CONTACT: Steve Mullen (518) 629-8063
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Wednesday, March 10, 2004
The Hudson Valley Community College football team will open its 2004 campaign on Saturday, September 4 in Newport, Rhode Island against Navy Prep.
Hudson Valley will play a 10-game schedule, which includes seven Northeast Football Conference games as well as non-league games against Navy Prep, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute JV and Union College JV.
The Vikings will attempt to earn their second consecutive conference title and third championship in the last four years in 2004, but will have to do it against a different conference format.
The Northeast Football Conference members approved the addition of Nassau Community College after SUNY Canton announced it was dropping its football program. Nassau was named the top National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) team of the 1990s.
In addition, the six-team conference will split into an East and West Division with the division winners meeting in a conference championship game on Saturday, November 13. Hudson Valley will be in the East Division with Nassau and Dean College. The West Division will consist of Morrisville State College, Erie Community College and Alfred State College. Each team will play its division members twice and will meet the colleges outside its division once.
The Vikings will begin preparation for the 2004 season when spring practice opens on April 5. Hudson Valley, which returns six starters from a year ago, will look to replace a sophomore class that included 14 players that already have signed to play at an NCAA Division IA, IAA or II school next year.
Hudson Valley finished the 2003 season ranked 15th in the final NJCAA poll with an 8-2 record and advanced to The Graphic Edge Bowl in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Vikings have posted a winning record in 12 of the last 14 seasons, including a perfect 8-0 mark in 1996.
