The Hilbert Hawks Men’s Basketball team is off to a good start for  the 2022 – 2023 season.

The Hawks are currently sitting at .500 with a record of 3-3 overall and sit at first place in conference play despite not playing a conference game as of yet.

“Winning a college basketball game is not easy, “said head coach Rob deGrandpre, “Being more disciplined and executing when games are on the line would assist us greatly.  We have some young players that are learning how to manage games in critical situations. We’ve had the luxury of playing at home in five of our first six games. The job will definitely get more challenging when we hit conference play and face more nights on the road.”

DeGrandpre said he believes the team needs to work on defending in order to keep playing basketball at a high level.

“Scoring isn’t a problem for this team,” he said. “We have lots of guys that can put up points.  But playing great defense and helping one another on the defensive end has to be a priority if we are going to get where we want to go.  At the end of the day, if you want to be a great player, you have to dedicate yourself to being great on both ends of the floor. We have good players that are learning this component of college basketball.” 

On Friday November 11^th, the Hawks opened their season with the annual Hawks Against Hunger Tip-off Tournament against Morrisville State. In the first half, it looked like it was going to be a close game as the score at halftime was 43-38 in favor of Hawks. However, that began to change in the second half as the Hawks began to pull away out scoring Morrisville State 47-30 winning the game with a final score of 90-68. The Hawks were led by guard Quran Briggs with 18 points, and forward Jahmel Demery with 15 points.

In their most recent game on Tuesday November 29^th, the Hawks hosted Medaille College. In the first half, the Hawks looked like the better team overall, leading the Mavericks by a score of 48-38 at the half. By the second half, the Hawks continued to out play Medaille outscoring them 39-33. When the clock hit zero, the Hawks dominated Medaille, beating them 87-71. Forwards Nevada Eldridge and Jahmel Demery led the Hawks in points, 15 and 14 respectively.

Forward Jahmel Demery said he was proud of the way he and the team have performed so far this season.

“I think as a player, I played pretty good in the first game,” Demery said. “The team’s performance was good, but there are still a few things we need to work on. Last games performance was great for me as a player, and for the team as well. That was our first time playing a full complete game overall. As a player my goal is to remain consistent and to continue to play at a high level while pushing my teammates to play better and work harder each day in order to improve our overall performance on the court.”

The Hawks have proved that they are a much better team than their record shows. Many players have contributed to the Hawks success so far, but there are a few that stand out. Sophomore guard Quran Briggs leads the Hawks in scoring with 116 total points (19.3 points per game), and fellow sophomore forward Nevada Eldridge, second in scoring with 73 total points (12.2 points per game). Junior Jahmel Demery leads the Hawks in rebounds with 45 total rebounds and 7.7 rebounds per game.

“Our group never appears to be satisfied. They like challenges, and truly see themselves as being able to compete for post season play come February”, deGrandpre said.  “There are a lot of games left to be played (3-3, 0-0).  We’ll prepare the team like we always have… one opponent at a time.” 

 The Hawks look to keep up the great work this season as they travel to Aurora, New York on Tuesday December 6^th to take on a well-coached Wells College Express team, but look to get the job done.

“Wells College is a good program and they are well coached”, deGrandpre said.  “We have spent the week combing through film and putting in some extra fundamental work in practice which we feel will be beneficial as we play out the rest of the semester.”

Hiram, O.H. – The Hilbert Hawks had some jaw-dropping plays despite their 27-59 loss against the Hiram Terriers on November 5, including a one-handed catch, angry run, and two deep passes, all resulting in touchdowns.

The Hiram Terriers started off hot, scoring their first five drives of the game. Despite the solid quarterback pressure by the defensive line, Hiram quarterback Xavier Reyero was able to avoid it, passing for three touchdowns in the first quarter. The rushing attack was also a challenge for the Hawks, with 279 rushing yards and three total rushing touchdowns on the day.

Arguably the top two offensive performers of the day for Hilbert were quarterback Nicholas Rinkers and wide receiver Quincey Bishop. Rinkers was 15-24 and had 369 total passing yards to finish the day. Bishop was one of the top receivers on the Hawks offense with two deep touchdown receptions, the first being 34-yards and the other 29-yards. Bishop finished with 63-total receiving yards.

