FB: Northwest Conference

[DarkHarvest]

Dtrain Good Point,
It will be interesting to see how the season pans out, we will have to get together at one of the linfield playoff game tailgates and party..

[pennstlbu]

My thoughts on the NWC facilities:

Linfield: as far as field, stadium, and atmosphere the facility is top notch. But those visitor "locker rooms."  Reminds me of getting dressed in the shop class garage in high school in Kalispell, Montana.

Willamette: nice field, best locker rooms. Not a great atmosphere, but adequate. Looking out at the tennis courts and those fields behind the visitor sidelines leave a lot to be desired though.

Whitworth: love the field, but can be slippery later in the fall. Locker rooms are ok, but are a long trek down to the field. Atmosphere is pretty decent, and I like how some students sit up on the roofs of the houses near the northwest corner of the field. Definitely unique.

Lewis & Clark: nice view from the stadium, but that's about it. Better turf than @ PLU's community stadium, but football wasn't meant to be played on carpet.

PLU: Community stadium off campus, plus terrible turf. I've seen some bad injuries from that crappy turf. Good atmosphere though for being off campus.

Menlo: Terrible locker rooms, terrible field, high school grandstands which equal probably some of the worst facilities in the country. Nothing like walking through campus a mile to the field from the locker room. It was pretty cool to see those Harleys lead the Menlo team out onto the field. But the rest of the atmosphere wasn't too great.

UPS: yeah, the facililties aren't the best, but they've improved. When the weather's nice, there's the nice view of Mount Rainier in the distance, plus the view of the campus as well. I wish the school would have put in some field turf when they redid the turf a few years ago. But the new turf is light years better than the old stuff. No more stepping on the field and your foot being buried into mud.

[eastcoastlute]

My thoughts and prayers go to Coach August and his family.

[wyd]

Yo, D

I hear the same diatribe D-Train.   My lacrosse buddy was with the Endowment project and that seems to be going very well.  I even think they hit their goals.

I buy the Frosty involment.   It seems just recently PLU is engaging the local business community.   I have no idea why they haven't yet reached out to Microsoft, Boeing, Weyerhauser, Starbucks... (list goes on) for some stadium help.   There are large number of Lutes actively involved in each of these companies.....

I am looking for opportunities to take a road trip, but SOU is way out of my range right now.  Missed you at homecoming....  Maybe we can get together at the Lewis & Clark Game  ...

ECLute.... Drop me a note and let me know how things are going.    There is a lot of opportunity just north of you.   You and your wife are in our prayers.   Another Lute buddy of mine was in Mississippi and got hit pretty hard as well.

[rbaikie]

As a Menlo Alum and former coach, I would agree that the Menlo facilities are not very good.

For all of you NWC diehards, you have to realize a  few things -

Menlo has a student body of about 600 - that is a third the size of Linfield. To field a football team with a roster of 60 or more is an accomplishment.

Menlo does play in a stadium that is a high school stadium - they share it with Menlo School, a college prep with between 400 and 500 students. I don't know what size 1A is in Oregon, but I would think that both the high school and the college are about that size.

Menlo is going through an upgrade on their facilities. They have recently upgraded both the soccer and baseball facilities.  Some upgrades are tougher than others - since the facilites are shared, Menlo College cannot always have their way with them.

Menlo is located in the town of Atherton, which is a wealthy, strictly residential community. The businesses that you might see around the campus are across the border in Menlo Park. Atherton has some very strict guidelines for building. Menlo has not been allowed to put in lights because of the noise factor that night games bring. Also, Atherton has a height restriction of approx. 2 1/2 stories. To get around this, there are a couple of campus buildings that have more than 2 floors, but holes have been dug in the ground and the buildings sunk down so that they are no more than the height restriction above ground level.

Being so small, Menlo has always had issues with facilities, The gym was built in the late 70's/early 80's after the "PIT" was torn down - it had been used since the 20's or 30's and had a basketball floor that was the smallest legal size for college hoops and had only about 5 feet clearance between the sidelines and the walls.

I hope that Menlo gets to upgrade their football facilities, but I also don't see it happening for a while.

