FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Garcon plays ball and runs track in the spring.  Don't know how spring f-ball comes into play but I think I read that they are practicing at night (7:00pm maybe) and on Sundays which may not interfere with track meets too much.

[frank uible]

The local DIII college must currently have 10 or so footballers on the baseball roster, an annually typical number. Usually both the baseball team and the football team here are highly successful from a win-loss standpoint.

[beenhit2hard]

Re : BB?FB at MUC,,,,,A young guy named Chuck Moore played baseball and I believe he did some football too   ,,,also Mike Miller from Cuy Falls,,was an outfielder,,as well as a great corner in fb

[JK]

Currently at Cap, Graham Holmberg was a starting WR on the FB team and is a DH/3b on the baseball team.

I also know that a few FB guys are on the Track team at Cap.  It seems that FB-track (a la Garcon at MUC) is more prominent than anything else.

Certainly the number of kids playing multiple sports has dimishished in recent years.  Just a decade or so ago, there were lots of kids playing multiple sports, especially in HS.  Connon Thompson, who many of you "old-timers" know as an All-OAC DB at Muskingum in the early to mid 90's was a 1st team all league DB in FB (also league POY), PG in Basketball, and IF in Baseball at my HS.  Scott Loudon, who played Baseball at Mount in the same timeframe, was also 1st team all league in all three sports and POY in Basketball in HS.  I personally played three sports in HS (FB, Wrestling, and BB), and many others at the smaller HS's around the Alliance area did as well.  I remember distinctly that Kris Bugara was a standout FB and Baseballer at Alliance High before moving on to Mount, where I believe he also played both sports for a while before concentrating on FB.

As for my time at Cap, Chris Sawyer was our starting FB on the football team and the starting Catcher on the BB team for two years.  Justin Garrabrant was our starting MLB and also wrestled.

I know right now at JCU, Rudy Kirbus is on the FB team and plays hoops.  Other schools I am not so sure.

I contemplated wrestling at Cap as well, but a fall/ winter double was really hard to work out.  The seasons, especially practice schedules, overlapped too much, and for wrestling, you needed that time to lose weight.  I think, even today, that Fall/spring is imminently more doable than Fall/winter.

As for Garner to Cap, that is huge news.  We all know the success that the FB team has had in recent years and the BB team, although around .500 right now, is young and improving.  The BB coach has only been there for three years now and has improved the record each year.  The school has committed to putting resources into the BB field (in fact, Cap played their first two "home" BB games in Chillicothe because of work to Clowson field).  A solid nucleus returns next year, including the last two OAC batting champs (both are Jr's this season).  I think of all the choices in the OAC to play both sports, Cap is the best choice. 

[D3 Poster]

Assuming that Mr Garner has not made his choice and is using this forum to influence that decsion....I'll make the case that Marietta is the better choice than Capital.

Comparing winning percentages of the two sports for this year, Etta leads 69% to 60%.  The 05/06 seasons had an even greater disparity of 75% for Marietta (including the bb nat'l championship) versus 52% for Cap.

In addition, the QB job at Marietta seems to be more open for a starter in the fall of '07 than the Crusaders' job.  And finally, Marietta is a straight shot from Dover on I-77 whereas Capital would include at least one turn.

Although JK and I disagree on the best school for talented ballplayers, definitely agree on the fact that fewer athletes are playing multiple sports and that Marietta has the greater need for talented football players.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

In addition, the QB job at Marietta seems to be more open for a starter in the fall of '07 than the Crusaders' job.

It will be difficult to beat out the Assman for QB1 at Capital!

[purple]

 Dan Pugh,pound for pound the toughest hombre to walk the halls of MUC,was a first team OAC nose in football and won the OAC in his weight class in wrestling.I'm to tired to look up the details.

[section13raiderfan]

These days, a two-sport star (beyond the hs level) receives major attention.  I wish more coaches would let great athletes be great athletes - not just footballers or baseballers or whatevers.

End of rant.

Im with you Mr. Yipsi.  Rant on! The worst thing about athletic specialization is they want kids to pick a sport and stick with it at early ages. I know a kid who dominated a sport for 3 years as a youngster because of his God given speed. He tried a second sport to see if his speed would translate to success in another area. IT DID...big time!  So, he tried a third sport and had less success, but enjoyed it immensly and decided to stick with it.  Then when he went back to his origional sport, he was told to either play sport 1- year round- and compete at a higher level... or he wasnt needed by his coach.  All this at 10 years old!  So, he gave up his 2 best sports and played the one he was least gifted at, but enjoyed the most. Then, ultimately he gave the third sport up  because his body didnt grow to enough of a competitive size to compete in highschool. He was washed up in 3 sports by17 years of age.

Perhaps when financial aid is given by a school to attend, you can call it a "business decision" and understand why a coach wouldnt want to risk losing an athlete to an injury in an unrelated sport. But its still a shame kids cant diversify if they want to. I say if a kid cuts it in class....let him or her compete wherever he wants to.  I know, I know.....that just aint the way it is.

[Spence]

Are there FB/BB players at Mount or Capital? I didn't think there were any but I can't say I've pored over their football rosters looking for baseball players.

I'd be surprised if there were at Mount Union. Just doesn't seem like it would be compatible, especially with spring practice being allowed in recent years in Division III football.