The Hawks found themselves down 42-0 in the second quarter, until freshman wide receiver Andre Augustiniak made an incredible one-handed catch and running 58-yards for a touchdown on second-down and six. This play brought some life to the Hawks offense that lasted the rest of the game. The Hawks primarily found success through screen passes and the deep-ball when the defense gave them the open field.

Later in the third quarter, the Hawks scored another touchdown when freshman Tight End Ja’Heim Virgil caught a 34-yard deep pass and trucked a defender to get in the end-zone. Virgil made an “angry runs” type of play and made sure he scored on that opportunity to put the Hawks at 13-52.  

Defensively, the two Hawks who had an impact were Linebackers Taivaughn Roach and Nicholas Maines. Roach had eight total tackles on the day while Maines had seven and two tackles for a loss of 8-yards. Another named mentioned frequently throughout the broadcast was defensive end Clifford Zeigler, who was applying some pressure on Hiram’s offensive line, and finished with four total tackles on the day, with two of them being for a loss of 14-yards.

With the fall sports season ending, the Hilbert Hawks will play the Wittenberg Tigers for the final game of their inaugural season on November 12 at 1PM.

It has been difficult for for some students to access Hilbert’s wireless service as more students, and devices, have come to campus in recent semesters.

But new access points will be added to the residence halls “between fall and spring break when everybody’s home”, said Chief Information Officer Jeremy Trumble.  

There have been several challenges the Hilbert IT team has had to deal with. Outdated technology with a combination of the residence halls at capacity has made Wi-Fi a top priority for them.  

The residence halls average “4 devices per student” which “stresses our infrastructure” said Trumble. 

New, upgraded access points were ordered for the entire campus this summer but due to “delays in the supply chain,” only fifteen have arrived. The ones that arrived were added to the academic buildings. “Paczesny and Bogel Hall have been completely revamped with new wireless” Trumble added.  

The next priority is the residence halls. After this, the remainder of the campus, even outdoor spaces. New access points will allow students and staff to connect better with devices and have a faster, stronger, more secure connection. Before this year, there was a limit of sixty-four access points on campus which has been upgraded to an unlimited amount. 

Freshman Beckham Blair acknowledged the improvements in Wi-Fi in the academic buildings since the beginning of the year. Blair said there has been a “noticeable difference” in performance since the access points have been added. Blair lives in the residence halls and says that it has been a “struggle” so far.  

The new access points should help accommodate students that are having issues with connection. IT is focusing on one thing at a time, as access points are received, it will keep improving the connection for students and staff. 

This is a big step for the campus, Trumble said.

“This will help us meet the needs of the increase in devices and our students.” 

Hilbert kicked off Franciscan week with the annual Franciscan Day of Caring with students, faculty and staff participating in serving Hilbert’s community partners.

Franciscan Day of Caring allows the Hilbert community a significant chance to experience the value of service to others.

One of Hilbert’s community partners is Compeer, a non-profit organization, which is located in Buffalo, NY. At Compeer their mission is to promote good mental health through meaningful friendships. Their services include one-to-one and small group mentoring that is available to youth, adults, older adults and veterans. Compeer is always looking for office volunteers and volunteers that want to help with assisting individuals who are dealing with mental health.

Hilbert volunteers traveled to Compeer and assisted the organization with a few organizational and cleaning tasks. There were two tasks: one involved cleaning up the area around the building, the other involved stuffing envelopes with Compeer information to distribute to various nearby businesses.

Rijaa Khan, the Volunteer Engagement Coordinator at Compeer, talked about how much it meant to their organization to get volunteer help from the Hilbert community.

“It means a lot to us especially after the pandemic,” Khan said. “It’s really nice to see that youth are trying to get involved with Compeer because a lot of youth clients, especially post pandemic, are really looking for that kind of social support.”

She said that having students volunteer helps spread the word and gets others to want to volunteer. Compeer recently partnered with Hilbert College in bringing their organization to the campus. This will be campus based which will allow students to connect with people from the Hilbert community. The organization looks forward to accomplishing a bunch of things with this partnership, Khan said.

“First of all, just the fact that we can help students on that campus is just another avenue for us to provide our services to other groups that might not have received them otherwise,” she said. “Brand awareness and getting our name out there so that people can learn more about Compeer in general.”

