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NU News and Notes
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Northeastern Goes Local

by: Paul Perillo

Thursday, February 4, 1999

After completing one of the most successful four-year stints in the history of Northeastern football, coach Barry Gallup yesterday enthusiastically announced his 16-player recruiting class for next season.

Heading the list is Tim Gale, a running back from Masconomet and Boxford.

"He is a kid that we feel is definitely a Division 1-A player," said Gallup, who will begin his ninth season with the Huskies in September. "He is 6-feet and 210 pounds and has 4.6 speed. He rushed for over 1,400 yards and 23 touchdowns and comes from a winning program.

"We feel he has a chance to make an impact immediately."

According to Gale, who was close to signing with Boston College, it was Northeastern's willingness to let him run the ball that made the difference.

"Northeastern recruited me as a running back and that's what I wanted to do," said Gale, who was an All-Scholastic last year for the 10-1 Chieftains. "When I took my trip, all the football players and students had nothing but good things to say about the school."

Gallup added four other local products - Randy Farris from Dracut and Central Catholic, Jeff Dias of Tyngsboro, David McCarthy from Hingham and BC High and Ryan Whelton of Wrentham and Xaverian.

"We had the fewest number of Massachusetts players that we've had in a while," said Gallup. "But (NU hockey coach) Bruce Crowder and I talked about this - getting the talented locals. Look at his team with Jim Fahey from (Catholic Memorial) and the players from BC High. We wanted to get talented local players who came from winning programs."

One intriguing local player is Dias. The 6-2, 185-pound All-Scholastic handled a variety of duties for Tyngsboro, including receiving, punting and placekicking.

"Northeastern had everything I wanted in a school. It has a great co-op program which was important to me since I want to major in management," said Dias, who kicked a school-record 51-yard field goal last fall.

"There's no better place for an 18-year-old than to be in Boston."

Northeastern's talented newcomers are not limited to the local area.

Mike Jackson, a 5-10, 170-pound defensive back from Hackensack, N.J., chose NU over Vanderbilt and New Hampshire.

Gallup says that Jackson, the state champion in the 55-meter dash, was influenced by the success of current football and track stars Dave Klemic and Andy Alsup.

Another player Gallup is high on is Frank Rose, a 6-3, 215-pound tight end out of Suffern, N.Y., and St. Joseph's High School. Rose is expected to compete for the tight end job, vacated by the graduated Charlie Johnson.

"We had the best quality visit to this campus that we ever had," said Gallup. "We didn't get them all, but we attracted a higher quality group of student-athletes to visit than ever before. All the players from New Jersey had offers from other Atlantic 10 schools."

Gallup credited two other factors in his successful recruiting campaign.

"A major factor is that we're playing BC (on Oct. 2)," said Gallup. "The kids know we're making a commitment to the program. It's great for high school football in this area, it creates more interest.

"Also, UMass winning the national title has helped the Atlantic 10. A lot of players that we couldn't get to talk to us are now taking visits. We lost five or six to really big programs, but we're right there with them."