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Chris Lipscomb missed time last year because of injury, but he's back at full strength for 2016. |
Chris Lipscomb would love to help lead the Endicott Gulls to a NEFC title just as he helped take the Gulls to the conference basketball championship earlier this year.
One of the best features of the NCAA Division III model is that it is conducive to playing more than one sport. The landscape is sprinkled liberally with multi-sport athletes, and Lipscomb is one of the best.
Saturday, the wide receiver had two touchdown catches and hung two punts inside the 20-yard line in a 37-0 victory over Nichols. He has angled 15 punts inside the 20 in his two years of punting and picked up two consecutive NEFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors this season.
"One of the reasons for going Division III was not having to give up one of the sports," Lipscomb said.
He loves both. Asked if he has a favorite and the answer comes without hesitation. "It depends when you ask me," Lipscomb said.
"He is one of the best athletes on our campus," Endicott basketball coach Kevin Bettencourt said. "He can guard all five positions. Some of his strength training and weight lifting in football has helped him versatility-wise with the basketball team."
Lipscomb agrees there is a beneficial transfer from football to basketball.
"The side-to-side and up-and-down of playing wide receiver helps me in basketball," the senior said.
He missed some significant time in football last year due to an injury, but came on strong when he returned.
"He was one of our better receivers at the end of the year," Endicott coach Kevin DeWall said.
"He is a team first guy. He has done it the right way."
He is an important piece of the offense as the Gulls look to build on their 1-0 NEFC record.
"He is very athletic. His rebounding ability in basketball makes it so he can make some plays downfield," DeWall said. "We try to use him in a lot of ways."
The football-basketball double is challenging because the seasons run into each other with basketball practice beginning in mid-October.
"The overlap is definitely a challenge," Lipscomb said. "Both coaches help. And my strength coach keeps me fit and ready for both sports."
"I try to leave it up to him as far as how long he needs [to join the basketball team]," Bettencourt said. "He has to earn his time. Last year he was able to return to the starting lineup pretty quickly. He was one of the main reasons we won our championship."
Listed as a guard, Lipscomb is a stat sheet stuffer. You can usually find some mark in the scorebook each game for points, assists, blocks, rebounds and steals.
"I was a two-sport athlete in college," said DeWall who played football and lacrosse at Hobart. "I tried to play three [basketball], but my body was telling me I couldn't do it.
"Eighty percent of the athletes we recruited were multiple sport athletes in high school. I have always encouraged multiple sport athletes."
DeWall points out that time management is the key to pulling it off. Time management is a skill the Gulls seem to be grasping.
"Our guys have the highest GPA in the history of the program," DeWall said.
Lipscomb does his part in the classroom, too. He was a 2015 NEFC Academic All-Conference selection, is a two-time Commonwealth Coast Conference All-Academic Team selection in basketball, a Dean's List suident and carries a 3.52 GPA.
Castleton quarterback Mitch Caron quickly got indoctrinated into the world of playing two sports. He was the starting third baseman for the Spartans last year as a freshman when they won the North Atlantic Conference championship and threw for 280 yards with two touchdowns in the first half in his debut at quarterback in CU's last game, a loss to Salve Regina.
Caron played for B.L. Lippert in high school, a two-sport athlete at Colby and talked to him about playing two sports in college.
"Mitch has a passion for both sports," Lippert said.
Caron has a lot of baseball and football ahead of him while Lipscomb winds down his career.
He will be trying to bring more titles to the Endicott campus and then he hopes to work in the arena of athletics following graduation. His major is sport management with a minor in business administration. He has done several internships including one with the Valley Blue Sox of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. His career objective is to get into sports marketing and he would love to work in a college athletic department.
He will follow his dream and land in a place where he can be passionate about going to work.
Lipscomb is passionate about what he is doing right now. No matter what the season.
The Plymouth puzzle
What the heck is going on at Plymouth? Picked for dead last in the MASCAC and just hoping to improve on last year's 2-8 campaign, the Panthers are 4-0 following the 30-14 win over UMass-Dartmouth.
It is one of the great stories of the season.
Zach Edwards threw for two touchdowns, Jeff Madden made good on his only field goal attempt from 35 yards, and Blair Zentek had two interceptions, returning one 91 yards to a touchdown.
The next chapter for the Mystery in the Mountains comes Saturday at Westfield State.
WNE also 4-0
The beat goes on at Western New England. The Golden Bears rolled past Curry 59-28 to go to 4-0 as Anthony Service passed for six touchdowns and the defense came up with four interceptions.
NESCAC opens
After watching and reading about football for several weeks, the NESCAC teams finally got to play.
Jared Leobwitz's debut as Middlebury's starting quarterback began with a bang. He threw for 360 yards and five touchdowns in a 40-3 pasting of Bowdoin.
It has been a long and winding road to Middlebury for Lebowitz. He began his high school career just 30 miles up Route 7 from the Middlebury campus but moved to California where he had a wildly successful high school stint that caught the attention of recruiters. He had a fling at Division I UNLV but transferred to Middlebury last year where he appeared in each game but played behind Matt Milano.
Now, he has the keys to the offense and if the first game is any indication, Panther fans are in for a wild ride.
Colby edged Williams 9-7 on John Baron's 19-yard field goal with 8 seconds left. Sebastien Phileman had 12 tackles for Colby.
Jake Hickey rushed for three touchdowns as Amherst roared by Hamilton 34-0, and Trinity had a similarly easy time toppling Bates 38-7 with Sonny Puzzo throwing for three scores, all to Darrien Myers. Myers totaled 234 yards between receiving and kickoff returns. It was the 21st consecutive win for Trinity over the Bobcats.
Clarence Brady scored on a 31-yard run with 5:24 left to lift Tufts to a 17-14 victory over Wesleyan. It was the exclamation point on a big day for Brady: 151 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries.
Greg Holt led the Tufts defense with 14 tackles.
Quick kicks: Husson was the lone ECFC team playing as everyone else had a bye before conference play begins this week. The Eagles represented the league well, smothering Alfred State 35-0. Cory Brandon threw two touchdown passes, and it was business as usual for John Smith with 153 rushing yards. ... Richie Phillips rushed for a career-high 143 yards and accounted for three touchdowns in leading Mass. Maritime to a 32-14 win over Worcester State. ... Framingham State got a big MASCAC win, getting past Western Connecticut 23-17. Trevon Offley paced the Rams on offense with 114 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, and Svenn Jacobson was the headliner on defense with 11 tackles. ... Thunder & Lightning struck again at Salve Regina. Sam Pascale ran for 226 yards and four touchdowns, and James Dawson for 151 yards with two touchdowns as the Seahawks beat Coast Guard 48-10. ... Anthony Emberley had four solo tackles and two interceptions to help MIT stop Maine Maritime, 30-13. Udgam Goyal threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns. ... Christian Cole picked off two passes for Endicott.
The big games
The ECFC begins conference play this week, and the game that jumps out at you is Husson's visit to SUNY-Maritime on Saturday. The Eagles were the pick to win it, but SUNY-Maritime has been the surprise during the nonconference games and has the look of a contender. Playing at home doesn't hurt.
Mass. Maritime at Fitchburg State has the makings of the game of the week in the MASCAC, and the same for Endicott's visit to MIT in the NEFC.
The only meeting of 1-0 teams in the NESCAC makes Waterville, Maine, the place to be: Middlebury at Colby. It's Jared Lebowitz and company against a Colby defense that only allowed seven points
