Goalie for SUNY Ulster’s 1977 title team dies

Conrad Earnest was team captain and starting goalkeeper for the Senators’ 1977 national championship team

Conrad Earnest, team captain for SUNY Ulster’s 1977 national title team, died in Colorado at age 62.

The SUNY Ulster soccer community mourned one of its own this past weekend with the news that Conrad Earnest, team captain and starting goalkeeper for the Senators’ 1977 national champions, had died in Colorado.

“He was one of the heroes of 1977,” said longtime Ulster coach George Vizvary, who guided the Senators to 17 NJCAA tournaments. They won back-to-back national titles in 1977-78. Earnest was freshman on the ‘77 team and graduated in ‘78.

Earnest, 62 and a Woodstock native, was a long-time research associate for the Exercise and Sports Nutrition Laboratory (ESNL) at Texas A&M University and a noted photographer. He had been doing nighttime photography recently of the Neowise comet near the Colorado National Monument west of Grand Junction. His photo of the comet taken on July 9 was carried by the Associated Press.

He had apparently returned to the area last week to shoot Neowise again. He was reported missing on July 19 and a search was launched on July 23 in the Glade Park area, which is south of the Colorado National Monument.

According to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, deputies searched with Earnest’s friends late into the night and again in the morning. On July 24, his car was found in the Miracle Rock campground. His body was found shortly thereafter on the Miracle Rock hiking trail.

Mesa County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying it is “investigating this as an unattended death. Nothing suspicious is suspected at this time.”

Late Monday afternoon, the

Mesa County Coroner’s Office said Earnest’s death was due to natural causes stemming from ischemic heart disease.

Earnest helped Ulster shut out Miami-Dade South 2-0 in the 1977 NJCAA semifinals. His final game as a Senator was a 2-1 overtime victory over Meramac in the national title game. It was after the post-game celebration that Vizvary noticed something.

“He started walking after the game when everyone had cleared off. I saw that he was limping,” Vizvary noted. “I said, ‘Conrad, why are you limping?’ He said, ‘Oh, coach, my ankle hurts.’ We came home and went to have Xrays. The ankle was broken. He never acknowledged it and went through the entire game with a broken ankle. Unbelievable.

“He was an excellent player, an incredible player. I liked to work around him. He ruled the defense,” Vizvary added. “His decision making, his coming out of goal, his distribution was something to use as an example. He was a good person. He was good with his friends, with the rest of the team and was growing into becoming a good player.”

Upon graduation from Ulster, Earnest played at the University of Akron and was twice selected NCAA Division I Player of the Week.

Vizvary brought several of his former players with him as

he conducted World Cup Sports soccer camps. Earnest gained plenty of attention

when he shut out a professional team 3-0 in an exhibition. That led to him to signing and playing in the American Soccer League for the New York Eagles and later the Cleveland Cobras.

Earnest returned to Akron

to get his master’s degree in exercise physiology and then to Texas Women’s University for his doctorate. A noted exercise physiologist, he eventually joined the ESNL in 2013. He played a critical role in ESNL research and

publication,s along with mentoring students. Earnest was a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and significant member to the International Society of Sports Nutrition. He had published more than 180 articles.