Sophomore Justin Fries, above, and brothers Kyle and Dan Stephens earned berths in the NEAC postseason tennis tournament, which runs Saturday and Sunday (photo courtesy of Ed Webber, Keuka College Sports Information Department).

The Keuka College men’s tennis team wrapped up the 2012 regular season with three North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) matches and a non-conference clash with Elmira College, and the Storm dropped all four contests.

Keuka suffered a 9-0 home shutout to Elmira College on Wednesday, losing five of six singles matches in straight sets and being swept in the three doubles matches. Junior Dan Stephens (Odessa, NY/Odessa-Montour) won the first set of his third singles match with Sam Pine by a 7-6 (9-7) score before dropping the second 6-2 and the tiebreak 10-5.

Hosting NEAC rival Lancaster Bible College on a picture-perfect Friday afternoon, the Storm fell to the Chargers 7-2. Stephens posted a 6-3, 7-6 (10-8) victory over Brandon Cutler at fourth singles, and sophomore Justin Fries (Marion, NY/Marion) and senior Kyle Stephens (Odessa, NY/Odessa-Montour) defeated Alex Ko and Grant Noel 8-5 at first doubles for Keuka’s only two points of the match.

The Green and Gold hit the road on Saturday and Sunday for a pair of tough NEAC clashes, and Keuka suffered an 8-1 loss at Penn State-Berks on Saturday and a 9-0 loss to Penn State-Harrisburg on Sunday.

Against Berks, seven of the nine matches were sweeps by the Nittany Lions. Dan Stephens posted a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 win over Bradley Kale at third singles, and Fries had a close match at first singles. Facing Matt Holdorf, Fries won the first set 7-6 (7-2) but lost the second set 6-0 and the decisive third set 10-2.

Closing out the regular-season against Harrisburg, Keuka (1-7, 0-4 NEAC) suffered straight-set losses at all six singles events and all three doubles contests.

While the Storm didn’t qualify for this weekend’s NEAC team championships, several individual members earned spots in the tournament, which runs Saturday and Sunday at the Birchwood Tennis Club in Clarks Summit, PA.

Dan Stephens earned the No. 4 seed in the third singles draw while brother Kyle Stephens and Justin Fries earned the No. 4 seed in the first doubles draw.

The No. 1 and No. 4 players/teams will square off in one semifinal, with the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds squaring off in the other semifinal.

The winners of each match will play for the conference championship, with the winner earning first-team All-NEAC and the runner-up earning second-team All-NEAC. The winner of the third-place match earns third-team All-NEAC.

Sophomore Justin Fries posted a straight-sets win at first singles to help Keuka's men's tennis team earn its first win of the season, 5-4 over the University of Pitt-Bradford (photo courtesy of Ed Webber, Keuka College Sports Information Department).

Sophomore Justin Fries (Marion, NY/Marion) posted a convincing, straight sets win at first singles, and Keuka College’s men’s tennis picked up its first win of the 2012 season, defeating the University of Pitt-Bradford 5-4 at Keuka Thursday afternoon.

Fries posted a 6-2, 6-0 win over Pitt-Bradford’s Ian Vaughan at first singles as the Storm (1-2) went 4-2 in singles play and 1-2 in doubles play.

Senior Kyle Stephens (Odessa, NY/Odessa-Montour) claimed a win over Charles Fitzpatrick at third singles while junior Kyle Rivera (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) posted a 6-2, 6-3 win over Dylan Nuzzo at fifth singles. The Storm’s other two wins came via forfeit at sixth singlesa and third doubles.

Keuka returns to action with a 10 a.m. North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) clash against Penn State-Abington Saturday morning.

Singles
1. Justin Fries (KEUKA) def. Ian Vaughan (Pitt-Brad) 6-2, 6-0
2. Travis Scida (Pitt-Brad) def. Christian Kissel (KEUKA) 7-5, 2-6, 6-3
3. Kyle Stephens (KEUKA) def. Charles Fitzpatrick (Pitt-Brad)
4. David Kopp (Pitt-Brad) def. Dan Stephens (KEUKA) 6-1, 6-3
5. Kyle Rivera (KEUKA) def. Dylan Nuzzo (Pitt-Brad) 6-2, 6-3
6. Nick Simpson (KEUKA) won by forfeit

Doubles
1. Scida/Nuzzo (Pitt-Brad) def. Fries/Kissel (KEUKA) 8-3.
2. Fitzpatrick/Kopp (Pitt-Brad) def. D. Stephens/K. Stephens (KEUKA) 8-5
3. Rivera/Simpson (KEUKA) won by forfeit.

