After completing his second season as the men’s basketball team manager, James Crotty joined the Manhattanville baseball team for his first season, to serve in a similar capacity.  This spring, Crotty completed his junior year at Manhattanville and the GoValiants.com Blog sat down with Crotty, Coach Scanlon, and Coach Caulfield for an up-close and personal look at Crotty’s role at Manhattanville.

GoValiants.com Blog: James, thanks for agreeing to sit down with us for this interview.  Can you tell us why you came to Manhattanville?

James Crotty:  I came here to pursue a degree in finance. 

Blog: And how did you start getting involved in athletics?

Crotty:  I became friends with the basketball players and was interested in helping out.  Coach Scanlon gave me a small role as co-manager and I’ve gradually had that role increased.  Now, I help at practice with stats, attend recruiting and scouting trips and watch film.  Actually, sometimes I fall asleep watching film. 

Blog:  Coach Scanlon, can you tell us how James first got involved with the team?

Coach Scanlon: Well, he showed up at my doorstep in a suit and tie and asked me about positions with the basketball team.  I was impressed.  He seemed like a good kid, so we put him to work immediately. 

Blog:  So James, this is your second year working for the basketball team.  We’ve seen you in the dugout at some baseball games.  Are you working for that team as well?

Crotty:  Yeah, that’s new this year.  It started because they didn’t have a manager and I was friends with [outfielder] Stephen Pinto who encouraged me to get involved. 

Blog:  Coach Caulfield, is there an agreement between you and Coach Scanlon on having James help out?

Coach Caulfield:  Well, Pat wanted a hat… [Laughs] but I haven’t gotten him one yet. 

Blog:  Coach Scanlon, is that true?

Scanlon:  There’s no agreement, Crotty was stolen. 

Blog:  James, what’s your favorite sport?

Crotty: I’ve loved basketball since I was a kid.  I loved the Knicks, but then they fell off.  I loved Ewing.  There’s just so much passion and intensity in the game.  I used to play a lot, but I’m really short, so my career didn’t pan out. 

Blog:  What do you think the importance of your job is?

Crotty:  I think it’s important for someone like me to come in and help out as much as I can to try to keep some responsibilities off the coaching staff, who aren’t as highly staffed as the programs at the NCAA Division I level.  It’s important for me to be able to help out in any way, doing anything anyone asks, to be a good teammate.  The team is like a family. 

Blog:  Do you like your job?

Crotty:  I love it.  My top two highlights of the year are basketball and baseball season.  It’s a lot of fun to be able to be so closely knit with a group of people I probably wouldn’t be friends with otherwise.  To get to know these guys is awesome.  I get to learn so much about the game that I never knew. 

Scanlon:  Ask him about his internship.

Blog:  James, tell us a little about your internship.

Crotty: [Laughs] I interned at a brokerage firm where former Valiant Charlie Ferrera – class of ’98 worked.  I won a donut and hot dog eating contest against another intern and won $380.  He only ate, like, one donut and four hot dogs.  I took down nine donuts and four hot dogs. 

Blog:  Alright, thanks gentlemen.  You are off the hot-seat.  Any last words?

Caulfield:  We can’t wait to have James back again next year – baseball exclusive.

Scanlon:  No chance. 

CHAPTER FIVE: Men's Hockey's Impact

Men’s Ice hockey at Manhattanville was introduced to the athletic department 10 years ago with the first wave of student-athletes landing on campus to play the inaugural season in 1999.  The integration of the players onto this small liberal arts school was not easily done without notice.  Hockey players are a very distinct athlete and come from a colorful culture.

In only ten years the impact and impression left by these athletes has been enormous.  They have added a new dimension to Manhattanville culture that may become everlasting.  I’d like to use this final installment of Archie’s Angle to share with you a few unique staples of Manhattanville College culture courtesy the Men’s Ice hockey program.

The all common sing-along song dubbed “Hey Bob A-Reeba,” that is sung among Manhattanville students during occasional social events was imported by one of the most charismatic players to ever don the Manhattanville Jersey, Scott Jensen.  Originally, a song sung only by the hockey team, it has now spread to most athletic teams here on campus and among all travelers of the Valiant express.

The unofficial establishment of a wiffle ball field in the mini quad, located between Founders Hall and Spellman Hall, is also due to the Men’s Ice Hockey team.  The men’s team, after a grueling fall and winter season, took advantage of the spring to relax and enjoy college life.  Part of this effort was the creation of a wiffle ball field including rules and field markers.  Such markers determined a home run was scored if a ball was hit above the brick line on Spellman Hall that separates first and second floor.  All balls off the wall below this mark were doubles and singles were grounders that were balls not picked up before it stopped rolling past the bush on the right side of the field.  This field, with its rules, is still used today.

A third cultural contribution to Manhattanville from the Men’s Ice Hockey team is the recent creation of the spring and fall softball tournament.  This tournament, the handiwork of Derek Lynden, currently a junior here at Manhattanville, is a major event among athletes who look for competition in a different sport that also has an encouraging social aspect to it.

The integration of such creative, boisterous, exciting individuals the student body here at Manhattanville has evolved into an energetic mass of social activity.  So if you are on campus and bump into a crazy crowd chanting a song and arguing over the controversial home run that won the Wiffle Ball Spring Challenge Tournament, you are catching glimpse of the former Valiants in their off season extra curricular activities.

CHAPTER FOUR: The Y Factor

Although I spoke recently of the rituals performed by superstitious players here at Manhattanville and other hockey players at large, I believe I understated the all important Y Factor.

The Y Factor has dual meaning and dual representation.  It is important to any player who is on a scoring streak and important to any player on a team that has been successful.  As far as that goes, it is equally as important to a coach or a teammate.

The primary explanation of the Y factor is as follows: It is the additional important element of a game plan that is unexplainable and unmentioned.  In hockey it is your sixth man in the play, your lucky bounce or your earned break.  In most cases it is most visible in good luck charms or rituals.  If a player believes he is scoring goals because of his lucky underwear; than his lucky underwear is his Y Factor.  It is not technically part of the game plan, but it is very important in the unofficial game prep tactics.

The second meaning of the Y Factor is the pun of the term; the “why” factor. For example, if the same player believes he is scoring goals because of his lucky underwear, and you asked him why that is, there is no answer.  There is only the question, why? And the answer is simply, they just are.  Furthermore, one should never mess with the Y Factor, and winning teams and teammates will rarely interfere with the contributing lucky charm to a player’s Y Factor.  It is a sign of mutual respect for it.

So as the play-offs are upon us here in the land of the Valiants, and as they near for the NHL, you will here of rituals and good luck charms.  You will see goalies tap their posts, players come on the ice in the same order, the repetition of hand shakes and high fives.  Don’t try to understand them because all you will be left with is the question, why?  And the answer is, of course, because it is their Y Factor.