IC News

Typically, football players appear on the big screen at MetLife Stadium in highlights of game action. But the experience of Bombers defensive lineman Noah Hill ’19 was something different. He, along with fellow Physics 101 students Anna Rebechi ’22, Hannah Roa ’22 and Leo Alessi ’22, appeared in front of 45,161 fans at the 2019 Cortaca Jug game in a series of 20-second videos that explained the physics behind certain aspects of football, such as the Gyroscopic Effect — the effect that prevents a thrown football from wobbling around its central axis.

One of the videos that he appeared in played while he was on the sidelines, where he took some good-natured ribbing from his teammates for his star turn as a scientist. “I told them it’s good to break down the dumb jock stereotype once in a while,” he said. 

The videos were produced as a joint project between IC’s Office of College Communications, which shot them, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Assistant Professors of Physics and Astronomy Colleen and Preston Countryman helped script them and recruited four volunteer students from a Physics 101 class to appear in them. “We aim to make physics relevant, in class and in these videos,” Preston Countryman explained. “The value for the students was that it strengthened their confidence in understanding core physics concepts, and it gives them experience in applying teamwork to problem solving, which is our approach in the class.”

Hill and his classmates were among more than 100 students from all five schools who were involved in experiential learning opportunities at this year's Cortaca Jug.

Other experiences included students working directly with the football team and athletic department; student media members who reported on and broadcast the game; student employees in college communications who assisted in game-day social media promotion and news gathering; performers who were part of the halftime show; and sports marketing majors who were involved in ticket sales, marketing projects and production of a documentary.

Creating experiential learning opportunities for students is a key part of the college’s Ithaca Forever strategic plan, and it was a priority for Annemarie Farrell, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sport Management, who also served as the chair of the six-person Experiential Learning working group.

Of course, creating these experiences required collaboration from different entities across the campus community. Fortunately, valuing and supporting collaboration is another aspect of the strategic plan, and that was on full display during Cortaca.

Several other experiential learning opportunities came courtesy of Farrell, who began using Cortaca as a teaching tool in her classrooms as soon as the game was announced.

Last spring, students in her Sport Marketing and Sales class were tasked with developing a marketing plan for Cortaca weekend and pitching their ideas to members of the Cortaca working groups. In the fall, she supervised Marco Fontana ’20, who led a team of students in coordinating on-campus ticket sales for the game. 

Also this fall, the students in her first-year seminar, “From Cortaca to Fenway: Understanding Sports Fans,” were required to deliver a final project on a Cortaca-related topic.  

Among the projects, a team of five students produced a documentary about the history of the Cortaca Jug.

Two of the students working on the project were members of the football team, which gave the group unique opportunities. Offensive lineman Andrew Guerra ’23 and defensive back Shaye McKenna ’23 shot game-day footage from the sidelines with their cell phones.

Most of the documentary consists of interviews with current players and coaches conducted by Jackie Leone ’23, who came into the project with on-air experience as an analyst on ICTV sports broadcasts and who served as an analyst for the Cortaca pre-game show that aired before the game at MetLife Stadium.

However, she had never interviewed anyone before, and her first interview was with Bombers head football coach Dan Swanstrom. “I was extremely nervous,” she said, “But he was very willing to sit down, and once I did that, I felt I could do anything. I was able to take skills I learned from my media class and see exactly how they would apply to a potential career. That’s invaluable.”

But two Cortaca-related learning experiences weren’t enough for Leone. When Farrell asked if anyone wanted to get some resume-building experience by working at the game, Leone signed on, giving her a Cortaca hat trick. She joined a handful of other volunteers and MetLife staffers at the pre-game Fan Fest at the stadium. The mini festival included stations where fans could test their football skills and have their photos taken in an oversized IC chair, which Leone helped manage as a brand ambassador.

“We were kind of bringing IC to MetLife,” she said.

Leone and her team will also be adding Cortaca game-day video to their documentary.

Any time there’s an Ithaca College athletic contest, the athletic communications department at IC springs into action. Along with professional staff, students are key contributors. For this historic game, Peter Raider ’23 was in the driver’s seat before, during and after the contest. Raider conceived of and produced a series of five countdown videos posted on social media in the week leading up to the game. He also worked with Nate McCoart ’13, director of technical operations at Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment, who led game-day production, to produce four videos that appeared on the big screen at MetLife. To top it off, Raider produced a highlight video of the game using footage shot by him and producer Brian Barnes ’22.

Charley Novack ’20, who grew up in Manhattan a self-described die-hard New York Giants fan, also works in athletic communications. He has helped track and compile statistics at many home football games — including the Cortaca Jug game. He was among those who felt “honored” walking into the press box.

“I took it as a normal game that I was working,” he said. “But at the end of the day I knew it was a different game, because it’s Cortaca and you’re at MetLife Stadium. Honestly from the moment I got past security, just getting out of the elevator heading into the press box, I was in awe…. But I knew I had something to do.”

Cooper Hayes ’20, a three-year veteran in athletic communications who also worked the game, had a similar reaction. “Driving in I told myself, ‘It’s just another football game,’ but once I stepped into the MetLife press box, it was hard not to gawk,” he said.

As is the case with any large-scale event, planning helped. “The preparation was more intense that anything we’d done before,” said Chloe Hart-Kindelberger ’20, one of three paid student social media strategists at the game.  “Having a strategic plan in place and executing on it and responding to things that happen at the event to do my work on this larger scale is something I’m proud of.”

Like the social media team, student staff with the Office of College Communications sought to report not only on the game, but also on the experiences of the many IC stakeholders at the game. Grace Collins ’23 was on the team that interviewed students and alumni during the game for a post-game news story and was thrilled to get a chance to work as a journalist.

“Not being a journalism major, but being able to contribute to one of the biggest news stories of the year as a first-year student, is pretty incredible,” she said.  

The experiential learning continued on the field, as several student groups took part in the day’s festivities. Foremost among them were the cheerleading squad; the Ithaca College choir, which sang the national anthem before the game; and the African Drumming and Dance Ensemble that performed at halftime.

“I’m not a big football person,” said Naya Griles ’22, who performed with both the choir and the African Drumming and Dance Ensemble. “But I’ve never felt school spirit like this before. This is awesome.”

Evidently, other members of the ensemble shared that sentiment, because they dedicated their Nov. 21 performance at Ford Hall to Bombers football.

Another group of students who can appreciate the football team’s hard work are the athletic training students, four of whom have been with the team all season. In fact, they put in as much or more time as most players, not only attending every practice and game, but also coming early to apply pre-session treatments and staying late for any follow ups.