "I do have the opportunity to play all three but I'm debating about basketball right now! My classes are getting harder and three sports is a big commitment," she said. She is currently studying Psychology and plans to focus on forensics in the future. She also studied Psychology at The College. Even though she is at a new school, Buccigrossi says she misses the Athletics that The College provided to her.  "No doubt that I am completely happy where I am but I miss everything about athletics at [The College]," she said, " I miss the girls on the teams who w...

The women's soccer team traveled to take on Brookdale Community College on Sept. 10. Brookdale knocked off the Colts in the second round of the NJCAA Women's Soccer Tournament last season. The Colts were looking for revenge. 49 seconds into the game, Brookdale's Heather Arbachesky scored the game's first goal. Amy Beringer was credited for the assist. A minute and a half later, Arbachesky scored another goal with the assist coming from Amanda Karabin.  Arbachesky scored her third goal of the game in the seventh minute. Britney Ramsey recorded the assist. She also recorded the assist for Brookdale's next goal from Karabin. Brookdale led 4-0 after 25 minutes. In the 25th minute, the Colts got on the board with an unassisted goal from Ciara Alston. In the 83rd minute, Arbachesky scored her fourth goal of the game. Brookdale would win by a final score of 5-1. The Colts goalies gave up the five goals, but also recorded six saves. 

The Lady Colts volleyball team traveled to take on Bergen Community College on Sept. 1. It was their first match of the season. The Colts would lose, three sets to none. They lost the first set by a final score of 25-21. The second set was closer, but not by much. Bergen won by a final score of 25-22. In the third set, Bergen dominated for a 25-14 win. Amber Rauh led the Colts with 10 kills in the match. Jahmeice Coleman was second on the team with three kills. Only two other players, Mandeep Rai and Stefanie Iglesias, recorded kills with one apiece.  Genesis Mora led the team with 12 assists. The only other player to record an assist, Kyra Grant, recorded three of them. Errors also proved to be costly for the Colts. They committed 14 hit errors and three block errors.

The Blue Colts men's soccer team traveled to take on Bucks County on Sept. 1. The men were still looking for their first win of the season after losing their first game against Bronx. In the 33rd minute, the Colts got on the board first with an unassisted goal from Collins Aidoo. The score would remain 1-0 at the end of the first period. In the second period, the Bucks would score three goals.  The tying goal came off a penalty kick from Derek Czerniak in the 56th minute. Just 10 minutes later, in the 66th minute, Bucks took the lead when Victor Molina scored on a penalty kick. Czerniak scored his second goal of the game and Bucks led 3-1 in the 77th minute. The Colts came back furious in the final 13 minutes. In the 82nd minute, Jorge Sanchez scored to close the gap. In the 87th minute, five minutes after Sanchez's goal, Aidoo scored his second goal of the game to send the game into overtime.  In overtime, the game-winning goal for the Colts came from Idrissa ...

Caitlyn Murray had one busy summer. "This summer I traveled to Disney's ESPN in Florida while placing second in the World Series and I received the "offensive MVP award" for the tournament," Murray said,  "In Delaware, we placed second also, which ended the summer season, which then led to tryout season." By tryout season, she was referring to playing for the NJ Breakers U18 team. While she did play softball on a travel team all summer, that wasn't the best part of all. "The best part had to be traveling to Florida for softball and being able to spend time with my older brother while I was there and spending my birthday with both my family and softball family," Murray said, "at every high school game I played in the past two years, home or away, he was at supporting me from right behind the backstop. He does this thing to get my attention while I'm pitching to give me a sign and most of the time, the pitch works.  ...

SCU and Saki began on Feb. 8, 2016. We began with one podcast every day during the week, taking off on weekends. Eventually, it became too much for both of us, so we decided to do one three hour shows per week. Eventually, we decided to go to one 90 minute live show every  Tuesday night .  Due to time constraint with The Football Five, we had to move our show's day. My cohost was not happy with this, so our producer and I tried to make it work. After we had made it work, my cohost decided she was done and shut the show down altogether.  I want to thank my producer, our listeners and even my cohost for the last almost five months of the show. I will continue to work on  insidethearena.org , the Arena Football podcast we have planned at Inside the Arena and the Football Five, as well as my other work. I will not be looking to start another podcast. Yet.