FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[wheels81]

I was emitted for 10 days....

Sorry BP couldn't pass this up but how were you emitted through a laser, a light beam, a sprinkler???Sounded painful ...

[wheels81]

No wonder we put so many pages on this board everybody quotes GS.  We need a reader's digest version for those of us who can't peruse the dissertations of the great one.

[FormerCard]

Havent read alot about Millikin this year (maybe I havent been looking)
Any reports on them?  strengths, weaknesses...etc.

[Gregory Sager]

........soccer is now the showcase program at NPU, and home soccer matches draw easily twice as many students as do home football games......

Ugh.  There's something un-American about that.

It just goes to show that people like being associated with winning.  The men's soccer program has been the most successful program as of late at North Park, therefore it has become the showcase sport.

That's exactly it, MB. I don't think that the sport of soccer is more innately popular among NPU students than football. Students simply want to watch their school win at something. The most currently successful athletic program at North Park besides men's soccer is women's rowing, and if the Skokie Lagoon had bleachers I'm sure that they'd be full of NPU students during the North Shore Channel Classic.

Well done GS - to which I had my own two cents.

1- lack of quality coaching that have come from winning programs and know how to instill that elan in their players.  The expectation of losing, that comes from having coaches that know how to lose gracefully.  There is no expectation of victory.

2- The North Park head football job is obviously not the glamour job that is going to impress a young D3 assistant from a winning program looking to move to head coaching job.  I was on the interview panel at North Park when Tim Rucks left to go to Carthage.  I remember that one CCIW AD from another school advised one of his searching assistants not to go to North Park because it was a graveyard for coaches.

3- While this board is obviously most interested in football - its not hard to look at North Park's woeful record in just about every sport the CCIW offers (except in men's soccer and men's baseball recently).  When the volleyball coach (after the school year has already started) has to send an email to the student body asking for players with high school experience to come out for the team (it happened this fall) its obvious that something is very wrong with North Park's approach to intercollegiate level athletics.  How many times in recent years has North Park failed to complete with a full team in sports like cross-country and golf, or gone to the conference track meet with under a dozen participants.  It has been this way for decades, that the school would rather drop a sport, then require the coach to do any recruiting at all.  Names of prospective athletes are given to coaches, who do little or nothing to contact the students.

It is very sad.

MW

These are good points as well, Dennis. The indifference and the coaching turnover in most of the so-called minor sports at NPU reflect that of the football team. The only answer to turning around a program in any sport is to find a coach that has the knowledge, energy, and charisma to recruit well and to pilot the team successfully in competition -- and then to do whatever is necessary to keep that coach around.

No wonder we put so many pages on this board everybody quotes GS.  We need a reader's digest version for those of us who can't peruse the dissertations of the great one.

I'm just doing what I can to keep this room's page count competitive with the other rooms on Post Patterns. If the CCIW can't beat the OAC on the gridiron, at least it can beat it in bandwidth.

[Gotberg]

........soccer is now the showcase program at NPU, and home soccer matches draw easily twice as many students as do home football games......

Ugh.  There's something un-American about that.

It just goes to show that people like being associated with winning.  The men's soccer program has been the most successful program as of late at North Park, therefore it has become the showcase sport.

That's exactly it, MB. I don't think that the sport of soccer is more innately popular among NPU students than football. Students simply want to watch their school win at something. The most currently successful athletic program at North Park besides men's soccer is women's rowing, and if the Skokie Lagoon had bleachers I'm sure that they'd be full of NPU students during the North Shore Channel Classic.

Well done GS - to which I had my own two cents.

1- lack of quality coaching that have come from winning programs and know how to instill that elan in their players.  The expectation of losing, that comes from having coaches that know how to lose gracefully.  There is no expectation of victory.

2- The North Park head football job is obviously not the glamour job that is going to impress a young D3 assistant from a winning program looking to move to head coaching job.  I was on the interview panel at North Park when Tim Rucks left to go to Carthage.  I remember that one CCIW AD from another school advised one of his searching assistants not to go to North Park because it was a graveyard for coaches.

3- While this board is obviously most interested in football - its not hard to look at North Park's woeful record in just about every sport the CCIW offers (except in men's soccer and men's baseball recently).  When the volleyball coach (after the school year has already started) has to send an email to the student body asking for players with high school experience to come out for the team (it happened this fall) its obvious that something is very wrong with North Park's approach to intercollegiate level athletics.  How many times in recent years has North Park failed to complete with a full team in sports like cross-country and golf, or gone to the conference track meet with under a dozen participants.  It has been this way for decades, that the school would rather drop a sport, then require the coach to do any recruiting at all.  Names of prospective athletes are given to coaches, who do little or nothing to contact the students.

