FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[bceagle80]

Well guys, this is the week.  Guys have been coming back over the weekend.  Freshmen are moving in today.  Players report Wednesday.  Practice starts Thursday.  It's officially football again!

What a day of driving yesterday. I drove my son to Alliance yesterday. He is settled into his dorm. He is doing the last Preview today and is super-psyched about football. He is going to meet his roommate today as well.

The only downside to the day was the sheer volume of water coming out of the sky. My son was okay with it since it meant he can get down in the mud and push some teammates around on the practice field.

We found out he going to play on the o-line to start. It will be interesting to see where they put him. While he has played left guard predominately, he has played most of the other positions.

bceagle80,

It will be a great experience for him and you will enjoy it as well. Hope he has great success at Mount!

Hopefully he will get a chance to meet many of the freshman players today.
I know he will like the campus with the exception of his non-air-conditioned dorm room after practice.
Let us know how it goes.

By they way, the team should be in the stands at the football stadium listening to the coaches even as I write!

Hearing that, I am officially excited for the start of football!!!

I spoke with my son last night. Turns out the young man I spoke about earlier who can bench 455 lbs. and squat 605 lbs. is going to play right guard to start and my son will play left guard.  They will need some of that strength. One of the guys at DT is 6' 3" and 325 lbs. . My son said his arms are huge.

We will see how the pre-season shakes out for the freshman. It will be interesting to see who rises to the top. I told my son that before he can think about playing on Varsity , he will need to be one of the best of the Junior Varsity team just to get to the Varsity.

They started practices today about 25 minutes ago.

[Dr. Acula]

Good luck to your son, bceagle.  Hopefully he settles in and enjoys his first year in Alliance.  The good news for all the freshmen is that the best guy plays regardless of seniority.  Turn some heads on JV and during practice and you'll get your shot like BJ Mitchell did last year.

[Knight Raider]

Good luck to your son, bceagle.  Hopefully he settles in and enjoys his first year in Alliance.  The good news for all the freshmen is that the best guy plays regardless of seniority.  Turn some heads on JV and during practice and you'll get your shot like BJ Mitchell did last year.

There was a great article about BJ last month that wrote how he worked his butt off on JV and forced VK to give him playing time.  So with hard work anything is possible.
http://www.the-review.com/mount%20union%20sports/2014/07/29/mitchell-broke-kmic-s-record-but-wants-his-titles

[rscl70]

Good luck to your son, bceagle.  Hopefully he settles in and enjoys his first year in Alliance.  The good news for all the freshmen is that the best guy plays regardless of seniority.  Turn some heads on JV and during practice and you'll get your shot like BJ Mitchell did last year.

There was a great article about BJ last month that wrote how he worked his butt off on JV and forced VK to give him playing time.  So with hard work anything is possible.
http://www.the-review.com/mount%20union%20sports/2014/07/29/mitchell-broke-kmic-s-record-but-wants-his-titles

Good series of articles.  Thanks for the link. 

[Knight Raider]

Good luck to your son, bceagle.  Hopefully he settles in and enjoys his first year in Alliance.  The good news for all the freshmen is that the best guy plays regardless of seniority.  Turn some heads on JV and during practice and you'll get your shot like BJ Mitchell did last year.

There was a great article about BJ last month that wrote how he worked his butt off on JV and forced VK to give him playing time.  So with hard work anything is possible.
http://www.the-review.com/mount%20union%20sports/2014/07/29/mitchell-broke-kmic-s-record-but-wants-his-titles

Good series of articles.  Thanks for the link. 

Here's the link I monitor for the list of Raider articles.
http://www.the-review.com/mount%20union%20sports

[Dr. Acula]

The freshmen roster is posted in record time this year.  101 total with a noticeable emphasis on PA which is a good thing IMO. 

Geographic breakdown:

OH = 43
FL = 17
PA = 14
MI = 5
NY = 4
IN = 3
NC = 2
GA = 2
DE = 2
1 each from CO, CT, MD, NJ, NV, SC, TN, TX, WI


Positional breakdown:

DL = 11
LB = 12
DB = 19

QB = 7
RB = 8
WR = 17
TE = 4
OL = 19

K = 3
LS = 1

[bceagle80]

The freshmen roster is posted in record time this year.  101 total with a noticeable emphasis on PA which is a good thing IMO. 

Geographic breakdown:

OH = 43
FL = 17
PA = 14
MI = 5
NY = 4
IN = 3
NC = 2
GA = 2
DE = 2
1 each from CO, CT, MD, NJ, NV, SC, TN, TX, WI


Positional breakdown:

DL = 11
LB = 12
DB = 19

QB = 7
RB = 8
WR = 17
TE = 4
OL = 19

K = 3
LS = 1

Thanks Dr. Acula for doing the breakdown. Interesting. I have only had time to look at the roster for a short while versus the list I made. I have gone through about 2/3 of it and have added 8 new faces (ones I did not know about) and eliminated 14 from the list I had. I saw a few guys who ended up shorter and smaller than what I had but I also saw a few who were taller and put on a few more pounds, hopefully muscle.

