From the Desk of Ben Emke - Head Athletic Trainer

Hopefully this finds everyone happy, healthy, and looking at the light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel. As this is the first instalment from the RIT Sports Medicine Department, I thought it might be worth providing an overview of staffing and services provided. 

The sports medicine department is responsible for oversight of student-athlete health and welfare. This is accomplished through pre-participation clearance, injury prevention, injury evaluation, injury rehabilitation, consultations regarding a wide variety of health concerns, and referral assistance. The staff can often be found in one of the athletic training facilities on campus (Clark Gym, Ritter Expansion, or Gene Polisseni Center), at a practice facility, or covering one of our home contests. Things can get fairly hectic around here considering most of the athletic activities on campus require some degree of coverage by one of the athletic trainers. Referral care is coordinated through the RIT Student Health Center, Rochester Regional Health, and various other health care providers.  The sports medicine department also works hand-in-hand with the performance enhancement staff.

The staff that makes all of this possible is a multi-faceted entity. Aside from myself, here are the key players…

Athletic Trainers:

- Full-Time: Amanda Krohn, Melissa “Missy” Wilson, Rob Bauman, Mike Pilato (temporary contract)

- Part-time: Sherman Gittens, James Heffron, and Ben Gabriel.

Team Physicians (affiliated with Rochester Regional Health): Dr, Christine Blonski, DO; Dr. Kate Grant, DO; Dr. Dan Day, DO; Dr. Michael Stanton, MD – Orthopedic Surgeon; Dr. Nina Millet, MD - Fellow; and Dr. Neal Patel, MD - Fellow.

Strength & Conditioning: Ryan Kelly, Connor McJury, Nate VanKouwenberg, and Mike Moon.

RIT services: Student Health Center, Counseling and Psychological Services, and Disability Services.

Student workers: We have a great crew of student workers that we rely on heavily in so many ways. 

As special shout out: Congratulations to Amanda and Jason on the recent birth of Acadia Jane Krohn!

It’s great to see all of our teams competing again without as much Covid interruption as the past year and half. We congratulate all the fall and winter teams that have concluded their seasons, and wish the best of luck to the winter and spring teams still competing.

Go Tigers!

An Update on RIT Baseball

Greetings from RIT Baseball! Our spring season is off to a great start with successful trips to D.C. and Florida going 8-2 in our first 10 games. We are excited for our first home game Wednesday, March 16, on our new turf field! The field is already making a difference to our program as we have been able to practice on the field several times, will play home games much earlier than ever, and our recruits that come for visits love the new field. 

Our captains Collin Reformat, Pat Blackall, and Ian Libby have been incredible leaders this year and have the team in a great place mentally, physically, and have worked all year on team chemistry. This year’s team is the closest team we have had in quite some time and is a major factor in our fast start. 

One of the best thing about this season has been having family, friends, fans, and alumni there to support the team. Being able to have their support has made a huge difference this year. We would like to acknowledge the incredible support from Vicki Decker Griffith ’93 (pictured abover with captains Collin Reformat, Ian Libby and Patrick Blackall) and her husband, Mike, on our trip to D.C. Vicki helped the team with restaurant selections for team meals and graciously offered to get lunch for the team while we were in D.C. Her generosity helped make our trip better and was very much appreciated by the team!

The team is working hard and committed to bringing home another Liberty League Championship! We appreciate all of the support we get and encourage you to follow us on Twitter: @RIT_baseball.

I would love to connect with all of our alumni and give you an update on the season and catch up on life. I am starting to do some Zoom meetings with small groups of alumni, so if you want to connect, shoot me an email (rob.grow@rit.edu) and we will schedule it.

Go Tigers!

Rob Grow - RIT Baseball

An Update on RIT Women's Lacrosse

Hello from RIT Women’s Lacrosse! 

The team returned from our spring training trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where we had the opportunity to compete against two out-of-region teams and experience all that Colorado had to offer including Garden of the Gods, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum. Despite our losses over the break, the team was able to create long-lasting memories and truly became a closer team by the end of the trip. We learned a lot about who we are as a team and where we want to go, and we have developed a re-focused energy on getting one percent better every day. 

We are now looking forward to the beginning of Liberty League play. We open conference play against University of Rochester on Wednesday, March 16, followed by Clarkson University on Saturday, March 19. We are grateful for the opportunity to compete in a full conference schedule for this first time since 2019.

Captains Rose Core, McKenna Joint, Colette Rigas, and Krystyna Sterio have been doing a great job leading the team and providing a great example of what it takes to compete on and off the field. In addition to our captain leadership, our freshmen class has really stepped up their game to fill shoes of players we lost last year. Hannah Raffert and Ella Doan scored their first collegiate goals while defenders Jaimee Triolo, Jane Hudson, Julia Blaschak, and Julia Carreras all have contributed to our defensive unit’s success. Freshmen goalkeeper Linda Nutter also has had some great performances in cage.

We hope to see you on our sidelines this year! Go Tigers!

Erin Wagner - RIT Women's Lacrosse

Tigers In The Crowd