FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

amh63 · December 24, 2017, 11:56:17 AM

hamgrand...well said. Plus K. And to JEFFFAN too. Need to add some comments on some overlooked points wrt to "Admission" and the "testing scores"...even before the days of the much discussed "tips".
Many years ago, I was very involved with Amherst Admission in the D.C. area. It was the days when many colleges like the Ivies and present Nescac schools had interview panels and alum interviews weighed heavily. I would plan and escort the Dean of Admission around to local area schools and sit in on private discussions between school advisors and the Dean wrt particular applicants, etc. Remember the discussion on some of the extented "Kennedy" family members at Georgetown Prep in Md. Anyway, some general comments and thoughts to consider.
First, Test scores...SAT or ACT...are just the first screening to PREDICT the success of an applicant to succeed in college, a difficult task. A number of schools in the Ivies and Bowdoin even stopped looking at Test scores or did not require them to be submitted.
The association of the color/race with the phrase "tipped athlete" and success in college is a "dark cracked mirror" to look into, IMO. Why?
Many bright high scoring talented athletes pick a school like Nescac schools in order to play multi-sports...over an IVY school. The courts continue to see cases where applicants are denied entrance into a college...because of race, religion, sex, etc. There were once quotas on Jews at Harvard and presently on high test scoring Asians at both private and public colleges in the name of diversity or "whatever" label. Guess there are all sorts of "tips".
Hamgrand, your post does note the term "state school". It may be necessary to remind posters here that Cornell Un. In Ithaca, though an Ivy University is ALSO heavily funded by the state in particularity unique Schools...Large Animal/"Vet" School, Hotel School and world renown Aggie School, etc. Great Ice Cream and Apple stores to be discovered!. Yes, Cornell is proud to be partly a State School. It's Engineering Science School is world renown with a High Tech Center growing on Roosevelt Island in the East River. I am digressing..again.
I am reminded that it was not too long ago when Amherst students would shout at closely contested MBB games in packed LeFrak..."Back-Up School" at Williams student fans who shouted back accordingly!

Reader1 · December 24, 2017, 06:22:56 PM

I got a laugh about his complaint about Colby spending for a complete new athletic facility.
I've seen perhaps five hockey games at Wesleyan, and they already have a huge, modern rink. I hate to think what the replacement cost would be.

While walking around in between periods, I noticed a terrific swimming facility, and was just impressed in general. Wesleyan has already spent the money. I think President Roth has a lot of gall.

ColbyFootball · December 25, 2017, 11:13:59 AM

Merry Christmas everyone.

amh63 · December 25, 2017, 03:29:28 PM

ColbyFootball...you too! Plus K...because I can and understand the passion and love of parents that post here. And a Happy New Year too to all posters here.
My younger son and his wife posted that it was a White Christmas in Patterson NY!
My wife and grand daughter just spent the afternoon baking cookies for friends and family...to be delivered!

Grabowski · December 26, 2017, 10:27:38 PM

That Slate author struck me as all over the place...looking for things to be unhappy about. It's like he walked the campus asking people if they had a gripe with campus culture and then quoted almost everyone he quoted in the most negative way he could. Talked out of both sides of his mouth a bit, too, railing against a lack of diversity amongst athletes on campus and ignoring the healthy diversity on the football team. Apparently in his eyes the school hasn't found enough counter-culture football players? He seems to be unhappy with something, but I'm not exactly sure what...trying to reverse decades of getting your brains beat in by your chief rivals? Spending on sports? Raising money through sports? Smoking cigars? The horrors...

nescac1 · December 27, 2017, 11:13:55 AM

This site lists a few future NESCAC kickers:

https://www.kick-spot.com/2018-commitments

Zachary Moore, K, Middlebury College

Andrew Schreibstein, K, Williams College

gridiron · December 27, 2017, 04:15:59 PM

Expecting news from Mayflower Hill soon.

lumbercat · December 27, 2017, 10:00:43 PM

The rumor mill implies that Colby Football has their guy- don't know yet who it is.

I hope they handle the transition to the new coach better than they handled Michaeles departure.....still don't see that the college made any formal announcement or press release. The communication of the Athletic Dept in Waterville has always been awful. From what I can see somebody put a vague announcement on the Colby Facebook site that Michaeles had departed.

Forgive me but I have to cite an old quote by the great Johnny Most which is appropriate to this situation......"It's just gutless the way they do things up there"

They made a big splash with press releases when they hired the new OC and the Defensive coach from the D1 school last summer but they maintain a shroud of mystery as they can Michaeles- for god sakes put out an announcement that he resigned or was canned but it's not fair to those outside the college community like recruits to keep the whole thing under a blanket of secrecy as they did.

