CORTLAND — When Mark Sanchez first was told he would be spending training camp in upstate New York as a rookie in 2009, he wasn’t sure what to expect.
But after the Jets finished both of their seasons that began here in the AFC Championship Game, Sanchez feels right at home now that the Jets are back here once again this summer.
“I was real excited just driving through town, getting back to where I think there’s a little magic up in this place,” Sanchez said yesterday after arriving at SUNY Cortland. “It’s our job as a team to find it here. It happened our first two years.
“I was a little skeptical when [coach] Rex [Ryan] said we were going up to camp my rookie year in 2009. It’s a long drive, you’ve got to take a bus … but this is where we need to be. This kind of place is so welcoming here at the university, in town here in Cortland. This is the best place for us to really just kind of shut the doors and focus on us, focus on football and really start something special.”
Because of the NFL lockout last year, the Jets stayed away from Cortland for training camp, opting instead to hold it at their practice facility in Florham Park. For Ryan, missing out on the experience of being here impacted his team throughout last season, which finished a disappointing 8-8 after the Jets had made back-to-back trips to the AFC Championship Game the previous two seasons after starting training camp in Cortland.
“When you turn into Cortland, it felt great, and then you get into town and you see all of Cortland out there, it’s great,” Ryan said. “It really is. And we did miss it last year. I think Cortland, the thing about this is you’re far enough away and, nothing against families or anything else, you have each other, you have football and I think that’s a good thing.”
When Ryan arrived yesterday, he and the team’s draft picks made an appearance at a small pep rally on Main Street, where they stepped off the bus and were greeted by several hundred cheering fans. Ryan received a key to the city at the rally, and then thanked the fans for their support.
“I can’t tell you how much we missed you,” he said. “Obviously it even showed on the field. This is a big part of what we do in team building. Cortland is a special place to us.”
New offensive coordinator Tony Sparano is making his first appearance in Cortland this summer. But after spending several training camps in similar places in his previous stops, he appreciates the opportunity it presents to allow players and coaches to focus on nothing but football.
“This is huge,” he said. “I’ve done this several times in different places, where you take your team away, and I think it gives the players an opportunity to just be together in a football environment, and get a chance to spend a lot of time together. Players, coaches, where it’s uninterrupted and there’s no distractions.”