The biggest help that Compeer needs is more volunteers. Khan mentions that there are over 200 clients that are on their wait list who are waiting to be matched with someone. After the pandemic, the number of volunteers took a big hit which put them in need for more volunteers. They are also looking for people who are willing to travel to the Buffalo area since majority of their clients are located there.

There were 11 students in the volunteer group, predominantly freshman but also some juniors. Ryan Fitch, a junior, was able to give some feedback on his experience with Compeer and the Day of Service.

Fitch said Compeer’s services are something that many people don’t use but should. He adds that this is something he would volunteer to do again.

“People underestimate how important mental health is and if I could give back to the community that helps people who have bad mental health issues then I’ll do it in any way I can”, Fitch said.

The Franciscan Day of Caring is a big event for the Hilbert community in which it helps people get involved.

“Coming from a Franciscan background in high school, I completely agree that there needs to be some type of day or activity such as this to help us give back to our community and help those that might be less fortunate than us,” said Fitch.

Compeer is just one of the many community partners that Hilbert is partnered with. If you or anyone you know are looking to volunteer, Compeer is the place to go. As mentioned, Hilbert and Compeer are partnering to bring their services to campus so stay tuned for that.

Hamburg, N.Y.- Hilbert Colleges new Women’s Ice Hockey team already has an exciting start with its new partnership with the Buffalo Beauts, Buffalos professional women’s hockey team.

This is a very exciting opportunity for the athletes on both the teams, and for the students of Hilbert, coach Cole Klubek said.

“This is for our entire campus community and not just the hockey program” he said. “The partnership is great for Hilbert as it provides our students with internship and volunteer opportunities within a professional sports organization.”

Opportunities like these can have great benefits for those in the Sports Industry Management program at Hilbert College. Having some of the Beauts around will have a great impact on the players of this new team and it will show throughout the season, Klubek added.

“It is a great reminder to our players that there are potential playing and operational opportunities in professional hockey after college which will be very motivational for some.”

HAMBURG, NY – Today the Hilbert Hawks Men’s Soccer Team faced off against Alfred State at home. The game was back and forth and a very tight battle. Eventually the Alfred State Pioneers would win the game 4-2. This game was their final home game but they did clinch a playoff berth.  

THE BASICS

• Final Score: Hilbert  2  |  Alfred State  4
• Location: Hawk Field  |  Hamburg, NY
• Records: Hilbert  5-9-2 AMCC 2-5  |  Alfred State  9-5-4 AMCC 4-2-1

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Hawks kicked off against Alfred State on a beautiful fall day for their final home game at 3:00. 
• Less than a minute into the game Alfred State took the lead and for the next fifteen minutes both teams battled hard and could not find an edge. 
• In the sixteenth minute Jason Vullo struck one on a breakaway with his right foot into the bottom right corner of the net to tie the game at one. 
• Only eight minutes later Jason Vullo put a beautiful cross in for Chris Smith who just had to tap it home for Hilbert to take a one goal advantage. 
• Alfred State was not finished though as they cashed in two more times before the half to make it a 3-2 game with 45 minutes to go. 
• The entire second half was a deadlock as neither team could get an edge. As Hilbert began to push up in the final minute looking for the tying goal they would get caught out and eventually get scored on. Hilbert would go on to lose the game 4-2. 

GAME NOTES

• The Hawks took a total of 3 shots throughout the contest. They were heavily outshot as Alfred State took 10. This led to Alfred State having an advantage in corners, Alfred State had 5 and Hilbert had 2. 
• Jason Vullo led the Hawks today with two shots on goal and was followed by Chris Smith who recorded 1. 
• Logan Peck played outstanding today recording six saves in the loss. 

UP NEXT

The Hawks head back to the program’s first post-season tournament since the 2015 season.   As the No. 6 seed, Hilbert will travel to No. 3 Alfred State on October 29 with a 12 noon first kick due to that campus’ double header play-off series.  The winner of the First Round game will advance to play at No. 2 Pitt-Greensburg on November 3.

AMCC Tournament seedings:
No. 1 Penn State Behrend
No. 2 Mount Aloysius
No. 3 Alfred State College
No. 4 Pitt-Greensburg
No. 5 Penn State Altoona
No. 6 Hilbert

First Round Games: October 29
Semifinal Games: November 3
Championship Game: November 6