By Paul Perillo

When it comes to growing professional athletes, Northeastern will never be confused with the likes of Notre Dame. Recently, however, it seems the NU athletics programs have set their incubators a few degrees higher, because more and more Huskies are making it to the next level.

Baseball, for now, leads the pack, at least in terms of numbers. But basketball's Jose Juan Barea is making his own splash, too, simply by refusing to be denied.

Among the boys of summer, first-baseman Carlos Pena is already rocking the majors, of course, having finished the 2006 season as a member of the Boston Red Sox. (In September, the Haverhill, Massachusetts, native thrilled the Fenway crowd by hitting a dramatic walk-off homer.)

In all, no fewer than nine players from coach Neil McPhee's squads have enjoyed some success in the minor leagues over the past eight years. The list includes pitcher Greg Montalbano, E'06, who played for the Red Sox organization before coming back to campus to finish his degree; catcher Luke Carlin; shortstop Omar Pena (Carlos's younger brother); and pitcher Justin Hedrick. This year alone saw pitcher Dave Pellegrine, catcher/pitcher Matt Morizio, and outfielder Chris Emanuele signing with the Los Angeles Angels, the Kansas City Royals, and the Toronto Blue Jays, respectively.

A fourth member of McPhee's 2006 club appears poised for particular distinction. Right-handed pitcher Adam Ottavino, Northeastern's all-time strikeout leader, was selected thirtieth overall by the St. Louis Cardinals in June, making him the Huskies' second-highest major-league draft pick (Carlos Pena is first, selected tenth overall by the Texas Rangers in 1998).

Ottavino began his summer playing for the State College Spikes of the New York Penn League, then quickly jumped to the Quad Cities Swing, the Cardinals' full-season single-A affiliate.

"It's gone pretty well so far," the twenty-year-old says of his time in the pros. "The main change is, baseball is your job now. It has to get one hundred percent of your attention at all times. I need to get my mechanics to a level that is more consistent. You're always adapting at this level—pitch to pitch, batter to batter, and inning to inning. That's the only way you're going to get a consistent performance."

Ottavino made six starts for State College, going 2-2 with a 3.14 ERA. With Quad Cities, he started eight games, going 2-3 with a 3.44 ERA over 362/3 innings. By the early fall, he was looking forward to getting down to the Florida instructional league and working closely with the Cardinals coaches.

Ottavino says he expects to start 2007 at the Cardinals' highest single-A level in Palm Beach, a far cry from Davenport, Iowa, where he spent the balance of his summer. "There's a lot of corn there," he says with a laugh. "But it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

He hopes to make it to double-A Springfield sometime next season. He says he doesn't want to remain at any level longer than ten starts. On the basis of his early results, he could be on track for St. Louis sometime around 2009.

As Ottavino and his baseball brethren garner much of the pro attention, a certain diminutive hoops star is looking to carve out a niche of his own.

Jose Juan Barea didn't get selected in last June's draft, so the 5-foot-11 point guard spent the off-season working out for a number of teams and participating in two summer leagues—for Golden State in Las Vegas and for Dallas in the Rocky Mountain Revue. The latter proved to be more beneficial. The Mavericks signed Barea to a two-year deal worth up to $1.1 million if he made the team.

He averaged twelve points and nearly seven assists in three games for the Mavs' summer league team before leaving to help lead the Puerto Rican national team to a gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games. Barea made a three-pointer with fourteen seconds left to lift Puerto Rico to the title.

Barea had departed Northeastern this spring as the school's number-two all-time scorer, bested only by the late Reggie Lewis. Cognoscenti believed the twenty-two-year-old Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, native could give a fast-break team some speed off the bench, and represented the Huskies' best chance at pro-basketball success since Lewis.

The Mavs concurred. In late October, Barea won the final spot on the Dallas roster, impressing his coaches with his willingness to rack up assists and keep things moving on the court.

So pay attention to the national sports scene—you'll be seeing some fresh paw prints. Ottavino, Barea, and a host of other young pups are ready to make a run for professional glory.

Photo by Jim Pierce

Morris Returns to Ice Hungry, Healthy

When the men's hockey team entered the rink for the season's first practice back in mid-September, there was plenty of optimism to go around. Everyone was ready to start erasing the memories of last year's long, bad ride.

One player, especially. Senior captain Mike Morris couldn't be happier to be back—doesn't matter whether the team endures another three-win season, as it did last year under new coach Greg Cronin, or it tears up Hockey East.

"We have a lot of young players that are bigger and stronger than they were last year," Morris said a day before the opening practice. "If people take us lightly, we're going to be suprising a lot of them."

By mid-November, the team's record stood at a modest 2-7-2, including a massive 3-2 victory over Michigan in Ann Arbor. But fans may be most thrilled about Morris's mere presence on the ice. Though the right wing out of Braintree, Massachusetts, is one of the league's stars, recurring post-concussion problems kept him in street clothes for the entire 2005-2006 season and threatened to end his career altogether.

Morris suffered his first concussion as a junior during an early-season win over Maine in November 2004. He missed some games, then returned to post his best season on Huntington Avenue, scoring nineteen goals and adding twenty assists, finishing second to Jason Guerriero for the team scoring lead.

At the Hockey east playoffs, during a loss at the University of New Hampshire, Morris took another hit and suffered more concussion symptoms.

Then things got worse.

Morris was involved in a car accident in June 2005. It would be almost a full year before he felt "normal" again.

"There was a lot of lingering fogginess and dizziness," Morris says. His symptoms were so bad he was forced to take a medical withdrawal from the university for the fall semester, then slowly worked his way back by taking just two classes during the spring semester.

Before Cronin had even settled into his new job, he was faced with the news that he would be without his best player. Yet, throughout Morris's recovery, Cronin's support proved instrumental.

"I always felt like I would come back and play at some point," Morris says. "But it wasn't until this summer that I really knew for sure. Any lingering effects were completely gone, and the focus has been all hockey ever since."

"Coach Cronin has really been great with me, very patient," Morris continues. "He's really gone out of his way to make me feel part of the team. It would have been very easy for him to sort of blow me off since I have just one year of eligibility left. Any coach would obviously rather rebuild with his own guys."

In this situation, however, Cronin knew patience was a virtue. In his first three seasons with the Huskies, Morris compiled thirty-eight goals and ninety points, numbers that explain why the San Jose Sharks are waiting for him, too. In the 2002 NHL draft, the Sharks chose Morris in the first round, twenty-seventh overall.

"San Jose has been every bit as supportive as Northeastern and Coach Cronin," says the twenty-three-year-old, set to graduate next spring with a degree in sociology. "Pro hockey is definitely in my furture. I'm feeling better, and it's time to make the next step."

Fortunately for the Dog Pound, that involves busting a few moves on the Matthews Arena Ice.