FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[JustAFan]

Off topic item: Williams president Adam Falk announced today that he will be leaving the college effective December 31st, a few months short of his 8th anniversary in Williamstown, to become the head of the Sloan Foundation in NYC.

[JustAFan]

A couple of other off-topic loose-ends:

The NESCAC athletic site reports that Colby has hired a new athletic director, whose initial duties will include overseeing the development and construction of a new indoor athletic complex (see link below). The new complex is both huge (350,0000 sf) and impressive, designed by a leading British architectural firm as one of the firm's first US projects.

Combined with new synthetic turf baseball and softball fields that Colby opened up this spring and the 3 new outdoor fields (for soccer, field hockey/lacrosse and recreational purposes) that Colby intends to open this fall, this certainly suggests a significant and renewed commitment to athletics at Colby. The athletic facilities arms race at NESCAC schools has reached a new level...

Link:  http://www.colby.edu/cac/

[middhoops]

Big time kudos to Colby. 
350,000 sq. ft. of new indoor sports facilities is top shelf.
State of the art sports facilities are a boon to recruiting for so many programs.
This is good for the NESCAC.

[lumbercat]

The Colby initiative is very impressive, triggered by a 19m donation from a Mule Alum.

What a great thing for Colby and their students.

From a competitive perspective there is some concern among varsity coaches who need to win games-  Varsity athletics has been overlooked a bit with the emphasis of this project on recreation, intramurals and overall campus wellness and fitness.

The new AD is a fitness and recreation guy as opposed to AD who will inherit the charge of figuring out a way for the Mules to win Football or Hockey games and be competitive in the NESCAC.

This is the trend....the Athletic commitment is being melded into a fitness or recreation commitment to the student body. I commend the Blue and Grey for this but don't confuse it with a heightened commitment to Football or Varsity, COMPETITIVE, athletics.

[PolarCat]

Yes but if every future Mule gets a Participation Medal, that's a great opportunity for the Bookstore to sell Participation Medal frames that match the Diploma frames.

Seriously, I am all for new facilities, but the fact there is no mention of football in the announcement was a little off-putting.  It inferred the Olympic-type swimming pool is a REALLY BIG DEAL, but it seems like kind of a curious expenditure, and overkill for the 'CAC?  Maybe the donor was a swimmer, platform diver or squash player?

[polbear73]

The Colby initiative is very impressive, triggered by a 19m donation from a Mule Alum.

What a great thing for Colby and their students.

From a competitive perspective there is some concern among varsity coaches who need to win games-  Varsity athletics has been overlooked a bit with the emphasis of this project on recreation, intramurals and overall campus wellness and fitness.

The new AD is a fitness and recreation guy as opposed to AD who will inherit the charge of figuring out a way for the Mules to win Football or Hockey games and be competitive in the NESCAC.

This is the trend....the Athletic commitment is being melded into a fitness or recreation commitment to the student body. I commend the Blue and Grey for this but don't confuse it with a heightened commitment to Football or Varsity, COMPETITIVE, athletics.

These are exactly my thoughts when Bowdoin announced the Whittier Field renovation and football seemed like an afterthought.  Imagine being a secondary consideration for your own home field where you've played for over 100 years. 

[nescac1]

Holy cow, is Colby's planned athletic complex ever impressive.  While some NESCAC schools have spectacular facilities for certain sports, this will easily in my eyes give Colby the most impressive comprehensive athletic complex in NESCAC.  As an Eph fan, still waiting for some sort of upgrade to the indoor athletic complex (especially the field house) which other than new squash courts has not received serious upgrades since 1986, to hopefully match the now-spectacular football and outdoor track complex.  Williams is at the top of the NESCAC in nearly every other facility category, but for some reason the one category of facilities that has been neglected is indoor athletics. 

On a more somber note, I realize this pertains to Rochester, but it's a school that I imagine competes with Hamilton and some other NESCAC schools for recruits.  Probably the craziest story I've ever read that is related to D3 football.  Beyond horrifying / terrifying:

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/19760676/university-rochester-football-player-kidnapped-tortured-40-hours

[amh63]

Several comments on the eve of a long 4th of July " weekend".
On the Amherst football website...a nice table of info on the football class of 2021.  First of its kind provided by Amherst.   Class has 27 new players...25 FYs and 2 transfers.  Table gives height, weight, position, homestate and former schools.  Some big linemen,in particular on the offensive side...adding to the ones  returning.
There has been some some departing personnel at Trinity.....not the prof that caused the negative press recently.  I posted on the departing AD.  The men's lacrosse HC is also departing.  Trinity has been upgrading its facilities recently.  Need some Trinity insider to provide some possible reasons for the personnel departures.
Have a safe and enjoyable 4th everyone!

[ColbyFootball]

Colby's planned athletic complex expansion is great. So the football team can witness the construction of a great facility while they win 2-3 games. I'll trade wins for facilities any day. Anyone that's satisfied with losing is a loser.

[Grabowski]

nescac1, thanks for posting that Rochester article.  Horrifying, eye-opening...wow.

[polbear73]

nescac1, that horrifying story was featured on ESPN's E60 program on Sunday morning.  I'm sure it will be shown again or maybe streamed.  Frightening and bizaare. 

[JoeBag]

Several comments on the eve of a long 4th of July " weekend".
On the Amherst football website...a nice table of info on the football class of 2021.  First of its kind provided by Amherst.   Class has 27 new players...25 FYs and 2 transfers.  Table gives height, weight, position, homestate and former schools.  Some big linemen,in particular on the offensive side...adding to the ones  returning.
There has been some some departing personnel at Trinity.....not the prof that caused the negative press recently.  I posted on the departing AD.  The men's lacrosse HC is also departing.  Trinity has been upgrading its facilities recently.  Need some Trinity insider to provide some possible reasons for the personnel departures.
Have a safe and enjoyable 4th everyone!

Not sure why the AD departed but I can tell you that the VP of Student Affairs; Joseph DiChristina is a total class act and understands the NESCAC student/ athlete balance. He will find a suitable replacement.

I have a friends son on the TC MLax team. The dad and I coached together and I know his son very well from town and having coached him at the youth level. All I can say without being insulting is that there has been a glaring lack of success with this program and it was time for a change.

Now onto the teasing..............
There is one high profile D1 transfer to Trin this year and another high profile player that will not be returning. Both will be surprises. Sorry, I do not want to give anyone any competitive G2.

[lumbercat]

Puzzo not coming back?

[amh63]

Had some time on my hands....so looked at some of the videos of some of the Amherst's incoming players.  Curious wrt the large OL from Oregon.  Yes, it is senior year HS action....but the player moves and follows through on his blocks.  He fits the Amherst new "mascot" name.  Add him with one of the top OL recruit from Ma. and you will have a heck of an offensive line in the near future.  One of the RBs from Ma. has great quickness and speed. Set some sort of yardage record.  Played on the defensive side in HS too. 
Oh well, back to my pile of Summer reading,,,do not want to get ahead of the Fall games. 
When does Football practice start?

[amh63]

Will answer my own question in an earlier post.  Seems football practice will commence in the first week of August!  Heck, have plans to be up in NY state in August after family gathering at the Delaware shores.  Maybe check in on some D3 practices in the Ithaca area....avoiding the State Fair in Syracuse .
Has anyone else notice the lack of info on Middlebury recruits.  Midd's website provides no open links to the Panthers' class of '21.  For a solid football program, this board seems to have a dearth of supporters, imo.  Just shaking the trees for info from the Green Mountains residents.