BB: MIAC: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[tommiegun]

Clinched. To use golf terminology, 7 and 6.

[BigPoppa]

Maybe he'll stay or they will keep it in-house. They are down this year but I think it's a place that can win.

Or maybe.... Olean will apply for the job.

+k.... now that's funny!

[BigPoppa]

"Verdugo will determine a transition plan for Hamline's next head baseball coach." 

The above is taken directly from Hamline's Athletic webpage. Seems clear that being AD and Head Baseball Coach is not an option for Verdugo.

[tommiegun]

I don't think its that uncommon for a coach to be the AD at a D3 school.  Case in point, Steve Fritz was the men's basketball coach and AD at UST for several years.

[BigPoppa]

I don't think its that uncommon for a coach to be the AD at a D3 school.  Case in point, Steve Fritz was the men's basketball coach and AD at UST for several years.

I think it is very common to do both at the D3 level, but I am guessing that Verdugo has chosen to step down from baseball and was not forced to choose one or the other.

[D3guy99]

Well there is no official word yet on him stepping down at all. Even if he did the best candidates would probably be in-house wouldn't you think? Who else would be a good candidate?  BigPoppa seems to know of a few.

[BigPoppa]

Well there is no official word yet on him stepping down at all. Even if he did the best candidates would probably be in-house wouldn't you think? Who else would be a good candidate?  BigPoppa seems to know of a few.

By stating on the website they will determine a plan for the NEXT baseball coach, it makes me think that he is not going to be the head coach anymore. To me, NEXT implies a change... unless I am reading it wrong.

[wiacguy]

Sounds like Hamline Baseball is looking for a new coach, hopefully whoever they bring in can recruit against UST, tough to do with the UST reputation.

Also I wanted to see what people around the MIAC thought about regional rankings.  Six teams will make it but I wanted to get peoples thoughts on ranking them.  I dont really know how good St. Johns and the NATHC teams are so I am going off records alone, but are any of those teams dangerous in a regional setting?  I heard St. Johns has some good arms. 


1. UST
2. Lacrosse
3. Stevens Point
4. St. Scholastica
5. Whitewater
6. Rockford
7. St. Johns (MN)
8. Aurora

[BigPoppa]

Sounds like Hamline Baseball is looking for a new coach, hopefully whoever they bring in can recruit against UST, tough to do with the UST reputation.

Recruiting is about energy and the relationship you build with the recruit. Hamline might be smart to go after a top local high school coach with solid access to local recruits and built-in relationships with their high school coaches. I know of one local Hamline grad that is a fantastic high school coach and has produced many top players at his school... including a few of Hamline's current recruits.

[OshDude]

Sounds like Hamline Baseball is looking for a new coach, hopefully whoever they bring in can recruit against UST, tough to do with the UST reputation.

Also I wanted to see what people around the MIAC thought about regional rankings.  Six teams will make it but I wanted to get peoples thoughts on ranking them.  I dont really know how good St. Johns and the NATHC teams are so I am going off records alone, but are any of those teams dangerous in a regional setting?  I heard St. Johns has some good arms. 


1. UST
2. Lacrosse
3. Stevens Point
4. St. Scholastica
5. Whitewater
6. Rockford
7. St. Johns (MN)
8. Aurora

I have not seen the Johnnies play this season. Both Aurora and Concordia Chicago can win a regional.

And I don't know if it's tougher to recruit against UST's reputation or its resources. My hunch is the latter is tougher.

[BigPoppa]

The Hamline job is the most interesting to me. There are 5-6 MIAC/UMAC schools within 6 miles of Hamline(even the Gophers are only 8-10 miles away)... one would think that many top MIAC/UMAC(U of MN?) assistants would apply simply because they would not even need to relocate in order to take the head Hamline job. Anyone know who would be a good fit there? Are there any local high school coaches that would make the jump and fit (like Denning did from Cretin-Derham Hall to St. Thomas... and Rabbe did from Forest Lake to Bethel)?

[D3guy99]

I like to catch as many games as I can in the Metrodome and it always seems like Hamline's assistant coaches are they scouting every game - I see them way more than any other MIAC staff.  Maybe if Verdugo is truly stepping aside he might hand it over to his assistants?  BigPoppa, you must be referring to coach Urdahl from St. Anthony.  Never having done it myself, I can only speculate that making that jump from high school to college is pretty difficult.  I'll bet that Verdugo stays on after all of this. I'm surprised we haven't seen anything from Username on this, he seems like a Hamline homer.

[username]

Hey D3guy99 who are you calling out?  You think because you put up a couple of posts in here that you can just call people out?  I never said I'm a Hamline homer, the only homer here is MIACLUV and he's self admitted - he worships at the temple of Chris Olean.  All I was saying was that Hamline was doing some exciting things last year and it was refreshing to see a new team making those kind of waves.  Coach Verdugo has done a heck of a job over there.  I bet he stays on as the head coach.  So just chill out D3guy99.

[MIACLUV]

I appreciate the kind words of Username, though Olean is only a Cardinal in the church of Denning. Hamline would be a very desirable job outside of having to answer to Jason Verdugo on a daily basis. It would be a tough situation to bring in an outsider to take the program with the rest of your staff still on board there and being passed over. However I don't know if there is one singular person on the staff ready to assume that role, there may be. But with the candidates that would apply for that gig not only from the Twin Cities area high schools & Colleges, there will also be plenty of interest from the outsides including D1 assistants from good programs.

[Pat Coleman]

I don't think its that uncommon for a coach to be the AD at a D3 school.  Case in point, Steve Fritz was the men's basketball coach and AD at UST for several years.

I think it is very common to do both at the D3 level, but I am guessing that Verdugo has chosen to step down from baseball and was not forced to choose one or the other.

It was maybe common a decade ago but not anymore.