New Club Basketball squad kicks off season Saturday at UVM

Did you know that Skidmore’s Club Basketball team plays the University of Vermont this Saturday in Burlington? Or that the team will host Harvard here in Saratoga Springs in late January?

It’s exciting news for the newly formed club, led by president and former Thoroughbred varsity player Gabe O’Brien ’16 and coach Dean Mendes, a Skidmore associate director of admissions, who has served as an assistant women’s basketball coach at UVM as well as at Division I programs UC-Berkeley and Brown.

“I can’t wait to compete again for real,” says co-captain O’Brien, an exercise science major from Maine, who says the core group didn’t play any official games last year, just pickup.

Adds co-captain Reese Fulmer ’18, who played at Pingree School in Massachusetts, “The best part of it all is that we're competing in a league with colleges from all over the Northeast, so we have a chance to put our team on the map and get some recognition.”

The 15-player squad—six returning players from last year and nine new faces—belongs to the National Club Basketball Association and competes in the New England Conference against Assumption, Goodwin, Sacred Heart, and UMass Lowell, in addition to Harvard and UVM.

Says Mendes, “I was intrigued by the opportunity to coach again. We have some talented guys and they want to be coached. I think we should be able to compete. For me, it was win-win.”

Luke Hirschorn ’18 agrees with Mendes. Said Hirschorn, “We have some serious raw talent on this team and I look forward to seeing it for real against Vermont this weekend.” Hirschorn is one of three players who attended the Urban School of San Francisco, the others being Rowan Williams ’19 and David Immerman ’17.

This Saturday, Dec. 5, Club Basketball plays UVM in Burlington, Vt., at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 5 p.m. in the Catamount’s Patrick Gym. Please click here for the team’s season schedule.

Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, or on the web.

2015–16 Team Roster

JR Armstrong ’16, Computer science, Chino, CA, the Webb Schools of California, Claremont, CA

Josh Brown ’17, Business major, Theater minor, Cold Spring Harbor High School, Cold Spring Harbor, NY

Perry Chen ’17, Business major, Sociology minor, Lexington High School, Lexington, MA

Jules Evens ’19, Philosophy, Hanover High School, Hanover, NH

Mike Fogarty ’18, Business, the Governor's Academy, Westminster, MA

Reese Fulmer ’18, Business and Spanish, Gloucester, MA, Pingree School, South Hamilton MA

Luke Hirschhorn ’18, Business and Spanish, Urban School of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

David Immerman ’17, Government, the Urban School of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Zhiyuan Jiang (JJ) ’17, Business, Affliliated High School to Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China

Malcolm Kaletsch ’19, Environmental Science, Brooklyn, NY, Churchill School and Center

Gabe O’Brien ’16, Exercise Science, Sumner Memorial HS, Winter Harbor, ME

Teddy Tron ’19, English, Arlington, VA, Field School, Washington, DC

William Ward ’19, International Affairs (prospective), Milford Central School, Milford, NY

Rowan Williams ’19, International Affairs, the Urban School of San Francisco, Oakland, CA