[cawcdad]

rbaikie beat me to the punch regarding the Menlo facilities. They have improved the soccer fields since I played against them many moons ago. I realize thay are stuck in a kind of no man's land for D-III football, but they must have a whale of a travel budget for such a small school, 2 WA trips, an OR trip, a TX trip and a CO trip in one season. Could the schedule be rearranged and some of that money and some alumni fund raising be used to upgrade the facilities. The game at San Jose City College had a bigger crowd than a regular home game and was a nice facility.

[rbaikie]

The USD game that was played at San Jose City was there because Menlo College got pre-empted by the high school homecoming.


I think the travel budget is a major issue. It might not get any better as Menlo gets locked into an NWC schedule.  Menlo gets nailed for travel no matter what because the nearest D3 or NAIA football school is 400 miles away. The schools that are nearer are all D1 or D1AA.  With all the necessary travel, you have to decide whether to fly, bus it and spend the night, or try to bus it and not spend a night (very tough on the team and staff).  Also, a lot of schools would probably try to make home and home contracts to balance the costs. If L&C regains its football team, that means for NWC play at least three trips to the Pcific Northwest each year.

As for alumni support, I know at times this has been tough. The program nearly died in the mid-90's, and I know there is a divide between younger and older alums with many of the older alums having played when Menlo was a 2-yr football program.  The older alums have a split allegiance with other schools.

The other thing about Menlo's facilities in general - there are so many teams using them -
For football, there are teams for Menlo College, Menlo School (2 teams V and JV), and Menlo Middle School (4 teams). It is worse for sports like basketball - Menlo College (2 teams), Menlo School (4 teams), and Menlo Middle School (at least 3 teams).

The cost to just keep the facilities usable is high, much less to improve and upgrade.

[wildcat11]

Penn,

The visitor should never be too comfortable in a locker room.   

Just be thankful that you don't have to walk 1/2 mile to the field.

[rbaikie]

Wildcat11 -

Try going to Western State College in Gunnison CO - (I think they are D2) -  (Menlo played there in the mid 90's).

The walk from the locker room to the field is between 1/4 and 1/2 mile - up a slight hill. This is at altitude. When you reach the stadium, there is a sign saying something like "Welcome to the Highest Football Stadium in the World - 7000 ft."  -

By the time you reach the stadium, you are thinking about the altitude - it's in your head -

[d-train]

WYD,

Maybe you know this, but it isn't clear from your post...the PLU-SOU game will be played 'halfway' at Hillsboro Stadium just west of Portland. If you are looking to road trip, it's closer to you than the Willamette game the next weekend.

Speaking of PLU @ Willamette, the Bearcats don't play again until that game on the 29th. L&C was slated for the 15th and they have a bye on the 22nd. After 20 days will they come out rested and sharp or rusty and out of sinc?

[Gig Harbor Cat]

D,
  which did you prefer when you played. Every week of a layoff. 

[d-train]

There is a certain schedule and routine that players and staff get use to during the season. One bye week in the middle of a tough schedule is kind of nice. It gives everyone a little breather and gets some guys healthy. But it also can be hard to keep that same intensity when the next competition is a more than 4-5 days out.

20 days is a long time. The DI guys who get 3-5 weeks off before a bowl game get a big chunk of that time off completely...and sometimes the team is very different than they were during the regular season. I'd say its hard to predict how the Bearcats will react to not playing a game between the 8th and 29th. I don't think I'd really like that as a player. Especially now that they've built a little mo'...they'd probably prefer to play the Lutes right now. But maybe Spec. and his crew will use the time productively and really build on how far they've come this year. 

[Gig Harbor Cat]

Thanks D,
  Looks like the gate can swing both way.  As a coach I want to play as much as possible, keep the mo going.  But thats baseball.  The kids seem to go flat with time off.

[spiritof86]

I was being harsh on Menlo. I used to live in Menlo Park for a few years, and it is beautiful, making up for some of the inadequacies of the field. It is a nice school.

[Gig Harbor Cat]

Big week for the Cats.  49 years of alum's are behind you in addition to the Wildcat Nation.  Destroy the University of Ashland  aka SOU.  Leave no doubt

50 in 05

Phone it in  Cats in a rout !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!