Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • C4

C4 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014 THE HARTFORD COURANT SP RTS Yankees UConn Mo'ne to continued success. "I consider this matter closed and we will have no further comment." Multiple sources told The Courant Thursday that neither the Atlantic Coast Conference nor the American Athletic Conference were responsible for the complaint made against Auriemma. On Wednesday, Auriemma said a conference that he would not identify, acting on behalf of a member school, filed a complaint against him alleging that his congratulatory call to Davis was a recruiting violation. On Thursday, Barbara Jacobs, the AAC's newly appointed associate commissioner of women's basketball, said the league was obligated to investigate the complaint and was is in the process of doing so with UConn and the NCAA compliance offices. Several years ago UConn self-reported a secondary violation of NCAA rules involving the recruiting of Maya Moore.

The complaint, filed by the SEC on behalf of Tennessee, occurred in 2005 when the women's basketball office arranged for Moore, then a high school student and top national recruit, to tour ESPN. But the circumstances here are quite different. According to an athletic department source, the NCAA viewed Davis, despite her age, as someone more significant than a typical "individual athlete" because of her notoriety and previously expressed interest in playing for UConn. And even though it was not Auriemma's intent to speak directly to Davis, the fact that he initiated the call simply to express support and congratulations obviously did not sit well with NCAA compliance. The NCAA defines a secondary violation as one that is inadvertent in nature or doesn't represent a significant competitive advantage.

Davis, 13, made history by pitching a shutout and collecting an RBI to lead the Philadelphia-based Taney Dragons to the semifinals of the United States Little League championship in South Williamsport, Pa. Before her team's semifinal game against Nevada, which Davis started, Auriemma placed a call to the Little League's administrative office, on behalf of a request from the Philadelphia 76ers, to say hello. What made Davis stand out in Connecticut more than her accomplishments on the field was the UConn sweat shirt she wore everywhere she went, along with her public admission that she dreamed of playing point guard for Auriemma and the Huskies. Since the end of the tournament, Davis has worn the UConn sweat shirt during visits to the WNBA semifinals in Minnesota, where her idol, Moore, was among those who autographed it for her. Earlier this week she was also wearing it in Los Angeles when she met Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, another of her favorite athletes, before throwing a first-pitch strike before the game at Dodger Stadium.

The conversation between Auriemma and Davis was witnessed by those in the Little League's administrative office, where Davis was standing when the call came in. It was reported that nothing more than small talk took place between Davis and the Hall of Fame coach, who encouraged her to get a few hits. Continued from Page CI sity of Connecticut, the American Athletic Conference and the NCAA have been working together to determine whether a violation occurred when head women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma spoke with Mo'ne Davis over the phone during the 2014 Little League World Series," Manuel said in a statement. "The NCAA has determined a secondary rules violation of bylaw 13.1.3.1 did occur and while UConn accepts this decision, we do not agree with it. "Prior to attempting to reach Davis, Coach Auriemma checked with the UConn compliance department and was advised such a call would be permissible since Davis is not considered a prospective student-athlete by the NCAA and the call was to be congratulatory rather than recruiting in nature.

"While UConn will continue to adhere to the NCAA and conference rules, I believe that upon request from a friend to Geno, a proud Philadel-phian, to call a young lady representing the City of Brotherly Love who had accomplished historic feats in the Little League World Series, should not constitute a violation especially due to the fact that NCAA rules do not classify Mo'ne as a prospective student-athlete. "The nature of Coach Auriemma's two-minute conversation with Mo'ne had nothing to do with recruiting and instead had everything to do with congratulating and encouraging Continued from Page CI Koji Uehara. One out later, Chase Headley won it with a long home run to right, immediately throwing a fist into the air and sending 44,708 into hysterics. "It's a great win, and we needed it," manager Joe Girardi said. "And we're going to need a lot more." The Red Sox, who took a 3-0 lead in the third, hit three home runs of their own off Chris Capuano two by David Ortiz and one by Brock Holt, who gave Boston a 4-3 lead in the fifth with a shot to right that just cleared the leap of Ichiro Suzuki.

Adam Warren (3-5), who stranded runners at second and third in the top of the ninth by getting Holt to ground out, picked up the victory. The Yankees (72-66), who remained 9Vi games behind the AL East-leading Orioles, entered the night four games behind the Tigers in the chase for the second wild card berth. Boston (61-79) saw righthander Brandon Workman nearly earn his first victory since June 27. Workman, who entered the game with a 1-8 record and 4.93 ERA, allowed three runs and five hits in six innings. Before the ninth, the highlight of the night for the Yankees was a three-run third.

Derek Jeter contributed the big hit, a long two -run double to center that cut the deficit to 3-2. With the Yankees trailing 3-0, Ichiro singled and Jacoby Ellsbury walked to bring Jeter to the plate. He had only two extra-base hits since Aug. 3, but he rifled Workman's 1-and-l fastball over the head of center fielder Mookie Betts for a two -run double. Carlos Beltran's two-out single to right tied it at 3-3.

