FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[AUPepBand]

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.

A couple hours from Apache Junction, Alfred University grad Chris Sargent is head coach at  Sahuarita High School, just south of Tucson. Pep believes former AU grad assistant Coach Chris Fee is also coaching out there. Another Saxon may be joining Border Patrol in AZ as well and likely assist with coaching.

An Alfred grad who occasionally posts on the Empire 8 boards, while perhaps not coaching, works border patrol, also in Arizona. Pep is hoping the presence of Saxons in the southwest will one day bring some talented players back to the alma mater.

On Saxon Warriors!

[reality check]

Sahuarita's baseball team just bounced the school I teach at from the playoffs.  Very familiar with the school.

[Dr. Acula]

Congratulations to all the Raider student athletes as they will sweep the Men's and Women's All-Sports trophies again this year regardless of the outcome of the OAC baseball tournament.  That's 4 straight for the men and back to back for the women.

[purple]

 I went to the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame dinner last night in Youngstown to see my db coach Ron Lynn inducted into the HOF. It was great to see him again. Coach Kehres, Coach Wable, his former teammates Brian Stafford (retired head of the U.S.Secret Service),Jeff Phillips and former players Randy Hunt and Ron Berdis were among a large group of Purple Raiders in attendance.

[AUPepBand]

Sahuarita's baseball team just bounced the school I teach at from the playoffs.  Very familiar with the school.

Very cool. +K

Sargent was a WR at St. Lawrence for a season before he transferred to Alfred where he had a stellar career as a punt returner in addition to catching TD passes. His father occasionally posts on these boards and still catches a Saxon football game when he can.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Proud Coach today.  Sending first player to DIII Football. Our starting LB received an appointment to the USCGA this morning.

Tried to get him to look at Mt. Union, but hard to turn down Free Education, Room and Board.

[jknezek]

Proud Coach today.  Sending first player to DIII Football. Our starting LB received an appointment to the USCGA this morning.

Tried to get him to look at Mt. Union, but hard to turn down Free Education, Room and Board.

USCGA is an incredible institution. Had I wanted to be an engineer it would have been at the top of my list and I always somewhat regret not having tried anyway. Congratulations to him, that will be an adventure of a lifetime.

[Dr. Acula]

I can't say that I dislike the trend of athletic Alliance HS QB/DB's coming to Mount...Kordelle Phillips is joining Taurice Scott.  Phillips was a good baseball and basketball player too and it sounds like he wants to keep playing baseball in college as well.  At QB the few times I saw him he looked elusive and had nice touch on the deep ball.  His stats were very good (In 8 games:  68%, 1913 yds, 22 TD, 4 INT, 497 yds rushing).  Another good stat is the 3.7 GPA.  Good to see.  Hope he does well. 

Alliance Review article

[mr_mom]

Proud Coach today.  Sending first player to DIII Football. Our starting LB received an appointment to the USCGA this morning.

Tried to get him to look at Mt. Union, but hard to turn down Free Education, Room and Board.

A late congratulations, Dad!

Free is always good.  Quality Free is incomparable!

[Dr. Acula]

Looks like great weather on deck all weekend.  Hopefully everyone cuts out early today and gets outside this weekend to enjoy it.  Happy Memorial Day to everyone.  Safe travels to anyone hitting the road.

[SaintsFAN]

What's up friends??  No baby yet.  If no baby by Sunday night, Mrs SaintsFAN is being induced Monday at 2:45 AM.  Hope all is well. 

BTW - no more Bridge Bowl (MSJ clearly outmatched).  The Saints added a road opener at Wesley on September 6th.  Big test for D3's rushing champ from 2013.

Status?   Praying mama and baby are OK.

Things are looking OK on Facebook. Hopefully not out of line for me to post that.

Thanks, Pat.  Been really busy with the baby.  Cora Grace was 6 lbs 8oz at birth and has been keeping us busy and entertained.  Both mama and baby are healthy.  I'll be around.

[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.

Congratulations to Coach Lucas and the men's track team on winning the team national title over UW-L and NCC last weekend.  The 4x400 relay team defended their indoor national title by closing the meet with another national title and clinching the team title.  Mount only had 10 athletes competing (I think), but they almost all scored.  And I don't believe any senior scored so all of them will be back next year.

Also due appreciation is BW WR Kevin Johnson who swept the 100 and 200 national titles.  That's impressive.  An Ignatius kid with that kind of speed...too bad he didn't follow the pipeline to JCU where it would have been utilized on the football field! 

[BillyRayJimBob]

I saw that young Jasper was subtracted from the $#!+sburgh Squealers squad and added to the Cincinnati team (I cannot say "BungHoles" here, so I will not).
Probably best ... to make things right in this world ... for me, anyway.  I proudly wear a #88 Garcon and #84 Shorts III jerseys, but I could NEVER don that "black and yella," regardless of who's name is on the back.  (Bradshaw tried to convince me once, but I remembered that you should just say "NO!")
Best wishes to Jasper.  That name properly follows suit ... Pierre and Cecil.  I will take that "three of a kind" any day!

[Walt]

First full year of recruiting for the Capital coaching staff pays off in the largest and most geographically diverse recruiting class in program history.  They landed several players from as far away as Texas, Florida. Georgia, and South Carolina.

Looks like they have Cap football headed in the right direction.

[Dr. Acula]

86 incoming players is definitely an accomplishment for Cap.  I counted 28 from metro Columbus so almost exactly 1/3 of the class is local.  Seems like good balance to me.  They'd be foolish not to mine their back yard for a good chunk of the roster, especially a school like Davidson that is a top DI program running the option with (usually) a lot of undersized kids.  And those kids are always fundamentally sound because Brian White is one of the best HS coaches in the state.  That should be a gold mine for Candetto.

2014 Freshmen