March 3rd: New Videos For Catdomealumni.com!

March 3rd 2008 will be the kick off of the new video season for Catdomealumni.com. Every Monday from March till the end of August Catdomealumni.com will be posting up new videos for your enjoyment.

March and April will be bringing you most of the video highlights of all 9 games of the 2007 season.

May will be Linfield Legends month as I have already started pulling clips of two legendary Wildcat running backs, a playmaking Linebacker, and a defensive tackle that was a force of nature.

June we'll wrap up the 2007 highlight DVD with the Whitworth and L&C games and start getting into some new specials (2008 Spring Football, 2005 Whitewater vs Linfield revisted, 2008 football camp, Big Hits III, etc).

To jump the season off Catdomealumni.com will be posting up the team introduction clip that ran before kickoff at every home game this past season. It's a fun 2 minute clip that we hope we can top this next season.

Be sure to let your fellow Wildcat fan know to drop in next Monday to get your Linfield fix.

Senior Moment: Rodd Booth

During this past season at Linfield home games, The local McMinnville Quizno's sponsored quick interviews with Senior Linfield football players called "Senior Moments". These spots were ran during timeouts, halftime, or pre-game. I'll post up the raw footage of these clips from time to time (without the intro/outro bumpers and background music) with the latest being cornerback, Rodd Booth.

Player Blog: Cory Ellis "There is no place like CATDOME"

We're back again with our player blog series and our blogger this time is Junior wide receiver Cory Ellis. Cory has an interesting story to me. He's a transfer from Oregon State where he was a member of the Oregon State National Championship baseball team and he's a two-sport athlete for the Wildcats.

Cory was primed to have a great 2007 football season after starting vs Western Oregon at Wide Receiver but a hip injury during Willamette shut Cory down for the majority of 2007. However, earlier in 2007 Cory had a stand out season on the diamond being named 2nd team All-NWC as a second baseman for the 'Cats and is a looking to help lead the Cats back to the top of the NWC this spring.

He’ll be entering the 2008 football season as a senior and I look for Cory to be a big playmaker for our ‘Cats but for now he’s busy patrolling the right side of the infield.
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Unlike the majority of my teammates, I did not come to Linfield directly out of high school. I spent my first two years of college at Oregon State where I was a member of the baseball team. Although I found an enormous amount of team success (Two Pac-10 titles and a National Championship), my playing time was very limited. Once I had made the decision to transfer, I began looking at different colleges. The thing that set Linfield apart was the chance for me to compete in two sports. Coach Smith and Carnahan were both very accepting of me playing the two sports.

I had a lot of anxiety coming to Linfield. I didn’t know one person on the football team and I hadn’t played the sport for 3 years. That is what makes Linfield so special. I was welcomed by everyone and found it very easy to fit in. I had a lot of catching up to do though. There are so many great traditions at Linfield that I had no idea about. Every past and present Linfield football player knows what I am talking about. The sideline reminders, the after practice chants, the pregame prayer, the alumni game, Catjacks, and the legendary “Catdome.” I truly believe that these are the reasons that Linfield continues to have so much success on the football field. In the 52 years of the winning streak, we continue to keep the same core values of Linfield Football.

Another thing that sets Linfield apart is the coaching staff. It is amazing to look at who I have been coached by over the past two years. I get to sit in kickoff return meetings with Coach Rutschman who coached Linfield to 3 football and 2 baseball titles. My head baseball coaches have been Scott Carnahan (14 time League Coach of the Year) and Scott Brosius (3 World Series titles with the Yankees). If I add up all of the Linfield National Championships my coaches have been apart of it comes to over 20. Linfield College coaches have very impressive resumes.

But what really makes Linfield athletics great are the past and present players. The guys here have such a team-first attitude. The goal for all of us is to have as much team success as possible and not worry about the individual awards. It is amazing how much support we receive from former players. They seem to always be watching us and making sure we are getting things done. I have introduced myself to some former players and they go “Yeah, I know who you are.” I wasn’t even a star player and they still know. The saying is true, “Once a CAT, always a CAT.”

I would love to see all of you football fans come out and support the baseball team this spring. It looks like it could be an exciting year. After the spring I will be getting ready for my final football season. With baseball and football, 2008 has a chance to be another great year at Linfield.

“There is no place like CATDOME”
--Cory Ellis
Class of 2008

In Your Face

Yeah, this embedded clip isn't about football but there was nothing better than seeing volleyballers getting pie faced. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

via Awful Announcing

Player Blog: Jared Hinkle "EXPECT TO WIN"

Welcome back to our second player blog entry on Catdomealumni.com's ADvantage Catdome. I contacted Linfield Offensive Tackle Jared Hinkle earlier in the week and his response was almost immediate. Jared was a1st team all-NWC selection last season and will be entering his Senior season this fall.

With these blogs all I'm asking the players to do is to tell me about their Linfield experience and as you can and will read, Linfield is just as strong as ever in helping shape hard working and excellent young men.

When I read what Jared and Jaymin have to say it makes me even more proud to be a Linfield Wildcat and I didn't think that was possible.

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No words can truly describe what exactly this program has meant to me. Anyone who has ever had a hand in any part of Linfield Football knows exactly what I am talking about. You really have to see it and live it for yourself in order to fully appreciate what it is. But if I had to sum up the Linfield Football experience in one word, it would be family. It is this sense of family that has made my Linfield experience so special.

It‘s not just the coaches and players that make the Linfield Football family special, it is everyone who has ever been to a game at the Catdome or anywhere else for that matter. There is no better feeling than getting ready to take the field up in Spokane, down in California, or over in Texas, and looking up in the stands and seeing more people in the Wildcat section than the home team has in theirs. It is support like that from the parents, friends, and alumni that really makes you feel a part of the Linfield Football family, no matter where you are.

The coaches we have here I would put up against any other coaching staff in the nation, both in terms of their football knowledge and their effort. But that isn’t what makes them special. It is the family atmosphere they have created and strengthened over the years that really sets them apart from anyone else. We know they are doing everything they possibly can to allow us to succeed both on and off the field, which sometimes means neglecting their own families in the process. And while I am sure they would love to see their own families more, I don’t think they mind too much because they see us as a part of their family.

As good as our fans and coaches are, the best part of the Linfield experience for me has been the players. I know that the 124 other guys I go to work with every day are going to do everything they can to make this team successful. No one is getting paid to be here and none of us are going to be first round draft picks. We are here because we want to be a part of something special. We want to be in the weight room 6 days a week pushing ourselves to get that one more rep or that one more set in. We want to be up at 6 in the morning in the Spring, practicing before the sun is even up. We want to be out running gassers in the middle of the summer, when the temperature is up near 100 degrees. We don’t do it because it’s fun, we do it for our brothers, because we don’t want to let them down. We do it because we EXPECT TO WIN. Some other schools may have more talented players, bigger stadiums, or better facilities that us, but no one is going to work harder or prepare more than we do.

Thank you to every member of the Linfield Football family who has supported us in the past and will continue to do so in the future, we really appreciate it. 2008 should be a great year to be a Wildcat.

-Jared Hinkle
Class of 2009