Quote from: The General Public on March 16, 2010, 10:30:17 PM

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 16, 2010, 09:34:16 PM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on March 16, 2010, 04:51:22 PM

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 16, 2010, 03:18:27 PM
Trey Martin (A local kid from Wheaton North High School- Eat Crow Sager) appears to be the #1 this year. 

I love your flair for understatement, TurtleHead.

The fact that Wheaton has a Wheaton North grad on the roster doesn't contradict anything that I've said in the past about Wheaton's base constituency, student profile, or predisposition to eschew the recruiting methods of its CCIW rivals. Wheaton has had many athletes (and many students in general) hail from Wheaton North High School over the years. Why? Because of three reasons that are closely related to each other.

First, Wheaton, IL is a very conservative suburb with a pronounced evangelical flavor to it. Evangelical Protestant churches are thick on the ground in and around Wheaton, and therefore the college's natural constituency can be found right at the doorstep of Blanchard Hall just as much as it can be found in Texas, Colorado, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, etc. Second, the college has a high profile in the local community, as one would expect from the fact that it is a nationally-famous institution that has been around for a century and a half. Third, Wheaton North, as the local public high school (it's two miles up Main Street from the WC campus), no doubt has many students who are related to either Wheaton College staff or to Wheaton College alumni.

If you're an evangelical kid who attends Wheaton North or Wheaton Academy (the local evangelical private high school, which also has an alumnus on this year's Wheaton baseball team), Wheaton is practically the default choice for college.

More importantly, did you take a good look at that Wheaton baseball roster? Twenty-four of the thirty members of the team are out-of-staters.

Nice to see you came over from the Basketball board.

Wheaton doesn't recruit locally, TurtleHead. It recruits nationally, as you can tell by the roster. The few local kids on the roster are student-athletes who match Wheaton's student profile, not baseball players who were recruited simply because of geographical proximity.

I am sure the coach never bothered to call the kid or the coach at Wheaton North about possible prospects.  He could also have parents who are alumni as well I will give you that.

Wheaton coach can't just show up at an event like the Stevenson Showcase and expect to make prospect contacts. It's just not a good use of his time. Nor is establishing contacts with local high school coaches, unless it's with the coach of a school like Wheaton Academy, Aurora Christian, Timothy Christian, Illiana Christian, etc.

All of these schools send athletes on their conference all-star teams to this showcase.  Trey was on the Dupage conference all-star team. 

Conferences who also send teams to the showcase Chicago Catholic Blue and White, East suburban Catholic.

With all the budget cuts going on at Wheaton I would think that a new coach to the area might want to set up ties with the local catholic league coaches.  This showcase provides an easy one stop shop to make the initial face to face.  If he truly is going to get the national kids anyway.  Why not go after some local kids who fit the schools profile. 

I will repeat my previous statement. "Plenty of talent around the Chicagoland area.   Specifically in Dupage county. "   

Turtlehead, Trey is also the son of Wheaton golf coach Jay Martin which probably has more to do with his arrival at Wheaton than Trey's play at Stevenson.  There are two other players on Wheaton's roster who also played at Stevenson and I know for a fact that neither one of them was discovered at Stevenson by Wheaton. 

Sure those conferences may be represented at Stevenson but the fact of the matter is that players on those conferences teams likely would not fit the mold at Wheaton.  From my knowledge of Notre Dame (Niles) high school's baseball team, very few of them were practicing "Evangelical" christians which is what the typical student body consists of at Wheaton College, with less than 3% of their student body being Catholic. 

The only thing I have said is that there is plenty of talent in the area if the coach was looking to turn the team around.  Stevenson was just an example of somewhere the coach could go to find players and meet coaches.  I will agree that not all players on Catholic / Christian schools fit the mold of Wheaton, but I don't think it would be a waste of time for the Wheaton coach to make contacts at them or the local high schools in the area. 

I just found if amusing that after my original statement and Greg's rebuttal that the next year they had a local kid on the roster.   

   

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 16, 2010, 09:34:16 PM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on March 16, 2010, 04:51:22 PM

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 16, 2010, 03:18:27 PM
Trey Martin (A local kid from Wheaton North High School- Eat Crow Sager) appears to be the #1 this year.  

I love your flair for understatement, TurtleHead.

The fact that Wheaton has a Wheaton North grad on the roster doesn't contradict anything that I've said in the past about Wheaton's base constituency, student profile, or predisposition to eschew the recruiting methods of its CCIW rivals. Wheaton has had many athletes (and many students in general) hail from Wheaton North High School over the years. Why? Because of three reasons that are closely related to each other.

