NORWICH, Conn. (May 22, 2008) – Southeastern Connecticut natives Zach Hurd (Waterford, Conn.) and Dan Ryan (Franklin, Conn.) from the UConn football team represented the Huskies at the Connecticut Defenders' Drug Prevention Day on Thursday morning, May 22, prior to the team's game against the Binghamton Mets at Dodd Stadium. The program attracted a boisterous crowd of 4,495, almost all of which were  impressionable grade school and middle school students from the metro-Norwich area.

Hurd and Ryan, along with others, addressed the crowd prior to the 10:30 a.m. game. It is the fourth straight year that UConn football has participated in the popular event. UConn got involved through Andy Baylock, UConn's legendary baseball coach and now the football team's Director of Alumni and Community Affairs, who routinely throws batting practice for the Defenders in his spare time.

Both Hurd and Ryan, who also represented the Huskies at the 2007 event, stuck around after their pregame speeches and signed autographs for young fans on the Dodd Stadium concourse. Neither D.A.R.E event was the first time that Hurd had been on the Dodd Stadium field though. When he was younger, and presumably smaller, Hurd served as a bat boy for the team, then known as the Norwich Navigators.

The Defenders are the Class AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants and 7-4 winners over Binghamton on Thursday. It was the first D.A.R.E Day game since UConn football's involvement began that did not go to extra innings, including both ends of a 2006 doubleheader. The Defenders are now 4-1 when UConn football takes part in the event.

Left: Before the game, Zach Hurd talks with two students for their class project...Right: Hurd addresses the students.

Left: Dan Ryan makes his pregame pitch...Right: Ryan and Hurd pose with some young fans.

Left: The Defenders staff made sure to supply extra Sharpies for autographs which were abundant, as usual, on D.A.R.E Day...Right: Why let the kids have all of the fun? Hurd and Ryan took a break from signing and helped the Defenders staff by throwing T-Shirts to the crowd after the third inning.