NEW YORK — March Madness is in full impact, with Staten Island’s Wagner College Seahawks taking up the No. 1 seeded University of North Carolina Tar Heels in first spherical motion Thursday.
Wagner heads to the large dance with a short-handed workforce of simply seven gamers.
The college is on spring break however plans to carry a watch celebration at 2 p.m. earlier than the sport suggestions off at 2:45 p.m.
“This is large for Wagner, on quite a lot of fronts. For each our scholar athletes, for our athletic program, but additionally the broader campus neighborhood — each at Wagner, however our alumni,” Assistant Dean of Campus Life Thomas Gelok mentioned Thursday morning. “Being right here on Staten Island, being a part of Staten Island is a part of our faculty identification, and we all know that now we have your complete neighborhood behind us. So it is an amazing alternative for us to essentially have a good time and showcase who we’re.”
CBS New York’s Christina Fan spoke with college students on campus forward of the matchup.
“The ambiance has been completely loopy,” mentioned junior Madison Sak. “It was actually inspiring seeing how they only did not hand over, as a result of I believe lots of people would have with being such a small workforce.”
“The help is resoundingly optimistic. Even once we beat Howard a pair nights in the past — the campus is fairly empty, it is spring break — I might nonetheless hear it resounding by the building once we gained. So everybody’s tremendous excited,” senior Riku Toyhohara mentioned.
“I’m tremendous proud, I believe we’re all tremendous happy with them, particularly the entire Wagner neighborhood. They’ve confronted many challenges this yr as a result of accidents, they usually’ve needed to overcome the adversity. And that is sort of what Coach Copeland speaks about, that is simply the tradition they’ve constructed as a workforce,” mentioned Damien Mazil, a sophomore who was a observe participant on the workforce for a time. “We cannot wait to see them play immediately.”
“Seven gamers may be very laborious to play with, and for them to be tremendous conditioned, particularly as a result of each single participant is taking part in good minutes for them,” added Marissa Sanchez-Henry, a senior nursing main on the ladies’s basketball workforce. “Basketball is just not solely a psychological sport, it is a bodily sport as effectively. But it is tremendous laborious, and all credit score to them.”
The Seahawks are nonetheless on a excessive after their first NCAA Tournament win at school historical past. They’re hoping their grit and dedication catapults them to a different win Thursday afternoon in Charlotte.
Tuesday night time, the lads’s basketball workforce defeated Howard University in a First Four matchup. The 71 to 68 victory earned them a spot within the huge dance, inspiring fellow scholar athletes and the neighborhood.
The Staten Island workforce has already preserved by a lot adversity this season. Six gamers had been injured, leaving solely about half the workforce wholesome sufficient to play.
“Never allow us to fall into doubt, or I by no means dumbed-down our expectations,” Coach Donald Copeland mentioned earlier this week.
“Seven gamers, so it is so unreal. We are simply excited to be right here,” Melvin Council Jr. mentioned.
“We take satisfaction in placing on for our Tri-State Area, the place we come from,” Tahron Elliott mentioned.
The Seahawks have rolled with the punches, enlisting your complete teaching employees and even the quarterback of the soccer workforce to assist practice as observe gamers.
“Usually, their practices are 45 minutes lengthy, however it’s the most intense 45 minutes I’ve been part of. It’s simply quite a lot of fast-paced actions that they do,” mentioned Mazil.
To keep away from extra accidents, their coach took the unconventional method of holding no-contact practices for months.
They could also be an underdog, however they’ve made some simple achievements this season. They are ranked sixth within the nation for scoring protection, averaging 62.1 factors per sport.