Sophomore Justin Fries posted a 6-4, 6-1 win at first singles, but Keuka's men's tennis team fell to SUNY Oswego 8-1 Monday afternoon.

Sophomore Justin Fries (Marion, NY/Marion) posted a convincing, straight sets win at first singles, but Keuka College’s men’s tennis team dropped a non-conference clash vs. SUNY Oswego Monday afternoon.

Fries posted a 6-4, 6-1 win over Oswego’s Ben Weiss at first singles, but the Storm (0-2) lost all three doubles matches and the remaining five singles matches against the Lakers (1-3).

Among the contests, Fries and sophomore Christian Kissel (East Rochester, NY/East Rochester) suffered a 9-8 setback at first doubles, dropping the match in a tiebreaker by an 8-6 score.

Keuka returns to action with its home opener, a 4 p.m. non-conference clash with the University of Pitt-Bradford Thursday afternoon.

Singles
1. Justin Fries (KEUKA) def. Ben Weiss (OSW) 6-4, 6-1
2. Sam Moores (OSW) def. Christian Kissel (KEUKA) 6-2, 6-0
3. Tim Van Hine, Jr. (OSW) def. Kyle Stephens (KEUKA) 6-3, 6-0
4. D.J. Esposito-Kelley (OSW) def. Dan Stephens (KEUKA) 6-3, 6-0
5. Ben Schleider (OSW) def. Chenchao Li (KEUKA) 6-1, 6-0
6. Max McCune (OSW) def. Kyle Rivera (KEUKA) 6-1, 7-5

Doubles
1. McCune/Brian Tosti (OSW) def. Fries/Kissel (KEUKA) 9-8 (6)
2. Van Hine, Jr./Esposito-Kelley (OSW) def. D. Stephens/K. Stephens (KEUKA) 8-3
3. Weiss/Schleider (OSW) def. Li/Rivera (KEUKA) 8-5

Both the Storm’s men’s and women’s tennis squads were scheduled to play North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) matches with Penn State-Harrisburg at noon on Sunday, but rain and poor court conditions have caused those matches to be postponed. No makeup date has been announced yet for the matches, which would have been the spring home openers for both squads.

Keuka’s baseball team had its home doubleheader with Penn State-Abington, slated for a 1 p.m. start, canceled due to inclement weather. Again, no makeup date has been announced for the doubleheader.

Check back to KeukaStorm.com and the Storm’s Facebook page, Facebook.com/KeukaStorm to find out when makeup dates for these contests are announced.

Junior Dan Stephens (left) and senior Kyle Stephens (right) teamed up for a win at second doubles, but Keuka's men's tennis team dropped a 5-4 decision at Pitt-Bradford Monday night.

The Keuka College men’s tennis team opened the 2012 season at the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford Monday night, but despite splitting the six singles matches, the Storm dropped its season-opener, 5-4 to the Panthers.

With the match tied at four wins apiece, senior Kyle Stephens (Odessa, NY/Odessa-Montour) faced Travis Scida in the decisive third singles match. Stephens dropped the first set, 6-2, but rallied and evened his match at one set apiece with a 6-2 win in the second set.

Needing a third-set win to pull out the victory in the match, Stephens led 3-1 before Scida claimed four of the next five games to take a 5-4 lead. Stephens fought off match point and forced a tiebreaker, but despite trailing 3-0, Stephens took a 6-5 lead in the tiebreaker before eventually falling 8-6.

Kyle Stephens and junior brother Dan Stephens (Odessa, NY/Odessa-Montour) teamed up to win 9-7 at second doubles, but Keuka (0-1) trailed 2-1 after the three doubles matches.

