When students return to class for the fall quarter, new classes are not the only things that will be starting on campus. Here is a list of 10 Cal Poly athletes to keep your eye on this fall:
Men’s soccer – Eric Branagan-Franco
The senior goalkeeper owns a bevy of school records including save percentage, goals-against average, shutouts in a season and career shutouts.
After two season-opening games decided by last-minute field-goal attempts, the Cal Poly football team put itself in a less suspenseful finish Saturday.
The Mustangs, who topped San Diego State 30-28 Aug. 30 before falling 29-27 Sept. 6 to Montana, sprinted to a 28-7 lead at Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La.
The No. 6 Stanford women’s volleyball team edged Cal Poly 25-17, 23-25, 26-24, 25-10 Saturday in front of a Mott Gym regular-season record crowd of 2,917.
The No. 19 Mustangs (5-6), who won their first set against Stanford in 22 years, were led by Kylie Atherstone’s 17 kills.
While many universities feel pressure to create new, “easier” majors for student athletes to remain eligible, Cal Poly shies away from such a practice.
“Some athletics is big business now, and you find ways around certain things, and we don’t do that here,” said Cal Poly Athletics’ director of academic services Shannon Stephens, who used to work in the same capacity at UCLA.
Bobby Hodges started driving well before other kids his age. In fact, he was just 11 years old when he really started putting the pedal to the metal.
But then, while other kids were at the age when they would be putting away their toy plastic racecars, Hodges was behind the wheel of a real little racecar, careening down the track and beating his competition.
Competition is the source of inspiration for all athletes, but downtime is what’s pushed Eric Branagan-Franco even more.
As the co-captain and starting goalkeeper for the Cal Poly men’s soccer team, Branagan-Franco was ready to help propel the Mustangs to the playoffs last season when, with two games left, he suffered a devastating blow.
This story was posted at 8:58 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16. Days after his football team’s Saturday game at McNeese State in Lake Charles, La. was canceled due to possible consequences of Hurricane Ike, Cal Poly head coach Rich Ellerson was surprisingly whimsical at the school’s news conference Monday afternoon.
Hear audio and see photos from the football win against SDSU on Aug. 30.
While Cal Poly football coaches and players were openly calling their30-28 loss Saturday night to Montana“devastating” and the like, the day may not have been a total loss for the program. After San Diego State’s 21-13 loss at Notre Dame,Aztecs…
See photos and hear interview from the Cal Poly vs. San Diego State game at Qualcomm Stadium.
Like bandits in the night, Cal Poly football players reveled in their heist. Slowly but surely, they earned the right to celebrate on the evening of Oct. 28, 2006 by stealing from an unsuspecting San Diego State attention, respect and most importantly, a 16-14 win.