FB: American Rivers Conference

[hazzben]

Do kids want to see something a bit different at college than what they see in high school?  From prospective students, to prospective athletes?  I'm not sure.

Fancy scoreboards with video.  Who has them?  BVU - Yes, Central - No, Coe - No, Dubuque - Yes, Loras - ?, Luther - ?, Simpson - ?, Wartburg - No

Artificial turf - Everyone but Luther

Visitor side seating - everyone...Loras gets the prize for most unique

Adequate parking...BVU - ?, Central - Yes, Coe - we were able to park close by last year, but I don't remember seeing parking lots, Dubuque - Yes, Loras - ?, Luther - ?, Simpson - ?, Wartburg - Yes

A visitor wish list for me...

Visitor side entrance...my wife walks with the aid of crutches and I have 3 small children.  Buying a ticket on the home side and then walking over to the visitor side can be a bit much.  Central had a gravel walkway over to the visitor side, which made it very difficult for my wife.  Coe doesn't.  Cornell does...but they left us.  Dubuque does.  Wartburg does.  Everyone else???   

Visitor side concessions...see above, it usually means I walk alone to get them their food and drinks at halftime.  Central has a concession stand.  Cornell had one half way between home/visitor. Wartburg doesn't...but you usually get to run into warthog there and have a fun chat with him.  Coe doesn't...but again, you usually run into warthog while on your way and have a fun chat with him (that guy gets around).  Everyone else???

Visitor side restrooms...we all get grumpy when one has to make the long trek over to the home side to take care of business.  Central has 2 porta-potties...convenient, and much appreciated, but not handicapped accessable and, uh, smelly.  Coe doesn't.  Cornell you had to walk half way to Timbuktu and there was only 1 stall and long lines.  Dubuque does.  Wartburg doesn't...but they are very nice and clean over on the home side.  Everyone else???     


That's all I've got.  Feel free to add on.

I think your first three are the only ones relevant to recruits.

Not sure how many HS kids play on artificial turf fields with fancy scoreboards. Some do, probably not most. I actually preferred playing on a great grass field over field/sprint turf. But I'd take the turf over the pastures that serve as playing surfaces for some schools any day.

Weight room is probably significant, but has no part in game day atmosphere.

I despised all fields where there weren't visitors bleachers. Bleh! For whatever reason, the MIAC is full of them.

[doolittledog]

I started off talking about recruits and students in general and then morphed into what I wanted.  Oops.

Those first 3 were kind of what I was getting at.  Most high school kids will not have played on artificial turf or had a school with a fancy scoreboard with video.  Would that be something they would look for in a school?  Would a general student body type person want to see a stadium a little more fancy than metal removable bleachers on the home side?  Even if it provides sufficient seating numbers, does it look rinky dink? 

I have a family member that is playing at a D3 school.  He was recruited by D3 and NAIA schools in Nebraska, Iowa, Minny, and Wisky.  In our conversations, which weren't too in-depth.  When he was looking at schools he...

A - Wanted to see that the school offered the major he was interested in.

B - Wanted to see the finantial package that was offered.  (He laughs at the NAIA "football scholarships" offered.  Mostly they were $4,000 which is nice, but the overall finantial package was beat by every D3 school he looked at.

C - Judged how comfortable he was with each of the coaching staffs. 

D - Looked at how competitive each of the schools were and if he thought he could fit in there. 

E - Never mentioned the football facilities...at least to me. 

He came to school to get a degree, being able to continue playing football is a bonus that he loves.  Something I would think is typical at the D3 level. 

[hazzben]

He came to school to get a degree, being able to continue playing football is a bonus that he loves.  Something I would think is typical at the D3 level.

Sounds like he's got his priorities straight! And I'd agree, I think that's one of the best parts of D3, legit student-athletes.

[Bird Dog]

When my son was looking at schools they always wanted to show off the stadium.  I finally convinced him the practice field was just as important if not more so. You spend +4X's the time on the practice field than the playing field.  It was nice if the school had a huge practice area so they didn't have to practice on the same turf all the time (Upper Iowa had a huge practice field) or irrigated field so the turf continued to grow through the summer.  I'm sure some schools will be going to artificial practice surfaces as soon as they can.

Weight room and strength and conditioning coach were the next on the list.  You need the core strength to compete and avoid injuries.  My son visited Upper Iowa, Central, Truman St., Concordia Mn., Culver Stockton ,Minnesota State, and a school in South Dakota that I didn't visit.  The joke was none of the schools (except Minnesota State where the Vikings have preseason camp) had a weight room as big as or as well equipped as his high school.   Some were extremely ill equipped. 

