The 2009 football season unoficially kicked off with the annual Presidents' Athletic Conference Media Day, hosted by Saint Vincent College at the Fred Rogers Center.

Following a luncheon, PAC executive director Joe Onderko welcomed the crowd consisting of PAC head coaches, athletic directors, sports information personnel, selected players, and local media to the event.

Each coach was then given an opportunity to brief the audience on the prospects of their team for the upcoming season.

Bearcat head coach Bob Colbert was optimistic for the 2009 campaign, saying that the Bearcats were no longer the new kids on the block.

For the last two seasons, the team consisted almost entirely of freshmen and sophomores, showing improvement each year but still struggling, due to its youth.  The coach said that youth will no longer be an excuse for his squad.

"We are out of excuses this year," he said.  "We can't say we're young anymore.  We are just about equal in players by class to each of the other teams in the conference.  Our senior class is still a little small, but other than that, we are right on par."

Despite posting a 1-9 record a season ago, there were a number of bright spots for the Bearcats, in their second season since Saint Vincent dropped the football program in 1962.

"On both sides of the ball," Colbert said, "we had young guys making plays.  We did a lot better on defense than in 2007, scoring four defensive touchdowns, and three of them were scored by freshmen.  Our two leading tacklers were Josh Diamond, a sophomore, and our linebacker Anthony Johnson.  When you have young guys making such an impact, that bodes well.

"On offense," he continued, "our freshman running back Jairus Marlow led the league with an average of 7.8 yards per carry, and he had the longest run from scrimmage in the conference (93 yards vs. Waynesburg).  All of our young guys are making progress."

He also spoke of the uniqueness of his team's 2009 schedule, pointing out the fact that the Bearcats will face conference foe, and fellow provisional NCAA member, Geneva College twice, in a home-and-home series.

"I don't think there's anywhere else in the nation where you'll find that," he said.  "We had an open date, Geneva had an open date, neither of us can qualify for the league title, so we figured we'll give it a shot."

Colbert closed his speech by repeating that he feels the Bearcats will a much-improved team in 2009.

"We'll be better,"  he said, "and we'll be competitive.  We hope and feel that our players all have that mindset."

Following the speeches of the eight conference coaches, the results of the preseason poll were announced, with coaches, sports information personnel, and media members voting.

The defending PAC regular season champion Thomas More Saints were picked to repeat in 2009, receiving 18 of 28 first place votes, and 200 points overall, to edge second place Washington & Jefferson (9 first place/191 total).

Gvoe City, with 115 points, was picked third, followed by Waynesburg (86), Westminster (82), Bethany (67), and Thiel (43).

"It's a great honor to be picked first," said Thomas More head coach Jim Hilvert, "but we still have to go out and prove ourselves.  The PAC is very strong this year, and we'll have to come ready to play every week."

Voters were also asked to predict the records of provisional members Saint Vincent and Geneva against conference foes, and those polled predicted the Bearcats to go 1-7 in conference play, and the Golden Tornadoes 4-4.

The Bearcats are slated to return 21 starters and over 70 players total for the upcoming season.  The squad will begin preseason camp on August 15th, and SVC's first game of the season will take place on September 5th, when the Bearcats travel to Westminster, MD to take on non-conference foe McDaniel College.

PHOTO: SVC head coach Bob Colbert addresses the crowd at the 2009 Presidents' Athletic Conference Media Day, held at the Fred Rogers Center on the Saint Vincent campus