It is very sad.

MW

These are good points as well, Dennis. The indifference and the coaching turnover in most of the so-called minor sports at NPU reflect that of the football team. The only answer to turning around a program in any sport is to find a coach that has the knowledge, energy, and charisma to recruit well and to pilot the team successfully in competition -- and then to do whatever is necessary to keep that coach around.

No wonder we put so many pages on this board everybody quotes GS.  We need a reader's digest version for those of us who can't peruse the dissertations of the great one.

I'm just doing what I can to keep this room's page count competitive with the other rooms on Post Patterns. If the CCIW can't beat the OAC on the gridiron, at least it can beat it in bandwidth.

IMHO, North Park has always had a pretty decent following for the soccer team.  I think this is partly due to the fact that soccer players have generally integrated themselves well with the rest of the student body, while football players have not.

Therefore, fans have come out to see their friends play soccer even during down years.  However, students don't know the football players all that well and since they have not be very good, why go?

While this may not be as true now, it certainly was the case when I was a student a couple decades ago.

[usee]

Havent read alot about Millikin this year (maybe I havent been looking)
Any reports on them?  strengths, weaknesses...etc.

FormerCard,

My impressions from Millikin were #1 they are well coached (of course wheaton played them off a bye week and they had a really good plan). They have a tough qb and 2 very good recievers. they don't have much of a running game to speak of. the qb is elusive and made some yards on scrambles vs the THunder. Defensively they have 2 very good athletic linebackers (similar to NCC) and their defensive front is pretty stout. I think their secondary is suspect and special teams were not memorable. My impression is the strength of their team is the 2 recievers and their defensive front. If you can force the qb into a bad day you will take care of them quickly.

[Titan Q]

An article on the Titans in today's Pantagraph...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/10/18/sports/doc4716e4096f7a2793029056.txt

[FormerCard]

Havent read alot about Millikin this year (maybe I havent been looking)
Any reports on them?  strengths, weaknesses...etc.

FormerCard,

My impressions from Millikin were #1 they are well coached (of course wheaton played them off a bye week and they had a really good plan). They have a tough qb and 2 very good recievers. they don't have much of a running game to speak of. the qb is elusive and made some yards on scrambles vs the THunder. Defensively they have 2 very good athletic linebackers (similar to NCC) and their defensive front is pretty stout. I think their secondary is suspect and special teams were not memorable. My impression is the strength of their team is the 2 recievers and their defensive front. If you can force the qb into a bad day you will take care of them quickly.

Thanks for the insight Usee

Are there many millikin poster still on here?  speak now, or forever hold your big blue.

[Mugsy]

Havent read alot about Millikin this year (maybe I havent been looking)
Any reports on them?  strengths, weaknesses...etc.

FormerCard,

My impressions from Millikin were #1 they are well coached (of course wheaton played them off a bye week and they had a really good plan). They have a tough qb and 2 very good recievers. they don't have much of a running game to speak of. the qb is elusive and made some yards on scrambles vs the THunder. Defensively they have 2 very good athletic linebackers (similar to NCC) and their defensive front is pretty stout. I think their secondary is suspect and special teams were not memorable. My impression is the strength of their team is the 2 recievers and their defensive front. If you can force the qb into a bad day you will take care of them quickly.

Thanks for the insight Usee

Are there many millikin poster still on here?  speak now, or forever hold your big blue.

I don't think the internet works in Decatur.

[Jim Matson]

What ever happened to the "Bob Meyer is great" guy?

[cardinaldad]

Havent read alot about Millikin this year (maybe I havent been looking)
Any reports on them?  strengths, weaknesses...etc.

FormerCard,

My impressions from Millikin were #1 they are well coached (of course wheaton played them off a bye week and they had a really good plan). They have a tough qb and 2 very good recievers. they don't have much of a running game to speak of. the qb is elusive and made some yards on scrambles vs the THunder. Defensively they have 2 very good athletic linebackers (similar to NCC) and their defensive front is pretty stout. I think their secondary is suspect and special teams were not memorable. My impression is the strength of their team is the 2 recievers and their defensive front. If you can force the qb into a bad day you will take care of them quickly.

Thanks for the insight,  Usee. I was wondering the same as Formercard and he beat me with his post. Not much going on with Millikin on the board.

