Quote from: EB2319 on December 13, 2019, 03:03:08 PM
Wow. I hadn't heard any whispers about CNU moving to D1 - that would be interesting.  Shame Centennial won't take publics because that would be a great fit for them, and Salisbury for that matter. Certainly a good soccer conference and it would be better travel for both football teams which currently play in the NJAC.

It's been over a year since I looked into it, but I don't recall the Centennial explicitly forbidding publics.  That being said, they are all private schools, and with the exception of Hopkins, all small LACs.  As I mentioned, they haven't taken in a new full member in over 25 years, so it would appear they are not really interested in new members.  I have no idea how hard St. Mary's tried to get in, but as a small LAC with only 1,600 students they are a close match to the Centennial academically.  I could see travel being a issue though.  Then again, if Centennial is looking to add football programs, then maybe Salisbury and CNU have a shot, though again I think a lot of Centennial schools would balk at the travel distance, especially to CNU.

Both Southern Virginia University (SVU) and St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) left the CAC this week.  SVU is heading to USA South and SMCM is heading to North Eastern (NEAC), both in fall 2021.  That leaves only Christopher Newport (CNU), Mary Washington (UMW), and Salisbury, and would appear to be the final nail in the coffin for the CAC.

Though they likely would have preferred full membership in the ODAC, I suspect this is still a positive for SVU who have long wanted out of the CAC, and USA South doesn't look much worse than the CAC from a geographic standpoint, plus they now have football in their primary conference.  It looks like a less than optimal compromise for SMCM, as they are a geographic outlier from most of the league, save Gallaudet.  I suppose they can schedule Wells and SUNY-Morrisville in one trip, and likewise northern teams could schedule Gallaudet and SMCM in one trip, though it would mean playing on consecutive days.  Regardless, they are looking at a lot more travel than they had in the CAC.  They also appear to be moving from one unstable conference to another, as NEAC is shedding four schools next year.  On the plus side, SMCM men's soccer may finally get an NCAA bid in the coming years, as at least over the last few years they have been more competitive than most, if not all of the NEAC teams.  It didn't help SMCM's cause being public, despite being a very small LAC.  I don't believe the Landmark or MAC allow publics.  The Centennial would probably have been their best fit academically and geographically, but their membership is both full and stable (they haven't added a full member since 1992).

Anyone have any ideas where this leaves CNU, UMW and Salisbury?  Again, all three are public universities.  Will they up their financial and student-athlete commitments towards NCAA D1 or D2?  I don't know that there are a lot of options with D2 conferences in their area.  There have been rumors circulating the last couple years of CNU moving to D1, though that may have been mostly wishful thinking on the part of their league competitors.  There certainly is precedent with other smallish VA public universities like Longwood and W&M being D1.  Likewise, I could see Salisbury moving to D1 or D2.  They appear to have the facilities and there is precedent in the state with schools like Frostburg and Bowie State being D2, and the somewhat larger UMBC and Towson being D1.  They should at least be middling competitive in lacrosse, given their history in D3.  UMW is not much smaller than CNU, though not sure that they would want to move out of D3 as they bill themselves as a LAC and don't have a football team.  I believe ODAC also excludes publics, so their D3 options seem pretty thin outside of USA South.

Just heard that York is leaving the CAC for the MAC-Commonwealth, beginning in 2020-21.  Although I expected this, it's still a big ouch.  Anyone aware of any other potential transfers in or out, or could this be the final nail in the coffin for the CAC?

https://ycp.prestosports.com/sports/generalreleases/York_MAC_Announcement

The players foot looked completely over the line on the throw in, but no call from the ref.  Still, Calvin's defense does not look up to dealing with Tufts' physicality.

Don't know much about teams outside the geographic mid-atlantic area, but here goes ...

ROUND OF 32
Chicago, Carleton, Trinity, MHB, Luther, GustA, St. Thomas, Augsburg, CWRU, Capital, Kenyon, CMU, Calvin, Wis-Platt, John Carroll, Lycoming, Tufts, Stevens, Amherst, Middlebury, Conn, Ramapo, Montclair, NYU, Messiah, JHopkins, Cortland, Williams, Rochester, SLU, F&M, UMW

ROUND OF 16
Chicago, Trinity, Luther, St. Thomas, CWRU, Kenyon, Calvin, John Carroll, Tufts, Amherst, Conn, Montclair, Messiah, Cortland, SLU, F&M

ELITE 8
Chicago, St. Thomas, Kenyon, Calvin, Tufts, Montclair, Messiah, SLU

FINAL FOUR
Chicago, Calvin, Tufts, Messiah

FINAL
Calvin over Messiah

Goals scored in Final:  2


Obviously, I am not going out on much of a limb for my final four, but I like watching possession soccer and I would like to see a first time champion, hence my final picks.  I haven't seen Calvin play this year, but I like what I saw of them in the past couple years.

As an alternative to the Courver training, you could also check out the Soccer U training videos (http://www.socceru.com). I bought their DVD set about 10 years ago to work with my then U10 age player, and used it until around U13.  It covers how to teach individual technical skills to both young beginners as well as intermediate level players.  The first DVD, "Blast the Ball", focuses solely on developing kicking skills.  The remaining five DVDs cover a range of technical skills. The full list of lessons can be found here: http://www.socceru.com/chapters-socceru.  You can still buy the DVD set, but they are also now freely available online.  I had also looked at the coerver training videos, but being a no-nothing soccer dad, did not find them useful to my situation.  I found the Soccer U videos to be well done, and thought they did a good job of breaking down and explaining how to teach the skills.  They are designed to train the trainer, not so much for players; but I could see an older, exceptionally motivated player might have the attention span to work through them.  I do recall spending a lot of time reviewing the material and trying to distill it all down to digestible portions that I could work with and keep it fun.

