Sports
See also: New Hampshire Wildcats men's basketball, New Hampshire Wildcats men's ice hockey, and New Hampshire Wildcats football See also: New Hampshire Wildcats women's ice hockeyUNH is a member of the America East Conference for basketball, cross country, soccer, and track and field; and women's field hockey, gymnastics, lacrosse, swimming & diving, and volleyball. They also compete in Hockey East in men's and women's ice hockey, in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) in women's gymnastics, in the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) in men's and women's skiing, and at the Division I FCS level (formerly Division I-AA) in the Colonial Athletic Association for football.
The ice hockey teams are both perennial national powerhouses, and the football program has consistently ranked as one of the stronger teams on the Division I FCS level. The Wildcats have one NCAA National Championship, won in 1985 in women's lacrosse. UNH won the national championship game 6-5 over Maryland.
The men's basketball program has a long-standing reputation for futility even though the team has improved significantly in recent years. UNH was one of the first schools to take up the sport, but since 1903, no Wildcats team has made it to the NCAA or NIT tournaments and no ex-Wildcat player has made it to the NBA. (However, a former Wildcats coach, Jim Boylan, eventually became the head coach of the Chicago Bulls for a while.) Perhaps the most famous ex-Wildcat basketball player is the former captain Blagoy Janev, who is now one of the stars of Australia's National Basketball League. The Wildcats' rivalry with the Maine Black Bears is the longest continuous basketball rivalry between any two non-Ivy League schools: the men's teams have played each other 107 seasons in a row, from 1904-1905 to the present season (2010-2011.) The University has invested greatly in both the men's and women's basketball programs since the hiring of Bill Herrion but they have yet to achieve the campus wide attention of the Hockey or Football teams.
The UNH men's soccer team has been coached since 1995 by the highly regarded Rob Thompson. Thompson is the program's all time wins leader and consistently turns out one of the nations best defensive teams. The Wildcats have come within a penalty kick shootout of making the NCAA tournament in the past few seasons and are poised to make steps in the future. Thompson routinely brings in the top recruits from the New England area and their recruiting has expanded to the mid-atlantic, midwest, and west coast over the past couple years as well as a strong connection with foreign university students from Sweden. The UNH soccer programs boast both natural grass and Field Turf playing surfaces, a beautifully renovated locker room and lounge area, and a state of there art weight room. The men's and women's soccer programs have won the America East Conference academic team award numerous times. The soccer programs are sponsored by Nike and benefit from a strong Alumni association as well as a local and youth connection through the Soccer Dimensions soccer camps.
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Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“There be some sports are painful, and their labor
Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point to rich ends.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“In the end, I think you really only get as far as you’re allowed to get.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)
“Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one’s behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)