FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[rscl70]

Mount has competed on the national level in Track & Field since the '60's.  It is arguably the most successful program at the University.  Men's Basketball won the conference this year, but not the tournament.  The team is young, and they have an excellent coach who has turned the program around in three short years.  If coach Fuline and his staff keep up the good work and good recruiting, I believe Men's Basketball will be heard from on the national level very soon.  LK has put a lot of work, as athletic director, into hiring good, young coaches, improving recruiting and generally lifting up all sports at Mt. Union.

My dad grew up a few blocks from campus and he used to always tell me that.  He'd always say something like "It's hard to believe now, but back in the day Mount was known for track and the big time football program in town was Alliance high school." 

Volleyball is also emerging as a national level program under Coach Swartz who is another young coach.  She's done a great job elevating them to a top 15 program already.  Kevin Lucas had the difficult task of taking over track from Homan after decades and dozens of conference titles and he's shot new life into a tradition-rich track program.   

Jessie Owens Classic at Ohio State

http://timerhub.com/getHytResults.php?page=finishtimingresults.com/2014/04-19-OSU/140418F024.htm

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

TE/WR headed to Mount Union:  http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1708559/dillon-zettwuch

http://www.tampabay.com/hometeam/blog/east-lakes-brown-lepper-zettweuch-and-zullo-all-make-college-plans-official/20278/

[TailGate]

Another LB from Florida to MU....

http://suncoastsportsblog.com/2014/04/09/lemon-bays-schulte-north-ports-coleman-finalize-commitments/

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3314437/highlights/77103402

[Dr. Acula]

Mount has competed on the national level in Track & Field since the '60's.  It is arguably the most successful program at the University.  Men's Basketball won the conference this year, but not the tournament.  The team is young, and they have an excellent coach who has turned the program around in three short years.  If coach Fuline and his staff keep up the good work and good recruiting, I believe Men's Basketball will be heard from on the national level very soon.  LK has put a lot of work, as athletic director, into hiring good, young coaches, improving recruiting and generally lifting up all sports at Mt. Union.

My dad grew up a few blocks from campus and he used to always tell me that.  He'd always say something like "It's hard to believe now, but back in the day Mount was known for track and the big time football program in town was Alliance high school." 

Volleyball is also emerging as a national level program under Coach Swartz who is another young coach.  She's done a great job elevating them to a top 15 program already.  Kevin Lucas had the difficult task of taking over track from Homan after decades and dozens of conference titles and he's shot new life into a tradition-rich track program.   

Jessie Owens Classic at Ohio State

http://timerhub.com/getHytResults.php?page=finishtimingresults.com/2014/04-19-OSU/140418F024.htm

Their 4x400 relay team is really good.  Clearly I'm stating the obvious when they're beating Big Ten schools.

They completed the indoor/outdoor sweep in both men's and women's last weekend so those programs are humming along.  Lucas does a phenomenal job.

[HScoach]

Another LB from Florida to MU....

http://suncoastsportsblog.com/2014/04/09/lemon-bays-schulte-north-ports-coleman-finalize-commitments/

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3314437/highlights/77103402

Wonder if anyone in FLA knows how to run ISO at an ILB?   Doesn't look like it.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Another LB from Florida to MU....

http://suncoastsportsblog.com/2014/04/09/lemon-bays-schulte-north-ports-coleman-finalize-commitments/

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3314437/highlights/77103402

Wonder if anyone in FLA knows how to run ISO at an ILB?   Doesn't look like it.

Lots of teams running Spread/Pistol offenses down here.

Interesting enough, the school I coach at still runs an I-Formation Offense with a lot of ISO.

Our HC is from Iowa and played for Bettendorf HS.

[Festus]

  Just got word last night at a BB game that , Eliott Nero, RB/ATH, 2,900+ APY(WV) Weirton Madonna, WV-14-0 State Champs, committed to Mount for football in the fall. QB for this team committed to UMASS. Great get for the Raiders! Check this out...

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/o/3389610/#highlights/117547380

[Dr. Acula]

I don't know anything about WV HS football, but there were a lot of long runs on that video.  Regardless, I'll take any RB who walks in the door at 195 and appears to be pretty fast.  There's no such thing as too many RB's. 

[Festus]

Nero is actually from Western Pa. Aliquippa,  Played midget ball there. He is the third of 4 brothers that were all All State picks. Also, not only just a good running back either. He plays great "D" as an OLB and DB and special teams as a return man. Type of kid that will play wherever they want him to. Very good kid and student from a good family. Madonna is a private Catholic School in Weirton, WV, right across the Pa border. Madonna is small school that is known for producing some real good athletes over the years. Like I said, great get for the Raiders!

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Nero is actually from Western Pa. Aliquippa,  Played midget ball there. He is the third of 4 brothers that were all All State picks. Also, not only just a good running back either. He plays great "D" as an OLB and DB and special teams as a return man. Type of kid that will play wherever they want him to. Very good kid and student from a good family. Madonna is a private Catholic School in Weirton, WV, right across the Pa border. Madonna is small school that is known for producing some real good athletes over the years. Like I said, great get for the Raiders!

Too bad he didn't play for the Ampipe Bulldogs.

[reality check]

Just accepted a job at Apache Junction HS here in AZ as the offensive line coach.  Found out when  I met coaches Thursday night that the semi-retired football operations guy played at Whitewater in the 70's.  I honestly don't find many people out here with a clue about D-III football so it was nice to find some common ground right away.

[HScoach]

RC:   Congrats from one O-line coach to another.   Hope it works out well for you!

[ExTartanPlayer]

Just accepted a job at Apache Junction HS here in AZ as the offensive line coach.  Found out when  I met coaches Thursday night that the semi-retired football operations guy played at Whitewater in the 70's.  I honestly don't find many people out here with a clue about D-III football so it was nice to find some common ground right away.

Not a big surprise, I guess.  Where's the nearest D3 school to AZ?  I suppose the southern Cali schools?

Is there much of an NAIA presence in AZ/NM?  Always has kind of fascinated me the way D3 football is a very "regional" sport, with some states almost totally lacking D3 schools (presumably because there are NAIA or D2 schools filling the "small college football" void there?)

[reality check]

Vast majority out here is big state school or community college/JUCO.  That's been the mentality around here.  But so many people out here are midwest transplants, you'd think it would translate a little.

Arizona Christian is starting football this fall as an NAIA and that's it for the state.  Most kids think it's ASU/UofA/NAU or community college.  I've only had one kid go to a D-III in my 8 seasons out here and he spent a semester at Rockford College before moving back to AZ. 

Apache Junction has sent a couple kids to Wabash though in the last 6-7 years.  And it looks like Wabash has spent some time recruiting the area beyond that as they have 4 AZ kids on their roster.

[jknezek]

Mostly it is history. The small.schools that make up the bulk of D3 were founded in the 1800s. Usually religious based at the beginning. By the time the southwest was being truly civilized, the early 1900s, the time of founding these schools passed. Land grant and state institutions were much more the educational vogue with a focus on trades, not liberal arts or classical learning.  The money and purpose behind founding a college fundamentally changed and in a lot of those newer areas the population density is still marginal for the proliferation of small schools such as exist in the older areas of the country. While d3 may not have rolled around until the 1970s, the incubating societal pressures for creating D3 type schools had mostly disappeared 100 years earlier. There are lots of exceptions but by and large whole regions of this country just developed under a large school philosophy.