Dave mentioned about U10 players having difficulty with this, and I have to say that U8 seems young to be emphasizing this. I know my 10 year old took about a month to start getting the hang of it, and many more months to develop consistency. You have to keep it fun, and you don't want to be creating a lot of frustration by introducing skills too early.  That being said, you may want to watch through the "Blast the Ball" lessons (also SoccerU lesson #38, which is an addendum to the Blast the Ball lessons) and see what you think.

Quote from: Flying Weasel on September 26, 2018, 11:20:28 AM
No Marshmallow Cup this year!!!   

Now, what am I supposed to do with a dozen bags of marshmallows (and three disappointed kids)?!?!?!

You are not that far from Hershey ... need I say s'more?   

Well, necessity is the mother of invention.  Hopefully, over time things will work out for the best for each of the remaining members, in whatever form that takes place.

Thanks for your expert insight Dave but jeez, as a parent of a CAC athlete, I was hoping for someone to paint a little rosier picture than my own pessimistic view!   If the conference drifts geographically south, that would seem to put even more pressure on the northern contingent to bail out.  York's issue isn't just distance, but traffic.  Every conference away game will be a trip around Baltimore and Washington.  On a weekday, they are looking at miserable traffic in at least one direction, and Saturdays are often no cakewalk either.  For Salisbury and St. Mary's, both public colleges, the overwhelming majority of their athletes are from Maryland (maybe not so much in lacrosse at Salisbury).  If I am a parent of a recruit, hearing that most conference away games are going to be a 4+ hour drive would certainly go in the negative column.  Granted, a diligent coach and AD can try to balance this out to a degree in their OOC schedule.  St. Mary's is peculiar in being a small LAC, yet public.  They would appear to be a good fit in the Centennial or Landmark based on size and academics, but I wonder if those conferences would even allow a public college in their by-laws, yet alone seriously entertain accepting one into their ranks.  Anyhow, thanks again for your insights, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Quote from: EB2319 on July 19, 2018, 04:46:49 PM
http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2018/07/cac-loses-another

Brutal.  Penn State-Harrisburg became the second program in as many weeks to announce plans to leave the Capital Athletic Conference, as the school announced it was returning to the North Eastern Athletic Conference starting with the 2019-20 season. The moves leave just six full member schools in the CAC for the fall of 2019: Christopher Newport, Mary Washington, St. Mary's (Md.), Salisbury, Southern Virginia and York (Pa.). Barring the addition of new members, the CAC would lose automatic bids in all NCAA Division III sports for the 2021-22 season.

This appears to put the conference at a tipping point, where they either need to recruit some schools off of neighboring conferences (e.g. Landmark, Centenial, MAC-C, ODAC) or face extinction due to the remaining schools abandoning the conference.  The CAC has also lost its geographic center.  With the recent departure of Marymount, there isn't a single school within the DC beltway, and only St. Mary's and Mary Washington are on the fringe of the capital area.  In particular this will leave York geographically isolated, and despite being a founding member, I can't imagine why they would want to hang on, versus trying to find a home in the Landmark or Commonwealth conferences.

I imagine this also adds a recruiting negative for coaches in the remaining schools, given the potential loss of NCAA AQs.  On the plus side, if Frostburg gets accepted there will be a D-II soccer option in Maryland, for those that want that option.  I know a number of Maryland players that have gone to play D-II soccer at PA and WV schools, who might have liked to have an option in Maryland.

I also have to wonder how much Christopher Newport's success has been a factor in the exodus of some schools out of the conference.  Looking at the CAC website, since joining in 2013, they have won the following number of championships out of a total of 21 mens/womens sports:

2013/14: 6/21
2014/15: 7/21
2015/16: 9/21
2016/17: 12/21
2017/18: 10/21

Kudos to CNU for their success in a wide range of sports, though Salisbury still dominates in Lacrosse, and UMW in swimming and for the most part, tennis.  It is hard to say how much CNU's success has played into the exodus, but when one school has won on-average half the total conference championships over the last three years, I could see it being a negative for recruiting new schools into the CAC. 

Quote from: Falconer on April 06, 2018, 04:23:37 PM
I know that Luke Kokolios is listed as an incoming player for Messiah, but as of two months ago he was apparently committed to CNU: https://mdunitedfc.demosphere-secure.com/maryland-united-fc-college-placement-nli-signing-day

Assuming (as I do) that both sources of information are reliable, then the decision to attend Messiah appears to have been a sudden change of heart or mind. I know that there are no binding decisions in D3 athletics, but this information is new to me and I wonder what changed his mind.

I would say that that is some sort of mistake or miscommunication.  I was told from a very reliable source back in September that he had committed to Messiah.  He has only been at the Maryland United club for a short time, late in his youth career.  Perhaps CNU was his top choice until he got the commitment to Messiah, and perhaps whomever put out the commitment list at his club did not get the memo on his Messiah commitment; but I recall the Messiah commit was made late summer.

Quote from: firstplaceloser on September 28, 2017, 10:15:31 PM
As of right now, what are the top 5 conferences this year?

For what it is worth, I suppose now is as good a time as any to look at the Massey conference ratings, given most of the games to date are inter-conference:

1. UAA
2. NESCAC
3. SUNY
4. NJAC
5. Cent.
6. OAC
7. LL
8. NEWMAC
9. MAC-C
10. Landmk

I find it odd that NESCAC has the highest win rate (0.883) and the highest SoS rating (1.8), yet places second to the UAA (Win 0.785 / SoS  1.15 ).  Is it because he is weighting individual results based on the opponent's ranking, and perhaps the UAA has higher quality wins, despite overall having a lesser track record in both wins and SoS?  Full rankings are here: https://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?s=csoc2017&sub=11620&c=1