FB: American Rivers Conference

[Thunderbolt]

I have a friend that played for Valley last year and went to Luther this year. He repeatedly said that he thought playing at Luther (or any D3 school) would be a step down from his HS days. I think WH hit the nail on the head with the "holier than thou" comment earlier.

I'm wondering how his opinion will have changed after playing a season of college ball....

We'll have to wait for at least another year for his opinion. Aside from the Waldorf game, where they claimed to have gotten over 100 kids into the game, two Freshmen played this year for Luther. Grimm kicked off and an O-Lineman from Minn.

[Purple Heys]

Just put a Central Bracket Pick'em up


http://www.d3sports.com/post/index.php?topic=5552.0

[Purple Heys]

I'll say Go Dutch, because I want to see the IIAC represented well; and Central is well capable of that...but I'll only go so far...You're still the opposition.

Central is our standard bearer and as the #1 seed in the bracket, nothing less than the semi's is acceptable.

The minute you start hearing a team's coach say, "Oh, we're just happy to be here."  Start putting your money on the other side.  Teams that say that give themselves a mental fallback position of "at least we made it" right before they tank.

Go in hungry Dutch...no one expects you to get past the Johnnies and many folks express they won't be surprised if Olivia-ette wins.  (Not gonna happen BTW)

Olivia-ette plays in a conference where Cornell could challenge for the top spot.  They deserve to be respected...then thoroughly worked.  Olivia-ette that is.

We usually get disrespected then worked.

[Old Dutch]

Talking this 4A ball players not populating the IIAC conferences, I think thats where the conference has to get the numbers to compete year in and year out ion the National level.  While the small school guys carrying the load this year.  are just as good as any of them,  it is a numbers game.  If you look at St. John's roster, you see MANY names from  the metro Twin Cities area.  Thats a huge recruiting advantage, to have the equivilant of our whole state's population within an hours drive of your campus.  IIAC coaches have to get all the recruits they can from good programs in the state.  Either that or we gotta find some more Sangers!!

BTW, 14 hours to kickoff.  Go Dutch Leave no doubt.

[davedevine]

Definitely echo all the statements in regards to the 4A kids thinking they are too good for D3 ball. 

Between playing with guys in the shrine bowl and meeting them on recruiting visits to the state schools etc, it's a very accurate theory and the numbers on the rosters obviously don't lie. 

I will admit though, WB and any other IIAC school was a very small thought for me during my sr year.
When you start to get calls  from coaches at the larger schools or invites to their games,  you tend to start wearing blinders.   It's tough trying to rationalize  things   to a 17/18 yr old w/egos that are in HS.

If every kid @ Iowa, ISU & UNI who rather than giving up football  after 1-3 years(w/a redshirt in there) transferred to an  IIAC school for their remaining 2-3 years of eligibilty, it would no doubt help IIAC come playoff time.
Now  just because a kid comes from a larger college(similar to 4A) this doesn't always = good player. 
But, it definitely helps out depth and you would get some very good players as well. 
.

[DutchHawk]

Its true, the big schools do put the blinders on. I am friends with a lot of guys who Ferentz and Mccarney and crew offered "preferred" walk on status to who just got bypassed by scholarship guys. They would be dominant IIAC players but the dreams of big college stardome ala Dallas Clark pulled them away.

[BeaverOfYore]

Have to agree on the 4A players.  We had several guys from Valley come to BV during my 4 years, and their bark was most definitely bigger than their bite.  This discussion reminds me of a thread from the IowaPreps IIAC board a year or two ago where a kid from Bett claimed he transferred from WB to Iowa because he thought the level of competition was higher in Iowa's intramural programs than in D-III and that his high school team could have won the IIAC.  Sadly, that attitude seems to be the norm among 4A kids based on my experience.

[coco]

Good luck to the Dutch in your game against Olivet.

Hey, Dutchie, I like your new avatar.

[Klopenhiemer]

I will say this-In my opinion, there is enough talent that comes out of the CIML every year to field a very competitive IIAC team, but the kids don;t go on to play football. There is a somewhat "holier than thou" attitude (for lack of a better term) in these kids that if they don't get a scholarship, they don't want to play. The kids generally head on to a bigger school then to get an education.
VERY disappointing.

I will throw in my 2 cents woth on this topic.  Most of you are brining up good points.  I never could explain this myself.  I was a CIML NON VALLEY KID.  I really did not appreciate the Valley kids at all.  There was a deffinatly a bigger or cooler than you attitude back in playing days. 

But in all reality this is an apples to oranges comparison.  Des Moines is a very strange place and the kids do not seem gravitate towards to any schools to pay.  Its a shame and I do not know if it is they have been playing in some type of organized football since they were small, or if they want to go to the large university and party. 

