Led by then-head coach Tim Schum, the 1980 Binghamton men’s soccer team knew early on in the season that it had something special. This belief remained among the 15 team members in attendance at the 2015 Binghamton University Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Events Center, where the 1980 soccer team was inducted alongside Zach Groh, Jacki Kane and Jim Norris following the women’s basketball game just prior to Thanksgiving break.
As the Binghamton Colonials, the 1980 men’s soccer squad had to overcome back-to-back losses early in the season at the hands of Ithaca and Cornell. Despite outshooting a Division I Cornell team that would go on to end the year ranked 20th in the nation, BU fell, 3-0.
“Any great team has to overcome adversity,” Jordan Sherm ’82 said. “We dominated that game. We had an early goal inexplicably called back … we outplayed them but lost.”
The loss served as a turning point in the season that saw the Colonials accumulate a 12-4-2 record, win the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championship and advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament, where they went on to earn two overtime victories before losing in the quarterfinals. This remains the farthest any Binghamton team has advanced in a national tournament. At the end of the 1980 season, BU was ranked fifth in the nation at the Division III level.
“The team was well balanced,” Schum said. “We always tried to possess the ball, tried not to give it away easily and have a solid defense behind everything. But I always told the guys once you win the ball, the ultimate goal is to score.”
The squad is the second BU team inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining the 1983-84 wrestling team, which entered the Hall last year.
Groh was the 2006 America East (AE) Pitcher of the year and a 2008 graduate. Groh propelled the Bearcats to back-to-back regular season titles in 2007 and 2008 and leads the Binghamton baseball program in career strikeouts (286). Groh is also second in wins (22) and ERA (3.36).
“Zach was the kind of young man who was ready for the challenge that we had as a young Division I program,” Binghamton baseball head coach Tim Sinicki said. “He wanted to be part of that challenge and of the characteristics I liked most about him was that he wanted to be great.”
For Kane’s father, her induction into the Binghamton Athletics Hall of Fame is no surprise. During a visit prior to Kane’s freshman year, her father stopped her outside of the Hall of Fame — then housed in the West Gym — and much to Kane’s dismay, proclaimed that she would one day be honored there. Kane ’08, now Jacki Jing — a morning news anchor for ABC’s New Orleans affiliate WGNO — is the Binghamton volleyball program’s all-time blocks leader.
“One thing that stood out about Jacki is that she never gave up on blocking,” BU volleyball head coach Glenn Kiriyama said. “She was one of those players who was determined to close the block and get her hands on every ball.”
Norris, who served as an administrator and coach for 20 years, rounded out the inductees. He served as head coach of the men’s basketball team during the transition from Division III to Division II and led the Bearcats to 52 wins over four years. Norris served in a variety of roles as an administrator in the athletics department before being named the interim Director of Athletics, where he served from 2009-2011.
“When I stepped in as director, I stepped in with a great staff surrounding me and great student athletes representing us and I believed in them,” Norris said. “They unselfishly made me look good and this is as much about them today as it is about me.”
Norris currently serves as the varsity boy’s basketball coach at nearby Windsor High School.