BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[izzy stradlin]

Mr. Y.   Driggers'success came with Elder's players. While I would love to go into specifics about why Wheaton can do better I don't want to go further down the path of negativity.  I have gone too far already.

First year - sure (true of any coach).

Fourth year (tied for 3rd, when the Wheaton norm until 7-8 years ago was 7th or 8th) - not so much.

I've never seen them play, so I certainly won't try to debate specifics, but based on past history, you may well miss Coach Driggers.

Wheaton baseball had been very bad, but this was historically in the setting of almost no administrative support. Until Bobby Elder's second year, there was no full-time head coach.  He predecessors were a full-time grad student and a State Farm agent. A good portion of the Wheaton administration tried to get rid of what existed of the baseball program all together in 2002.  It didn't happen (among several reasons, the CCIW bylaws require its members compete in baseball) and eventually the administration decided that if they were going to (have to) field a team, they should probably try to win.  Once this decision was made, things slowly turned around and the results were visible on the field a few years later. 

I think it's fairly reasonable that many Wheaton fans are now expecting more success, however, 3rd in the conference and showing up the the regional rankings is not a bad season.  21 games in baseball is a very short season, and a few breaks in a couple to those extra inning losses and things could've ended up looking much better. 

[Ralph Turner]

Mr. Y.   Driggers'success came with Elder's players. While I would love to go into specifics about why Wheaton can do better I don't want to go further down the path of negativity.  I have gone too far already.

First year - sure (true of any coach).

Fourth year (tied for 3rd, when the Wheaton norm until 7-8 years ago was 7th or 8th) - not so much.

I've never seen them play, so I certainly won't try to debate specifics, but based on past history, you may well miss Coach Driggers.

Wheaton baseball had been very bad, but this was historically in the setting of almost no administrative support. Until Bobby Elder's second year, there was no full-time head coach.  He predecessors were a full-time grad student and a State Farm agent. A good portion of the Wheaton administration tried to get rid of what existed of the baseball program all together in 2002.  It didn't happen (among several reasons, the CCIW bylaws require its members compete in baseball) and eventually the administration decided that if they were going to (have to) field a team, they should probably try to win.  Once this decision was made, things slowly turned around and the results were visible on the field a few years later. 

I think it's fairly reasonable that many Wheaton fans are now expecting more success, however, 3rd in the conference and showing up the the regional rankings is not a bad season.  21 games in baseball is a very short season, and a few breaks in a couple to those extra inning losses and things could've ended up looking much better.

Excellent point.  +1!

[CCIWFAN6]

Granted Johnson might be a little rough for Wheaton. I guess we just would like someone that displays a little passion. I have seen Johnson play those mind games with opponents. I guess when I see him, I see a coach you hate if you play against him but love if you play for him.

Take away the profanity and I have no issue with someone who has coaches with passion and can be rough on his players. Players don't need to be babied, they need to be pushed to get better. From what I saw of Johnson, he was always thinking ahead, he had his players backs and was not afraid to take chances to succeed. This is what I mean when I say a coach of Johnson's nature would have helped Wheaton to be more successful. I have seen enough CCIW games to understand it is a tough conference. However, it is a conference that Wheaton could have been very successful in over the past few years. They should have been in the playoffs at least two of the last three years. 

The talent was there. The team had two All Americans (Martin and Golz) this year and one player (Zeller) that was previously named an All American. Combine this with another player(Mller) that was two time all region. Another player that was a quality starter (Rahn) and another all conference player (Swider).

All of the good teams I played on had players who pushed themselves to get better and didn't need a coach to push them.  Maybe this is an indictment more on the players than the coach. 

Naming a few players that received accolades after the season is great, but a great baseball team is not made by 4 or 5 players.  With the accolades received, that looks like a team that would have finished 3rd in the CCIW....

[Ralph Turner]

All of the good teams I played on had players who pushed themselves to get better and didn't need a coach to push them.  Maybe this is an indictment more on the players than the coach. 

Naming a few players that received accolades after the season is great, but a great baseball team is not made by 4 or 5 players.  With the accolades received, that looks like a team that would have finished 3rd in the CCIW....

Why Dallas Cowboy HOF Coach Tom Landry never gave his players "pep talks".

[mr_b]

All of the good teams I played on had players who pushed themselves to get better and didn't need a coach to push them.  Maybe this is an indictment more on the players than the coach. 

Naming a few players that received accolades after the season is great, but a great baseball team is not made by 4 or 5 players.  With the accolades received, that looks like a team that would have finished 3rd in the CCIW....

Why Dallas Cowboy HOF Coach Tom Landry never gave his players "pep talks".