Sophomore Justin Fries (Marion, NY/Marion), Keuka’s top singles player, easily posted a 6-1, 6-1 win at first singles, and both Dan Stephens and junior Kyle Rivera (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) also recorded wins in singles action. Stephens won 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) at fourth singles while Rivera breezed to a 6-3, 6-1 win at sixth singles.

Pitt-Bradford improves to 2-2 with the win.

The Storm returns to action with its home opener, a noon match on Sunday, April 1 versus Penn State-Harrisburg in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) opener for Keuka.

Jeff Bray, right, Keuka College's head athletic trainer/assistant athletic director, has worked as an athletic trainer for dozens of auto races, including an open wheel race when he met Helio Castroneves, an IndyCar driver and three-time Indy 500 champion.

By John Boccacino/Sports Information Director

Growing up on his parents’ gas station in Sterling, Kansas, Jeff Bray was surrounded by automobiles at an early age, so it should come as no surprise that the longtime Keuka College head athletic trainer/assistant athletic director considers himself an avid “Gear Head,” an affectionate term used to describe diehard motorsports fans.

Bray was bitten by the auto racing bug and has been going to the local and national speedways for as long as he can remember.

“I got into cars and into racing because I grew up on a gas station, and my wife [Kristen] says if you cut me I’ll probably bleed motor oil, and she believes that,” Bray recalled with a laugh and a smile.

“My parents had a friend who raced cars, and my dad provided tires for him, so I grew up thinking [that driver] was Zeus-like, he was awesome behind the wheel. Watching the Indy 500 was always the best day of the year, better than Christmas for me, and I lived for Memorial Day.”

For the last 18 years, Bray has carved time into his busy Keuka College schedule to work as an athletic trainer at dozens of races each year, including NASCAR, Indy Car and the American Le Mans Series. His efforts have taken him across the world assisting on race days.

“I’ve never had a bad day at the racetrack in 18 years,” said Bray, who is celebrating his 20th year at Keuka College and who resides in Penn Yan with wife, Kristen, son Tyler, 15, and daughter Kelly, 13.

“Even when things haven’t gone right, I’m still at the racetrack and that’s what keeps me going, I am fortunate to ply my trade into something I’m passionate about.”

As a teenager, Bray had some insight into his future professional career and knew how he wanted to spend his working days.  

Bray’s mother, Nettie, suffered a stroke when Bray was just 15 years old, leaving her without use of her right arm and right leg. Despite the stroke, Bray’s mom, “never complains about anything,” and after watching her dedicated efforts to rehab from her injuries, Bray decided to enroll at a pre-physical therapy program at Kansas State University, located roughly 140 miles away from Sterling.

“I went to my mother’s physical therapy sessions and I thought it was pretty neat how these people were so passionate about helping my mom recover from her injury,” Bray said.

“I’d never been around physical therapists before, so I thought how they helped people recover from their injuries was pretty cool.”

When Bray was still in high school, his government teacher approached him with an interesting question. As a sophomore at Sterling High School, this government teacher asked Bray: “Do you think you have a better chance to play football at Kansas State, or be a student-athletic trainer. I didn’t know what that field was, so I attended a Cramer Sports Medicine summer workshop.”

There, Bray met Bud Epps, the assistant trainer at Missouri who eventually became an assistant athletic trainer for the Kansas City Chiefs. Epps took Bray under his wing, and after enrolling at Kansas State, Bray worked as a student athletic trainer and worked the Wildcats’ home and away football games.

While on a road trip to Iowa State with the Wildcats’ football team, Bray was out to dinner with Jim Rudd and Hank Fijalkowski, Bray’s bosses at Kansas State, and the topic of landing a summer internship with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles popped up. While Bray was skeptical he could ever land a gig in the NFL, he applied for the position anyways and was selected as one of roughly 10-12 summer interns in the athletic training department.

In-between his sophomore and junior years at Kansas State, Bray began his first of three seasons as a summer intern, and he did such a commendable job he was asked back for one year as a paid trainer following his graduation from Kansas State.

While with the Eagles, Bray taped Reggie White, the Eagles’ fierce pass rusher and eventual Hall-of-Famer. During the 1987 NFL Players Strike, Bray recalls working the Eagles’ home opener at the old Veterans Stadium as Philadelphia hosted the Chicago Bears before 4,000 fans.