ColbyFootball · December 28, 2017, 07:50:10 AM

I am used to being criticized by the legions of posters here that do not know me personally, and do not post based on facts. But that's ok, the opinions of strangers matter little to me. So, I will keep posting when necessary. Now is one of those times.

The Colby AD is a fine man intent on elevating the program. While nothing is usually perfect, he handled the Michaeles "resignation" very well, which is more than I can say for Michaeles based on my personal knowledge. Here are some facts I am personally aware of:

The AD notified the entire team, including seniors, of Michaeles resignation shortly after the resignation;
The AD notified the the "Friends of Colby Football", including all parents, of Michaeles resignation shortly after the resignation;
All recruits were personally contacted by a coach shortly after Michaeles resigned;
The news was posted on the Colby Athletics FB page;
The news was reports by D3Football.com, as well as wabi.tv, Central Maine.com and the Press Herald;
The President of the College spoke the players as a team, including seniors, to get their input on the previous coaching situation, and the qualities they'd like to see in the new coach.

I'm sure I have missed other ways Colby Football got the word out, but I wanted to stick to what I personally knew.

So from everything I've personally seen and read, Colby College and the AD handled this situation very professionally. They do not deserve to be trashed.

gridiron · December 28, 2017, 08:25:18 AM

Proper announcements will be made for certain. Expect them by the end of this week.

Jonny Utah · December 28, 2017, 08:26:35 AM

Quote from: lumbercat on December 27, 2017, 10:00:43 PM
The rumor mill implies that Colby Football has their guy- don't know yet who it is.

I hope they handle the transition to the new coach better than they handled Michaeles departure.....still don't see that the college made any formal announcement or press release. The communication of the Athletic Dept in Waterville has always been awful. From what I can see somebody put a vague announcement on the Colby Facebook site that Michaeles had departed.

Forgive me but I have to cite an old quote by the great Johnny Most which is appropriate to this situation......"It's just gutless the way they do things up there"

They made a big splash with press releases when they hired the new OC and the Defensive coach from the D1 school last summer but they maintain a shroud of mystery as they can Michaeles- for god sakes put out an announcement that he resigned or was canned but it's not fair to those outside the college community like recruits to keep the whole thing under a blanket of secrecy as they did.

They did not comment to the Portland Press Herald either when asked.

To be fair, there were many who publicly commented without a lot of facts when the Colby football program was going through that "sexual misconduct" issue that happened a few years back. I can't blame the school for keeping a lot of things close to their chest, and looking back, they probably wanted a coach who was more of a "leader" off the field than on the field. Obvious that Michaels couldn't get it done on the field, and we know one persons opinion on how he did off the field as well.

PolarCat · December 28, 2017, 08:37:33 AM

Sadly, looks like not much has changed on this board since I left.

Sue Harriman, former Bates Assistant AD and wife of Bates HC Mark Harriman, has been named AD at University of California, Santa Cruz, home of the mighty Banana Slugs. The program appears to be a mess (they even misspelled Harriman in the official announcement) and grossly underfunded https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Santa_Cruz_Banana_Slugs From the official UCSC announcement:

Harriman will start at UCSC on Jan. 15. Her husband, Mark, will remain in Maine, where he has served as head coach of Bates' football team the past 20 years. Their son Mark, 34, lives in Lake Forest.

"It's going to be hard," Harriman said of the cross-country move. "I've been part of the Bates community for 20 years. I'm so used to saying, 'Go Bobcats!' It's going to take me a while me a while to say, 'Go Slugs!' I'm going to have to change my wardrobe. Everything I have is garnet, cranberry, maroon, crimson, some sort of red."

I can find no mention of her departure on the much-hyped, self-proclaimed "vibrant and immersive" Bates athletics website. In any event, it seems a strange move for a 57-year-old administrator, and leaves me wondering: Did new Bates AD Jason Fein engineer this as a way of moving the Sue out (along the lines of what Colby did with Mrs. Michaeles) to pave the way for a head coaching change?

gridiron · December 28, 2017, 10:24:00 AM

With former Colby coach Michaeles a Bates alum, could be a move to Bobcat-land in some capacity in his future??

lumbercat · December 28, 2017, 12:24:53 PM

Could Dave Dunn be the new Colby coach?

ColbyFootball · December 28, 2017, 04:18:34 PM

Quote from: lumbercat on December 28, 2017, 12:24:53 PM
Could Dave Dunn be the new Colby coach?

I know he was considering "throwing his hat in", but I don't know if he actually did. I do know he's a bit tired of bouncing his kids around so much the past few years, and would welcome some roots. I also believe his son will be attending Yale in the coming year. Don't know if that's a factor geographically. Although Colby isn't that far from New Haven, it's not that close, especially with the usual traffic. We will hopefully know shortly.