Left: Jake Freeman (center) after finishing third at the 2008 summer Olympic Trials.
GOJASPERS.COM / COURTESY
Right: Tiffany Schettig-Gonzalez, a 2022 inductee of the Manhattan Athletic Hall of Fame.
GOJASPERS.COM / COURTESY
By Barbara Vasquez, Asst. Production Editor
Manhattan University has served as a home to great student-athletes since Brother Jasper was first appointed athletic director in 1861.
Almost 160 years later, MU has racked up quite the reputation for producing greatness. Throughout the school’s, and The Quadrangle’s lifetime, Jasper athletes have boasted a great number of achievements, ranging from MAAC champions to professional league players and Olympic competitors.
In celebrating The Quadrangle’s one hundreth year as a news publication at Manhattan University, the publication decided to revive a beloved past column, Jasper Talks. Going back to 2020, Jasper Talks have provided the MU community an opportunity to see into the lives of Jasper student-athletes on a deeper, more personal level. In celebration of 100 years of The Quadrangle, here’s a look into the lives of two accomplished MU student-athlete alumni.
Tiffany Schettig:
Tiffany Schettig-Gonzalez, a member of the class of 2003, was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022 in recognition of her impressive basketball career at MU. Schettig-Gonzalez is ranked second all time for three pointers, and was captain of the women’s team when they won the 2003 MAAC championships and competed in the first round of NCAA championships.
When Schettig was first inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022, she was interviewed by former writer on The Quadrangle, Maddie Mulkigian. Mulkigian asked the student-athlete a number of questions, including about the experiences she had while on the team and how her teammates shaped these experiences.
“My teammates are still some of my closest friends to this day,” Schettig-Gonzalez told The Quadrangle in 2022. “The things we were able to accomplish in my four years were unbelievable and when I look back I have no regrets.”
Now, when asked about how she felt receiving the recognition of being considered an Athletic Hall of Famer, Schettig-Gonzalez shared a similar appreciation for her teammates.
“I’m pretty surprised at the recognition, and honored, and thankful for the teammates that helped me there, because without them you don’t get the push, competitiveness or the wins,” Schettig-Gonzalez said. “Manhattan [University] was such a great college to learn perspective and community, and not being afraid to branch out and be a part of different things. I think that’s something that I learned that I’ll take with me for a really long time.”
Just like this appreciation of her team, Schettig-Gonzalez also hopes to carry her love for the sport of basketball for years to come, and spread the joy that the sport has brought her.
“I still love it,” Schettig-Gonzalez said. “I coach my daughter, I help out and coach as much as I can. I don’t have a lot of time to spare, but I have two young girls and I preach sports to them. Not because I want them to get a scholarship but, from my perspective, all the things that I’ve learned I want them to learn.”
Jake Freeman:
Thomas Jacob Freeman, an MU alum from the class of 2004 who was also covered by The Quadrangle during his time as a student athlete at the school, was a part of the track and field program, competing in the throws. Freeman’s specialities were the hammer and weight throws, setting school records in both events that still stand to this day.
Freeman was recruited under coach Dan Mecca, who helped develop MU’s track and field program for over 30 years, beginning working at MU in 1986, and leaving the school in 2019. Mecca, also honored by the MU Athletic Hall of Fame, was a large reason as to why Freeman chose to attend MU in the first place.
“What drew me to Manhattan [University] was Dan Mecca, who recruited me,” Freeman said. “He could talk really well, he seemed like a really nice guy, and he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. He got me to come out for a visit, and I decided that New York City was the place I wanted to be.”
Mecca, in a prior interview with The Quadrangle, a part of the same article Mulkigian wrote, spoke about his experience coaching for the years he did.
“The philosophy was always the same,” Mecca previously said. “The goal was quality product. You wanted a winning program with kids who did well in school, had a high team GPA, and a high graduation rate.”
More recently, Freeman spoke about training under Mecca, and how his teachings have continued to remain relevant in his life to this day.
“Coach was as much with the mental game as he was with the physical game,” Freeman said. “He tried to run us through certain scenarios– make us throw in the rain, make us throw in the snow, that way we were prepared for anything that would come. And that’s a pretty good way to live life: to get yourself prepared for anything that could happen, and if it does, then you’re ready for it.”
What kept Freeman motivated throughout his time as a student athlete at MU can’t be attributed to anything else but his love for the sport.
“I really enjoyed that I was really good at it, and I really enjoyed the competition and traveling to compete,” Freeman said. “I just liked to throw, and that was my biggest motivation. It was the funnest thing I did at the time.”
Freeman’s passion for the sport continuously paid off throughout his athletic career, as it’s this passion that led him to qualify for and compete at a number of elite track and field competitions, both during and after his time at MU, including meets where he would go on to represent the U.S.A.
“I never quite got to do my ultimate goal, which was to make the Olympics,” Freeman said. “I was just shy of that, but I went to the World Championships, a whole bunch of international meets, and even a couple of national championships after college.”
Freeman’s record at Manhattan remains unmatched. He was the first person at the university to win the IC4A [Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America] Championships four times in a row, and is a two-time NCAA champion, winning the hammer throw in the 2004 outdoor championships with a throw of 70.77 meters [232 feet and 2 inches] and the weight throw in the 2003 indoor championships with a throw of 21.70 meters [71 feet and 2.5 inches].
Despite being sure of his success in his athletic career, it was still a bit of a surreal feeling for Freeman to leave such a lasting impression on MU even years after his departure from the school.
“It feels very cool,” Freeman said. “At the time, I didn’t understand what that legacy would mean. A 20-year old doesn’t really think of that usually. But I really like being a part of that Manhattan University athletic legacy. It’s still a big source of pride for me.”
This athletic legacy which Freeman speaks of has lived through a number of publications, including The Quadrangle. Since its beginnings in 1924, The Quadrangle has served to spread information and the words of our most notable Jaspers, including student-athletes.