I let my son relax and just be with the guys tonight rather than calling to see how things went today. I am sure we will talk by the weekend. I am also sure he will be a little sore tomorrow even if they did not hit today. (Yes, he did all the conditioning he was directed to do by the coaches this summer).

[PurpleSuit]

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/college/2014/08/14/North-Xtra-North-Hills-Kappas-will-run-defense-for-D-III-powerhouse/stories/201408140096

new DC Chris Kappas switching Mount from a 4-2-5 to a 4-3 scheme defensively.  Will be interesting to see if this means Kocheff is going to be classified as a LB this year or if another more typical LB will move into the lineup with Kocheff playing a more traditional safety.

[TailGate]

Here's the guys who were on original "list" but did not show up at camp---

Dwayne Aaron Lakewood, OH RB
Joe Adams Lakewood, OH DL
Parker Berzin Gates Mills, OH LB
Cody Carr Brookville, OH OL
Kelson Gauden Clarksville, OH LB
Seth Gibbs Newton Falls, OH C
John Hendricks Plant City, FL DE
Dakarai Highsmith Tampa, FL RB
Dangelo James Akron, OH LB
Dvontae Kelly Tracey, CA RB
Garrett Long Mechanicsburg, PA K
Demetrius Magee Rochester Hills, MI WR
Ben Morgan Ravenna, OH K
Kordelle Phillips Alliance, OH QB
Alex Richardson Bloomington, IH CB
Chandler Samargia Warren, OH LB
Calvin Short Jacksonville, FL DB
Kyler Shurlow Lowel, MI QB
Jake Vormelker Orwell, OH QB

and here are the new guys that showed at camp that were  not on original list ---

Alix Celeste   DB   Fr.   8-May   175   Apopka, Fla./Lake Brantley
Austin Downie   K   Fr.   3-Jun   175   Satellite Beach, Fla./Satelitte
Devin Faloon   RB   Fr.   10-May   250   Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Central Catholic
Andrew Fee   K   Fr.   Jun-00   223   Walled Lake, Mich./Walled Lake Northern
Ryan Fitzpatrick   LB   Fr.   10-May   205   Pittsburgh, Pa./Shaler Area
Jeff Foreman   DB   Fr.   9-May   210   West Mifflin, Pa./West Mifflin
Mike Grimaldi   DB   Fr.   6-May   180   Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Connetquot
Austin Lockett   RB   Fr.   9-May   190   Townsend, Del./Newark (Del.)
David Martin   OL   Fr.   Jun-00   265   Cape Coral, Fla./Cape Coral
Parrish Martin   WR   Fr.   9-May   165   Alliance/Alliance
Curtis Nixon   WR   Fr.   2-Jun   195   Woodsfield/Monroe Central
Solomon Obidiegwu   WR   Fr.   1-Jun   185   Naples, Fla./St. John Neumann
Pete Patsalis   WR   Fr.   Jun-00   195   East China Twp., Mich./Marine City
Tahir Prophet   RB   Fr.   8-May   155   Stockbridge, Ga./Mundy's Mills
Michael Rodriguez   LB   Fr.   1-Jun   200   New Castle, Pa./Neshannock
AJ Scott                  DL   Fr.   10-May   240   Norwalk/Norwalk
Mike Vidal                  DL   Fr.   3-Jun   240   Miami, Fla./Ronald Reagan Doral Senior
Kenny Wilder   DB   Fr.   1-Jun   205   Medina/Medina

[TailGate]

IGNORE THE DATES ON SECOND LIST - THOSE ARE ACTUALLY HEIGHTS THAT GOT CONVERTED ON SPREADSHEET TO date FORMATS

[Blutarsky]

IGNORE THE DATES ON SECOND LIST - THOSE ARE ACTUALLY HEIGHTS THAT GOT CONVERTED ON SPREADSHEET TO date FORMATS

Hey, my kids not an inch under May 10!

[Knight Raider]

The freshmen roster is posted in record time this year.  101 total with a noticeable emphasis on PA which is a good thing IMO. 

Looking at the OAC rosters the total of freshman players are as follows:
Baldwin Wallace 59
Capital 81
Heidelberg  89
John Carroll 82
Marietta 65
Mount Union 101
Muskingum  no roster yet
Ohio Northern 74
Otterbein  no roster yet
Wilmington 69
I was surprised this year by increase in numbers for some of the schools.

[PurpleSuit]

The freshmen roster is posted in record time this year.  101 total with a noticeable emphasis on PA which is a good thing IMO. 

Looking at the OAC rosters the total of freshman players are as follows:
Baldwin Wallace 59
Capital 81
Heidelberg  89
John Carroll 82
Marietta 65
Mount Union 101
Muskingum  no roster yet
Ohio Northern 74
Otterbein  no roster yet
Wilmington 69
I was surprised this year by increase in numbers for some of the schools.

59 players bought into winning at least 5 games every year huh

[Dr. Acula]

69 seems like a nice sized class for Wilm. Good for them. 

[Knight Raider]

The freshmen roster is posted in record time this year.  101 total with a noticeable emphasis on PA which is a good thing IMO. 

I was just looking at the Mount Union Freshman list and it is down to 100. 
bceagle has your son told you about practices, they can't be that hard for someone to quit so soon?
I did not print the list before so I can not figure out who it is.