Lefthander Capuano, solid in his seven starts with the Yankees since July 26, allowed three home runs to left-handed hitters in 4 13 innings, two of them to once-and-always Yankee-killer Ortiz. Capuano gave up four runs, six hits and a walk. With two outs in the first, Ortiz tattooed Capuano's 0-and-l fastball, which crossed the plate at 91 mph, into the first row of seats in right for his 31st homer and first hit of the three-game series. The Red Sox had a chance to add on in the second but honored their status as the AL's lowest-scoring team coming in, 536 runs. Mike Napoli beat the shift by trickling a grounder through the vacant right side of the infield and Allen Craig walked.

But Xander Bogaerts flied out to short right. Will Middlebrooks struck out and Capuano got out of the inning by getting Christian Vazquez to ground out. Priore secretive about how to be a head coach." At Stony Brook, an FCS program, Priore has a wider range of athletes to recruit His roster includes transfers from such schools as Syracuse, Iowa, Maryland and Florida State. Yet Devanney sees the same coach. Before this year, Trinity would journey to Long Island for spring practice and Devanney's staff had an opportunity to watch Priore up close.

Devanney also talks to Priore about once a month. "He has different types of kids now, but Chuck can deal with all types of kids," Devanney said. "Chuck can coach really, really high academic kids, he can coach junior college kids. He can kind of coach a lot of different people." Priore, 54, is 52-41 at Stony Brook, which includes a 10-3 record in 2012 and a 9-4 record in 2 OIL Stony Brook opened this season with a loss to Bryant, but expectations for the program are high. "The biggest thing with Chuck and we've tried to continue it here is that he knew how to recruit," Devanney said.

"If you recruit really good players, you're going to win a lot more than you lose. And I think he's done the same thing at Stony Brook." Devanney is 55-9 with two unbeaten seasons during his eight years as Trinity coach. His program hasn't lost a home game since 2001 a span of 51 games and the coach is carrying on the tradition of Dan Jessee, Miller, and, yes, Priore. "Having played here for Coach Miller, I'm all about the history," Devanney said. "I love the history of this place.

But obviously, Chuck came in here, the program had been on a little bit of a slide. And where the slide was, was maybe in the expectations of the kids. That's what Chuck's really good at. Chuck sets high expectations for players and he knows how to coach them and push them." That's a trait Devanney inherited from Priore. And aside from the tangible influence of the old coach, Priore's presence is felt every day at Trinity without Priore's recommendation, Devanney might not have been hired.

Priore implored the administration to promote his assistant after he announced that he was leaving in December 2005. "It went from them hemming and hawing about whether they were going to give me the job to them just giving me the job," Devanney said. "So I owe him a lot, but that's the biggest thing I owe him." For his part, Priore said he owes his career to tiie administrators at Trinity. He was an assistant at Perm with no head coaching experience when he landed a plum Division III job, and he still appreciates the opportunity. "That was a tremendous experience for me," Priore said.

"It was my first head coaching job, I worked for some great people there the institution, the presidents I worked for, the former athletic director Rick Hazel-ton certainly gave me the opportunity to grow as a head football coach, and learn. And I really appreciated my time in Connecticut, both living in the state and as an employee of Trinity." Continued from Page CI hosts Stony Brook at Rentschler Field as Priore returns to the region where he has had so much success. "Looking forward to gettingbackup there, playing and having a chance to compete, and hopefully we'll show up and give UConn a good game," Priore said this week. "I'm excited. I've watched some games from the stands at Rentschler, and I've spent some time in the press box at different events.

So it will be exciting to coach the game from on the field." Priore's first head coaching job was at Trinity, stepping into a program in transition. Don Miller's 32-year run ended in 1998 and the team was 5-3 under interim coach Bill Decker in 1999. Priore had two 4-4 seasons before flourishing with a roster of his own recruits. Trinity was 7-1 in 2002 before posting three consecutive 8-0 seasons. Devanney, who played at Trinity under Miller, had coached at Georgia Tech under George O'Leary and had many coaching mentors.

But as an assistant under Priore, he learned about running a program within the academically demanding NESCAC. "He would tell the assistant coaches what he was doing, what was going on with admissions, how the meetings went," Devanney said. "You were kind of learning on the fly. It wasn't like he was a head coach in his office being ANTHONY GRUPPUSO REUTERS YANKEES third baseman Chase Headley rounds the bases after his walk-off home run against the Red Sox Thursday night at Yankee Stadium. Jacobs That's why there were 11 guys on the truck instead of five." Eleven heroes rushed to the World Trade Center.

Eleven heroes didn't return to Staten Island Rescue 5. One was Nicholas Rossomando, 35. Rossomando's family initially believed he was OK. A dispatcher had said Rescue 5 had all been accounted for. "We were told we probably won't hear from him until the morning because cellphone reception was off," Rossomando said.

At 4 a.m., Pete got a call from his sister. Nick was missing. His body was never found. "It was a terrible tragedy," he said softly. "I didn't grow up with a father, so he was my father.

He's six years older than me. Growing up, he was the guy I turned to when I had questions or needed something. He was always there." A FDNY helmet is on display in Rossomando's office. "I think what I learned most was to live the day, appreciate every day," he said. "Be a good dad.

