FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[hamgrand]

Some thoughts regarding Lumbercat's post on the All NESCAC Team:

I did not see Morin play this year but certainly his stats were impressive and tough to overlook.

Hopsicker had a great year worthy of some recognition, but he is only a sophomore and hopefully his best football is still ahead of him.

Leedy is widely known as one of the best Corners in the NESCAC.  He is outstanding in both pass coverage and against the run.  Teams game plan to avoid him, and he did not get challenged as much this year.  So it is tough to get stats when there are less opportunities to make plays.  When he did have opportunities to make plays, he made great ones.  Even when he was not directly involved in a play, he was likely locked on to a WR in coverage.  I think he is well deserving of a 1st team selection.

Another player deserving of some recognition is Hamilton's Alex Mitko.  He had 59 tackles on the season and 191 over his career.  He also had 1 sack, 7.5 TFL's and 4 BRUP's.  He had another great year and I understand he is also an outstanding student.

All the players named to the All Nescac team were deserving of the honor.  Congratulations to all the players selected!

A good case could be made for the other players mentioned by Lumbercat and I am sure others as well.  It is a tough line to draw between recognizing deserving athletes for a great season and watering down the honor with too many selected for the team.

We have several more sports seasons to enjoy, but I am already getting excited about NESCAC football in 2016!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[NewtoNescac]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!! Enjoy this wonderful day.

[amh63]

The Gridiron Club of Greater Boston has picked Jimmy Fairfield-Sonn, Nescac DPOY, as its Div3 Defensive Player of the Year.  The Amherst SS is from Old Lyme Ct.  This pick has brought a smile to my face....how many "small defensive back" has won the award?...from a relative small CT. High school too where he also played QB. He is my size!....but much, much more talented!

[NED3Guy]

Interesting twitter banter between Civetti and Wells yesterday regarding an early 90's Tufts v Bowdoin game that was played in Ireland..... Not sure if it was just joking or not, but both made reference to trying to do it again soon.

[amh63]

Is this an Inversion attempt to avoid taxes? . Did not think there are any football recruits in the Old Country.....maybe Rugby players?  Wow, have to check with the Jumbos and Polar Bears oldies to see how that was pulled off in the past... Big bucks to sent nearly a 100 people overseas to be watched by about a few hundred fans...what the heck, what do I know about the school support.
Just kidding around here.   To be fair, the Polar Bear women Varsity Ruby Team could be added and then look for a Irish counterpart. 

[PolarCat]

Given that each school only gets four home games each year, and must use that meager allotment for Homecoming, Parents Weekend, Senior Day, and entertaining recruits, let alone entertaining the entire college community, I think an Administration would be crazy to give up one of those.  Not to mention all the players' families, the girlfriends, and the loyal alumni who would feel shortchanged.

Can you imagine the uproar on campus if the college spent $300,000 (wild guess) flying the players, coaches, trainers, equipment managers, etc. across the pond?  The NARPs would have a field day demanding twice that amount be spent on their own little pet causes.  And the women's teams that fund raise to pay for their own spring break trips would have a (legitimate) Title IX complaint.

Maybe Wells and Civetti were serious, but I can't imagine this happening.

[Jonny Utah]

Given that each school only gets four home games each year, and must use that meager allotment for Homecoming, Parents Weekend, Senior Day, and entertaining recruits, let alone entertaining the entire college community, I think an Administration would be crazy to give up one of those.  Not to mention all the players' families, the girlfriends, and the loyal alumni who would feel shortchanged.

Can you imagine the uproar on campus if the college spent $300,000 (wild guess) flying the players, coaches, trainers, equipment managers, etc. across the pond?  The NARPs would have a field day demanding twice that amount be spent on their own little pet causes.  And the women's teams that fund raise to pay for their own spring break trips would have a (legitimate) Title IX complaint.

Maybe Wells and Civetti were serious, but I can't imagine this happening.

If each kid fundraises for part of his cost, it isn't impossible to get a trip like that.

[PolarCat]

My daughter's team "fundraises" for 100% of their spring break trip.  Which really means they sell some nice needlepointed caps and belts at pretty steep prices at Christmas time, then the parents pick up the rest of the tab.  A couple of senior parents stroke big checks and everyone else strokes small ones.  The girls fly to Florida on discounted coach tickets, take one piece of carry on and one checked bag, and sleep 4 to a room (2 to a bed).

