MITCHELL HORUCY
Asst. Sports Editor
Sam Evans (Midfielder), Men’s Soccer | Photo by Becca Torncello (Sports Photographer)
After numerous years of declining enrollment, Fredonia has welcomed its largest freshman class in three years.
The school announced that the total of first-year, transfer and new graduate students was 1,034.
This means that first-year enrollment is up 10% from last year and graduate student enrollment is up 34%.
While this has a huge impact on Fredonia as a whole, this may have an even greater impact on athletics.
The head coach of the men’s soccer team, PJ Gondek, has taken the role of co-interim athletic director and is excited about this incoming class and how it can help the school.
Gondek has 10 freshmen on his roster, which make up almost half of the team.
“Roughly 90% of our revenue is fee-based,” said Gondek. “The more students we have, the more money we have to work with.”
A lot of this money is used to upgrade facilities on campus.
As Matt Volz wrote about in the previous issue of The Leader, the school just installed a brand new turf field.
Next in line is a brand new track, as well as other upgrades to the surrounding area.
Gondek said these upgrades can help with recruiting and attracting new student-athletes to the school.
Gondek also talked about the grass field, which isn’t new, but is still a huge attraction for incoming athletes.
Fredonia is one of two schools in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) that plays their home soccer games on a natural grass surface, something he and women’s soccer coach Chris Case have been using to help recruit for years.
“When you get recruits coming in and they see the grass, they also say, ‘okay, well what’s going on with this turf?’ For us, it’s also our practice field. It’s a pretty nice practice field,” said Gondek.
In terms of what’s next in the line for upgrades, Gondek spoke about fixing up some of the equipment in the ice rink, as well as redoing the floor and track in Steele Hall.
He also mentioned that the baseball field has drainage issues and that the baseball team sometimes has to play home games away from home. As such, fixing the baseball field is also on the list of things that will be upgraded in the future.
With some of the new facilities, Gondek would love to see Fredonia continue to host local high school sporting events on campus.
He mentioned how, not that long ago, Fredonia hosted the Section VI Track and Field Championships, and would love to see that return.
Fredonia High School plays numerous games on campus such as men’s and women’s soccer, and basketball games in the winter.
“We always want to host those types of events because I also think that will help enrollment,” said Gondek.
While Gondek loves the new turf for his team, he also loves that he’s seen non-student-athletes using the turf.
“The lights were on and there were students that were non-varsity sport athletes that were out there using the turf,” said Gondek. “I think it’s great, you know, lights are on and it’s just, it’s got to be kind of a good feeling.”
Annika Andersen, a freshman psychology major and a member of the women’s basketball team, is one of the 1,034 incoming students that have entered Fredonia.
Andersen is originally from Florida, but has family from Buffalo, so she’s been in the area before.
She mentioned that she’d been wanting to move up north, and Fredonia caught her eye when looking at schools.
When asked what stood out when she looked at Fredonia, she pointed to the sense of community.
“[The team] is so close-knit and they all push each other to be better and be successful,” said Andersen.
She also talked about Fredonia’s diversity when pitching her case for future Blue Devils to come to the school.
“Students and athletes should come here because the school is so diverse and even though everyone is so different, no one has judgment or prejudice towards anyone,” said Andersen.
When it came to her opinion on how the athletic fee should be used, she said she’d love to see more money put into promoting the athletes.
She talked about having more events showcasing the athletes, as well as more gear for specific sports.
While the school as a whole has a long way to go to get back to the enrollment it had in the past, athletics seems to be taking the right step to doing that.