FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[smedindy]

Which is sad, because the Wabash ethos was built on multi-sport athletes, harkening back to Homer Stonebraker and Pete Thorn.

[DarkSide-D]

Seinfeld,

Woo does of multi sports guys.  Drush throws track, some Woo players in years past ran track (Sutton did until his senior year), Sweringen plays baseball.  It is possible, but notice these second sports mostly seem to be fall/spring, not fall/winter.  I think it may be tough given the level of the Bball program and the level the football program is seeking to maintain (they have reached a high level, but now they are trying to maintain it).

I have not had the chance to check out Bidwell in person.  Maybe I will meander down to Woo this saturday for the Bash game.  Perhaps the Scots will be able to work something out.

[BashBacker#16]

Smeds,

Let's face it, I lot of us ended up at Wabash because we wanted to play 2 sports and knew we could and play right away.  The bigger schools want to force one sport and in years past, that would help Wabash (and other D3 schools) land a kid that may be scholarship worthy at a bigger school for one sport.

Years ago it was much more common and some of that was because the head baseball coach was our Offensive Coordinator - Scott Boone.

Football/track is probably the best fit where the kid can still attend football workouts and work on their speed...Thomas Bell - triple jump, Banach - sprinter, Russell - sprinter, Green - sprinter, and then Coach Joz usually has some throwers too.  Billy King will play centerfield again this year in the Spring.

[Li'l Giant]

the best example from my days at Wabash was Kim King, playing football and hoops. Kim was The Man.

[smedindy]

Ryan Short did pretty fair playing both as well, but he did play hoops like a tight end. So did Rich Calacci, back in the day.

But then there was Pete. Amen...

[wally_wabash]

Kim King rocks.  One or both of the Wilhelms doubled up as well in football and baseball.  One of them (and I apologize for not remembering off the top of my head) competed in the home run derby in Omaha at the College World Series his senior year. 

I think it's increasingly difficult for an athlete to double up in football and hoops.  If the football team goes to the playoffs, he'll miss games.  If the football team makes any sort of reasonable run, he'll miss quite a few games.  I'd love to see more guys play football and hoops, but the seasons overlap enough that so much basketball practice time and game time is missed that it would take a phenomenal athlete to make the transition smoothly. 

[lancer98]

Anybody see the Willimette, (OR) story this morning on ESPN?  Aren't they D3?

What a story.  It surrounded them playing a game in Hawaii during Pearl Harbor.  After the Japs hit they were stranded on the island and the entire team was given rifles to guard an ammo dump at a local high school.  After they finally returned to the school 10 days later many of the players enlisted and never played football again.  What an experience it must have been.  There were many others details as well.

[seinfeld]

A subject that has always really interested me is Div. III football recruiting. Does anyone more familiar with the recruiting process shed some light on how they go about finding players. How many kids do they contact in a given year. How do they find the names. I may be way off about this, but it would seem that Div. III football recruiting has to be the most difficult of any collegiate sport. To be competitive, you have to bring in over 40 players a year, and this is without any scholarships to lock kids in.

I would be real interested in seeing a local paper like the Wooster Daily Record of the Springfield paper really delve into this subject. I think it would be very fascinating.

[oldguy]

I'm not an expert on the subject by any means, but going by my experience being recruited and my time on the team, I think the college coaches rely a lot on the high school coaches sending out information to them about players on their respective teams that they believe would be a good addition to the college coach's football team. 

I also think that pipelines play a large role (i.e. older siblings, or guys on the team that went to the same high school, etc). 

I believe the college coaches then analyze the info and some game film and decide who they are going to spend the most time recruiting.

[kcreds]

I'll try to shed a little light on the subject of recruiting based on Jr.'s experience. I could write a book but I will try to make it short.

Jr. received a lot of attention by attending The Ohio State Football Camp the last 6 years. He even attended what I call a Senior combine. He received letters from several schools in several different states. The ones he was most interested in we sent highlights from Jr.'s seasons on DVD. Jr.'s high school coach does not send out any information on his players to colleges which I think is a real shame. Jr.'s high school is small and gets very little press even though they have a 46 game regular season winning streak that started when Jr. was a freshman. Jr.'s high school counselor sent letters to coaches he knew but they were to schools Jr. was not interested in. Someone else made a real good point on a previous post, unless you are a Bo Jackson or a Deion Sanders, you will have to limit yourself to one sport if you go DI or DII. Jr. was recruited for baseball in all 3 divisions and football in DII and DIII. He chose to go to DIII so he could play both. One big factor was also playing time. There was no guarantee of making the team or playing right away at the DI and DII level, even with a scholarship. Jr. justs wants to play. He told the DIII coaches he was interested and he received several phone calls from the 3 coaches that were most interested, Marietta, Wittenburg, and Ohio Wesleyan. It was very nice how much they seemed to care about him and he had a hard time telling the other coaches he was going to OWU. Many variables came into play during his decision making process but I believe that Jr. was mostly impressed with Coach Hollway and his strong desire to get Jr..

I just wanted to give a perspective and in no way was this post intended to brag on Jr..

[Li'l Giant]

in no way was this post intended to brag on Jr..

Not that there would be anything wrong with that if it were.

[lancer98]

KC,

From you comments, in my opinion, you son made the correct decision.  Many times D1 baseball is not all it is cracked up to be.  Many baseball teams at the D1 level recruit a number of players and there is not always a lot of scholorship money available.  They end up sitting the bench and  I see kids transfer down divisions in Basball all the time.  This is no different than any other sport I just hear it happen a lot in baseball compared to that of football or basketball in my experiences.

As a matter of fact many of the top D3 teams in baseball such as Wooster, OWU, and Marietta have the ability to compete with the lower tier D1 teams.  As a matter of fact Woo beat OSU a few years ago as did OWU.  So the gap is not always as big as it seems

[kcreds]

lancer98: I agree with you wholeheartedly. Jr. was very close in signing with Akron baseball but they told him regardless of the scholarship, he would still have to make the team. He wasn't told that from football coaches he talked to. I guess it is about numbers.   

Lil Giant: Thanks for your opinion but some posters take offense to it. I just don't want it to look like I am putting Jr. on a pedestal.

[BashBacker#16]

Kcreds,

I don't mind the stories and talk about your son but what is SO INCREDIBLY ANNOYING is your reference to him as "Junior!"  Will this continue for 3 more years?  Ugh!!!!  How about referring to him as either "your son" or his initials or his first name???

Some general D3 recruiting comments:  it has certainly changed over the years - especially at Wabash.  It seems much more selective now where as in years past it was almost always about numbers.  There are clearly guys that they go after and others they don't.  That is probably the biggest misperception that I see in D3, everyone automatically assumes they can play D3 football.  Wrong.  In fact, if a kid visits - no matter the talent - if he is not a "fit" - he is no longer recruited.  It is almost as if it is an interview.  The better D3 programs seem to go after the kids that have scholarship offers from D1AA, D2, and NAIA schools. 

Today's D3 recruiting (better programs) seem much more strategic, more complex, and more targeted.

[BashBacker#16]

Wow, if you want to hear something pretty cool, check this out at Wabash...

http://www.wabash.edu/kane/realaudio/index.cfm - at Bash vs. Witt in hoops - it has become a rivalry outside of football.  Joseph just hit a 3 and the place went crazy.

D3 sports at it finest!  Go Bash!