I checked the two Marietta rosters against each other and there is nobody who is on both the 2006 football roster and the 2007 baseball roster.

If I could only play for one program at Marietta or Mount Union and I could truly make the roster of any of the four programs, I'd probably choose Mount Union football. Even a pessimist would have to think Mount Union could win two Stagg Bowls in the next four years -- that would equal the worst four-year span in the past 14 years.

What's more likely, getting drafted by a major league team as the Marietta ace or playing pro football as the Mount Union QB? If you're the staff ace at Marietta, you stand a very good chance of playing professional baseball. I think Mount has had a couple of QBs play pro ball (Ballard and Borchert?), but not nearly as many.

I think it's kind of a wash between Mount football and Marietta baseball. They're both the top programs in their respective sports. Baseball is simply harder to win a championship in, even if you are the better team.

Marietta football seems to be on the rise; the group of coaches that came from Wisconsin has done a great job of building the overall talent base. So I would submit that Garner would have a better chance of "being part of building something special" with Marietta football than with Mount Union baseball.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

I agree that it is a shame that some coaches are now forcing players to choose one sport to specialize in.

My best friend in HS played a full football season (Plus 2 playoff games) at SS for us, then went immediately into wrestling and went on to become an undefeated state champion.   Then earned a partial wrestling scholarship to Northwestern U.

Now days, his parents or wrestling coaches would have done everyting they could to keep him from playing FB so he wouldn't get hurt for wrestling.

[kcreds]

My experience is that the schools Jr. dealt with were willing to allow him to do both; OWU, Witt, and Marietta. Jr. started out playing both but wanted to start either one right away. Missing fall baseball practice put him behind in baseball and missing spring football practice put him behind in football, even though the football coach said if the practice times do not conflict, he still wanted Jr. to come to spring practice. Talent probably had a lot to do with his inability to start right away, which ultimately made him focus on football, the sport he enjoys more and I believe is more gifted in. I believe if you are talented and dedicated that you can indeed play both and any D3 school that would not allow it is losing out. Kyle Sherman for OWU played Safety very well and also has major league potential as an infielder in baseball. Just my 2 cents worth.

[nike]

Need some help. I did not go to a small D3 school like those in NCAC or OAC. But would you that did suggest that the education prepares one better for life than a mid-sized D1 school might? Aquainted with a youngster here in Ohio who tore it up in high school, has legitimate D1 offers from MAC schools, but is not a great student.  Has some learning disabilities.  D2 and especially D3 schools,  including several NCAC and OAC schools are saying "our" school will be more challenging academically, but our school with our top shelf professors, learning centers and help services and smaller campus with fewer distractions will better discipline you and prepare you for life after college and football and football will not own all your time in college like at a bigger school. D1 schools are saying he is good enough to play D1 and will not have to worry about flunking out of school.
The kid and his family still have not decided where he will go this fall, or what makes the most sense.
Would seriously appreciate anyone weighing in. I know a number of kids have to make these decisions. And D3 schools have come up with attractive financial packages, too.

[Spence]

Interesting question.

Two thoughts.

The D-I school is probably going to have the better support system related to the D-III as far as the team is concerned.

A small school would afford more individualized attention from teachers, writing center staff, library staff, etc. On lower level courses the instructors might also be more experienced, as often TAs do a lot of the heavy lifting on introductory courses at large schools.

I can't give you an easy answer on this. I think it's program-specific and a matter of indidividual preference and choice. However I would be wary of Division I programs that have had academic problems, but there are some Division I programs and coaches that have shown that they value and are committed to academics. Ohio's Frank Solich IMO is a good example.

Although it in no way consigns a student to anything, you might want to consider looking at the academic profile of a school related to that of the student. SAT, ACT, average GPA...whatever you can find. Google "COOL" and you should a webpage that will help. Like I said, it doesn't mean that someone can't succeed at a given school, but just give you an idea of what kind of students test-score wise are the norm there.

I wish you the best of luck in finding the best fit for the student.

[Mr. Ypsi]

nike,

I saw your post over on the NCAC board, but hadn't yet responded.  Spence makes excellent points.  At larger schools, non-athletes may got 'lost' academically, but nearly all have excellent support services for athletes (they have an investment, after all!), so if an athlete gets lost in the shuffle I'd have to believe it is usually his or her own fault.  Spence's point about introductory courses at large schools is quite correct.

So far as I have heard (I taught at EMU for 32 years), all of the MAC schools are currently quite supportive of athletes academically (EMU had a couple of fb coaches over the years that I don't believe belonged in an academic environment, but the current coach seems excellent, and the team GPA is recently up dramatically).

One extra consideration for a student you fear is academically at risk - every campus (d1, d3, or other) has some faculty who are 'jock-sniffers' and some who scorn 'dumb jocks', but the relative proportions can vary dramatically.  Try to get a sense of the overall 'aura' of the relationship between academics and athletics - it is probably important for the future happiness of any athlete, but might be critical for one who might be marginal academically.

[Spence]

Ah, so Ypsi does stand for what i thought it stood for. I was thinking that, but then like "why would it be that?" Guess that's the answer.

There is one MAC program in particular (and hint, has been in the news for other negative reasons of late and may be again) that I wouldn't recommend but you're right, most of them right now are pretty good as far as supporting academics.