Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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12 JUNE/JULY 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME MOVING? Let us know! Call 1-800-421-7751 Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom Emma Albrecht — Golf The senior from Daytona Beach, Fla., fin- ished her decorated Irish ca- reer May 8 with a tie for 56th place at the NCAA Regional in East Lansing, Mich. She com- pleted her four years in South Bend with a stroke average of 73.38, the top mark in pro- gram history. Albrecht, who competed in an NCAA regional all four years she was at Notre Dame, logged seven top-25 finishes over the first nine starts of her senior campaign. Miguel Delgado — Golf The senior from Novato, Calif., became the first Notre Dame men's golfer in five years to qualify for the NCAA Championships. He was selected to compete as an individual at the NCAA Louisville Regional May 13-15 in Simpsonville, Ky. As a senior, Delgado aver- aged 71.4 strokes per round, which ranks as the second lowest average in program history, and led the Irish in six of their 11 tournaments. Samantha Giacolone — Lacrosse The senior goaltender from Manorville, N.Y., was named a top-25 nomi- nee for the 2019 Tewaaraton Award, which is given annu- ally to the most outstanding college lacrosse player in the country. This season, she be- came the program's all-time leader in both saves and wins, and Inside Lacrosse named her a second- team Midseason All-American. In 19 starts this season, Giacolone posed a 14-5 record with a 8.52 goals against average, 138 saves and a .498 save percentage. Brendan Gleason — Lacrosse The senior from Essex, Vt., was one of three Notre Dame players to be named to the All-ACC team May 8. He ranked second on the team in with 36 points, was tied for second with 23 goals and was third with 12 assists through May 12. Gleason was named ACC Offensive Player of the Week twice this season, after wins over Maryland and North Carolina. TOP OF THE CLASS ✦ GIMME FIVE With six more Notre Dame players selected in this year's NFL Draft, a total of 39 Fighting Irish have been chosen through the first nine seasons of head coach Brian Kelly's tenure. The high mark occurred in 2014 with eight, including juniors Stephon Tuitt (defensive end) and Troy Niklas (tight end) in the second round. The six this April brought Notre Dame's total to 504 since the debut of the NFL Draft in 1936. Only USC with 506 has more. Among those 39 selected under Kelly on of- fense or defense, quarterback had the fewest with only one (DeShone Kizer in the 2017 sec- ond round, also following his junior campaign). That's not a complete surprise because only one person can start at quarterback, whereas there can be numerous receivers, linebackers or linemen all on the field at the same time. Here are the top five most drafted positions under Kelly: Rk. Position Players Drafted 1. Tight end 6 Offensive line 6 3. Defensive line 5 Linebacker 5 Wide receiver 5 Note: Four of the six picks along the offensive line were in the first round: Martin, Ronnie Stanley, Quenton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey, while Nick Martin was in the second and Chris Watt third. Getting To Know … SENIOR SOFTBALL PLAYER CAIT BROOKS Hometown: "Burbank, Calif." High school: "Burbank High School." Major: "Film, television and theatre." Favorite food: "Probably Ramen and Mexican food." Favorite movie: "'Forest Gump.'" Favorite music: "I'm re- ally into classic rock right now." Favorite musician: "I like Foreigner." Favorite TV show: "'Game of Thrones.'" Favorite part about playing for Notre Dame: "It's definitely the teammates and our coaching staff. The bond we have with each other and with the coaches is something you can't get anywhere else. That 's made my four years extremely special and also is what made Notre Dame a place I wanted to play softball for four years." Reaction to being named ACC Player of the Year: "I was really excited. It was a pretty spe- cial moment. It was nothing I ever expected, but it was really awesome. My team was very supportive, and it was very special. My parents were pretty pumped." Toughest player you've ever faced: "My freshman year, there was a pitcher at USF who was really good. Jessica Burroughs at Florida State is really difficult to hit off." CHARTING THE IRISH When assessing data, context sometimes gets lost or omitted. An example is the NFL Draft, which began in 1936. It is accurately noted that during their 11-year careers at Notre Dame, Lou Holtz and Ara Parseghian had the most first-round draft picks with 12 apiece, while Frank Leahy had 10. Meanwhile, Brian Kelly is closing in with nine through his nine seasons with the Fighting Irish. However, where the context gets lost is whereas today's NFL Draft has 32 selections in the first round, in Leahy's era there were as few as 10 and the most were 13 following his final season in 1953. Thus, if one were to compare the top 32 picks from Leahy's era to the top 32 currently, there would be nine more players added to his list for a total of 19. Among them is running back John Panelli, the No. 12 overall selection in 1949, and the legend- ary Jungle Jim Martin at No. 26 in 1950 among the 391 total players chosen. If we were to apply "top 32" to all Notre Dame coaches regard- ing first-round picks, the figures would be: Coach (Years) Top-32 Picks Frank Leahy (1941-43, 1946-53) 19 Ara Parseghian (1964-74) 15 Lou Holtz (1986-96) 12 Brian Kelly (2010-19) 9 Terry Brennan (1954-58) 8 Dan Devine (1975-80) 5