He knew taking over a Division III football program in its infant stages would be an uphill battle to say the least, especially when he didn’t arrive in Rochester until one week before the start of training camp.
“We knew it would be nearly impossible to win right away, but we realized it takes time to build a winning tradition,” says Vosburgh, now entering his 16th season with the Cardinals. “Back then it wasn’t always easy to see the positives, and sometimes there weren’t a whole lot of them, but our coaching staff always kept our eyes fixed on the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Oh, how the times have changed.
With a completely revamped athletic facility and the arrival of the Buffalo Bills Training Camp during the summer months, Vosburgh and his Cardinals have emerged as a legitimate national contender.
Fisher is coming off its third straight postseason appearance and finished the 2005 season with an 8-3 overall record, the secondhighest win total in the program’s 19-year Division III history.
While almost every school in Division III would love to have a winning record and go to the postseason, expectations at Fisher are now higher and the 2006 Cardinals expect to win the Empire 8 Conference and receive a bid to the NCAA Division III Championship, for the second time in the last three years.
“We feel as though we’ve been able to recruit better student-athletes over the last few years because of what St. John Fisher College has to offer, both academically and athletically,” says Vosburgh, a two-time Empire 8 Conference Coach of the Year. “We’ve definitely raised the bar over the last few years and have set some pretty high goals, but we think with the players and the coaches we have and everything St. John Fisher College has to offer, we can accomplish a lot.”
A Lockport native, Vosburgh attended DeSales Catholic High School in Niagara Falls where he was a three-time all-league linebacker, and continued his career at William Penn (Iowa), where he established himself as the Statesmen’s top defensive threat, earning Athlete of the Year honors in his senior season. After graduation, he continued his academic career at Pittsburg State in Kansas, where he earned his master’s degree, while beginning his coaching career working with the Gorillas’ football program.
He accepted a position as head coach and athletic director at DeSales Catholic where he began his high school playing days in 1978 and returned to William Penn, where he was the defensive coordinator for two seasons and head coach for his final three seasons. After three seasons as defensive coordinator at Division II Emporia State College, he returned to New York and accepted his current position as the seventh head coach in St. John Fisher College football history.
When he’s not watching football film in the off-season, Vosburgh can often be found biking on the Erie Canal or running. Over the last 18 months, he has completed marathons in San Diego and Cincinnati. Paul lives in Pittsford with his wife, Kathleen. They have four children: Christan, Mary, Julia, and David.
