With regard to academic rigor, I'll cite the US News rankings, which of course always spark a controversy.  Amherst is ranked near the top, Midd and W&L are right next to each other, and Conn is another level behind.  That said, each school has its own approach toward the parameters for recruiting "student athletes".

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges?_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

And, BTW, Vassar would be a good academic and geographic fit.  That said, adding Hamilton was awkward from a travel standpoint, but it did expand the conference schedule across most team sports to an even 10 teams.  11 opponents would be an awkward number.

That's a great list, PN.  Let's see if anyone bites...

I agree with your take, PN.  The NESCAC is a D3 conference in every respect.  Typically...smaller private liberal arts colleges that are academically rigorous...and strike a great balance between academics and athletics.  Isn't that what the majority of D3 schools are all about?

What I have said about the NESCAC in the past, and will reiterate, is that the conference is amazingly competitive across a number of sports...and it also benefits from being in a compact geographic area (Hamilton notwithstanding).  It's easy for supporters to get to every away game if they're so inclined.

Yes, welcome aboard PolarBearMom.  I'm a former Polar Bear dad who now lives in Brunswick and follows the team.

On paper, Bowdoin should be highly competitive in the NESCAC this year.  They did indeed lose all-NESCAC players in midfielder Juantorena and center back Jack Selig...but everyone else is back.  As you indicated, Tyler Huck is a highly intelligent and skilled player, and a difference maker.  One of the keys will be whether or not Rueda Duran gets into the scoring groove he discovered last year.  He hasn't found the net yet in five games.

The game at Bates tomorrow evening should be fun.  Bates's new coach is Ben Brewster, who played next to my son on Bowdoin's back line when they went to the Final Four back in 2010.  Ben is a great young man and has some solid coaching experience, having recently served as associate head coach at D1 UMass.

It's shaping up to be a fun and highly competitive NESCAC season.  Middlebury, Tufts, Amherst and Conn are obvious favorites.  But Bowdoin, and even Williams, will be very much in the picture for the top four in the conference.

Regarding Amherst vs. Conn, I think I may have a more balanced perspective relative to the previous two posters.  I watched the end of the first half and most of the second half.  In the first half, I was impressed with Conn's team play on and off the ball.  That said, they were never much of a threat in the final third during the entirety of the game I watched.

I actually thought Amherst played a higher quality possession game than they've been known for in past years.  But they definitely relied on the individual brilliance of Nuhu to score the decider.

I'm thinking that both teams likely deserve their national rankings...but the Camels will need to find a bigger threat in attack to get to where they want to be this season.

I just returned from watching the Bowdoin vs. Colby game.  What a new phenomenon at Bowdoin...night games under the lights.  There was a huge crowd and a lot of energy on the sidelines for an early season game.  Colby was surprisingly up 1-0 when I arrived.  I heard that someone hit a low shot under the Bowdoin keeper early in the game.  Bowdoin then equalized before the half.  Colby then regained the lead on a free kick that eluded the Bowdoin keeper...completely against the run of play of the previous 20 minutes or so.  Bowdoin equalized with about 20 minutes to go, and scored the winner with 5 minutes to go to walk off with a 3-2 win.

My quick assessment:  Colby was opportunistic in scoring their two goals.  And they were doing some weird things trying to play the ball out of the back on goal kicks.  It almost backfired on them several times.  I think they'll need to reevaluate that tactic when they're facing the iron of the NESCAC.  Bowdoin looked energetic and dangerous on the attack against a low block.  But I think their keeper Alex Ainsworth...who had a very good season as a sophomore last year...was a bit shaky and will need to solidify his game if Bowdoin are going to be competitive with the Amhersts, Tufts, Conns, and Middleburys of the world.

Nicely done, SC!  I appreciate your dedication and insightfulness.

PaulNewman, I was TrueNorth before I somehow lost my handle and settled for Northman.  Evan Gershkovich was a freshman on the Bowdoin soccer team when my son was a junior.  That was the only year Evan played collegiate soccer.  History tells us he clearly had more important things to be doing as a college student.

Here's a cool piece of trivia:  Evan didn't get much playing time during the regular season or playoffs in 2010.  Bowdoin was hosting the NCAA sectionals and were playing arch rival Amherst in the round of 16.  The game, tied 1-1 after regulation and two OTs, went to PKs.  Amherst missed a couple of shots during the initial round of 5, so Bowdoin was in a favorable circumstance...but you still have to convert your shots. 

With the outcome in the balance, coach Fran O'Leary brought Evan off the proverbial bench (you were allowed to do that back then) for the next kick.  After not playing at all during regulation or OT, Evan stepped up and rolled the ball into the corner for a Bowdoin victory.  That's a pretty cool exclamation point to a brief college soccer career!

Quote from: Viking on June 05, 2024, 01:56:17 PM

Quote from: northman on June 05, 2024, 01:36:58 PMNote that Liam Rorke has apparently committed to both Bates and Bowdoin...

Eek! My error, no one else's. Sorry. He's a Bates recruit; I will remove from the Bowdoin listing.

Rorke has had a pan-New England journey. He was a Conn commit at one point after his Tabor career, but then took a PG year at Phillips Academy Andover (a decision that was documented last summer in a New England Soccer Journal story, see link below) before committing to Bates.

https://www.nesoccerjournal.com/nepsac-boys-why-a-postgrad-year-at-phillips-andover-is-right-for-liam-rorke/

No worries.  Interesting that he's trading Conn for Bates.  Conn has a more established program, but Ben Brewster...the new coach at Bates...played with my son at Bowdoin, is a great guy, and I think he has what it takes to do a great job at Bates.