First, Wheaton, IL is a very conservative suburb with a pronounced evangelical flavor to it. Evangelical Protestant churches are thick on the ground in and around Wheaton, and therefore the college's natural constituency can be found right at the doorstep of Blanchard Hall just as much as it can be found in Texas, Colorado, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, etc. Second, the college has a high profile in the local community, as one would expect from the fact that it is a nationally-famous institution that has been around for a century and a half. Third, Wheaton North, as the local public high school (it's two miles up Main Street from the WC campus), no doubt has many students who are related to either Wheaton College staff or to Wheaton College alumni.

If you're an evangelical kid who attends Wheaton North or Wheaton Academy (the local evangelical private high school, which also has an alumnus on this year's Wheaton baseball team), Wheaton is practically the default choice for college.

More importantly, did you take a good look at that Wheaton baseball roster? Twenty-four of the thirty members of the team are out-of-staters.

Nice to see you came over from the Basketball board.

I get around a bit.

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 16, 2010, 09:34:16 PMWheaton doesn't recruit locally, TurtleHead. It recruits nationally, as you can tell by the roster. The few local kids on the roster are student-athletes who match Wheaton's student profile, not baseball players who were recruited simply because of geographical proximity.

I am sure the coach never bothered to call the kid or the coach at Wheaton North about possible prospects.  He could also have parents who are alumni as well I will give you that.

I said "simply because of geographical proximity." There's more to it than that if you're a coach at Wheaton. That's all that I was saying. And, as General Public pointed out, it turns out that Trey Martin did have a direct tie to Wheaton, as I indicated is common for Wheaton North student-athletes who end up attending Wheaton College.

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 16, 2010, 09:34:16 PMWheaton coach can't just show up at an event like the Stevenson Showcase and expect to make prospect contacts. It's just not a good use of his time. Nor is establishing contacts with local high school coaches, unless it's with the coach of a school like Wheaton Academy, Aurora Christian, Timothy Christian, Illiana Christian, etc.

All of these schools send athletes on their conference all-star teams to this showcase.  Trey was on the Dupage conference all-star team.  

Conferences who also send teams to the showcase Chicago Catholic Blue and White, East suburban Catholic.

With all the budget cuts going on at Wheaton I would think that a new coach to the area might want to set up ties with the local catholic league coaches.  This showcase provides an easy one stop shop to make the initial face to face.  If he truly is going to get the national kids anyway.  Why not go after some local kids who fit the schools profile.

That's just it, TurtleHead: Catholic kids don't fit the school's profile. As General Public pointed out, Catholics make up less than 3% of the student population at Wheaton. Furthermore, four years ago Wheaton fired a faculty member for converting to Catholicism. The school does not provide a congenial atmosphere for Catholics (I won't get into sola scriptura and all that; you'll just have to trust me on this one). That's not Wheaton's fault, by the way; the school is what it is, and it shouldn't have to apologize for it. But you're laboring under the misapprehension that Wheaton College views all branches of Christianity the same, and it doesn't.

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 17, 2010, 07:19:47 AMThe only thing I have said is that there is plenty of talent in the area if the coach was looking to turn the team around.

And no one has questioned that statement. The question is whether or not that "plenty of talent in the area" matches Wheaton's student profile and belief system, which in the eyes of the college administration is far more important than the speed of a student-athlete's fastball or his ability to hit.

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 17, 2010, 07:19:47 AMStevenson was just an example of somewhere the coach could go to find players and meet coaches.  I will agree that not all players on Catholic / Christian schools fit the mold of Wheaton, but I don't think it would be a waste of time for the Wheaton coach to make contacts at them or the local high schools in the area.

It's a needle-in-a-haystack approach if you're a Wheaton coach and you show up for an event such as the Stevenson Showcase (or a football all-star game, or a mid-season basketball tournament) and expect to find high school student-athletes who match Wheaton's very specific religious profile. Your time and effort is better directed towards following the traditional channels that have served Wheaton very well over the years in terms of recruiting. Wheaton's traditionally had very good across-the-board success in CCIW sports over the years. There's no need for Wheaton coaches to reinvent the wheel, especially when the model you propose is so inefficient for them. The challenge for Wheaton coaches is to do better at recruiting through those traditional channels.

Quote from: TurtleHead on March 17, 2010, 07:19:47 AMI just found if amusing that after my original statement and Greg's rebuttal that the next year they had a local kid on the roster.

Wheaton had local kids on the baseball roster last year, too. Wheaton always has at least an athlete or two in every sport who is a local product, for reasons I outlined previously. It's no big deal. What is true, though, is that they don't tend to be recruited through the usual circuit of coaching contacts common to other CCIW schools, as General Public will attest.