“The first person I met, as far as players go, was [quarterback] Ron Jaworski. He brought us [athletic trainers] a couple of large pizzas and some beverages, and he was as common Joe as they come,” said Bray, whose office inside the Weed Physical Arts Center has plenty of mementos from his stint with the Eagles.

“Mike Golic was there and he was a great guy, Reggie White was a lot of fun to be around, I’ll never forget his personality and the passion he brought, not only to football but later on to his ministry career. There were just a lot of great guys to be around: Cris Carter, Keith Byars, Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, Terry Hoage. We also had Jeff Fisher as the defensive backs coach, Wade Phillips was linebackers coach, Tom Coughlin was a defensive coach and of course, Buddy Ryan was the head coach for my second year. A majority of those coaches went onto become head coaches in the NFL, and it’s amazing they all came from that one team.”

While it might seem glamorous working with an NFL team, Bray said the job definitely had its challenges, including grueling work days with few days off, especially in-season. But there were plenty of benefits to the position, Bray said, including working with professional athletes at the highest level and having an apartment in Veterans Stadium that allowed him to wander into the stadium’s bullpen and dugouts on quiet nights.

One day, the Eagles and baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies were holding a charity bowling tournament, and the Eagles’ front office assembled a team that included Bray.

“This guy comes and sits down next to me, we’re putting our bowling shoes on, and he’s wearing slacks and a golf shirt and he asks if I worked for the Eagles, and I said yes,” Bray recalled. “I asked who he worked for and he said the Phillies, and we’re just talking while putting our bowling shoes on when this little kid comes in and says, ‘Mr. Schmidt, can I have your autograph?’ and I look over and see that I’ve been talking to Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt this whole time! I start undoing my shoes, went to the sporting goods store down the street, bought a National League baseball and asked Mike to sign it for me. He said, ‘You didn’t know who I was, did you?’ and we laughed about it. Charles Barkley was bowling a few lanes down from us, and what struck me was they were just guys out bowling, no one made a big deal about it.”

Following a stint at Illinois State, Bray was offered the head athletic trainer job at Keuka July 1, 1992. After his first year with the Storm Bray was working with Mobile Sports Medicine Director Don Andrews at the First Frontier Circuit Rodeo finals in Albany in 1993, when Bray casually asked Andrews about his recent trip to Phoenix, Ariz.

Andrews, who has been a driving force in increasing safety in the sports of bull riding, auto racing, skiing and equestrian, mentioned he had met with Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip about beginning a sports medicine program in the Winston Cup circuit. Bray expressed an interest in assisting at various races, and Andrews welcomed him to the team for 8 to 10 races a year.

After his team lost its sponsorship in 1998, Bray switched to open wheel racing and the CART Series, which has evolved into the Champ Car World Series, and worked races across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England and Japan.

While working alongside legendary actor/race car driver Paul Newman and the drivers of his Newman/Haas Racing Team in the Champ Car Racing Series, Bray recalls the time he observed Newman hunched over a sink in the medical center.

“Paul was one of the most outstanding people I ever spent a minute talking to. He had the cream of the crop in open wheel racing, so if a driver was injured, Paul would accompany them to the medical center,” Bray said. “So I turn around one night and see Paul over the sink, and he’d cut the tip of his finger making a salad for some guests, so we took care of his finger and got a surgeon to suture Paul up. Paul hung around afterwards and entertained us with his stories, and I’ll never forget him coming over and introducing himself to me, saying, ‘I’m Paul Newman, what’s your name?’ And I’m thinking to myself ‘I know who you are!’ They’re looked upon as bigger than life, but they’re just good, hard-working people and that’s really the neatest thing.”

While working a race in Mexico City, Mexico in 2007, Bray had the opportunity to ride in the back seat of an F1 car driven by Champ Car World Series driver Zsolt Baumgartner. After donning the fire-proof gear, Bray experienced the sensation of flying through the road at speeds of 175 miles-per-hour.

