Quote from: PointSpecial on June 08, 2012, 02:05:32 PM
Just remember, Coach Semling won the national title with all of his own players. Nobody who was on the team in 09-10 that was recruited under the Bennett (and you could make a strong argument that even the guys who were recruited during Bennett's last two years were actually recruited at least in part by Semling).

Long time WIAC fan and rare poster, but love reading what you guys have to say... slight question on your post PointSpecial: your referring to the underclassman of Bennett's last two teams, correct?  Semling was definately not around to recruit Jason Kalsow and I doubt much went into getting Nick Bennett other than Jack walking over to admissions on his lunch hour with Nick's paperwork.  Certainly other quality players on those two teams, but you get my point. 

Semling has earned everything since then, though.

Quote from: lacrossefan on April 13, 2012, 01:16:15 PM
I'm a little confused as to what qulifies for leadership examples if athletics cannot be considered. I certainly hope it is not student government because we all know where politics lead to. Being in the business world, I have rarely seen superior leadership skills shown by those in the arts (music, art, etc.) So, if athletics cannot be considered, what is available to be judged on? Or does one only go on grades???

This needs a lot of work, LaXfan...  Look, I'm a huge sports fan, too and as a long time A.D. myself, I see kids on the playing field demonstrating great leadership traits all the time.  But I also see the exact same traits exhibited by our drum majors in the marching band, the lead roles in the musical, and our National honor society inductees each school year that either played a few (or a lot of) sports, or sometimes none at all, etc., etc.  Personally, this sports nut (me) believes that leadership is simply "the act of guiding others by actions, words and other mediums toward common goals or other end results."  Might be too basic of a definition, but it is certainly needed in athletics, and certainly exists almost everywhere else in school. 

Most applications for these scholarships are fairly comprehensive.  I would say that if true leadership occured, the leader should be able to document what sort of leadership took place, and how it happened.

I've known a few "captains" of athletic teams never say a word during a full season.  So to me, putting on the jersey, or attaching the title on a resume means little if you can support true, authentic leadership.  Anyway, back to the WIAC.  How'd we get on this anyway?  Oh yeah, my Alma Mater and their oops!... 

Is anyone surprised???  I'm not.  You can take the coach out of Division I, but... 

I should have read the article first... the reason this worked:

"We are honored to have Howard Payne University Athletics as a part of the Adidas family," said Mike Cloud of Adidas Team Sales. "We look forward to a long and successful partnership of which both parties can be proud."

Mike Cloud is a 1977 graduate of Howard Payne University. He was a member of the Yellow Jacket football team where he was a two-time All-Lone Star Conference selection at safety.

... Mr. Cloud in this case is not looking probably to outfit the rest of Division III, but rather use his employment to benefit his alma mater.  Which is totally fine, but explains very clearly why HP, and not others.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on April 23, 2011, 12:43:57 PM
So there have been 130+ views of this, and no comments.   What do people think - does this fit the D3 model? 

I'm in no way suggesting HPU did anything wrong by signing this agreement, but the fact that it's apparently never been done before in the division suggests it's an unusual arrangement. 

Similar to everyone else, I feel there's absolutely nothing wrong with this.  Trust me, as someone close to a particular Division III school, if an apparel company came offering, they would accept and I feel EVERY SCHOOL would accept.  The problem is simply that Nike, Adidas, UA, etc. won't receive the CBS & ESPN time that Duke, Kentucky, Auburn, etc. provide those companies each time a free throw is shot, a batter is focussed in on or a time out featured with a close-up camera view.  And therefore there's nothing in it for the apparel companies to spend $50K in uniforms and shoes for little return, except maybe a small hike in official apparel sales in the University bookstore (author note: the figure thrown out is a 5 second guesstimate for how much 20 sports worth of uniforms would cost at an average $2500 investment per set of uniform).

Otherwise, in theory, its great if it would happen.  Helps the University financially and creates a "brand" for colors, logos, and design schemes.

Quote from: Just Bill on May 04, 2011, 09:38:56 AM
Bringing Randall in was a bad move by Semling and I said so at the time. Two years ago, as soon as I saw they were holding a press conference to announce a Division III assistant coach, the red flags were more like tornado sirens.

Some of that may be true as Randall's deal, but my view on the other side of that coin is Point has always had to have more circus tents, bells and whistles than the others, simply because its Point.  <<insert puke here>>  ... don't get me wrong, I don't discredit their successes - they are great in number and quality.  But Point, above some of the other schools has the "anything you can do I can do better" flare to it. 

Quote from: Shanagolden on April 28, 2011, 09:36:16 PM
Engen is an interesting name.  Has experience in WI at WWTC i believe and at Upper Iowa and Moorhead State. 

Another good name.

Does someone like Grzesk leave a St Norberts?  What about Adrian at Edgewood?  Does Siverling leave Superior after a year to goto Eau Claire.

What about Will Ryan leaving NDSU and trying to make magic like his dad?

I could see Coach Grzesk leaving IF he really wanted to be in the WIAC or a simple change of scenery, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't see it as a jump up or better job... my guess is they're treating him well at Norby's and he wants to stay put.  Adrian?, maybe, but might be the same scenario as Grzesk.  And Siverling - I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk about him, because obviously he was there not too long ago.  But I don't believe that consecutive lateral movement, in-conference, is ever perceived as a good thing... my guess is Siverling agrees and will stay put too.

Will is an good thought, but I don't know that he's too interested in the WIAC right now.  Platteville was different when it was open, for obvious reasons, but I don't see him applying for anything at this point just to be a head coach.  All of these are only opinions, though.  That's what's fun about following it - who really knows?Huh!!!

I think this is down to Rutter and two or three other sleepers we don't know about.

Most haven't thought of or mentioned one other key person... Stu Engen, former head coach at UW-La Crosse, and Minnesota State University-Moorhead and a 20 year resume of success nearly every place he's been.  He was let go at Moorhead after '09-'10 season, but his .500 records at a school with half the scholarships of some others in that league isn't too shabby.  Haven't heard if he applied, but he'd be a great candidate I would think, at least over the "up and coming" pool of guys...