Education wise didn't want any T.A.'s and access to full time profs. 

oops gotta go.

[D3Dutchman]

When my son was looking at schools they always wanted to show off the stadium.  I finally convinced him the practice field was just as important if not more so. You spend +4X's the time on the practice field than the playing field.  It was nice if the school had a huge practice area so they didn't have to practice on the same turf all the time (Upper Iowa had a huge practice field) or irrigated field so the turf continued to grow through the summer.  I'm sure some schools will be going to artificial practice surfaces as soon as they can.

Weight room and strength and conditioning coach were the next on the list.  You need the core strength to compete and avoid injuries.  My son visited Upper Iowa, Central, Truman St., Concordia Mn., Culver Stockton ,Minnesota State, and a school in South Dakota that I didn't visit.  The joke was none of the schools (except Minnesota State where the Vikings have preseason camp) had a weight room as big as or as well equipped as his high school.   Some were extremely ill equipped. 

Education wise didn't want any T.A.'s and access to full time profs. 

oops gotta go.

I have to believe you, but if your son's high school weight room was better equipped than Central's...especially for football specific lifting, then that is pretty impressive.  Central's facilities for strength and conditioning are top notch, and they have two full time strength coaches...not sure too many other schools can boast that. 

[Klompen]

You can only tell so much from watching a game on the frequently buffering streaming video, but from what I could see, that Central Wartburg game sure was ugly!  If it hadn't been for the first ten minutes, I never could have watched the next fifty minutes. Ya know how sometimes the losing side will say, "We made a bunch of mistakes and gave that game to ya."  And the winning side will say, "Our strategy is to force opponents to make mistakes."  Well in the Central Wartburg games, both sides made a lot of mistakes and if any of them were forced, I couldn't see it on video stream.  I'm glad Central came out on top of that one but if they don't fix a lot of things in the next four days, I have a bad feeling for their trip to Coe.  A team that is 9-0 probably actually does force some mistakes on top of all of the ones their opponents make on their own.  And 9-0 teams tend to be the ones that make you pay for it when you make a mistake.  I figure if Central plays for sixty minutes like they did for the first ten minutes against the Warts, they might have a chance in Cedar Rapids.  Otherwise, if Central is as sloppy as they were for about 80% of last Saturday's game, Coe might get a chance to run up the score in the hopes of a higher play-off seed.

true story....however it will be interesting to see if there was any pressure from the streak, and perhaps with that off the table, they will be able to play free and surprise some people. As weird as it sounds, Central players have "more " to play for in the sense they know this will be their last game, same can't be said for coe players. Central also seems to somewhat have coes number lately, so lets see. I imagine Coe wins by 2 scores, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Central give em a game.

I see it as going one of two ways, extremely close or a total blow out, I will let you figure out who is blowing out who.     I do think it will help that Central has the streak pressure gone and completely agree that they have more to play for.  I wish I could see Coe taking us lightly, but since we beat them last year, that won't probably happen.  It would be nice to finish strong and give the guys something to work toward in the off season.

This was the same way I felt before the Wartburg vs Coe game.   

I can 100% relate.  In those up and down seasons, you never know which team will show up, but you know one of the teams will play well.  I'm going to hope that since your Coe game did not end up extremely close, that our's might.  Of course it might not.     I've heard the hopeful "we've built a little momentum over the last 3 games,  but I would feel better about that if we were able to deal a final blow instead of barely hanging on to the win.

Either way, I am 100% supporting the Dutch.  Surprise!   

[Klompen]

I think Central's facilities are very nice.  They are not the best in the conference, but they are not terrible either.  I would agree with DD, that the gravel should go, it is really large and difficult for able bodies to walk on without twisting and ankle.  I believe the main core of home bleachers is extremely nice, though it would benefit from a back exit.  Central's visitor seating, not that I sit there, but it looks as good as any I have seen in the IIAC, but I have not been to UD since they built their new stadium.  They are better than Simpson's and Wartburg's, at WB it seems like the home bleachers are very short sections with lots of bars to look through as you try to see the game.  The field turf needs work.  The white, IMHO has always looked dirty, and though it is not a school color, I would go with black next time because it is would provide a nice clean looking shift from the red.  Let the white be the lines and numbers.

I didn't know we brought back championship teams as motivation, but if you have them, is there something wrong with recognizing them, particularly if they are one of the homecoming classes having a reunion that night?  Central does have a ton of players from so many championship seasons that tend to show up at a lot of key away games to cheer on the Dutch, the host schools never seem to point them out though.    