[cardinaldad]

Havent read alot about Millikin this year (maybe I havent been looking)
Any reports on them?  strengths, weaknesses...etc.

FormerCard,

My impressions from Millikin were #1 they are well coached (of course wheaton played them off a bye week and they had a really good plan). They have a tough qb and 2 very good recievers. they don't have much of a running game to speak of. the qb is elusive and made some yards on scrambles vs the THunder. Defensively they have 2 very good athletic linebackers (similar to NCC) and their defensive front is pretty stout. I think their secondary is suspect and special teams were not memorable. My impression is the strength of their team is the 2 recievers and their defensive front. If you can force the qb into a bad day you will take care of them quickly.

Thanks for the insight Usee

Are there many millikin poster still on here?  speak now, or forever hold your big blue.

I don't think the internet works in Decatur.

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are!

[Wags]

I've heard this as well. Some of the cases, I hear, are very severe. This can be very, very serious. Let's hope they can all eliminate the infection and fully recover.
Staph infections have been in the news quite a bit the last couple of years. I don't ever remember anyone having these types of infections a number of years ago. Can anyone give any insight as to why they(staph infections) are so prevelent now? Could it be the new field turf causing it? Perhaps it breeds some bacteria that is transfered with turf burn?

Cardinaldad,
I know that Staph infections are much worse now than they used to be because people have misused antibiotics creating "superbugs."  Oftentimes, people take antibiotics until their symptoms are gone and then stop without finishing their prescription.   It doesn't necessarily mean that the infection is gone, however.  The antibiotic has killed most of the infection, leaving only the cells that were naturally strong against that particular antibiotic.  When these bacteria multiply, they create more anti-biotic resistant cells.  If you do this with enough antibiotics, you have an infection that is resistant to just about everything.  I know this is the case with MRSA, a pretty nasty, potentially deadly Staph infection that I had my sophomore year at NCC.  Unfortunately, this also makes it more difficult for the human immune system to fight off these infections, which accounts for the increase in their frequency, not only in athletes, but also in the general population as well.  Athletes are more likely to contract them because the close quarters and constant skin contact with so many individuals simply increases the likelihood of coming into contact with someone who has been exposed to the bacteria.

Thanks NT. I was aware of the information in your post. I was just trying to get some information or opinions on whether anyone knew if this might/could be a cause of the spread. It just seems more prevelent since these fields have been installed. Maybe just a coincidence. Is there a method do disinfecting the field? Similar to a wrestling mat? Could another contributor to the spread be the method of washing the uniforms? Maybe if the water is not hot enough, etc? Any thoughts anyone?
At the beginning of the season, notices were given to families at NCC that stated there were a couple of cases on the football team. Serious stuff!!!!

Here is a link to a video regarding the MRSA virus, which killed a high school senior in Virginia this past Monday.  Pretty scary stuff!

http://video.ap.org/v/default.aspx?g=d0e54829-13fa-40d6-b385-8adf4bc27323&f=ilchs&fg=email

[DIIIinVA]

Funny comments re. soccer.  When I was at Wheaton '89-93, my roommate who was from Oklahoma where football reigned supreme, was outraged at how popular soccer was on campus.  At that time Bishop and Swider were still building the football program, and the soccer team was a perennial power under Joe Bean, having won a national championship just a few years earlier.  The stands were packed for soccer games while lots of students stayed in the library to study during football games.  Though in raw numbers, football attendance was higher due to a larger stadium, the atmosphere at soccer games was electric while that at most football games was ho-hum.  My roommate always referred to soccer as "that communist sport."

Another soccer-related anecdote: during spring conditioning one year (Swider's spring workouts were legendary) some of the soccer players decided to come do an outdoor workout with the football team.  I think in response to a challenge/dare by Jeff Imperial.  Since all of them could run 10 miles while hardly breaking a sweat, they expected the football team's outdoor workout to be a breeze since it didn't involve lifting heavy things.  They learned that football shape and soccer shape are twoo different things.  The workout featured a ton of plyometrics, explosion and agility drills, power walks and the like, and culminated in running the stadium stairs multiple times, the last time carrying someone on your back.  The poor soccer guys were throwing up, their leg muscles were quivering and they were near passing out before the stadium runs were over.  I think only a couple of them finished the workout.  Of course to be fair, if the football team had gone on a 12 mile training run with the soccer team I doubt many of us would have fared much better . . .

[Comet 14]

A local high school here in North West Illinois has a football player battling Staph infection right now. I heard he his feeling better so I don't think it is the strain that is the "superbug". Sary stuff.