FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GoIrish7]

No argument with anything said here, haha I can only imagine the friction created, off the field we did ourselves no favors! That being said, had a ball! Go Jays!

Good points GoIrish. 

Lester indeed treated Elmhurst like a D-I institution.  However,  this caused a TON of friction with the faculty.  Not going to go into major details, however many times that friction caused a lot of havoc both on and off the field.

I would even go back to the Tom Journell era about instituting a new approach.   I recall doing a taped pre-game interview in Journell's office and he was the first coach that said,  "We are going to make it a point to beat Augie."  And not have a fear of the Vikings.  Journell surprised a lot of Bluejay Alum and Trustees with that courage to tackle the superiors of the conference (at that time)

Elmhurst, nightlife, things, to do, Metra access to downtown, etc. are all cosmetics that may or may not have anything to do with the college in itself.   I will say, these bells & whistles is one reason I chose Elmhurst,  but in terms of success on Saturdays...

Van Aiken has been a little more gentle in trying to cynergize the athletics, Alumni, city, etc.   So far he is showing positive strides.

IMO- It is pointless to dwell on the past,  cry over spilled milk, and focus on hiring the new HC,  look at how he can improve the current team, and most importantly start rebuild a program that is in a tailspin.

[devildog29]

Well, being married to a Prof at EC, I see/hear some tidbits.  Plus, my experiences on and off the fields at EC,  I have always felt this-   Elmhurst likes the "showers" that come with having athletics, but reality is athletics will ALWAYS be a "We have it just to have it" kind of repor.  You don't go to Elmhurst for Athletics.  You come to Elmhurst for a great Education and oh by the way, if you like to play (X sport), we have a team you can join.   

So you have a half*** approach towards athletics,  plus geographically it is often too close to home (backyard) for a stud recruit, so they choose other schools,  creates a double whammy.  Look at Nathan Wallick a few years back.  A stud from Elmhurst, but chose Millikin.  As I recall, Elmhurst really lobbied hard to get him.

President Cureton did not value athletics like we all would like to see.  Ray liked sports, and pushed hard to get Lacrosse (because of his native am ancestry).   Van Aiken while still in his infancy is showing signs that he is going to be a proponent of athletics.

This is also why IMO, I was hoping to see a HC with some experience who knows how to deal with the top level Admin obstacles that frequently come into play.   

Jaybird, I just don't get this 'too close to home' argument as it doesn't seem to hurt NCC at all. 

[79jaybird]

NC rose because of 1 big name- Thorne.  Thorne (Sr.) had such a reputation with the IHSA that as soon as NC hired them, it was a great pipeline.  Anybody well versed in IHSA football, knows how successful Thorne is. 

IMO Look at where NC was prior to Thorne?  It was NC/EC/NPU as the bottom 3 dwelling at the bottom on (X) year and all the local suburbanites were going to IWU/Augie/MU/Carthage.  I would frequently scroll through the rosters prior to our broadcasts and be perplexed why EC couldn't get more of the local flavors to play for them.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Millikin has a football program? Who knew....

Alas, they do.  In 2009, the only time this millenium where IWU beat both Wheaton and NCC in the same season, our only regular-season loss was to Millikin!   Though I can't recall another loss to them in the last couple of decades.

[Pat Coleman]

Well, being married to a Prof at EC, I see/hear some tidbits.  Plus, my experiences on and off the fields at EC,  I have always felt this-   Elmhurst likes the "showers" that come with having athletics, but reality is athletics will ALWAYS be a "We have it just to have it" kind of repor.  You don't go to Elmhurst for Athletics.  You come to Elmhurst for a great Education and oh by the way, if you like to play (X sport), we have a team you can join.   

So you have a half*** approach towards athletics,  plus geographically it is often too close to home (backyard) for a stud recruit, so they choose other schools,  creates a double whammy.  Look at Nathan Wallick a few years back.  A stud from Elmhurst, but chose Millikin.  As I, Elmhurst really lobbied hard to get him.

President Cureton did not value athletics like we all would like to see.  Ray liked sports, and pushed hard to get Lacrosse (because of his native am ancestry).   Van Aiken while still in his infancy is showing signs that he is going to be a proponent of athletics.

This is also why IMO, I was hoping to see a HC with some experience who knows how to deal with the top level Admin obstacles that frequently come into play.   

Jaybird, I just don't get this 'too close to home' argument as it doesn't seem to hurt NCC at all.

North Central wins a bunch in football and men's basketball, so that probably overcomes some of that.

[Gregory Sager]

NC rose because of 1 big name- Thorne.  Thorne (Sr.) had such a reputation with the IHSA that as soon as NC hired them, it was a great pipeline.  Anybody well versed in IHSA football, knows how successful Thorne is. 

