FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[jmcozenlaw]

Will have to check the archives of Amherst football to refresh my memories of the time when Williams and Trinity "ruled" the Nescac under two great Football coaches.

One could argue that, with very few exceptions, this pretty much sums up the entirety of NESCAC's football history since Dick Farley took over in 1987.

Speaking of recruiting; here's the first QB commitment I've seen for Trinity in this cycle:
Avery Cheney QB, 6'3", 200 lbs, Rivers School, Weston, MA hudl

Another Trinity QB commit for the 2021 incoming recruiting class:
Michael Phelps 6'2", 185 lbs, St. Sebastian's School, Needham, MA hudl

Other than Amherst winning it outright in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2015, and sharing it in 2013 and 2018, yes you would be right.   If we exclude those six years out of ten ...

I must admit that there is something rich in seeing NESCAC on NESCAC "crime".

[JEFFFAN]

jmcozenlaw ... its a damn pillow fight, that is what it is!

[nescac1]

Updated list of Eph recruiting class.  I've seen most of these confirmed on Twitter, and I think this should be the bulk of the Williams recruiting class, since I can't imagine it will get to 20 guys this year ... given that a bunch of Eph seniors will be coming back for their fifth year, and adding two recruiting classes to the mix, Coach Raymond will finally have a 75-man roster to work with (almost certainly) and very likely will have to make a few cuts in the preseason. 

Jonathan Velasquez, 6'0 275 OL, Cheshire Academy
Ian McCarron, 5'11 185 S, BC High
Alec Washecka, 6'3 265 OL, Darien
Luke Bobo, 6'0 180 QB, Belmont Hill
Jack Ledden, 5'10 165 WR, North Shore (Long Island)
Anthony Morrison, 6'0 175 WR/TB, Bridgewater Raynham H.S.
Ivan Shuran, K/P, Benedictine (Cleveland)
Ryan Carney, 6'2 235 LB/TE, BC High
Ben Pacquin, 6'1 189 S/LB, CBA Albany
Charles Willmott, 6'1 175 WR, Oregon Episcopal
Cameron Smith, 6'4 220 LB/TE, Ridgewood (NJ)
Mike Lukasevicz, 6'0 265 C/DT, Noble & Greenough
Ethan Scott, 6'1 210 lb. LB, Berkshire School
Uyi Osayimwen, 6'0 260 OL, Central Catholic (MA)
Cameron Lee, 5'8 160 WR/DB, Sachem North (NY)
Mario Fischetti Jr., 5'7 160 TB, Chaminade (NY) (not 100 percent sure but did see an article that said committed to Williams)

Edited: removed William Stockwell, 6'2 205 S/LB, Catholic Memorial (MA), who decommitted from Williams and will now be playing football at Stanford.   Ephs have now lost two guys to D1 this off-season, between Stockwell's late switch and former starting tackle Terry Zapf.  When you go after really high-level players, alas, sometimes that happens ...

Interesting bit of trivia on Osayimwen, he received an offer of support from every NESCAC school: https://www.centralcatholic.net/who-we-are/raider-news-events/raider-news-landing-page/~board/news-posts/post/uyi-osayimwen-21-excels-on-the-football-field-in-the-classroom

[jamtod]

Will have to check the archives of Amherst football to refresh my memories of the time when Williams and Trinity "ruled" the Nescac under two great Football coaches.

One could argue that, with very few exceptions, this pretty much sums up the entirety of NESCAC's football history since Dick Farley took over in 1987.

Speaking of recruiting; here's the first QB commitment I've seen for Trinity in this cycle:
Avery Cheney QB, 6'3", 200 lbs, Rivers School, Weston, MA hudl

Another Trinity QB commit for the 2021 incoming recruiting class:
Michael Phelps 6'2", 185 lbs, St. Sebastian's School, Needham, MA hudl

Other than Amherst winning it outright in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2015, and sharing it in 2013 and 2018, yes you would be right.   If we exclude those six years out of ten ...

I must admit that there is something rich in seeing NESCAC on NESCAC "crime".

It's the only crime we can get, since the illustrious NESCAC wouldn't dare stoop to doing battle with the common folk of D3 football

[Hawk196]

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all the NESCAC fans!!

