FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[seventiesraider]

Clearly, at this time, Marietta is a rung on the ladder, not a destination. The hope is that you find somebody with limited HC experience, but a ton of ambition and energy, who can build a great program and hopefully stick around to see it through.

And though I hate to quote himself, I think you found someone who fills the  bill. Now if you can find some football players within an hours drive who can afford to go to Marrietta. Good luck with that.

[Spence]

Clearly, at this time, Marietta is a rung on the ladder, not a destination. The hope is that you find somebody with limited HC experience, but a ton of ambition and energy, who can build a great program and hopefully stick around to see it through.

And though I hate to quote himself, I think you found someone who fills the  bill. Now if you can find some football players within an hours drive who can afford to go to Marrietta. Good luck with that.

Our best ever player was from Orange Park, Fla.

A guy with strong ties to both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati seems about the best case scenario for Marietta locally/regionally, for IMO a bunch of reasons.

Dawson's from Parkersburg South, though, and both our QBs that played last year are from within an hour (marginally in Hughes' case).

Tough thing about getting kids from south of the river is the Promise scholarship, the WVIAC, and, IMO increasingly in the future, encouragement to walk on to WVU.

It's not an easy job, it never has been. There are few built-in advantages. But the same can be said for baseball and that got built. And football had its moment in the sun in the 90s before slipping back. Men's and women's basketball have had their runs of good performances that both fell just short of making the NCAAs (what a difference that might have made). IN only one of those 3 cases was there a coaching change to which the decline might be attributed (obviously, women's basketball).

So success is possible, the next step is sustaining it.

[reality check]

Small but Slow

I totally understand the desire to climb the ladder.  I just hope if I was sitting in a administrative position deciding the next coach of my institution's football program, that the candidate would want to build something special and sustainable before making that next jump up the ladder.  The inclination that a candidate might be thinking of my school as nothing more than a springboard to something better would scare me off a bit.  To keep it in the conference, I think that a JimCo would be a perfect example of what I would want and hope for.

I don't think Mangus is the best example after having met him face to face and seen him live in media interviews before he left for the state of Tennessee.  He was a U of Florida QB and was a big-school personality from the beginning.  It was never a question of "if" but rather "when" for GA.  I understand there is an "if" to consider with just about every hire.  But if you are considering the "when" at the time of the hire, then that candidate might not be so high on the list for me.  It just gives you something extra to think about.

[seventiesraider]

Congratulations to Ross Watson, the new graduate assistant for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

As a graduate of Omaha Westside High School and Mount Union, I'm especially excited for him.

[Spence]

Small but Slow

I totally understand the desire to climb the ladder.  I just hope if I was sitting in a administrative position deciding the next coach of my institution's football program, that the candidate would want to build something special and sustainable before making that next jump up the ladder.  The inclination that a candidate might be thinking of my school as nothing more than a springboard to something better would scare me off a bit. 

Sometimes what you want and what your choices are do not coincide.

[reality check]

Thanks Confucius.

[seventiesraider]

Or as Sir Michael Phillip "Mick" Jagger once said, "You can't always get what you want."

[seventiesraider]

Spent a large part of my weekend in Ada at the DIII Indoor Track Championships. What a great facility ONU has now. Hard to believe the fieldhouses that some smaller schools have these days.

[TheeBuffaloSabres]

any word on the raiders updating the indoor track to bring it up to regulation 200meters

[reality check]

Spent a large part of my weekend in Ada at the DIII Indoor Track Championships. What a great facility ONU has now. Hard to believe the fieldhouses that some smaller schools have these days.

seventies

I love that ONU gets the indoor championships every couple years.  I know they hosted twice during my four years.  It's crazy for me to think that King Horn is 17 years old in its current state.  I can honestly say the athletic center played a big part in my college choice.  It's still a great facility today although other OAC schools have made major strides (Marietta, Capital, etc.)

[Mr. Ypsi]

I would have been totally unaware of the facility had not the Lady Titans won their first ever national title (heck, it was their first ever CCIW title)!

Nice place - especially if you're Green!

[seventiesraider]

any word on the raiders updating the indoor track to bring it up to regulation 200meters

Without extending the building across the one block piece of McKinley that leads to the west parking lot and butting the filedhouse up against the new student apartments it won't happen. Quite honestly, from a coach who runs two indoor event there each winter, it's my favorite indoor facilty after Akron's. It's small size is both good and bad, and since there is nothing regulation about indoor track sizes (Akron and Kent are 300 meters), theres no real reason to change it.

[Small but Slow]

RC: I can't disagree with you on your points about Mangus and Delaware Valley.  He was a D-I athlete with big time aspirations.  We worked a camp together the summer he started.  Both he and the school knew his aspirations and agreed to make a go of it.  My thinking is that the program was probably in much better shape when he left than it was before he arrived.  Although, I can't say I've heard much from them for a couple years.  Sometimes a good coach can build an atmosphere of success that remains even after he's gone. 

[Small but Slow]

All this talk of indoor tracks reminds of the reason I moved down here.  We don't have indoor track (in this county, at least).  Track and baseball starts practice in mid-January and by now we're about half way through the season.  The last year I coached track in Ohio we had snow during the conference meet near the end of the season.

[Spence]

Spent a large part of my weekend in Ada at the DIII Indoor Track Championships. What a great facility ONU has now. Hard to believe the fieldhouses that some smaller schools have these days.

An entire weekend in Ada. Yow.