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