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"Forgiving Siena... A Little At A Time"

I graduated from Siena College with a degree in Finance in 1996.  For those who aren’t familiar with Siena, it is a relatively small school (around 3,000 students) located just outside Albany, NY in a town called Loudonville.

While at Siena, I spent three years as a proud member of the football team.  It wasn’t always easy to be “proud” of a team that won a combined 3 games in the 3 years I played (and one of those was by forfeit).  But my teammates and I always stuck together and worked hard.  To us, our experiences were very positive and helped mold our character as we entered the real world.

At the end of my senior year, the school had decided the football program was too expensive to warrant continued funding and threatened to cut it altogether.  At that point, a group of alumni and players combined to talk the school into not only keeping the program, but making a concerted effort to improve its’ competitiveness.

To make a long story short, the school would go back on their promises and officially cut the program less than a decade later.  A group of alumni got together and made a last ditch effort to save the program once again, only this time the school was more prepared.  They never signaled to football alumni that this was a possibility, instead springing it on everyone in a surprising fashion.  Players on the team at that time had already returned for their fall semesters – their tuition checks already cashed and their opportunities to transfer to play football for another school diminished.

Needless to say, the actions of the school left many of the football alumni with a tremendous distaste for our alma mater.  Many of us have shunned anything Siena-related since the program was cut.

Basketball was always the sport of choice at Siena.  The team has always been competitive in the MAAC Conference and had made a few splashes in the NCAA Tournament at times.  Most recently, each of the past two seasons have seen Siena win the MAAC Conference and then pull off a first round upset in “The Big Dance”.

With the distaste for our alma mater still fresh on our palettes, old football teammates began to talk about the school once again.  For all of our resentments, we simply couldn’t bear to keep a grudge against the small school that we had attended as they were pulling off upsets on national television.  Watching the streams of green and gold shirts cheering on the team much like we did years ago brought back too many fond memories of our time spent on campus.

The coach of the team for the past few years has been Fran McCaffery.  Historically, Siena has had a number of great college coaches, all of whom used their success at Siena as a career stepping stone.  Mike Deane took the team to the semi-finals of the NIT and then bolted for Marquette.  Paul Hewitt coached the Saints successfully before heading to Georgia Tech.  Ex-Knick Louis Orr coached one successful season before heading to Seton Hall.  After all of his recent success, the question became “just how long would Coach McCaffery stay before he added himself to the long list of coaches who left Siena for bigger and better things?”

Shortly after getting knocked out of the tournament after a close game against #1 seeded Louisville, we got our answer.  Coach McCaffery signed a deal to be the Siena basketball coach for the next 8-years.  Now I know that college coaching contracts are not always binding – so I’m trying not to be completely naïve.  But this seems to be a great sign for the future of Siena basketball.  Finally they have been able to get a proven head coach to commit for the long-term.

My letter this week is a letter of thanks to Coach McCaffery.  I’d like to thank him for bringing Siena basketball to the national stage, for making a long-term commitment to the team, and most importantly for allowing me and my old teammates to be proud of our school once again and perhaps began the process of forgiving our alma mater… a little bit at a time.

-----------------------

TO:                 Fran McCaffery
FROM:            Scott Riecke
SUBJ:              Thank You
DATE:             April 15, 2009

Coach McCaffery,

I am a Siena graduate from the Class of 1996.  Siena holds great memories to me as an amazing place with a wonderful campus and great tradition.  Basketball has certainly become a mainstay at the school over the years and has firmly embedded itself as part of that tradition.

When my four years were up at Siena, I was sad to leave it behind.  The people were always so friendly and the times I had were so personally gratifying that I had hoped my relationship with the school and my classmates would continue for years to come.  But sometimes things don’t always turn out the way you plan them.