Seems to me though that the Dutch fans are pretty realistic about the team's play over the last year or so.  We may want to hold onto our streak and our tradition, but it doesn't blind us to reality.  Maybe there are some on the board that hoped to gloat about how the mighty have fallen and are a touch upset that we already recognized that we aren't what we were not very long ago.  To make matters worse, you might be a fan of one of the teams we managed to beat in our downfallen season, making gloating a bit harder, so better pick on the facilities?

[doolittledog]

I think Central keeps getting brought up because there are Central fans on here that can reply

I think Simpson has a pretty similar set up to Central on their home side.  The difference is Simpson, just in the last year, put in a new track, field turf, fencing, ticket booths and rest rooms, and have announced plans to further improve the home side seating after further fund raising.  Add in the fact there really aren't any Simpson fans on here anymore and the Storm get a break.  BVU just did the same thing as Simpson at their place. 

Central also may be getting talked about because of how nice the rest of the campus looks.  The academic side looks fantastic and DF1 told us there were a lot of new buildings on campus since she had been a student.  The athletic side looked fairly nice as well.  We were parked next to the soccer park and we talked to parents there that were telling us about the new seating going in there.  We could see softball and baseball from the football field that also looked nice.  Then you look at the history of Central football.  Consistently winning conference titles since the 1930's, 30 conference titles...18 more than the 2nd best team in the conference, 2 Stagg Bowl appearances, yadda yadda yadda.  Then you look at the field and you realize that besides turf and a track that are about 7-8 years old, everything else about the place is pretty darn old.  It's certainly adequate, and nothing really to complain about, it just seemed odd that what appears to be the last thing on campus to get a facelift is the football stadium...especially when you take in the history of the Central football program and what it has meant to the Central community. 

As far as visitor side seating...certainly no need to make things comfortable for the visitors.  I thought part of the charm of Ash Park at Cornell was the trains rumbling past   I was just giving my wish list for visitor side amenities as we are going to more and more games these days

[putmeincoach]

I believe Central's turf is getting upgraded this offseason - warranty repair - that would tell me they will not get new turf but maybe it will look/play a little better

[notlongago]

Can't remember who was faulting Central for appointing a "coach that couldn't win" (paraphrasing) to A.D....well Central opened their season yesterday by thoroughly beating No. 19 St. Olaf 24-11.....

[putmeincoach]

Can't remember who was faulting Central for appointing a "coach that couldn't win" (paraphrasing) to A.D....well Central opened their season yesterday by thoroughly beating No. 19 St. Olaf 24-11.....

had to know this was coming after a nice win by the Central wrestling program

[DutchFan2004]

Can't remember who was faulting Central for appointing a "coach that couldn't win" (paraphrasing) to A.D....well Central opened their season yesterday by thoroughly beating No. 19 St. Olaf 24-11.....

had to know this was coming after a nice win by the Central wrestling program

That is interesting.  Way to go Dutch matmen.  I think this bodes well for the program.  A signature win in any program makes recruiting easier.  Time will tell if this is a fluke or a real step forward for the program. 

[NewKnightDad]

Can't remember who was faulting Central for appointing a "coach that couldn't win" (paraphrasing) to A.D....well Central opened their season yesterday by thoroughly beating No. 19 St. Olaf 24-11.....

had to know this was coming after a nice win by the Central wrestling program

That is interesting.  Way to go Dutch matmen.  I think this bodes well for the program.  A signature win in any program makes recruiting easier.  Time will tell if this is a fluke or a real step forward for the program.

You will certainly know a lot more after the dual with Coe on November 14th.

[notlongago]

Can't remember who was faulting Central for appointing a "coach that couldn't win" (paraphrasing) to A.D....well Central opened their season yesterday by thoroughly beating No. 19 St. Olaf 24-11.....

had to know this was coming after a nice win by the Central wrestling program

That is interesting.  Way to go Dutch matmen.  I think this bodes well for the program.  A signature win in any program makes recruiting easier.  Time will tell if this is a fluke or a real step forward for the program.

You will certainly know a lot more after the dual with Coe on November 14th.

Haha...baby steps. Probably not up to that level yet

[Klompen]

I am counting on Coaches Jones and Mac to put a lot of time in helping the O-line get their level of play up a notch for this weekend.  The Dutch will need to be clicking on all cylinders and then some this weekend.  Would love to see Central finish strong.  Good luck to all of the seniors playing their final game this weekend.  I will wish Coe's seniors good luck the next week.