For most of SUNY Cortland’s varsity sports teams, the winter break serves as a short rest period, with a quick turnaround back to school to resume practice and competition.
However, things are different for our club athletes, who were able to enjoy the standard 6-week rest period. Even still, their student coaches were hard at work.
During the rest period, the Cortland Red Dragons flag football team added a new coach to their limited staff, previously made up of 2 coaches. SUNY Cortland Junior Harrison Sussman, who also serves as head student manager for the men’s football team, joined as the team’s new offensive assistant and Quarterbacks coach.
“I’m excited, because I’ve been looking for an opportunity to actually coach for a while. After all, this is something that I’d like to do for the rest of my life,” said Sussman. “It’s a unique opportunity to have an essentially risk-free coaching experience, and I’m excited share this new experience with girls who will also be stepping out of their comfort zones for the first time.”
Junior Offensive Coordinator Brandon Munk emphasized the importance of expanding their offensive attack over the break after the team saw a need to find a way to confuse the defense by using motions and shifts to throw off communication.
“The winter break was a lengthy 6-week period where the rest of the coaches and myself sat down and realized that it was time to change the way we ran our offense,” said Monk.
Over the break after the team and the coaching staff saw a need to find a way to confuse the defense by using motions and shifts to throw off communication, while also working around the rules of competitive flag football.
Defensive Coordinator Robert Haberger pointed out his excitement to get started when he was asked about the upcoming season.
With this being their first season in the NCFFL (National Collegiate Flag Football League), along with having 2 different away tournaments, they are very excited to get started.
The coaching staff hopes to improve the pass offense going into this season, and with Haberger and Sussman’s deep connections to the Men’s team and former Head Coach Fitzpatrick’s offensive philosophy, they will be looking to improve their air attack from the first practice.
All three coaches revealed that they took heavy inspiration from the way the SUNY Cortland Men’s Football team runs their offense. And with the Red Dragons coming off last year’s National Championship victory, immediately into a 10-0 record in the regular season, they sure know how to run an offense.
The team will have a lot of time to implement their gameplan before the first tournament of the season, meaning they will have weeks to practice and drill every possible new play in the improved playbook.
The women have already started studying their new playbooks and drilling their new offensive plays during the first four weeks of semester.
However, they have struggled with attendance due to the lateness of their practice time based on the time slots that they are allowed to choose.
Due to the fact that the club is still new, they are often towards the end of the pecking order when clubs are picking their practice time, as well as balancing time with the school’s intramural sport leagues.
The playoffs will be held at Staten Island University, later in the spring semester, with a date yet to be confirmed. The women will be hoping to bring their new championship rings back to Cortland.