I love the banter. I step away for a few hours the The Reformation resurfaces on this board

Quote from: BigPoppa on March 17, 2010, 03:40:49 PM
I love the banter. I step away for a few hours the The Reformation resurfaces on this board

"Here I stand. I can do no other. At least until the coach puts on the steal sign."

Wheaton's #1 recruiting tool in virtually all sports is alumni. 

I do not mean to diminish the hard work of the coaching staffs to find quality student athletes.  But Wheaton alum are spread out across the country and know first hand the kind of student/athlete Wheaton is looking for.  That is part of the reason you will find athletes from all over the country on most sport teams at Wheaton.

I receive mailings for football recruiting several times a year to fillout a card with names of anyone from the local high schools who excel on the field and in the classroom and profess to be followers of Jesus Christ.  I will not go into anymore detail than that (as I do every year on the CCIW football board when questions about Wheaton's recruiting classes), but suffice to say recruiting at Wheaton is complex and relies on a lot of help from alum.

... and it's a recruiting formula that is drastically different than the standard formula used by the CCIW's other seven schools -- even North Park, which, like Wheaton, draws a very high percentage of out-of-state students to its campus.

If you're not familiar with Wheaton College and what it stands for, I can understand why (as is the case with TurtleHead) you'd look at a Wheaton team and wonder, "Why the heck don't they recruit locally?"

North Park opened its home slate with a bang yesterday, sweeping a pair from Dominican, 16-2 and 14-7. Joel Bonnett pitched seven strong innings in the opener, while Nick Marino hit two homers, hot-hitting Ryan Javech (CCIW Hitter of the Week two weeks ago) went 3-3 with 5 RBI, and Mike Domenick scored five runs. The nightcap was highlighted by a Wade Yunker grand slam for the Vikings. Yunker finished the game with 5 RBI, while Andy Athans went 5-6 at the plate and Jake Hollinshaid picked up his third win of the season against no losses.

Luke Johnson is really pushing the running game for NPU this season. The Vikings have now stolen 41 bases in 45 attempts. The other seven teams in the league combined are 42-54.

NPU (7-2) heads to southern Illinois to take on Webster (5-2) in a doubleheader on Monday.

NPU/Webster should be a good test for both schools/conferences.

Oney Guillen's tweets causing friction.

Wheaton completes the sweep of the three game series vs. Spalding down in Lexington with a 17-8 victory on Saturday. Swept the doubleheader Friday with scores of 17-0 and 9-6. The Thunder trailed 6-2 heading into the last inning of game 2 on Friday and rallied with 7 runs to earn the victory.  With the sweep the Thunder now sit at 8-3 on the season

I saw Carthage for the first time this year at the Metrodome this weekend and they surprised me in two ways:

1. They swing it much better than I expected them to. The had runners on all night against St. thomas and collected 9 hits off UST's all-American Schuld before losing 2-1 in the tenth.

2. Their inability to find a serviceable #3 starter. Perez and Danly are solid #1 and #2 guys. I think the Redmen would like Krepline (returning from Tommy John) to be their #3, but he is a bit inconsistent right now. rumors abound that 2009 all-Amrican Trace ruffie will return to the hill very soon. I am hoping he can be that #3 guy they deperately need.

That #3 Starter is already there and quite solid !!! I saw Eric Rohe at the Metrodome, and it was the 1st time I've seen him out of a, Cast, this year. If he's ready come CCIW game time, we'll be in great shape.

IF Brent Kulavic is back to 2008 form (6-1, 1.82 era, .205 batting average against, 1 HR all season) after missing all of 2009 with injury, he is obviously a key for IWU.

After 2 starts (and 1 relief stint) he is 0-0, with a 6.30 era and .310 ba (though 0 HRs).  Has anyone seen him?  Is this just a slow start (and too early to tell), or is he still not 100%?

Mr. Ypsi, I watched Kulavic pitch when they played Millsaps and his stuff seems to be pretty good.  Had that hard breaking ball that was so effective his AA year.  I do think he is having a little problem commanding the fastball in and out of the strike zone, like many pitchers who have tommy john surgery experience.  The more he throws this season, the better he should be.

You are exactly right that he is a key/wildcard for this team.  With that said, the Titans have found a new ace in Junior Jason Pankau.  His last two starts he has gone a combined 14 innings, allowed 7 hits, 1 run, and struck out 23.  If Kulavic can regain form, that is a formidable 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation.

On that note, Jason Pankau named conference pitcher of the week for a second straight week.

http://www.cciw.org/spring_baseball/POW10_3.php