Here Come the Irish!

It's almost time for the start of the 2010 football season.  For many of you, ND football meant daily visits to a blog called The Blue-Gray Sky, the best football blog on the Internet.  Unfortunately, Blue-Gray Sky is no more.  The guys stopped updating it this past year.

One of the authors of Blue-Gray Sky was Pat Mitsch, son of longtime club members, Bob and Bernie Mitsch.  If you want a fantastic preview for the upcoming season, check out Pat Mitsch's latest project, Here Come the Irish, published by Maple Street Press.  Pat is the editor and an author, as is Jeff Jeffers, Sports Director at WNDU-TV in South Bend,  Anthony Pilcher, a writer for ClashmoreMike.com, Chris Brown, an editor for SmartFootball.com, Frank Vitovitch, who runs the site called, Unofficial Home of Notre Dame Football, http://www.uhnd.com/, and Keith Arnold, author of the Inside the Irish blog on NBCSports.com. 

Importantly, Pat Mitsch gives all the credit to Mom and Dad (from the Acknowledgements):

I would like to thank all of those who have helped to make Here Come the Irish 2010 possible: . . . and finally, my parents who have always been incredibly supportive and made me realize from a very young ae that there is no better team to root for than the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Tony Springmann Commits to ND

The Dayton Domer Digest usually doesn't cover ND sports news.  There are plenty of other sites that do it better.

But when an athlete has a local connection (such as Molly Bruggeman), then we'll make an exception.

Just before the Blue-Gold game, a defensie lineman from Fort Wayne, Indiana, committed to Notre Dame just a few days after receiving an offer.  It turns out his lifelong dream was to play football at Our Lady's University:

“Ever since I was seven or eight-years old, I remember watching Julius Jones and those guys play at Notre Dame, and it’s always been my dream to play at Notre Dame. In a sense, it’s unreal that it’s happened to me. I never thought I would be in a position like this. I’m thankful and it’s kind of overwhelming.”

Tony is currently a junior, so he won't start at ND until fall 2011.  He is 6'7" and currently weighs 270 pounds.  He'll get bigger, of course.  He comes from the same high school -- Bishop Dwenger -- as two other ND football players: John Goodman and Tyler Eifort.

What is his connection to the ND Club of Dayton?  Marty Foos worked for his mother, who is the current U.S. District Judge sitting in Fort Wayne.  He was her law clerk for two years immediately following his graduation from ND in 1995.  She, too, graduated from ND Law School; hence, Tony's lifelong dream to play there.

And if that isn't enough, there's his red hair!  Nancy Zlotnik always roots for the ND players with red hair.  Won't you join her?

Go Irish!

A Great Notre Dame Story

Jim Brogan's daughter is getting married to another Domer.  He has a fabulous story about how his daughter met her fiancee at the 2005 Notre Dame-USC game ("the Bush Push game").

Apparently, in the week before the game, his daughter was a medical student at Loyola University in Chicago and wanted to go to the game.  She sent an email to a list of Domers in the area asking for a ticket.  Her future fiancee responded that he had an extra ticket (sitting next to him) and that she should meet him at the stadium before the game.

Well they talked and cheered and screamed and cried with the Irish that day.  Today, they are engaged.

Next time you see Jim, ask him about this great Notre Dame story.

Did You Know? Ringer from Dayton

Javon Ringer, the powerful senior running back for Michigan State, is from Dayton. He played for Chaminade-Julienne in high school. He was part of the 2002 state championship team, rushing for over 200 yards in the title game. In 2005, Scout gave him four stars and ranked him as the fifteenth best running back in the country. The following is from the Spring 2005 edition of Vision, CJ's alumni newsletter:

Javon Ringer, who is ranked as the second best player in the state, signed with Michigan State. The three time All-Ohio running back rushed for 1,763 yards and 20 touchdowns last season before being sidelined with an ACL injury in week seven.

Notre Dame never made a scholarship offer to Ringer, but that was the year that our recruiting was divided between two coaches: Willingham and Weiss.

We're still rooting for the Irish this weekend. However, if anyone knew Ringer or his family, we'd love to know more. Share any stories in the comments section.