FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[lumbercat]

To identify Ostendarp's Def coordinator at Amherst it was Don Miller who went on to a great HC career at Trinity. Miller is probably the greatest D3 coach in the history of the NESCAC and near the top of all of New England Football or al least has to be considered right at the top with Ostendarp.

Miller had a great record at Trinity and retired in the late 90's. He built the Trinity legacy we see today. Frank points out that he has been at the Coast Guard Academy for 14 years as on Offensive Asst. I found this out a few years ago and was surprised to hear that he went to CCA right after his "retirement" from Trinity. I always thought he retired from Trinity and left coaching as the consummate winner.
Looking back I think he had a couple of uncharacteristic bad years at the end  but I had no idea he continues to coach to this day. Never realized he could have 14 years left in his bag but head coaching is a totally different ballgame as we know.

[Trin9-0]

Don Miller is certainly a New England football coaching legend and he was preceded by one as well. Dan Jessee coached the Bantams for 30 years and had a .659 winning percentage with 4 undefeated seasons. (Miller coached 32 seasons and had a .693 winning percentage with an undefeated season in '93).

Since 1932 Trinity has had just five head football coaches and one of those, current Trinity baseball coach Bill Decker, served only one season as an interim head coach.

Jeff Devanney just completed his 6th season as head coach at Trinity. That is the same number of seasons that his predecessor, Chuck Priore coached the Bantams.  Devanney has a two game edge in wins (41) over Priore through their respective first 48 games.  Priore holds the edge in undefeated seasons 3 to 1 and NESCAC titles 4 (including a co-championship) to 1.

The good news for both Devanney and Trinity is that he doesn't appear to be leaving anytime soon so he will certainly add to his coaching legacy in Hartford.  Hopefully, he'll continue the program's success and can retire with a legacy similar to that of Jessee and Miller.

One final note, Trinity has enjoyed a winning percentage of .703 since Dan Jessee took over the program in 1932.

[frank uible]

Bring back Charlie Sticka!

[amh63]

ok Frank.....I maybe old and dense.....but not that old.  You will have to explain your last post.

[lumbercat]

If you bring back Charlie Sticka you gotta bring back Roger LeClerc

[frank uible]

Charlie Sticka was a Connecticut hs football star who matriculated at Notre Dame but transferred to Trinity where he played FB/LB in 1954-55 with great distinction. He played for the East in the 1955 Shrine East-West All-Star game and was taken in the 10th round of the NFL draft by the L.A. Rams in 1956. In the summer of 1956 he broke his leg seriously playing baseball and, as far as I know, never played football again.

[lumbercat]

Franks got the detail on Charlie Sticka. He is a local Ma guy from Natick, Flutie's hometown.
He went to  Natick HS and was heavily recruited in the 50's. Academic issues kept from an Ivy league opportunity at Harvard so he prepped a year in Ct. I didn't realize he went to ND just knew he played at Trinity.

Roger LeClerc was a tight end/kicker at Trinity who had a nice NFL career playing 6 or 7 years with the Chicago Bears. Played on their 1963 NFL Championship team.

[river]

. . . .
The NEFC and the NESCAC need to expose themselves to outside competition to even be considered.  NESCAC is what it is.  Extremely high academics (which dq's many interested better players) and football that is competitive inside their small harbor.  The NEFC needs to follow the Salve route and venture outside of New England unless they want to continue to be surprised how good the other teams are once you go into the playoffs.
. . . .
the LL and Empire 8 appeared to be much more competitive during our search.  That's football only.

The 2012 Lindy's preseason poll [albeit seriously flawed] does not list any NESCAC team in its top 25. Widener #6 in Lindy's preseason poll
The 2011 D3 Football.com final poll does place Amherst at #32 -- not bad for a team that does not compete outside its "small harbor." 

[river]

And just to be snarky (in a good way) the NESCAC does play competitive football in the confines of its "not bad" football conference.   

[lumbercat]

Hamilton HC search gets crazier with time. Still no announcement. The 4 finalists were leaked a few weeks ago. All are head coaches with other programs. At this late date the departure of any of these coaches from their respective program would be highly disruptive and unfair to those schools who will be starting preseason workouts in a few weeks.
This leads to the conclusion that the rumored finalists must be off the table at this late date.  At this point the Continentals may have to turn to exisiting staff with an "interim" hiring or call Stetson back in from the links.
Not good for a struggling program trying to move forward.

[banfan]

must say that the appearance of attractive job has gone out the window, based upon how this has dragged on.  I was excited by the prospect of one of those finalists in the conference.  now it aint such a great picture.  maybe poor leadership?  when the coach resigned it looked orchestrated now it looks a little messy.  I always get up a bit when a down program gets new life, Wesleyan and Bates come to mind.

[lumbercat]

BanFan- I agree and by the way how are things shaping up for the Bantams this year?  I imagine that expectations are high as usual in Hartford.

[mattvsmith]

The people who end up running the country come from a pool of bloated ego jerks wanting to run the country and who make a mess of their effort much like the messes the country finds itself in today.

Frank seems to be doing his best impression of The Rev. What happened, Frank? Usually I'm the one who says this kind of stuff.

[frank uible]

What happened did not occur suddenly. In 1946 the U.S. was on the cusp of greatness; now it gradually has come to the verge of inevitable disaster, all due to abysmal leadership of various sorts over the decades. In 50 years it like France today will delusionally believe that its long past glories continue when in fact it will be merely a poor joke, internationally without substantial influence and domestically without desirable conditions and opportunities for the vast majority of its citizens. I am angered and saddened by what this forecast means for my grand children and great grand children.

[banfan]

BanFan- I agree and by the way how are things shaping up for the Bantams this year?  I imagine that expectations are high as usual in Hartford.

Let me think about that a little bit before really responding.  There have been a lot of changes on the defensive line but they have depth.  The rest of the D is pretty good, I believe.  My major question mark at this time is the QB.  The RB's are good/great and the O line is solid.  Our QB's last year were only average.  Do we stay with them?  Is there a rising soph who is ready to step up?  I have to say that I don't know.  I may not know until the kids are back for camp, if then.  It is D3 and I remember finding out that there is no depth chart that I can refer to.  At least not in NESCAC.

I will say that the team has a lot of talent and because of the lost senior starters it is exciting to look forward.