Note that Liam Rorke has apparently committed to both Bates and Bowdoin...

By the way, transferring to upper tier NESCACs is not an easy proposition.  My older son had some interest in transferring to Bowdoin after three years at Brown under a domineering coach.  I communicated with the AD, who said it was a nonstarter...particularly with only one year to go.

I heard through the local grapevine that a starting D1 player with a 4.0 after two years as a starter at a good quality liberal arts university would like to transfer to Bowdoin.  I'm not assigning a high level of probability to that actually happening...

 

This debate has some amusing dimensions.  If I were a young and aspirational D3 coach, I'm not sure I'd be putting population statistics at the top of my priority list.  In fact, it's sometimes easier to meet an interesting person in a smaller market than a larger market. 

As one anecdotal story, I moved from Boston to Portland, Maine 40 years ago...and found it far easier to meet people and develop friendships in Portland.  In fact, I met my wife to be in Portland 38 years ago, and she had recently moved there from the DC area.

All things being equal, I'm not convinced that someone would forego Waterville, Maine for New London, Connecticut.  New London is neither Manhattan nor Providence...

Quote from: Kuiper on December 04, 2023, 06:36:10 PM

Quote from: PaulNewman on December 04, 2023, 05:57:29 PM

Quote from: Kuiper on December 04, 2023, 05:42:53 PM
Three perspectives on Serpone/Amherst recruiting:

1.  He over-recruits because he is ambitious and loses LOTS of DI-qualified players.  Strings tons of kids along.  Part of that is he is uber organized and always has backup plans where some coaches do not, but it's not because he gets whoever he wants.  If he does calculate his yield (and he probably does), it is a very massaged number, not unlike the yields of many top small liberal arts colleges that ramp up early decision to make their admissions % and yield numbers more attractive.

2.  Amherst is attractive because of the academic/soccer balance, not because of the soccer, and Serpone sells that well.  When you are recruiting kids who are also speaking with DI coaches, the decision to go DIII is because you have decided (or resigned yourself) to prioritizing academics, but want to pair it with an acceptable soccer environment.  For these DI types from top youth programs, "acceptable" means a coach who is really organized, detail-oriented, and likely to provide a DIII soccer experience that feels like DI in practice intensity etc.  Serpone has that in spades.  Other coaches provide the soccer environment without quite as high academics or provide the high academics without conveying the impression that their soccer experience will be quite as good.  The kids know that the style of play is not what they are used to, but they also know that they wouldn't have gotten that style of play in DI either except at a few schools. 

3.  The "bro" culture is a feature not a bug in the Amherst system.  I'm not saying Amherst is a "bro" culture in the nature of the big state school Greek system, but some of the kids I have spoken with really like the rah, rah, high spirit, frat-like bro environment.  What people describe as antics on this board are looked at as fun, competitive, spirited culture.  They would agree it sometimes goes too far into racist, misogynistic behavior, but heckling, taunting, "brothers against the world," physicality, etc sounds like a great release from academic stress to them.  It's a turn off to others and they don't go there, but those who do like it. And those that are only going for the Amherst name go along to get along.

Excellent.  Totally agree with #3.  In terms of what I put in bold italics in #2, I wonder if you think what he offers is being matched or approximated by some other schools.  My own sense is that some of the other NESCACs (Tufts, Midd, Bowdoin, now Conn, etc) and schools like W&L and similar can and/or do make a similar pitch ("best of both worlds").

I do think other schools do that as well, although the small liberal arts college prestige is limited enough that there aren't that many can sell the same thing as Amherst.  NESCAC is not an undifferentiated brand outside New England.  For example, I don't think Conn admits the same level of student as Amherst (with due apologies to Conn), but it definitely has a similar level of soccer and it has academic merit $, which Amherst does not.  So, that makes it appealing to the donut hole family, which is a growing segment of the applicant pool.

The real issue for the academic side of the equation is that the applicant pool divides between STEM/computer science and Finance, with student interest in Humanities dropping off a cliff unfortunately.  Nationally, that means some of the top UAA schools like Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, and Rochester, as well as a school like Johns Hopkins, have the potential for a better "best of both worlds" story than some of the liberal arts colleges.  The LACs in the NESCAC and elsewhere are working harder to beef up their STEM offerings and claim their strength there too beyond the pure sciences, but a decent number of their athletes are majoring in econ, business-type pre-finance majors.

Again, I think that several things can be true at the same time.  Although the UAA schools are true (or more akin to) universities, that doesn't mean that LACs are lacking in STEM quality.  My son, who went to Bowdoin, was a double major in math and economics...and he now manages a team of quants at a specialized hedge fund that is heavy on analytics.  Some of his team members are alums of NESCAC and UAA schools.

And with respect to Amherst specifically, that school does not have a unique corner on the market for talented student athletes.  Among the NESCACs...Williams, Middlebury, and Bowdoin (among others) are equally represented on Wall Street, in the management consulting world, at med schools, etc.

At the risk of merging several threads, Serpone can indeed be charming and charismatic...and I believe he over-recruits relative to his NESCAC brethren.  But I also agree with the suggestions that there exists a funny "bro culture" at Amherst, and I think it served my son well to have decided on Bowdoin over Amherst from a team and school culture perspective.  This is my admitted bias, but I'm sticking with it...