[amh63]

Thanks Hawk...will add the same thoughts to yours.   May  the New Year bring many happy sports to watch and attend live😎

[amh63]

In a "desert" of sports news/events/etc. these days...I hit a jackpot of info wrt Amherst Football info today.  Info also relates to Nescac football...in many areas.
On the Amherst Website...Amherst sports, there is another Amherst Football broadcast with HC Mills and Assoc. AD.  A host of info wrt to Amherst's football recruiting...i.e....there are 12 ED football recruits; the increase use of Zoom now since Covin has prevented going to Ivy football camps.  Discussions with alums....from classes '74, '95, '69, and even from alum Freddie Scott, an Amherst football "walk on" that went to become a NFL Detroit Lions player and a Hall of Fame player.  Another Amherst NFL player...Doug Swift...starting linebacker for the Miami Superball champs....Dr. Swift, MD. Is writing a book that could help fund the cost of Amherst assistant coaches. 
Recruiting at Amherst is a year round effort.....working with the admission office.  Amherst has a min, of 3.5 GPA for a recruit, preferring a 3.75 GPA.   

[BigKat]

HNY! Anyone hearing any updates on Nescac Spring sports? Besides Bowdoin not participating, have any other schools made any announcements or internal updates? What is consensus among us? Not feeling incredibly optimistic about it.

[nescac1]

I've not heard anything but I would not get my hopes up. 

It would suck for Spring athletes to miss TWO straight seasons but cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all continue to explode pretty much everywhere, the situation is FAR worse now than it was last March, and that doesn't even account for the new, far more contagious strain that just seems to have started spreading domestically.  Look at what that's done to the U.K., it's devastating.  Given that, I'd be surprised if NESCAC schools want to risk students traveling off campus (or having off-campus folks traveling to campus) unless athletes are vaccinated.  And at the current rate of vaccination, or heck even a substantially faster rate, healthy young athletes, sure to be last in line, won't be getting the vaccine until the summer.  If the new more contagious strain becomes widespread here, as appears likely, the odds are far more likely that we are headed towards a U.K. situation -- entirely uncontrolled, explosive spread and maybe even a nationwide shutdown or something close to it in or around Feb / March -- than things moving in the direction of opening up before around May or June.  Alas. 

[BigKat]

That all makes sense although I did hear Holy Cross baseball was approved for conf and non conf games and all students back on campus. Let's keep fingers crossed they can figure out a way in the Nescac.

[JEFFFAN]

Let us never forget that this is a league run by presidents all of whom think that they are smarter than everyone else, meaning that they will likely outsmart themselves and cancel spring sports even when the rest of the world opts to move forward.   The Patriot League is going to play spring sports and that is a good conference academically.

[nescac1]

I really don't want to rehash the same discussions we had back LAST Spring, when a lot fewer people were dying each day of COVID than are right now.  As always, none of these decisions are easy to make.  But I don't think that NESCAC presidents need to be preemptively attacked or assumed to be acting in bad faith or out of undue arrogance when they will be faced with a very difficult decision with no good outcomes.  Division I schools just aren't a great comparison.  The level of resources for athletics (including facilities, which matter a lot right now) are astronomically larger than they are at NESCAC schools. 

Again, while it's been pushed off the front page, COVID is more prevalent and is killing more people in America TODAY than it has on any previous day in the epidemic.  Sadly, we will likely be saying that for at least another month, based on spread and hospitalization rates.  Like most NESCAC alums I know a lot of doctors and the tales they share are absolutely horrifying.  Those who said one year ago that this was all being blown out of proportion were, sadly, egregiously wrong.  Hopefully they will be at least a bit humbled by those wrong takes a year ago.  We are going to be at 400,000 dead Americans within a few weeks, and 500,000 dead by the end of February.  Half a million dead in one year of the epidemic.  Those numbers are terrifying.  I'd rather continue to make sacrifices - even big, painful ones - for a few extra months until a vaccine is widely distributed than resume some semblance of normal life at the absolute peak lethality (in total numbers of deaths per day) of this disease just because we are all sick and tired of how we are living our lives right now.  If players can get vaccinated in time for even an abbreviated spring season, I'm all for it!  But right now, that looks very dicey. 

[JEFFFAN]

I guess my view is that if other leagues such as the Patriot League - a highly esteemed academic league - can have a season then NESCAC can have a season.   Not trying to overcomplicate it.

[Pat Coleman]

There's only one D-I league the NESCAC looks to emulate.

[lumbercat]

No question about it and it started the day the NESCAC was originally conceived....the Little Ivies.

The irony of the formation of the NESCAC is that it was developed and conceived based on Athletics by a group of schools that actually do not place significant emphasis on Athletics.
At the end of the day a group of like minded institutions bonded with an emphasis on Academics and a mechanism to manage Athletics in their own captive setting.