Halftime Snack still has football eligibility

Re: Immediate vacancy. wide receiver, Orange football team

Dear head coach Doug Marrone,

My name is Kyle Leach and I am a master’s candidate at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. I recently heard there was an opening at wide receiver on the Syracuse University football team, and given the program’s new precedent of recruiting former college basketball players for the football team, I thought it would be prudent to alert you of my football skills.

Some of my athletic qualifications you would be interested in:  I am 6-foot-5, 240 lbs.  I played college basketball at a private four-year research university. The team made the NCAA tournament twice and an appearance in the national semifinal during my senior season. I made over 60 starts and led the team in turnovers (above the 90-mark in 26 games freshman year) and charges drawn. All answers to your words of inspiration this week: “What more would you ask for if someone give you everything they had?”

More of my formidable education points to the graduate student-transfer-hoopster you wish you had more of: my college basketball coach started his coaching career at a military school (Navy), beat that plebe coach over at Army and won the 1991 national championship. And I was a captain who got benched his senior year. I can stand strong the tough moments that are athletics: loss, injury, departed teammates. 

Your quote about my classmate Greg Paulus included words I sought from my coach: “I just know that I love the players on our football team and I just want everybody to know how much I love my players.”

I know a lot about the love around football: I was involved in the Rochester football program for all four years, moving up the depth chart.  A starter on the chain gang, I moved up to program distribution and locked down head student worker the final two years. The fabled football fraternity on campus, Theta Delta Chi, extended an invitation to pledge their ranks during sophomore year, and AC/DC’s “Back in Black” never sounded the same. I’m familiar with throwing the football, should you want to do something in the “Stallion” with my skills; I once out-threw the university backup quarterback in an old-fashioned game of “Over that House.” 

Syracuse is now “New York’s Team,” it can take in another local product. I scored 1,000 points in a New York State public school, twice earning All-State honors and selection for the USA Today top-50 high school players in New York. I have a New York State Regents diploma.  Did they have one at your school in the Bronx?

I am familiar with other New York cities, including Syracuse. I’ve played in the Carrier Dome twice already. My big friend, Craig Forth, won a national championship here. I even played a high school All-Star game at the Great New York State Fair, but this was before SU Athletics came over to sell tickets. My workouts during the fall have consisted of H-O-R-S-E games every week over on Roosevelt Street, sometimes down at Barry Park. Due to my schoolwork and heavy course load, I was forced to cancel an appearance at Patrick Alvarez’s charity basketball game benefiting hunger on Sunday.

What you say about education—it reminds me of my class attendance policy in graduate school: “They have a responsibility; I want to make sure they go to class.”

I would make a strong addition to your family, on and off the field.  Give me this chance, Coach.

As always, best of luck with the rest of your 2009 schedule.

Sincerely,

Kyle

PS – My academic clock may have expired (check the NCAA regulations) but I’m confident Syracuse can be the first to have this situation too. Grant me this chance and I will not run away from you (like Mike WIlliams, #1).

Photo by Mitchell Franz, TheNewshouse.com