Sorry, I don't buy that.  With the Cowboys, you are talking about professional players who had a very high level of understanding of the game (or at least should have if they were in the bigs).  At the D3 level, you have a pretty wide range of talent, from the top-flight talent we are blessed to see in the CCIW (Golz, Callahan, Soldano, etc.) to players who transfer from other programs and fit right in (Sanchez, Kuligowski, Giovenco, Batinger) to players who were not recruited by D1 or D2 but caught on with a D3 program and flourished (you can provide the names of your own choosing here).  Then you get first-year players who are on a roster and look pretty raw, but with good coaching and direction, they end up with pretty good careers.  And I don't mean pep talks, but solid work on developing fundamentals.  Finally, you get players that are high-driving self-starters who might not need a coach but do benefit from good coaching.

[BigPoppa]

I think you are confusing a pep talk with coaching. They are two very different things.

[BigPoppa]

So, when looking at the situation at Wheaton a few names have been tossed around(on this board and some have been shared privately with me):

1. Steve Duncan- Wheaton grad, assistna t and Johns Hopkins during their runs to the World Series, current head coach at WashU. May be tough to lure him away from WashU as he has them in contention right now and Wheaton appears to be a few years away.

2. Neal Reasland- 2007 Wheaton grad, not much more info on him that I can find.

3. Brian Kolb- Wheaton Grad, all-American shortstop at Wheaton. A current assistant on the staff... very young, which may hurt his chances. Alos, still playing professionally in an independent league.

4. Kevin Rios- NAIA all-American shortstop at Concordia-Irvine, drafted by Mets in 2003. Recently finished an 8 year professional career. Lives in the Wheaton area.


Are there others that are possibilities? Who is the favorite?

[Gregory Sager]

Granted Johnson might be a little rough for Wheaton. I guess we just would like someone that displays a little passion. I have seen Johnson play those mind games with opponents. I guess when I see him, I see a coach you hate if you play against him but love if you play for him.

Take away the profanity and I have no issue with someone who has coaches with passion and can be rough on his players. Players don't need to be babied, they need to be pushed to get better. From what I saw of Johnson, he was always thinking ahead, he had his players backs and was not afraid to take chances to succeed. This is what I mean when I say a coach of Johnson's nature would have helped Wheaton to be more successful. I have seen enough CCIW games to understand it is a tough conference. However, it is a conference that Wheaton could have been very successful in over the past few years. They should have been in the playoffs at least two of the last three years. 

The talent was there. The team had two All Americans (Martin and Golz) this year and one player (Zeller) that was previously named an All American. Combine this with another player(Mller) that was two time all region. Another player that was a quality starter (Rahn) and another all conference player (Swider).

All of the good teams I played on had players who pushed themselves to get better and didn't need a coach to push them.  Maybe this is an indictment more on the players than the coach. 

Naming a few players that received accolades after the season is great, but a great baseball team is not made by 4 or 5 players.  With the accolades received, that looks like a team that would have finished 3rd in the CCIW....

Both good points.

[BigPoppa]

So, when looking at the situation at Wheaton a few names have been tossed around(on this board and some have been shared privately with me):

1. Steve Duncan- Wheaton grad, assistna t and Johns Hopkins during their runs to the World Series, current head coach at WashU. May be tough to lure him away from WashU as he has them in contention right now and Wheaton appears to be a few years away.

2. Neal Reasland- 2007 Wheaton grad, not much more info on him that I can find.

3. Brian Kolb- Wheaton Grad, all-American shortstop at Wheaton. A current assistant on the staff... very young, which may hurt his chances. Alos, still playing professionally in an independent league.

4. Kevin Rios- NAIA all-American shortstop at Concordia-Irvine, drafted by Mets in 2003. Recently finished an 8 year professional career. Lives in the Wheaton area.


Are there others that are possibilities? Who is the favorite?

Are there any top CCIW assistants that would be considered?

[The General Public]

Recently heard Mike Gaski may be in the running after his departure from UNC Greensboro.

http://uncgspartans.com/sports/bsb/2011-12/releases/201205266zx1b5

[The General Public]

I think you are confusing a pep talk with coaching. They are two very different things.

Exactly right Big Poppa.

[mr_b]

Recently heard Mike Gaski may be in the running after his departure from UNC Greensboro.

http://uncgspartans.com/sports/bsb/2011-12/releases/201205266zx1b5

In 22 years at UNG he won 657 games... "What have you done for us lately, Mike?"  Tough crowd!

[Gregory Sager]

Gaski's resume is sterling, to say the least -- not just the UNCG record, but his administrative work on behalf of USA baseball and a couple of summer Olympics as well.

A couple of thoughts:

* He's sixty years old. Even if he's willing to relocate and start over again -- at a D3 school, after spending his entire professional life in D1 -- is he going to have the energy and the drive that Wheaton baseball needs, especially given the minimal support he's going to get in terms of assistants?

* He certainly seems to have made his fair share of enemies at UNCG. While online fan chatrooms should always be taken with a grain of salt, as we all know well , this three-page conversation from earlier this week is worth reading.

[norfrank]

The posts about "Gaski'sound eerily familiar to....

[Gregory Sager]

To whom?