When I took the position of Sports Editor of the Mass Media, I embrace the opportunity to polish my journalistic skills and to cover more Beacon games for the university. I look at it more as a hobby than I do as a job. I’m here to have some fun as well as to inform the UMass campus of our teams’ activities.

One thing that I am saddened by is the fact that UMass Boston no longer has a football team. When I started as a writer for the paper sometime last December, the decision to eliminate the football program had just been finalized. Little did I realize at the time that I had missed the chance to cover and report on one of my favorite sports.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love all sports and I have a smorgasbord of UMass teams to watch and enjoy. But football, particularly college football, has a passion about it that makes it unique and special. I find myself looking to other local college football teams to root for in order to fill the void.

I am well aware of the reasons and logistics that led to the elimination of the Beacons football program. The new Campus Center is currently being constructed on the very spot where the football team once played. Although UMass did not rule out the possibility of a football program returning at a future time, the feasibility makes it highly unlikely. As a commuter school, any funds that the University has at its disposal will and should go to projects such as the continuing repairs on the garage and updating the Healey Library’s literary resources. But I can still rue the fact that we don’t have a gridiron squad.

On a positive note, I am eagerly anticipating the inaugural season of the women’s ice hockey team. I expect the team to take its share of bumps and bruises like a professional expansion team would. Expectations won’t be set extremely high for the season. The main objectives will be to solidify the program and identify the areas that team will need to improve on as time goes by. Whatever happens in terms of wins and loses will be secondary. But I know that the team will give an optimum effort on the ice in every game that it plays.

Kudos to the women’s volleyball team for an excellent showing in their victories last Saturday over Wentworth Institute and Lasell College. Despite playing this season undermanned (or underwomanned I should say), the team play two games and won without a single substitution all afternoon. The victories gave the volleyball team five wins in their last six games. With the team comprised of all juniors and seniors, I hope that either existing UMass female students will seriously consider joining or that an influx of incoming freshmen and transfer students will help fill the roster.

Youth is definitely the word to describe the men’s soccer team. Although the team’s record is an unimpressive 3-7 after last Saturday’s lost to Rhode Island College, the future seems bright, as the team should develop more cohesiveness. This season is a great opportunity for the freshmen and sophomores of the men’s soccer team to gain valuable experience.

Any one for tennis? Then check out the women’s tennis team. They are good and entertaining. With several players on the team from various countries around the world, this group of young Venus Williams wannabes (or Martina Hingis or Lindsey Davenport, they’re all good) should be a factor in determining the Little East Conference champion for 2001.