Yes, and at which high school was Thorne the highly-successful head coach that led to this sterling reputation and great pipeline? Wheaton-Warrenville South ... a local high school that's a stone's throw from both NCC and Elmhurst.

IMO Look at where NC was prior to Thorne?  It was NC/EC/NPU as the bottom 3 dwelling at the bottom on (X) year and all the local suburbanites were going to IWU/Augie/MU/Carthage. I would frequently scroll through the rosters prior to our broadcasts and be perplexed why EC couldn't get more of the local flavors to play for them.

Correlation is not causation, Mark. Those schools were getting Chicagoland suburbanite players because they had astute and hard-working coaches who could sell the schools, and because the schools put their weight behind hiring good coaches and giving them the facilities to back them up -- not because they were far from home for suburban Chicagolanders. Higher-education admissions professionals will tell you that, for most high-schoolers, proximity is an asset rather than a liability when choosing a college; recent studies indicate that 58% of college students attend a school within a hundred miles of home.

NCC didn't succeed after hiring John Thorne in spite of its location ... it succeeded because of its location, to a large degree. John Thorne used his local coaching connections and his sterling reputation to entice local kids to come play for him. Draw a thirty-mile arc to the north and east of the NCC campus, and on every roster of the Thorne era you'll encompass anywhere from two-thirds to 80% of the Cardinals roster. Proximity to home is a feature, not a bug, for North Central.

I don't question the fact that you know an anecdotal story or two about an athlete who didn't want to go to Elmhurst because it was too close to home. But the plural of "anecdote" is not "data". Obviously, not all teenagers want to go to college close to home -- I, for one, was an exception to that trend, and the NPU and Wheaton student bodies continue to be loaded every school year with young people who consciously chose to attend a school far from home. But North Central is successful at a wide array of sports, not just football and men's basketball -- and NCC largely does it by stocking all of its various rosters with suburban Chicagoland kids.

[79jaybird]

Good points and good chatter.   I have my gut feeling (of the 4 candidates left) who may be the best fit.  Curious to see what pans out. 

[Gregory Sager]

If nothing else, Mark, you're going to get your wish for a quick turnaround from fire to hire at EC. All told, it'll end up taking about a month.

[Gregory Sager]

Speaking of new head coaches, I'm going to be interviewing Kyle Rooker at halftime of Saturday evening's Carthage @ NPU men's basketball game. This might be worth dropping into the broadcast, probably about 7:30 or so, to check out what he has to say.

[Pat Coleman]

Gregory -- will there be a recording? I'll probably miss it live but will hope it's archived.

[79jaybird]

True Greg.  I just worry that lost in this hiring process is valuable time for a new coach to get his introductions (if it is to be  a new person to the program of course) out of the way,  and start implementing his system and polishing it up.

[Gregory Sager]

Gregory -- will there be a recording? I'll probably miss it live but will hope it's archived.

It's all archived, but you need a Boxcast subscription to access it.

Send an e-mail to Tyler Woolbright, and he might be able to package it for you, though.

[Gregory Sager]

True Greg.  I just worry that lost in this hiring process is valuable time for a new coach to get his introductions (if it is to be  a new person to the program of course) out of the way,  and start implementing his system and polishing it up.

That's inevitable with any fire-and-hire transition. Both NPU and EC obviously expedited the process with as much alacrity as could be expected, given that they had to: a) make sure that they posted the job long enough to get a sufficiently large pool of applicants; b) interview multiple candidates, which isn't something that you can do all in one day; and c) vet the final selection before he's announced as the new coach.

Of course, if EC ends up hiring from within by promoting the in-house candidate Brittich, then the perspective changes with regard to the current recruiting cyle in process.

[ThunderStruck2010]

- Long time reader, first time poster. -


Wheaton has announced the hiring of CJ Nightingale as their new defensive coordinator. Nightingale is a former Wheaton CB who was the linebackers coach at Indiana Wesleyan University in 2018.

CJ replaces JJ Clark who departed for - oddly enough - Indiana Wesleyan University. 

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2019/2/8/cj-nightingale-named-defensive-coordinator-for-the-thunder-football-program.aspx?fbclid=IwAR21EnJ3SGVu-yPbduags4VhvF8TE_RMrwNHHXILnahpQCVMTJPiYPU_jl4

[wally_wabash]

- Long time reader, first time poster. -


Wheaton has announced the hiring of CJ Nightingale as their new defensive coordinator. Nightingale is a former Wheaton CB who was the linebackers coach at Indiana Wesleyan University in 2018.

CJ replaces JJ Clark who departed for - oddly enough - Indiana Wesleyan University. 

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2019/2/8/cj-nightingale-named-defensive-coordinator-for-the-thunder-football-program.aspx?fbclid=IwAR21EnJ3SGVu-yPbduags4VhvF8TE_RMrwNHHXILnahpQCVMTJPiYPU_jl4

Any future draft picks or cash considerations as part of this trade?