“Outside of the birth of my kids and my wedding day, that is the single coolest day I’ve ever had,” said Bray, who one day hopes to drive a Sprint car on a dirt track.

“It’s fast riding in a car at those speeds, but the speed is not as cool as the car’s breaking power. Going from 175 MPH to literally zero in a very short distance and not squealing the tires, then turning right and do it again, there’s no way to describe the rush; it’s like the best roller coaster at Darien Lake on steroids. … My career in auto racing all started with me asking a question, and to this day I’m still doing something I’m passionate about, and that’s pretty cool.”

If Bray had his way and could work any sporting event in the world as athletic trainer, what would he chose?

“It would probably have to be something in auto racing, but if I was going as a team athletic trainer, it would probably be Game 7 of the World Series,” said Bray, who added he would never go to the Super Bowl as a fan, only if he was working the event down on the field.

Veteran athletic trainer Jeff Bray, left, works on Ava Wilburn during a Keuka College women's soccer home game in the fall of 2011.

By John Boccacino/Sports Information Director

Jeff Bray is an avid motorsports fan, and when he arrived in scenic Keuka Park to accept a job as Keuka College’s head athletic trainer/assistant athletic director in the summer of 1992, he figured he was just making a pit stop.

Nearly 20 later, the man who came to campus on a two-year plan can’t imagine working anywhere else.

As he reflects on two decades of dedicated service to the Storm’s student-athletes, Bray can’t help but wonder how he ended up as the second-longest tenured member of the College’s athletics department.

To quote the Grateful Dead anthem, “Truckin’,” what a long, strange trip it has been for Bray.

Born in Sterling, Kansas, a small town that Bray said possesses a similar down-home feel to Keuka, Bray essentially grew up on his parent’s gas station before enrolling in Kansas State to study athletic training.

Bray has taped hundreds of professional athletes during a career that, among other stops, has seen him work the sidelines of NFL games, alongside pit crews for assorted auto racing events across the world, and behind the bucking chutes at top-flight bull riding competitions.

During a four-year stint in the NFL working as an athletic trainer with the Philadelphia Eagles — three as a summer intern and one as a paid professional — Bray taped Hall-of-Famer Reggie White, was part of a team that helped dynamic quarterback Randall Cunningham recover from various knee injuries, and worked alongside talented coaches such as Buddy Ryan, Jeff Fisher and Wade Phillips, to name a few.

Tom Coughlin, the Waterloo native who will lead the NFC champion New York Giants into battle against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI Feb. 5, was also a part of those Eagles’ coaching staffs during Bray’s time with the team.

Jeff Bray has worked as an athletic trainer for numerous auto races, including an open wheel race when he met Helio Castroneves, an IndyCar driver and three-time Indy 500 champion.

Bray worked alongside legendary actor/race car driver Paul Newman and the drivers of his Newman/Haas Racing Team when working in the Champ Car Racing Series. Division I schools, including Bray’s alma mater Boise State, have sought his expertise in the field of athletic training, making enticing job pitches in an attempt to land Bray’s services.

But through an athletic training career that has spanned more than three decades — the last two of them spent at Keuka — there is no place Bray would rather call home than picturesque Keuka College.

“One of the reasons it’s been easy to stay here is because Keuka’s just been a good place to be, with good people who provide a great college experience, be it coaches, parents, administrators, or the student-athletes. Coach Dave Sweet has been an outstanding mentor and has taught me all about the world that is Division III athletics,” said Bray, who became interested in physical training after watching his mother, Nettie, battle back from a debilitating stroke when Bray was 15.

“I really appreciate getting to know the families of the student-athletes here. At a Division I school you never really have any dealings with parents. Keuka is special from that standpoint, and as my kids get older that [relationship with the parents] means more to me, because not too far down the road it’ll be me handing my kids off to a college and I’ll want to feel as comfortable sending my kids off to college as the parents of our student-athletes feel when they send their children to Keuka.”

However, that opinion of Keuka took some time to formulate for Bray, who currently resides in nearby Penn Yan with wife, Kristen, and son Tyler, 15, and daughter Kelly, 13.

