Check the sports section of either the Albany Times-Union or Daily Gazette, and you'd be hard pressed to find anything on Hudson Valley Community College's sports teams. Any of them. El Cheapo Media might have something, but at last check, it usually takes them a few days to do a feature story.
Consider, for example, HVCC's baseball team, currently undefeated at 20-0 heading into a 2-day, 4-game home & home series with Cayuga Community College, starting tomorrow in Cayuga. Each team will host a doubleheader.
I've attended a game between these two clubs in the past, and, based on that experience, it's just sad that the Vikings have so much difficulty drawing fans. No pre-game advertising outside of the campus, if there's any on campus at all. Nothing in the papers. HVCC is 20-0, and ignored by the media. Why? Because unlike UAlbany, Siena, RPI, & Union, HVCC is a 2 year junior college. With the dwindling media resources, the Vikings get the Rodney Dangerfield treatment from the media, and an undefeated season shouldn't be swept under the rug at all.
This year's Vikings have a decided Section II vibe, in that of the 55 players on the roster, 16 of them come from Section II schools (i.e. LaSalle, Shaker, Ichabod Crane). Almost 1/3 of the roster. They're lucky if Bill Arsenault (Times-Union) can fit them into his Campus Watch column. WTEN did a feature piece on the Vikings over the weekend, so what's missing? Word of mouth. If there's not enough attendance at games, and the press isn't there, who's going to know what's going on?
The 2nd half of the Cayuga series is at Bruno Stadium on Thursday, beginning at 2 pm. Don't wait for the Valleycats to play the Vikings a week later. You'll be glad you made the trip.
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