Hook: Keeping the ‘Penn’ in Penn State Athletics

We Are…  Pennsylvania!

OK, OK, I know, that’s not how we roll. Of course our iconic cheer is We Are… Penn State! 

And we’re soon going to have the chance to get back in that We Are cheering spirit. In less than three weeks Penn State’s football team will be on the field against Marshall University — in what I’ve been casually referring to as “The Battle of the We Are’s.” Now if somebody could just answer definitively for me who the first “We Are!” was.

In either case, as 100,000-plus of us sit in the stadium on Sept. 5 and try to impress upon our visitors who “We Are,” as the flagship state university in the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania, maybe we Penn State fans should sometimes be cheering our student athletes on with a reminder that we are, in fact, not just Penn State, but Pennsylvania.

As a born-and-bred Pennsylvanian I’ve always felt that Penn State student athletes should mostly be from Pennsylvania. Or, at least as much from Pennsylvania as the general student population – which Penn State says is 62% of the undergraduate students. 

And one reason I feel that way is best described by a line in the movie, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” when Kevin Costner’s character, Robin of Locksley, tells his band of merry men, “… one free man defending his home is more powerful than 10 hired soldiers.” Well, in my mind, one Pennsylvania born-and-bred student athlete defending Penn State is more powerful than 10 out-of-staters.  

Now, I will caveat that belief three ways.

First, since Penn State has the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world, it means that the love of Penn State can easily transcend state lines – especially for nearby states like New Jersey with over 37,000 alums, New York with over 30,000 alums, and the Del-Mar-Va area with over 57,000 alums. But even far-flung states have a lot – Florida with over 29,000, and California with over 24,000. 

Which means with that many true blue Penn Staters outside of Pennsylvania, it’s possible for student athletes to have a hometown outside of Pennsylvania, but still approach going to Penn State as if it were decided from birth and was always their dream.

Secondly, there are some sports where, if Penn State wants to be competitive, they need to draw student athletes from other states simply because there aren’t enough kids playing the sport within Pennsylvania. A little over two years ago I wrote a column pointing out how the Penn State football team at the time had a roster of 126 players, yet only 48 listed a “Hometown / High School” from Pennsylvania – just a bit more than a third (38%). 

However, I also pointed out that in the 1970s Pennsylvania produced more high school football players than every other state in the country except California and Texas, but by the 2020s it was 12th in the country. Behind plenty of other states with smaller populations. So, having only around half as many Pennsylvania players on the team as the university had as students could possibly be understood and justified. You were just dominating a state with a smaller pool. 

I would be remiss If I didn’t now point out that both the number and percentage of Pennsylvania players on the football team has gotten much lower this year with all the major changes that took place. As I write this, the online roster for the team shows 28 players with a Pennsylvania hometown listed out of 112 guys on the roster – only 25% of the team. I’d be willing to bet that’s both the lowest number and lowest percentage of Pennsylvania players on a Penn State football team ever. I guess we’re all going to see how that works out! 

Which brings me to the third and last way I will caveat my beliefs in having primarily Pennsylvania student athletes on Penn State teams. That is if the head coach of the team is so good that they naturally attract great players from all around the country. And how do we know a head coach is “so good?” Well, in my book, if they’ve won a national championship in their sport, then that makes them “so good.”  

A perfect example here at Penn State is head wrestling coach Cael Sanderson. Only two of the 10 wrestlers who represented Penn State at the NCAA Championships this past March listed hometowns in Pennsylvania. This, even though according to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), that for the 2024-25 school year Pennsylvania had 11,900 boys participating in high school wrestling. Yet, Penn State won its fifth straight national title, not to mention 13 of the last 15 contested NCAA Championships.

Now, being Pennsylvanians we all believe that we exist in the epicenter of youth wrestling in this country. What might be somewhat surprising is that, according to NFHS, in the 2024-25 school year, the states of California, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas each had more boys in high school wrestling than Pennsylvania did. 

But, if we look at the entire Penn State wrestling team’s roster on their website, of the 31 wrestlers listed on the roster as of today, 14 are from Pennsylvania. Almost half. So, we have the best of both worlds. A coach who is so good that he’s arguably the greatest athlete of the 21st century, and not only attracts great wrestlers from around the country so doesn’t need to be Pennsylvania-focused, but also has a great Pennsylvania presence on the roster anyway. No wonder he’s so good!

All of which leads to why I’m excited about one new coach who recently joined Penn State. 

Rob Dow is the new – well, sorta new, he started in December of last year – head coach of the men’s soccer team. And I like him.

Over the years Penn State men’s soccer has done alright – but has never won an NCAA national championship (we can all debate about those two Soccer Bowl games back in 1950 though). In the last 30-plus years they’ve won the Big Ten tournament four times, and won the title for the Big Ten regular season five times. And all-time they’ve made 35 appearances in the NCAA tournament. But, as I said, they’ve never won an NCAA national championship.

Well, guess who has?

That’s right, two seasons ago Dow led the University of Vermont to a national championship in men’s soccer. It was such a thrilling, motivating and heart-warming story that former New York Times reporter and editor Joe Sexton chronicled the championship journey in Seven Days, Vermont’s independent weekly newspaper.

That series of articles is here. I would highly recommend you take 15 minutes of your time and read the story. It will give you a much-greater appreciation for Dow and what he brings with him to Penn State than I could ever write, and when you finish I’m confident you’ll feel the same way I do.

Now, as I said, winning a national championship means that he’s “so good” as a head coach that I’m willing to forego my Pennsylvania-centric desires for the student-athletes on the team. And, if you read the Seven Days article you know that he won that national title at Vermont with a few international students on the team.

To be fair though, according to NFHS, in the 2024-25 school year the state of Vermont only had 989 boys playing high school soccer. That’s fewerr players than every state in the country except Alaska, Montana and the two Dakotas. To fill out his 28-man roster that season with all Vermont players would have meant Dow had over 3% of the entire Vermont high school players on his team. 

Plus, since soccer’s World Cup tournament recently concluded here in the United States – with several other international teams doing better than the U.S. – it should be obvious to everyone that international players are still a little better than we Americans are at soccer. It really is a benefit to have international student athletes on your soccer team because it raises the bar for the quality of play. 

And, if you look at the current roster posted online for the Penn State men’s soccer team, you’ll see that there are only three players who list Pennsylvania hometowns. There are eight who list hometowns from other countries. But, as I said, in this case that’s OK with me.

Except, Dow is committed to changing things a bit and increasing the number of Pennsylvania kids on the roster. By next season he plans to have at least twice as many as are on the team now. And why? Because Pennsylvania actually does have a few boys playing high school soccer. 19,985 boys to be exact. Which is an almost complete turnaround from his situation in Vermont. There are only six states – California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas – with more boys playing high school soccer than Pennsylvania.

Anyone who knows the youth soccer landscape in Pennsylvania knows that the areas around Philadelphia, Lancaster, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh all have large youth soccer programs. And Dow is interested in not only having great international players on his team, but also getting plenty of wonderful Pennsylvania progeny to showcase a winning team for Penn State. Sort of reminds me of another coach’s methods here at Penn State. 

Now, Penn State men’s soccer starts their season with a game against Mercyhurst at 7 p.m. this Thursday, Aug. 20, at Jeffrey Field. The new locker rooms and offices are built and Jeffrey Field really feels like a true college soccer stadium. It’s a great opportunity to come out and start using your We Are cheers – the one that ends with Penn State, and the other one where we celebrate Pennsylvania. Best wishes Coach Dow!

one where we celebrate Pennsylvania. Best wishes Coach Dow!