Hudson Valley Community College Women's Cross Country

Popovics competed on the Vikings cross country team in the fall of 2007 where she earned both All-Region and All-Conference honors. She was also a SUNY Chancellors award recipient during her time at Hudson Valley. Popovics ran a Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:28 in October of 2012 at the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, and competed in the 2014 Boston Marathon. One of the premier bowling personalities in the Capital Region, Joe Prest has coached the Hudson Valley men's bowling team since 1987 and the women's bowling team since 1988. Prest's men's and women's bowling teams became the first in the region's history to sweep the team titles along with the singles and doubles events at the 2006 Region III Championships. They repeated the feat in 2008. In 2010, the men's team completed a perfect 30-0 season to go undefeated in the conference. The men also finished second in both the NJCAA championships and Region III Tournament, as well as finishing eighth in the Intercollegiate Sectionals. Prest led the Hudson Valley women's teams to a 1995 and 2010 NJCAA National Championship and consistently has both teams in the national rankings. He was voted the NJCAA women's bowling coach of the year following the 1995 season and the 2010 season. Prest was inducted into the NJCAA Bowling Coaches Hall of Fame in 2001 and into the Troy Bowling Association's Hall of Fame in 2002. He has served as a coach and director of the Hilltop Bowl Junior League program for the past 32 years. George Rafferty, who has been coaching baseball and softball in the Capital District for more than 30 years, was named the college's head softball coach in the fall of 2016. Rafferty was an assistant baseball coach at the University at Albany in 1981 and coached for the South Troy Dodgers, including their Elite Connie Mack team, which was the second best team in the country in 2000. Rafferty has coached baseball and softball at Troy High School for the past ten years and his softball team has won three Big Ten titles, three Section 2 titles, three regional titles and made three state Final Four appearances. A former Viking student-athlete, Rafferty was named Outstanding Baseball Athlete of America in 1975 while playing for Hudson Valley Community College, and he was named to all-conference, all-state and all-district teams in 1978 while at SUNY Brockport, where his records for most hits in a season, most doubles and most triples stood for 22 years. Rafferty played semi-pro baseball for 15 years in the Albany Twilight League and was selected to their hall of fame in 1994. He was also selected to the Capital District Senior Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 and was recently nominated for induction into the SUNY Brockport Hall of Fame. Alyssa Ruggiero begins her first season as head women's golf coach at Hudson Valley Community College. A 2003 graduate of Shenendehowa, Ruggiero was a nationally-ranked junior golfer and competed as a five-year member of the boy's varsity golf team. She completed her high school golf career with a record of 63 wins, 12 losses and five ties. Her accomplishments on the golf course and in the classroom earned her an athletic scholarship to the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, where she studied athletic training and exercise and sports science. In 2004, Ruggiero transferred to the State University of New York at Cortland to pursue her passion to become a physical education teacher. In 2004-2005, she had one of the most prolific seasons in school history with three first place, two second place and two additional top-10 tournament finishes. Ruggiero also was named to the State of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Student Athletic Advisory Committee for the 2004-2005 school year and to the State of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Student Athlete AllAcademic Team in 2004 and 2005. Ruggiero graduated cum laude from SUNY Cortland in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in physical education. She received her master's degree in school health education from West Virginia University in 2013. She currently teaches physical education in the Schenectady City School District. Along with her teaching responsibilities, she is the girl's junior varsity soccer coach. She also has served as girl's junior varsity softball coach and as the boys and girls varsity crew coach.