FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[mattvsmith]

The Rev wishes he could fly out to Alliance this Saturday for the game.  He has read and heard so much about Mt. Union and is thoroughly impressed by both the coaching staff and team that The Rev can think of nothing better than to see MUC play in person.  

The Rev certainly does not begrudge MUC that your football team is a massive purple juggernaut.  If teams want to compete with you, then they must recruit hard, train hard and play hard.  Teams who are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to rise to the top will rise.  Those who won't, won't.  Simple as that.

[OldOtter]

that article is hilarious. the guy talks about how players from opposing teams dread even stepping on to the field against mt. union. i don't know why anyone would! you have a chance to play the best of the best in DIII. i personally enjoyed playing mount, especially up at their place (except the away locker rooms... worst i've ever been in). it was always a challenge. nothing like the week of practice before the game when you would head in to watch film and have to hear the coach say "he's probably the best at his position in the conference" about every player. the atmosphere at Mount is better than another other school i played at. the student section was always packed even when our team came in their with a losing record.

if mount wasn't mount, there's a pretty good chance that a second place 9-1 or 8-2 OAC team doesn't make it to the playoffs. no one else has won any national titles in the last 20 years from the OAC. mount is the reason the OAC is looked at by outsiders as powerful, plain and simple.

my fellow otterbein alum might be a little salty because he was just the equipment manager, but come on, bud. 

[OldOtter]

oh, and just noticed that Rafferty was a finalist for the Gagliardi Trophy. Congrats to him! Great honor for a great guy. not sure what his status will be for next year. i guess he has another year of eligibility but i would say its 50/50 whether or not he comes back

[runyr]

Here is the letter that Raiderpa is referring to:

Sound Off: Mount Union has outgrown the OAC

Garbage.  That guy might be an Otterbein grad but he shows he has about as much knowledge on the situation at the other idiots that spout off about moving MUC to DI or DII.  

"The coaches should feel shame for continuing to stay on the field just to run up the score in order to set school records."

Give me a break.  If anyone thinks MUC's objective is to run scores up solely for the purpose of breaking records, they're clueless.  When a team is playing third stringers at the half, they're trying to keep the scoring down.  Apparently he'd feel better if the coaches left the sidelines for some reason.

"At least five colleges have left the OAC since 1952 — Hiram, Wittenberg, Kenyon, Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan..."

I'm wondering if 1952 isn't when this guy graduated from old OC.  Seems like an odd year to set as a benchmark.  Not to mention that the OAC had as members in 1952: Wooster, OWU, Denison, Hiram, Akron, Kenyon, Oberlin and Wittenberg; all of whom have left the OAC.  Saying five schools have left the OAC is like saying there are at least 5 people in the state of Ohio.  Yeah it's true, but to prove what point.  Is he insinuating that they left because of MUC?  Because if that's the case, then why not just say Findlay, Bowling Green, Case, Toledo, Dayton and Kent State all left the OAC at some point too.  I wonder if singling out the five he did is a sign that he doesn't really know that much about the OAC in the first place or if the omission of other noteworthy schools was merely an oversight.  Either way, it seems odd to point to 1952 and reference a team that left after 1999 (Hiram).  


Real competitors want to beat the best.  They don't duck.  They don't run.  They step up to the challenge.  If you can't beat the best, you know you gave your best trying and you gained something for it.  If you don't subscribe to that philosophy, then you can a.) skip the box scores in the paper that week, b.) settle to take your beating year after year or c.) apply for membership in the NCAC

rc,
It's an ignorant emotional rant by someone who obviously hasn't looked at the whole picture.  If Mount Union were dominating all or most sports in the OAC, he might have a point, but even then other things would outweigh Mount Union leaving D3.
Good thing his Cardinals don't compete against Kenyon in swimming!  Otterbein is only about 20 miles from Kenyon and twice the size of Kenyon.  Just because Otterbein couldn't outswim Kenyon in a bath tub isn't anymore reason for Kenyon to leave D3 than it would be for Mount Union.
All I see is sour grapes.

[rocketraider]

Big time sour grapes! Mount is on a great roll to be sure but c'mon. Competitive athletes don't fear the best, they work to beat them. Anyone at the Stagg last year saw that from the Whitewater kids. Too often the Mount kids and coaches don't get the credit they deserve for working really, really hard.

[Dr. Acula]

Happy Thanksgiving to all, I would ask you keep former Purple Raider Marcus Coldsnow in your thoughts  and prayers.  I am told he is undergoing chemo therapy for colon cancer.  Marcus an outstanding football player and wonderful kid from a world class family, has a wife and small child...Father, Bill was an outstanding high school coach who also spent some time as assistant at Mount Union.

Wow.  I went to college w/ Marcus.  Hung out occasionally as we had mutual friends.  Honestly one of the nicest people you will ever meet.  Just a truly good guy.  I will keep him in my prayers. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

If you scroll down on the link, several people (including at least one fellow Ott grad) have totally nailed him on just the points you guys have been making.

He may (as he claims) be a coach and a ref, but he don't know sh*t from Shinola about history, the OAC, or the NCAA.

