Red Foxes Have Had 20 MLB Draftees in Program History
Right-handed pitcher Ryan Cardona, who completed his junior year at Marist in 2021, was selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on July 13. Cardona was chosen by the Cincinnati Reds in the 19th round with the 570th overall selection. "We are really happy for and proud of Ryan," Marist Head Coach Chris Tracz said. "He's dedicated himself to developing with hard work and perseverance. Going back to the recruiting process, this was a goal of his. To see him achieve it is personally gratifying, knowing how much it means to him." In his three seasons with the Red Foxes, Cardona struck out 105 in 91.2 innings. In his freshman year in 2019, Cardona led Marist in saves (five) and appearances (21) as he was named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Rookie Team. Over the last two seasons, he transitioned to the starting rotations and posted a cumulative earned run average of 3.20. In this span, he struck out 54 in 50.2 innings. Cardona is the 20th Red Fox to be selected in the draft, and ninth in Tracz's tenure as head coach. Here is the full list Marist baseball's draftees: Marist Baseball MLB Draftees1997 Jorge Santiago - New York Mets (32nd round, 960th selection)Mike Speckhardt - St. Louis Cardinals (34th round, 1,034th selection)1999 Kevin Olore - Seattle Mariners (20th round, 605th selection)2001 Tim Bittner - Chicago White Sox (10th round, 313th selection)2002 Anthony Bocchino - Pittsburgh Pirates (11th round, 313th selection) Steve O'Sullivan - Chicago Cubs (23rd round, 693rd selection)2003 Chuck Bechtel* - San Diego Padres (15th round, 431st selection) Kevin Ool - Boston Red Sox (16th round, 474th selection)Chris Homer - Detroit Tigers (24th round, 700th selection)John McGorty - Detroit Tigers (36th round, 1,060th selection)2009 Jacob Wiley - Cincinnati Reds (41st round, 1,229th selection)2011 Michael Gallic - San Diego Padres (18th round, 563rd selection) Jon Schwind - Pittsburgh Pirates (41st round, 1,232th selection)Ricky Pacione - Los Angeles Angels (48th round, 1,455th selection)Eric Alessio - Cincinnati Reds (49th round, 1,495th selection)2013Kevin McCarthy - Kansas City Royals** (16th round, 474th selection)Zach Shank - Seattle Mariners (28th round, 837th selection)2015Steve Laurino - Baltimore Orioles (25th round, 763rd selection)2017Scott Boches - Seattle Mariners (30th round, 903rd selection)2021Ryan Cardona – Cincinnati Reds (19th round, 570th selection)* - Bechtel was also chosen by the Padres in the 2002 Draft (25th round, 745th selection)** - Has reached the major leagues
Julie Cullinane Kinney ’90 and author Jeff Kinney take Marist alumni inside his best-selling series Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
More than 250 alumni and friends along with their families got an exclusive look inside the evolution of the best-selling book series “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” thanks to the generosity of Marist alumna Julie Cullinane Kinney ’90 and her husband, Jeff, the creator of the series. In a virtual presentation Oct. 15, Julie and Jeff shared the origins of the 16-book cartoon series featuring hapless middle-schooler Greg Heffley that has become an international sensation. The ticket price to the Marist-only event included a signed copy of Jeff’s newest book, Big Shot, published in October. All proceeds from the event, organized by the Marist Alumni Relations Office, benefited the Marist Alumni Legacy Scholarship Fund, raising more than $10,000. Special thanks go to Julie and Jeff for making the event possible. Julie interviewed Jeff about the evolution of the series Diary of a Wimpy Kid in a virtual program from their bookstore, An Unlikely Story, in Plainville, MA.Since the first Wimpy Kid book made its debut in 2007, more than 250 million copies have been published in 79 editions in 65 languages. The Wimpy Kid series has been a constant on the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists and has remained on the New York Times children’s series best-seller list for more than 657 weeks. The series has won a number of regional and national awards including two Children’s Choice Book Awards and six Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards for Favorite Book. Jeff Kinney was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people and is also the creator of Poptropica, named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites. The Disney+ movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid premiered in early December.Jeff and Julie took part in the Zoom program from their bookstore, An Unlikely Story, in Plainville, MA. Julie, a communications major in college and a former reporter and editor for a Massachusetts newspaper, interviewed Jeff for the Marist audience. She noted it was the first time she had interviewed him live for a virtual event. Then Jeff took live questions and gave a tour of his studio on the top floor of the bookstore, where his awards are on view.Jeff, a graduate of the University of Maryland, had been developing the book for a year when he and Julie began dating in 1999. He kept a journal jammed with notes and sketches that captured not only memories from his youth but also some of the couple’s early dating experiences. He continued writing and drawing for the next seven years as they dated, married, and had two sons, and as he worked full time as a software programmer. “It proves that you can do two things at once,” he noted, “that you can have your day job and pay your rent and you can also chase a rock-star dream in your spare time.” His dream was to be a newspaper cartoonist like Charles Schulz, the creator of Charlie Brown and "Peanuts.” For three years Jeff tried to make it happen. But “nobody liked my stuff,” he said. Then he decided to try something different. He bought a ticket to Comic Con, a comic convention in New York City, planning to show his sample packet around to editors there. But the convention had oversold its tickets and sent everyone away. While on a bus tour of New York City just for kicks, Jeff noticed that Billy Joel was playing a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden. He called Julie saying he wanted to stay overnight to go to the concert. A huge Billy Joel fan herself, she encouraged him to go for it. “Billy Joel was our thing at Marist in the ’80s,” she said.He managed to get a ticket and went to the show. The next day, he was able to get into the Comic Con. An editor who saw his work said it was exactly what he was looking for. “So it was thanks to Billy Joel that I got to be a published author,” Jeff said.Throughout the presentation the Zoom chat room bubbled over with questions for Jeff. What inspired him to write the Wimpy Kid series?