East Stroudsburg University issued the following announcement.
The annual Army-Navy football game will be played at Michie Stadium on West Point’s campus this Saturday for the first time in nearly eight decades – and two members of the Army football program with connections to East Stroudsburg University will be involved in the historic event.
Rob De Los Santos ’16, the director of content marketing and recruiting assistant for the program, and George Zutell, a senior sport management major from Long Valley, N.J., an intern in the football operations area, are set for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Traditionally contested at a neutral site – it’s been held in Philadelphia 65 times since the last game at West Point in 1943, and has also been played in Baltimore, Landover, Md., East Rutherford, N.J. and Pasadena, Calif. – Army and Navy will meet for the 121st time on Saturday at 3 p.m., broadcast nationally by CBS.
“It is an honor to be part of one of the most historic rivalries in all of college sports,” said De Los Santos, who has been part of two rivalry games (Michigan State-Michigan and Bowling Green-Toledo) at previous stops in his career. “However, the Army-Navy game tops both of those because of the significance of what each academy and its players represent.”
“Having the ability to be involved with the historic Army-Navy game has always been a dream of mine, and I couldn’t ask for a better way to end my internship experience!” said Zutell.
De Los Santos is responsible for assisting his assigned coaches with their individual recruiting needs, actively identifying prospects, creating engaging graphics and videos for recruiting marketing purposes and maintaining the Twitter and Instagram accounts for the program, including creating game week and gameday graphics that will be pushed out during the week. He even created the design for the 2020 Army Football equipment truck.
After graduating from ESU with his degree in sport management, he began his career in sports at Lackawanna College in 2017 as an assistant coach and graphic designer. The following year, he moved to Michigan State as a football graphic design assistant, followed by a year at Bowling Green as a recruiting assistant. He joined the Army West Point staff this summer in his current position.
At ESU, he was a member of the Health and Physical Education and Sport Management clubs, volunteered for the “swim and gym” afterschool program and the 2016 Special Olympics section held at ESU. As a senior, he interned with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and the local YMCA.
Zutell assists with Army’s football operations, helping player personnel with recruiting needs such as getting in touch with a recruit’s head coach. He also provides on-field help at practice and during games, and will have an on-field role on Saturday – holding signs for the Black Knights’ defensive coordinator.
As a student at ESU, Zutell assisted the staff of former Warriors head coach Denny Douds during his freshman and sophomore year, specifically working with the offensive coaching staff and the Warriors’ running backs. Following his internship at West Point, he would like to continue to work in football with the goal of becoming a coach at the NCAA Division I or NFL level, including his favorite team, the New York Giants.
Army currently owns a 7-2 record entering its final two games of the regular season against its fellow service academies, both at Michie Stadium – the historic matchup with Navy this weekend, and Air Force on December 19.
Original source can be found here.
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