FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[P'bearfan]

I know with respect to Bowdoin at least that because orientation trips are now mandatory, no first year students are at this first practice. All the first years, football players or not, will be gone after today into the woods and seaside of Maine for the next three days.

It presents a challenge for Bowdoin coaches to then get all the first years back up to speed because they miss a healthy amount of practices at the beginning of the year.

The Bowdoin pre-O trips are a great experience that many of the athletes value.  The Outing Club organizes these trips and they do a great job.  However the trips present another, more subtle challenge for the coaches - there generally isn't enough food to fuel an 18 or 19 yr athlete properly!  On many of the trips the students wind up eating pre-packaged meals that are healthy enough but just don't have the same number of calories that the athletes are used to eating.   I can only imagine how the football coaches will react when their players come back 10 lbs or so lighter!

[frank uible]

Taking on the outing of a couple of jars of peanut butter per footballer ought to do it.

[amh63]

Good advice Frank!
P'Bear.......think positive!  The outing trip is a condition drill.  After viewing the Bates video, a lost of weight in freshmen players can be good.  Speed and quickness are the qualities today's coaches are looking for in players.....based on an ESPN show with top SEC coaches.

[lumbercat]

Nice looking Amherst game jerseys .......is color blue or purple....or both.
Jeff's defecting from Adidas to Nike.

Interested to see how the new Williams facility will compare to the year old Amherst facility.
The early betting is that the Ephs will trump the Jeff's as they will have their track at another location which will allow for closer positioning of the stands and a better football viewing experience.

The jury is out until the Williams facility is complete- can't wait to see it.

[nescac1]

Sure sign that I am getting old: I think that the new Amherst uniforms look hideous, and the old, classic look was worlds better. 

[lumbercat]

The old Princeton stripes on the sleeves were a classic look in my memory of the old great Amherst  teams. I thought they would always retain that look but times have changed. The jerseys today have no sleeves so it makes it diggicult to keep that style.

I agree with NESCAC on the Black third jersey......not so great. Jeff's should leave the Black to Bowdoin and redesign the 3rd jersey to commemorate the great old Amherst tradition.
Geez, I guess we are all old school.

[amh63]

Lumbercat....there are so many shades of Purple these days. At least it is not a shade towards Lavender!  In my days, it was a dark blue...to get a purple shade.
With regards to the football stadium....yes, Williams has the space for the two fields....though they have water level issues in the area.  Amherst has the problem of space and the old field had the track outside the stands.  To provide for a stadium view, there was a lowering of the field in the design.
If you have not been on the new Pratt field yet...there are extensive pics of the field on the Amherst website.  Go to the football page....on the left side is a tag labeled Pratt Renovation. Hit it and you will get a look see through pics.

[frank uible]

Princeton stripes went out after Amherst's 0-8 season, and the kids were glad to see them go.

[lumbercat]

Thanks Amh 63

I have been to the Amherst facility and it's beautiful.
However you can't get around  the fact that when the track is placed around the gridiron the stands are further from the field.  Amherst is a great facility but all things being equal you create a better football situation without the track.

A classic example of this is Colby where the home stands are placed behind the track and additionally there is then a 10 foot berm pushing  the stands even further back from the field. The folks in Waterville say the game is a rumor from those seats.

Factors like space constraints and overall cost are usually well in play so in many situations the gridiron and track are still combined but you see more and more facilities at all levels separating the two which is the preferred scenario.

The Amherst and Williams facilities are both superb but the Ephs will need something to tweak their rival Jeffs on so I'm guessing this may provide some fodder.

[lumbercat]

Thanks Frank
Was that after Ostendarp left ?

[frank uible]

lumbercat: Here's  how I remember it.  Jim Ostendarp suffering from Alzheimer's retired after the 1991 season. He was succeeded by his assistant coach who became HFC for one season, producing an 0-8 record. Thereupon the stripes were dropped, and then another HFC arrived - who incidentally ultimately became the HFC at Yale and now is the OC at Wesleyan.

[madzillagd]

We finally get to see some games starting this weekend and I remember the discussion last year involving Don Bosco vs De La Salle on the high school level.  DLS is going to be on ESPN2 Friday night 8 PM PST for anybody that's interested.  They'll be taking on Jesuit out of Sacramento, more specifically about 2 miles from my house, and I honestly don't expect much out of this game.  Jesuit is a solid squad but not nearly good enough to compete with DLS. 

Game was originally scheduled for the new Levi's Stadium, the home of the 49ers, but apparently when you spend $1.2B on a stadium that doesn't necessarily come with playable sod.  They've already torn up the field and are starting over.  They moved the high school game to Cal's new stadium which is over an hour closer for Sacramento folks so not a bad deal at all.

[amh63]

Lumbercat....Frank is most accurate.  Coach Darp's memorial plaque on Pratt Field states his time to be 1959-1992.  An Amherst Alum was hired to be HFC ....the coach of the 0-8 season.  I will add that his players were happy to see him let go.  I entered Amherst in 1959 and it was tough to see Coach DARP during his last years as HFC.  I believe that in his last years, he deferred much to his assistants.
I will have to check...to see if the 0-8 season was the '92 football season...being that DARP 's last season was the 1991 football season and he retired in Calendar  1992.
Anyway, several other comments on the matter...in my bias opinion.  The replacement coach was fired not so much for his record as for the fact that too many players quit the team.  My sources being from a classmate who played for DARP  and his son who quit the team at the time...a roommate of my son.
Going through old football programs....need to end this modified post on a more positive note!
Jack  Siedlecki  from WPI was hired as HFC for the 1993 football season...after being selected in 1992 as District One Kodak Coach of the Year.  Siedlecki was the only coach at the time to have a winning record over Coach DARP.  Coach Mills, present Amherst HFC , came over as DC.  In 1994, Bob Foote, Class of '86, was the asst. coach for TE.  His son became a great QB for Middlebury!
Now you have the rest of the story.

[lumbercat]

Thanks Frank and Amh 63 for some interesting history.
I remember Ostendarp in the 70's- always wore a dark suit and fedora on the sidelines. His teams were always disciplined and well prepared and he always managed to recruit quality student athletes.

[frank uible]

Correction- As a HFC Dick Farley never lost a game to Jim Ostendarp - played 5.