“My own childhood,” he said. “I was reading Harry Potter at the time. I was like, “Man, this is really good writing, it’s a good story.” But I did think Harry was very, very different than I was as a kid. I did think there might be an appetite for a character who was not so perfect and not so heroic as Harry.”He said his newest Wimpy Kid book, Big Shot, shows what it’s like to be in athletics but not be a star athlete. “I think it’s important that a kid can see himself.”Earlier, he had elaborated on the appeal of his wimpy protagonist.“Greg is a messy character. When kids read kids’ books, the character is usually aspirational. They’re heroic. Like think of Harry Potter, characters like that. They’re the hero that we want to be. And Greg isn’t, really. You know, books can be mirrors and windows, right? Windows, you see into another world. That’s Harry Potter. Mirrors are books where you see yourself. That’s Wimpy Kid. And I think a lot of kids are messy.”Another young fan asked where Greg’s memorable nickname “Ploopy” came from.“Ploopy was a nickname that my older sister came up with for me,” Jeff explained. “And for some reason, it just got me. It made me so mad, like it would make my ears turn red.”He got over it, though. “We’ve made our peace. And I’m making money off of her calling me ‘Ploopy.’ So I think I won that situation.”
Healthcare executive Dirk McMahon ’82, entrepreneur and author Kristin Noto ’91, and technology executive Donna Dillenberger have joined the Marist College Board of Trustees.
In 2021 the Marist College Board of Trustees welcomed three new members. Dirk McMahon ’82, president and chief operating officer of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) and Donna Dillenberger, IBM Fellow at the company’s Research Center in Yorktown Heights and CTO of systems research for Hybrid Cloud, were elected to the board at its February meeting, while Kristin Noto ’91, an entrepreneur and author with extensive experience serving not-for-profit organizations, was elected at the November annual meeting. McMahon, who graduated from Marist with a BS in finance, has held senior leadership positions across both UnitedHealth Group business platforms — UnitedHealthcare and Optum. Most recently, he served as chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest health insurer. Prior to that, he was president and chief operating officer of Optum, a global health services company, and head of airport operations worldwide for Northwest Airlines. In addition to earning his undergraduate degree from Marist, McMahon received an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. He and his family reside in Minnesota.Kristin Noto '91Noto received a BA in psychology from Marist, and her father is also an alumnus of the College. She is the author of Live E.P.I.C.: Invest in Yourself. Cultivate Character, and Embrace the 7 Moral Virtues that Lead to a Happier Life, as well as an inventor with several registered patents on houseware products. Noto also serves on the West Coast Advisory Board for the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the lives of children, families, and communities affected by mental illness and learning disabilities. She is a former executive board member of the USA Lacrosse Foundation. Noto and her family live in Northern California. Donna DillenbergerDillenberger has had a distinguished career at IBM and currently serves as IBM Fellow at the company’s Research Center in Yorktown Heights and CTO of systems research for Hybrid Cloud. Her focus is on machine learning, counterfeit detection, cloud security and availability, and enterprise systems. In the past, Dillenberger has worked on machine learning models for the financial, insurance, retail, and healthcare industries and has designed new features for systems scalability and availability. She is the author of numerous research publications and holds multiple patents, becoming a Master Inventor at IBM. In recognition of her work, IBM’s CEO appointed her an IBM Fellow, the highest technical honor at the company. IBM Fellows are given broad latitude to identify and pursue projects. In the history of IBM, only 317 people have received such a distinction.Dillenberger received her BS in mathematics from New York University and an MS in computer science from Columbia University. She was an adjunct professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Engineering and was a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Stanford University.
Red Foxes Win Fourth MAAC Championship in Program History
The #1 seed Marist Red Foxes won the MAAC championship on Nov. 14. After a 2-2 tie with Rider through two overtimes totaling 110 minutes, the Red Foxes defeated fifth-seeded Rider by a 5-3 margin on penalty kicks.Grad student Kyle Galloway was named MAAC Tournament MVP. Juniors Henrique Cruz, Demarre Mountoute, and Bernardo Gracindo were named to the All-Championship Team.The team’s season ended with a 2-0 loss at Providence in an NCAA first-round match on Nov. 18.Marist's season came to an end at 12-7-3. The 12 wins are tied for the most in the program's Division I history, a record previously set three times, the most recent coming in 1999. The Red Foxes had entered the contest with a nine-match unbeaten streak (7-0-2). In their history, the Red Foxes have won four MAAC championships (2000, 2004, 2005, 2021). This was their third NCAA appearance (2004, 2005, 2021).Marist had three major award winners this year: Head Coach Matt Viggiano was named MAAC Coach of the Year for the first time as the Red Foxes won their first regular-season MAAC championship in school history; graduate student Huib Achterkamp was named MAAC Defensive Player of the Year; and senior Samuel Ilin was named MAAC Goalkeeper of the Year.