When is the last time that Wapsie Valley saw a kid bring cocaine to school?  When is the last time Wapise Valley had a kid get caught with 10 pills of "x" under his car seat.  When was the last time that Wapsie Valley had to get the administrators together and talk about the new trend of kids in their schools was to have a "rainbow" party and then snort some type of narcotic. 

These are all issues that were coming to the forefront of my highschool many moons ago.  After keeping in touch over the years I can promise you that things are not getting any better.  There is a totally differnt mentallity, and these kids are exposed to many differnt things than  they would be at a smaller town/school. 

DM does not have a ton of kids who wake up on a Saturday morning after a football game and go break out concrete or do chores with there parrents.  I am sure many on this boad could attest to these types of activites.  This was a part of my childhood and I could see that my values were much differnt than  the kids I went to high school with. 

"Hollier than you" I do not think is the right word.  Worthless and a wate of space and talent, that might be a better term.  BUT, I will bring up one point that I experienced.  As a kid all I knew was Central and Wartburg due to the worthless media establishments in Des Moines.  So for as much as these kids might not consider the IIAC, how many of the kids actually know what the IIAC is and how many of these kids understand that skill and level of play this conference brings to the table. 

Maybe the IIAC should market or position themselves better in the eyes of this market.  If they do not need or want these kids, find...Do not do it.  But I think we have a lot of other factors here...other than "hollier than you" 

And Beaver of Yore.....bark bigger than bite is an excellent observation. 

[doolittledog]

Speaking of marketing.  That is something I think the IIAC really needs to do to get the IIAC in the minds of the state.  The Waterloo Courier does a decent job of reporting on Wartburg, Luther, and Upper Iowa being the closest schools to them.  The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald does a good job of covering Loras and UD.  But I haven't noticed the Cedar Rapids Gazette doing any reporting on Coe and Cornell.  I didn't notice much from the Des Moines Register covering the IIAC.  It's nice the coverage the state schools get and they should get a lot of coverage, but I don't think it would be asking too much to put in an IIAC page in on the sunday paper and their websites.  Even if it just ends up being a writer calling up the school SID and having him send something into the paper. 

I would think if the IIAC office starting calling or visiting media outlets in the state and started pushing for some more coverage we would see more coverage of our conference and that would translate into increased enrollments, attendance at games and more money into the schools. 

[The Show]

Good luck to the Dutch today.

Let's gain the IIAC some respect!

[Voice of the Dutch]

Sunny and 50 in Pella today - GREAT day for the opening round of the playoffs.

I'm set up to keep everyone updated - unless someone else wants to take the reigns.

If you don't know already...

www.kniakrls.com/streaming.html will get you the live play-by-play.  Let me know where you're listening today!

[Airborne Dutch]

Throwing my two cents worth in here before the game starts. On the 4A debate, I lived in Spokane, WA for my sophomore-senior h.s. years. I went to Mead, a 4A high school right down the street from Whitworth. Now, I don't know whether it made a huge difference with a DIII school being in Spokane and Whitworth being the only one of three notable college football programs in the area (Eastern Washington and Wazzu being the other two) but if you look at their roster, there have been significant contributions to the team from big-school players. Several cases in point, in 2002 and 2003 I believe, Whitworth had an All-American wide receiver from Mead by the name of Dwayne Tawney. 2004, Cam Collings, third team All-American kicker from Mead. Joel Clark, record holder for many Whitworth passing records, Mt. Spokane High, 4A school. Jay Tully from Mead was just named to the Aztec Bowl team.

What I'm getting at is that Whitworth seems to do a really good job of snagging 4A players from the area. From the schools I recognize, there are 22 kids from 4A schools in Washington and Idaho on the Pirates roster. Maybe it is just an Iowa thing that kids look down on the IIAC, but it doesn't seem to be a problem in the Northwest. It would be interesting to see how the roster make ups of St.Johns or MUC or any other year in/year out top tier teams.

On to the tailgating party from Afghanistan or lack thereof. Real excited for this game. While the Dutch shouldn't view this game as a confidence booster, thats exactly what this is. It gives them a chance to show they can win in the playoffs and gears them up for next week. Now, I'm not trying to overlook Olivet and I'm sure the Dutch aren't either, but I'll be slightly worried if this game is close. Of course, with our track record........

by the way, an unofficial count reveals 20 Dutch players from 4A schools. 8 of those players are full-time starters or contributors.

[Airborne Dutch]

By the way, what time is it in Iowa? After 11 months of switching back and forth between local time and Zulu time, I've completely forgotten what the time difference is.

[Voice of the Dutch]

Noon