When Bray was offered the Keuka position, he had his reservations. Sweet, Keuka’s athletic director and head coach of the women’s basketball team, had been on campus for nine years and was working diligently to transform the Storm from a predominantly women’s sports-based program into a well-rounded, co-ed athletics department that produced championship-caliber teams on the playing fields, and accomplished students in the classroom.

Additionally, Bray had only worked with professional and Division I athletes at his previous jobs, and Keuka was a tiny Division III school smack-dab in the middle of rural Upstate New York.

The Storm didn’t even have a football team, a fact Bray felt was a prerequisite for any potential job. He previously had worked passionately with football teams at every stop along the way: from his student athletic trainer days at Kansas State, to his graduate work at Boise State, through his four-year stint with the Eagles, and his time spent as Illinois State’s head football trainer.

In the end, while the decision was Bray’s to make, his future wife Kristen held the ultimate card. She had grown up in the Buffalo area and was a successful basketball player at Canisius College. Even though the couple wasn’t yet married, Bray realized it was important for Kristen to be closer to her family.

So the couple came to an agreement. Kristen and Jeff would relocate and Bray would try out the Keuka position for two years, and if Bray was unsatisfied at the end of the two-year trial period, Kristen would relocate anywhere in the country as her husband searched for his dream job.

Twenty years later and, the rest is history. Bray said he “fell in love” with the job and the students, and while other colleges and universities have called for Bray’s services, the answer has always been the same: “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“I had a unique opportunity at a very young age to reach the pinnacle of our profession,” said Bray, who still carves out time in his busy schedule to work between 5-10 auto races a year as an athletic trainer.

“There are thousands of young athletic trainers, student athletic trainers that aspire to work in pro sports, and only a few get there. I had the opportunity and while I enjoyed my time in the pros, long-term I didn’t know if it was for me. After a lot of thinking, when this job became available I took it and while I couldn’t believe I was at this small college with no football, I owed it to Keuka to give it my best. After all these years this is where I’m supposed to be.”

To achieve peace of mind with his decision about his future, Bray turned to an important part of his past, Otho Davis, his mentor in the athletic training field. Davis was the long-time trainer in the NFL who had worked with the then-Baltimore Colts and was Bray’s boss with the Eagles when Bray secured a summer internship to study under the legendary Davis, who at the time was considered among the best trainers in all of professional sports.

Davis, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2000, was instrumental in swaying Bray to take the job with the Storm. While he was the influence who got Bray into professional sports, Davis also warned Bray of the dangers of working in an industry where off days are few and far between and the average work week could range from 80 to 100 hours.

Davis, who had four sons, rarely got to see his family due to the rigors and demands of the job, a factor Bray considered heavily when debating the pros and cons of the Keuka position.

As Keuka's head athletic trainer, Jeff Bray is responsible for attending to all injured players, whether they play for the Storm or the opposition.

In the end, the chance to help deserving Division III athletes won out. Now, fast-forward 20 years and Bray’s presence has become part of the fiber of a student-athlete’s life. Bray and his staff of athletic trainers work all Keuka College sporting events, ready on the sidelines should an injury befall a member of the Storm or the opposition.

“When I’m asked why I’m still at Keuka, ‘I say why not?’ If our point guard, [Jessica Bandrowski], sprains her ankle and is going to potentially miss some big games coming up, she’s as valuable to her team as [Boise State star quarterback] Kellen Moore is to his team,” said Bray, who used his NFL connections to secure the New York Jets old athletic training equipment when the NFL franchise decided to purchase new equipment in 1998.

“Sure, it’s not going to be in the USA Today or make ESPN that Bandrowski sprained her ankle and might miss a game, but she deserves to be treated like a professional athlete, too. But also, if I go to coach Sweet and say Bandrowski can’t play tomorrow, I’m not going to get the screws put to me [to get her ready to play] to the point that my ethics are pushed and her best interests are questioned in order to get a win.”

Bray’s influence on Keuka’s student-body is not limited to the various playing fields for the Storm’s 16 varsity sports teams. Bray also serves as an adjunct instructor and teaches two sports management classes.

Each fall, as part of their senior class projects, Bray’s sports management students organize the annual Storm Madness pep rally, a raucous affair that provides a first look at the men’s and women’s basketball teams to the campus and neighboring communities.