[bushman]

To rev. hobart    you must arrange a counseling session with the wooster football coach, he needs your guidance.

[raiderfan1983]

After reading that letter in the Sound Off section, I hope that Mr. Meyers attends the ball game next year.  And no offense to the OC posters in here who obviously don't agree with this man's opinion, but I hope Mount wins by 90.  This letter made my blood boil.  Work harder, get better.  Don't moan and complain and hope that MUC leaves.  This is a perfect representation of what is wrong with this country IMO.  Why bother trying to improve things for yourself when you can wait around and let someone else do it for you?  Give me a break.  Mr. Meyers should be ashamed of himself, not shaming the Mount coaches for doing their jobs.

[Desertraider]

I did not find the letter funny - I found it sad. It is a statement of what is wrong with this country. The WWII generation did not cry, whine and moan - they picked themselves up, dusted off their butt and forged ahead. Ever since it has been a downward slide into mediocrity. It has become acceptable to not get better, tougher, faster, stronger - instead we wait for the top dog to move somewhere else while we stay the same and claim to be better than before after they are gone. My high school moved conferences from the NOL to the NCC (no contact conference). They claimed they could not compete in the NOL and everyone bought it. The problem is the school still has ZERO titles to show and can't even beat the best team in the conference (0 for 10). So let's say Mount goes away - will OTT suddenly become better? They had their chance to shine in the playoffs this year.............what happened? I hate to tell Mr. Myers where to seek advice from but...........oh well.....I will anyway. Bambord posted the link to lawpundit a few days ago. Advice for all OAC teams comes from the legend himself. LK is quoted as saying:
"I always try to get the assistant coaches who work with me to understand that if there's no learning by the kids, there's no teaching.... I've tried hard to get the coaches to accept that as the only measure of performance, and there are just no excuses accepted. If there's no learning, there's no teaching....."  That is a start. Teach the kids how to play better, how to be better.
Hey here is another one and this one really speaks volumes:
When he [Kehres] thinks back to the start of the run that began Mount Union's dominance, Kehres remembers a meeting held among the team's staff in the early '80s when he was an assistant. "We just decided to quit pouting about what we didn't have and concentrate on improving the players we had", Kehres said.

Now back to the playoffs! Go Raiders!!

[runyr]

I love Google.  I typed in "Donald Myers Otterbein" and quickly found out that Mr. Myers did indeed graduate from Otterbein in 1952.  And in 2006 he took home 10 medals in the Senior Olympics for various track and field events.

Should I congratulate him on his efforts at such a distinguished age or should we all petition that he move up to the regular Olympics because taking home ten medals in any one Olympics is unfair to the other competitors?

10 medals is excessive.  He needs to move up to next level. 

+k to everybody on this page and Happy Thanksgiving!

[raiderfan1983]

I plan on sending Donald Meyers some cheese this weekend to go with that whine.

[runyr]

I did not find the letter funny - I found it sad. It is a statement of what is wrong with this country. The WWII generation did not cry, whine and moan - they picked themselves up, dusted off their butt and forged ahead. Ever since it has been a downward slide into mediocrity. It has become acceptable to not get better, tougher, faster, stronger - instead we wait for the top dog to move somewhere else while we stay the same and claim to be better than before after they are gone. My high school moved conferences from the NOL to the NCC (no contact conference). They claimed they could not compete in the NOL and everyone bought it. The problem is the school still has ZERO titles to show and can't even beat the best team in the conference (0 for 10). So let's say Mount goes away - will OTT suddenly become better? They had their chance to shine in the playoffs this year.............what happened? I hate to tell Mr. Myers where to seek advice from but...........oh well.....I will anyway. Bambord posted the link to lawpundit a few days ago. Advice for all OAC teams comes from the legend himself. LK is quoted as saying:
"I always try to get the assistant coaches who work with me to understand that if there's no learning by the kids, there's no teaching.... I've tried hard to get the coaches to accept that as the only measure of performance, and there are just no excuses accepted. If there's no learning, there's no teaching....."  That is a start. Teach the kids how to play better, how to be better.
Hey here is another one and this one really speaks volumes:
When he [Kehres] thinks back to the start of the run that began Mount Union's dominance, Kehres remembers a meeting held among the team's staff in the early '80s when he was an assistant. "We just decided to quit pouting about what we didn't have and concentrate on improving the players we had", Kehres said.

Now back to the playoffs! Go Raiders!!

Excellent post and LK quotes!  Words to live by for all of us, including Donald Myers. 
 

[raiderfan1983]

I don't know if anyone else did this, but I just sent a letter to the editor in response to the Sound Off.  If it doesn't get run, I will write another one asking that Mr. Meyers please choose a different newspaper as he gets too many articles printed in The Rep and there are lots of other people who would like to have their opinions printed.  It's only fair that he move on to the USA Today so the rest of us have a chance.

[skunks_sidekick]

And to think this geezmeister lives in my town!  I may have to pay him a visit and "educate" him on the finer points of Mount football.    He's probably the one ref we had this year in our North Canton Youth Football league that seemed to start calling penalties against the team that was winning.  He just wants everyone to be "ok".