Make sure you see your kids. In this profession, you can lose sight of it very quick. When you are a focus guy you can get focused on one thing. Smell the roses. Enjoy success.

It can be fleeting. It can be gone. You can be gone." The goal, Rossomando said, is still to win the NEC title. The goal is to be a good running team and be good at stopping the run. The building does not change with one terrific victory.

Yet as he sat on that bus heading home Saturday night, his players sleeping, Pete Rossomando remembered to appreciate those smiling faces. all these upperclassmen who have done it a different way, so it's tough to get the freshmen to buy into your system and bypass that upper-class mentality. 'You have to turn some of the upperclassmen over to your way of doing things. That's the tough part. You're really dealing with psychology.

It's more than just setting the bar. We've done some interesting things here over the last eight months as far as challenging our lads." Habits had to improve. "We had such poor habits from a practice standpoint, a preparation standpoint," he said. "They were lackadaisical about practice. Thinking about how the game is four days away and we'll turn it up on game day.

In this sport you can't do that. Also attention to detail in everything they did, mostly from an academic standpoint. Guys would show up late to class, not show up to class. Those were things culturally we had to change and we did." Rossomando insists Central is in a terrific place to recruit FCS talent. New Jersey is close.

There are direct flights from Florida and Maryland. "There is an enclosed campus in an urban environment with Hartford, a lot of places close by, which is appealing," Rossomando said. "We'll get talent in here, for sure. "We can't go to the Colonial Athletic Association right now and win on a consistent basis, but on any day, this team can roll 22 of the best players. When you get to No.

2, 3 and 4, Towson's probably better than us. But you can't say Rob Holloman wasn't the best nothing if they don't continue to strive for success each week. When Jeff Mclnerney resigned after eight seasons last November, Schlickmann made the first move. He called Rossomando. Schlickmann was looking for passion and character.

What he also found was an organized man who, by virtue of his success at New Haven, had the conviction that his plan would work. "What also struck me about Pete was he really wanted to be here," Schlickmann said. "I think he was salivating to be here. That was critical. Very appealing.

There was no perception of, want to get to Division I. Any "I think he thought this was a diamond. I think this is the best job in our league. I think we have the best facility, best infrastructure and can own the state in terms of recruiting FCS players. He was in lockstep with this." Rossomando coached for seven years in the NEC at Albany under Bob Ford, who retired last year after 44 seasons.

He knew the league. There is an automatic bid into the national playoffs. It all made sense. Rossomando, 42-13 at New Haven starting in 2009, was Division II national coach of the year in 2012. He had been on Tony Sparano's staff from 1994 to 1998 during the heady days of New Haven football before the program was dropped in 2004.

The school restarted football in 2009. "After doing it there from scratch and doing it here rebuilding, scratch is a lot easier," Rossomando said. 'You don't have a culture to change. When they come here as freshmen, you have player on the field. He was.

Tyrell Holmes was the best wide receiver. Nick SanGiacomo was the best quarterback. Chris Abner was the best safety." To be sure, the win over Towson got exposure for the program and school, Schlickmann said, and there's great value in it on a number of levels. "But to see how the players got on board with offseason conditioning, through camp to the point at Towson where almost play by play you could see the lights go on, that was so satisfying," Schlickmann said. "When preparation meets success it equals belief.

To see that belief unfold, I was so happy for Pete, the staff and the kids." So now Rossomando prepares his team for Albany, which has since moved to the AA, and the home opener. Arute Field figures to be packed Saturday night. Coaches get up at dawn and love to play at noon, but the players are pumped for a night crowd and that should guard against any letdown. The game also presents Rossomando with an emotional juxtaposition. He was an assistant at Albany, preparing for a game against Central on Sept.

1L 200L Rossomando's brother Nick, a Staten Island firefighter, had just finished his shift when an emergency call came in. Nick had played football at Port Richmond High. He played hockey with the FDNY, got a black belt in karate. He was full of life. "There was like a half-hour lapse between shifts, some guys had left, some were hanging around," Rossomando said.

"All the guys got on when the call came. Continued from Page CI back at his players on the bus ride north on 1-95, Rossomando could find satisfaction that his boys had dozed off with smiles on their faces. "Our players have seen a lot of despair in their time here," Rossomando said. "For the guys who have stayed, done what we've asked them to do, bought into something very different than they're used to, it was nice to see them revel in what they've done. They obviously need to move on now, but they needed to smell some success." Towson coach Rob Ambrose, offensive coordinator under Randy Edsall, stunned UConn 33-18 at Rentschler Field last year.

Towson went on to the national FCS championship game. In July, Ambrose raised eyebrows and maybe Edsall's ire when he said Maryland kids now want to go to Towson instead of Maryland. So when quarterback Nick SanGiacomo converted a 34-yard pass to Joey Fields on fourth-and-13 and Rob Hollomon scored the winning touchdown with 36 seconds left, damn straight it caught the eye of Connecticut sports fans. "A signature win," athletic director Paul Schlickmann said. "Also a great building block." The Blue Devils had no practice Sunday.

They had a day to soak it all in, and when the players returned Monday they heard a coach tell them this win means.