SUNY Morrisville’s woods sports team is gearing up for a new season and is looking for new members to join them!
Coach Seth Carsten, a former professional woodsman, is seeking veterans and rookies of varying majors and abilities to join the team, which showcases speed and precision with axes, chainsaws and other tools associated with traditional lumberjacking challenges.
Anyone interested in joining the woods sports team is encouraged to stop by a practice on Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, 5:30 p.m. at the practice field located on West Road near the dairy facility. For directions or more information, contact team co-captain Andrew LaRock at larock910@morrisville.edu.
“We are not just for conservation majors — the team is open to everyone and is a different type of competition,” LaRock said during a recent team demonstration for faculty, staff and students in the Natural Resources Conservation Department.
Morrisville’s team participates in intercollegiate lumberjacking competitions across the Northeast, traveling to a number of events per semester.
Co-captains and woods sports team veterans LaRock and Cody Wilk, both natural resources conservation majors, are among those competing.
New to the team is Triana Burgos-Farnan, who is looking forward to the team’s season, which starts with an exhibition in early October, followed by a competition at Paul Smith’s College on Oct. 21 and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry on Oct. 28.
Burgos-Farnan, enrolled in the new bachelor’s degree in agricultural science – agricultural outreach & education track, has her sights set on competing in chainsaw and axe throwing.
As an academic special project, SUNY Morrisville’s woods sports team has relied on donations for their competition registration fees and equipment. Carsten also makes and repairs some of their tools at home, instead of buying new.
The college’s wood for practices comes from felling trees through the college’s environmental conservation science program and other programs, which helps absorb some of the costs other teams face.
Faculty and campus departments have showed their support, stepping in to help where they can. In past seasons, students in the college’s residential construction program have helped cut practice logs, while faculty and students in the mechanical engineering department helped build the team’s Peavey tools.
Two former SUNY Morrisville woods sports teammates, Andrew O’Connell and Kyle Monahan, have gone on to various competitions. O’Connell earned a ticket to the national STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Series Championships, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Today, he is a traveling lumberjack for the Timberworks Lumberjack Show, sponsored by STIHL, doing exhibitions at fairs, sporting events and various shows.