“Jeff has been my right-hand man for all these years, and he is immensely talented and certainly has a lot to offer to any college,” said Sweet, who credits Bray’s communication skills, problem-solving ability, and self-starter mentality as some of his best personality traits.

“He’s tuned-in well with the needs of our student-athletes and understands what we’re trying to accomplish as a small Division III college athletics program. We’re not all about wins and losses; we try to educate the student-athletes on the overall collegiate experience and Jeff has been extremely helpful, not only to the college but to me in particular.”

Applauding Keuka’s unique Field Period as one of the most beneficial aspects of a Keuka education, Bray backs the college’s required annual 140-hour long internship program that offers real-world work experience to students each year they’re on campus.

“Professionally, if you’re trying to get somewhere, don’t always think you’re going to get somewhere on your own,” said Bray, who originally learned of the Eagles’ summer trainer position through Jim Rudd and Hank Fijalkowski, his bosses while Bray was a student athletic trainer at Kansas State.

“There are people that can and will help you if they know where you want to go. I am a firm believer in our Field Period because I lived the internship route, that’s how I got into the NFL. Jim and Hank, my mentors, told me I needed to do an internship in the NFL, and at the time I was probably too stupid to ask questions. But if Otho, Jim or Hank told me to do something, I knew that was what I needed to do. Our students need to get out and have those workplace experiences, but students can’t have a broken want-to. You can’t be the one pushing them; they need the drive and motivation to succeed.”

Throughout the years, Bray’s dedication toward Keuka College and the Storm’s student-athletes has never wavered, and he is just as passionate about his job and this campus as he was July 1, 1992, the day he first reported for duty at Keuka.

“I think you’re missing the boat of life if you’re not passionate about something,” Bray said. “To this day, I’m still doing something I’m passionate about and that’s pretty cool.”

Freshman Andrew Pirozzi ended his rookie year 1-8 in singles play.

The Keuka College men’s tennis team finished its season with an 8-1 loss at SUNY Oswego on Monday.  Keuka ends the year with a 1-9 overall record.

The Storm won one of the three doubles matches before being swept in all six of the singles matches.

Brothers Kyle and Dan Stephens (Odessa, N.Y./Odessa-Montour) took the second flight of doubles by a score of 8-4.

Kyle Stephens improved to 2-6 on the year with his singles win.

The Keuka College men’s tennis team came up short by a score of 7-2 in a rain shortened match against the SUNY Oswego Lakers at home on Monday.  The Storm slips to 1-8 overall.

Keuka lost the first two doubles matches by scores of 8-1 and 8-3, before having to forfeit the third flight.  In singles, Keuka was able to win the first and third flights while losing the second, fourth, and fifth flights.  Keuka again had to forfeit the sixth flight.

Senior Blaine Phair (Pembroke, NH/Pembroke) won the first flight by a score of 8-6 as junior Kyle Stephens (Odessa, N.Y./Odessa-Montour) took the third flight 8-5.

Freshman Andrew Pirozzi finished his rookie season with a 1-6 singles record.

Three Keuka College men’s tennis players qualified for the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Individual Tournament being played at the Birchwood Tennis Club in Clarks Summit, Pa. on Friday.

Freshman Andrew Pirozzi (Center Moriches, N.Y./Center Moriches) qualified in the second flight and was given the #4 seed.  Senior Blaine Phair (Pembroke, NH/Pembroke) qualified in flight No. 3 as the #4 seed and freshman Dan Stephens (Odessa, N.Y./Odessa-Montour) qualified in the fifth flight as #3 seed.

Pirozzi lost his first match to the top seed from Penn State-Harrisburg (6-1, 6-1) before falling (6-0, 6-0) in the consolation match to an opponent from Penn State-Abington.

Phair was defeated by the top seed from Harrisburg (6-3, 7-6) before also losing in the consolation match (3-6, 6-4, 10-3) to his opponent from Abington.

Stephens dropped his first match (6-3, 6-3) to the #2 seed from Berks before defeating his opponent  from SUNY Cobleskill (7-6, 7-6) in the consolation match.  With the win he earned a spot on the All-NAC third team.