Moving a 75 man football team, plus coaches, assistant coaches and staff, has got to be a MUCH more expensive proposition.  Heck, the baggage fees alone for the uniforms, balls, and other gear likely exceed the whole cost of the girls' trip.  And I doubt very much you are going to get the OT and TE to share a queen bed.

If they pull it off, it likely means some wealthy parent or alum saw it as a great opportunity to revisit the Old Country.

[Desertraider]

John Carroll played St. Norbert in 2012 in Dublin, Ireland (Donneybrook Stadium). I imagine it is offset (cost wise) though not sure how or by whom. Otherwise that would be rather expensive.

[lumbercat]

If they pull it off, it likely means some wealthy parent or alum saw it as a great opportunity to revisit the Old Country.

You hit the nail on the head Polarcat, that's how it happened in '92. Given the present Football culture in Brunswick it may be a challenge. Things were different for the Polar Bears in 1992.

On the Tufts side beleive Civetti could pull this off pretty easily given the current momentum and level of support for Jumbo Football in Medford.

[amh63]

It really comes down wrt  key alums/parent of the sport for big bucks.  Tufts new College wide fitness center and future upgrades to facilities were directed donations.  Heck, there were only a small bunch of donors for the multipurpose facilities at Pratt Field with Football the prime attraction.  When a 100 year old tree had to be moved less than a 100 feet at an unexpected cost of a 100 grand, the lead donor said OK.  The lead donor is the parent of a fine football player in the class of '15.  The facilities was named recently at a football game this year.  Parent from the D.C./MD area
Harvard is getting a new football related facility costing about 70 million.  I'm sure that is a directed donation.  Same case for many of the upgrades/ additions to the Yale Bowl.
Amherst's Baseball infield is/has been rebuilt and dugouts have been added.  I was told that it came about because of a donation. The tennis courts upgrade has been put off again.  Expect that the Athletic dept is looking around for a donor.....separate from major fundraising elsewhere.  Amherst will start to build a new Science Center within a year....design has been finished...cost is about 200 million plus.  The former design was scrapped when construction estimates exceeded 250 million.  This info is why college cost keeps going up .  All cost numbers are in dollars

[amh63]

Real football news coming out... More players post- season honors being announced.
D2D3 All NE Honors announce with 6- Nescac players picked from five schools...one from Amherst; one from Bates; one from Tufts; one from Trinity and two from Middlebury.  Congrats to all!
The ones I can remember are Fairfield-Sonn, Upton from Bates, Brady from Tufts and Milno from Midd. Saw announcement on Amherst website but not yet on the NESCAC website.
The NESCAC site does announce two winners of Academic All-American...one from Hamilton and one from Midd.  Again congrats.

[PolarCat]

Any news of coaching changes?  With ED1 acceptance letters rolling out in the coming weeks, I feel badly for the incoming FY's who may be affected.  We all (well, everyone but Frank) expect a change in Willytown, but there could be others.  The silence is deafening.

And amh63, although it is too late for my kids, THANK YOU for donating the new Purple Moose Science Center.  A wonderful Christmas gift, indeed.

[amh63]

PolarCat.....you are welcome, however my offer was in Yuans and was refused .
In truth, the AD made an suggestion to me awhile back about a need for a broadcasting booth for the field hockey field.  I whiffed on that offer.  Do not have that kind of spare pocket change. Hoping to set aside college cost for my grandchild...mind bogging projected amount.
Before the Bowdoin football game, another old Amherst supporter and I were walking down to the Athletic facilities to chat with some coaches.  We had skipped the last fundraising pep talk.  I glanced over at the four new dorms that are being built...they overlook the soccer fields.  I joking asked my friend which dorm had he picked to name.  He responded the one overlooking the dorm I had named.
We both laughed, and continued on..hoping to also catch some "captains" led basketball workouts. Skipped school provided lunch....hoped to crash the football tent menu.  Sort of like skipping school.

[PolarCat]

A little snippet of news for the Bowdoin fans on this board.  My sources tell me that BC transfer Tevin Montgomery will be playing both football AND basketball for the Polar Bears next year.  Tevin is one of 3 members of his HS class profiled in this quick video: https://www.facebook.com/taboracademy/videos/879505115431949/