ESPN To Broadcast Coast Guard Football Game

New London, CT – In a monumental announcement, beginning this season, ESPN will visibly extend and deepen its commitment to honoring America's veterans with live coverage of the annual Secretaries Cup football game between the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy during Veterans Day weekend.
 
"As Superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy, and as a former football player, I'm thrilled that ESPN will be broadcasting the Secretaries Cup games," said Rear Admiral James E. Rendon. "As the school with the highest percentage of varsity sport athletes in the nation, we believe that athletic competition plays a fundamental role in developing leaders of character. Honor, Respect and Devotion to Duty are our core values. They help focus our daily efforts, and they follow us out onto the playing field. We look forward to this opportunity to put these values on display to a national television audience."
 
The atmosphere surrounding a Secretaries Cup game day is remarkably similar to that of an Army-Navy football game. The game is attended by both institutions' entire student bodies – Coast Guard's Corps of Cadets and Merchant Marine's Regiment of Midshipmen – which adds to an atmosphere that is already high-spirited and emotionally charged, yet at the same time very respectful. On the field, the passion that the players compete with is unparalleled.  During their college days and beyond, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine football players who have played in the Secretaries Cup game regard these competitions as the most significant and memorable of their time as student-athletes.
 
Coast Guard and Merchant Marine will again be in the same league this season as the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) adds football. The teams will play the in the final game of the season.

"On behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and specifically the Athletics Division, we are very grateful to ESPN for generously providing us with a marvelous opportunity to showcase our football program and institution through live broadcasts of the annual Secretaries Cup game," said Tim Fitzpatrick, Coast Guard Academy, Director of Athletics. "Having a chance to play before a national television audience will be a wonderful opportunity for our players, one which they will certainly remember for the rest of their lives.  We at CGA are in the business of providing our cadet-athletes with memorable experiences and the chance to play on ESPN's family of networks certainly provides that.  Go Bears!"