As a Siena football player in 1996, we were faced with the possibility the school might cut the program.  Though it had never been much of a success, many of the players felt a sense of pride in being part of the team and felt it was only a matter of time before the Athletic Department figured it out, and that Siena football could become as rich in tradition as Siena basketball.  When the final decision was made to keep the program at that time, a lot of promises were made.  Among them was a stated long-term commitment to the football program.

You probably know the rest – Siena kept the football program around for less than a decade after making those promises.  They never followed through and finally cut the program altogether.

Though I don’t want to delve into the details of that situation, let’s just say that many of the football alumni felt as though we were treated unfairly.  We felt the school handled the entire situation unprofessionally towards us, and uncaringly towards the many student-athletes who came to Siena, in part, to participate on the football team.

After this event, I developed a complete distaste for anything Siena-related.  I removed my name from e-mail distribution lists.  I sent a letter to the alumni office and requested never to be asked for a donation.  I complained anytime I received an offer for a “Siena College Credit Card” – but those just seem to keep coming anyway.  I swore that I would never give a penny to the school and I truly meant it.

My lack of allegiance stretched to the basketball team as well.  There was always a certain jealousy towards how the basketball team was treated compared to the football team.  One season we had to buy our own game jerseys while the basketball team took a trip to some vacation-type location (the cost of which would have covered jerseys for our entire team).  I carried that forward after the football program was cut, and smiled inwardly anytime I saw the basketball team post a loss on the ESPN scroll-bar.

However, the past two seasons I have begun to soften up.  I attribute that to the success the basketball team has displayed on the court, most notably in post-season play.

Watching the streams of Siena fans fall out of the crowd when the last two MAAC Championships were won brought back great memories.  Only for me, the memories were of beating Georgia Tech in the NIT – watching Doremus Bennerman completely outplay a future pro, Travis Best.  It was making the NIT semi-finals against a Villanova team armed with a kid named Kerry Kittles, only to fall just short in front of a crowd in Madison Square Garden that seemed to be 90% Siena fans.  Though Siena never made the NCAA Tournament in my days at the school, those were still fond memories.  And though in recent years it has been in my capacity to survey box scores on ESPN and revel in Siena losses, when watching the games on TV I found it completely impossible not to cheer for them.

Nowadays, whenever I get asked where I went to school, the usual responses have changed.  Where once the question was, “Siena… where in the world is that?” now the question is, “Siena… wasn’t that the team in the NCAA Tournament?”  Success on the court definitely translates to increased recognition for the school at other levels.

Not only has the success on the court been great for the college as a whole, but it has brought together former alumni as well.  A number of my former football teammates have agreed – maybe it’s ok for us to root for the basketball team now.  But we’re still not giving them any money.  Hey, it’s a step in the right direction.

In the past, Siena has had a number of successful coaches – Mike Deane, Paul Hewitt and Louis Orr come to mind.  All of these coaches left Siena at the top of their game – either Siena wouldn’t foot the bill to keep them, or they felt the need to move on to a “big-time” program.  I assumed you would be the next name on that list.  You can imagine my surprise when I found out that you had recently signed an 8-year extension.

Though I still hold a definite grudge against some of those responsible for killing the football program, I am thrilled to see that the school’s Athletic Department has finally done something right.

I wanted to take the time to thank you personally for bringing Siena basketball into the national spotlight, opening a path for me to speak to old friends again while cheering on the school where I spent so many of my best years.  I have heard calls from fellow alumni that the goal of Siena hoops should be to become “The Gonzaga of the East”.  That might be setting the bar quite high since I don’t see a pro like John Stockton coming out of Loudonville just yet and we haven’t quite reached the Sweet 16.  Yet as an eternal optimist, I don’t think that it’s completely out of the realm of possibility.  It’s certainly more attainable with you at the helm.

Thank you for your time.  I appreciate your commitment and I hope you continue to have great success.

Sincerely,

Scott Riecke

If you would like to comment on this letter, Scott can be reached at info@aletteraweek.com (please include your name and town).

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