FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Johnnie Red]

Open Circuit to everyone on MIACPP: the Minnesota Vixen of the Independent Women's Football League will be playing their home opener this Saturday against the Chicago Force at the Chaska High School football field. This is women's tackle football at its finest. Gates open at 6:00 p.m. with the game starting at 7:00 p.m. Address is 545 Pioneer Trail in Chaska.

If things go well for the Vixen, one can only hope that they can schedule Bethel next fall on the Royals' off week. That would be a classic for the MIAC and would only enhance the prestige of Royaland.

For those who can make it to the Vixen game, consider coming to Chaska earlier for the lead off party at the Chaska Legion Club for the Chaska Cubs baseball team from 4:00-7:00 p.m. The greatest show on dirt!

[BDB]

Hey Oz--

You've got to find this Miss Universe - Australia contestant and run her through a drive thru fer chrissakes. 

[johnnie_esq]

Hey gang-- been a while and hope all is well.

Anyone catch wind of the mountain-out-of-a-molehill that occurred at UWW over the past couple days?  Interesting situation-- but a case where the reaction of the coach caused the hubbub instead of the journalist.

Short synopsis:

• Student writes editorial blasting football players for refusing to take out their IDs to be admitted to work out.
• Liepold blasts reporter, insults soccer team.
• Liepold bans students from ANY access to football team
• Papers in Madison and Milwaukee pick up the story
• Liepold apologizes, restores access to football team (Oops!)

Story could happen at just about any school-- but it was Liepold who blew it out of proportion.  Things are starting to heat up-- is it September yet?

[OzJohnnie]

Hey Oz--

You've got to find this Miss Universe - Australia contestant and run her through a drive thru fer chrissakes. 

Fast forward six months and a daily regimen of SuperSize double-Macs with sundae desserts...

[BDB]

Hey Oz--

You've got to find this Miss Universe - Australia contestant and run her through a drive thru fer chrissakes. 

Fast forward six months and a daily regimen of SuperSize double-Macs with sundae desserts...

Oz, I wouldn't go quite that far. Just a bucket 'O Kentucky Fried and some mashed potatos w/gravy once a week ought to do it. 

[tmerton]

Hey gang-- been a while and hope all is well.

Anyone catch wind of the mountain-out-of-a-molehill that occurred at UWW over the past couple days?  Interesting situation-- but a case where the reaction of the coach caused the hubbub instead of the journalist.

Short synopsis:

• Student writes editorial blasting football players for refusing to take out their IDs to be admitted to work out.
• Liepold blasts reporter, insults soccer team.
• Liepold bans students from ANY access to football team
• Papers in Madison and Milwaukee pick up the story
• Liepold apologizes, restores access to football team (Oops!)

Story could happen at just about any school-- but it was Liepold who blew it out of proportion.  Things are starting to heat up-- is it September yet?

Not surprising to me in light of his display at halftime of the playoff game with SJU.  Liepold's engine is gonna blow a gasket.

[Touchdown Tommy]

Hey gang-- been a while and hope all is well.

Anyone catch wind of the mountain-out-of-a-molehill that occurred at UWW over the past couple days?  Interesting situation-- but a case where the reaction of the coach caused the hubbub instead of the journalist.

Short synopsis:

• Student writes editorial blasting football players for refusing to take out their IDs to be admitted to work out.
• Liepold blasts reporter, insults soccer team.
• Liepold bans students from ANY access to football team
• Papers in Madison and Milwaukee pick up the story
• Liepold apologizes, restores access to football team (Oops!)

Story could happen at just about any school-- but it was Liepold who blew it out of proportion.  Things are starting to heat up-- is it September yet?

Not surprising to me in light of his display at halftime of the playoff game with SJU.  Leopold's engine is gonna blow a gasket.

Right on the money Clark you old dog.  I was thinking this exact thing, but didn't wanna be accused of sour grapes after the 'Hawks piss pounded the J's in the 2nd half.  Leipold was way outta line at halftime against the Johnnies.  He really lost control of himself and shoulda been thrown out.  That referee sure took a lot of flak and I would find it hard to believe ole Lance didn't say the "magic word".  I watched this incident intently and it was a Billy Martin/Lou Piniella/Earl Weaver-esque meltdown.  This guy clearly has a temper and can be rattled...even in April.

[warthog]

Liepold sounds like Coach Harris (the John Goodman character) in Revenge of the Nerds.

[OzJohnnie]

Right on the money Clark you old dog.  I was thinking this exact thing, but didn't wanna be accused of sour grapes after the 'Hawks piss pounded the J's in the 2nd half.  Leipold was way outta line at halftime against the Johnnies.  He really lost control of himself and shoulda been thrown out.  That referee sure took a lot of flak and I would find it hard to believe ole Lance didn't say the "magic word".  I watched this incident intently and it was a Billy Martin/Lou Piniella/Earl Weaver-esque meltdown.  This guy clearly has a temper and can be rattled...even in April.

[TC]

What up?  A ridiculously long post from TC, that's what up.

I happened to be reading about the UW-W kerfuffle on Deadspin while TT texted me regarding the same.  I figured that was a sign to stop by and see what's new.  After reading the last ~10 pages, some thoughts:

Lance Leipold comes off looking like a 100% USDA Grade-A D-Bag.  Did you see the [expletive deleted] quotes TO THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER regarding his issues with their reporting?  Can you imagine John Gagliardi handling the same situation the same way?  (That just made me giggle...)

Personally, I've always found the Whitewater program pretty easy to hate but I've never really had an actual reason to do so.  Now I do.  Sweet.
*****
Ice fishing wasn't anything special this year--after a while, crappies all start looking the same. 

I guess the highlight of the winter was when my uncle got in the local Aitkin paper back in mid-March.  While there was 30+ inches of ice most everywhere, he still found ~7 inches with his full-sized Ford pick-up.  Whoops.  I have the pictures on my phone, but I can't figure out how to get them to the innerwebs.  (I shouldn't laugh--I was driving my old man's suburban over the exact same spot two days earlier.)

The weather was too nice on Wednesday night not to go fishing, so I hit the open water for the first time on the year.  Caught about a dozen sheepshead and a fat catfish on the Mississippi, not a bad way to spend a few hours. 

Only 6 more weeks until real fishing starts!
*****
I'm not too concerned about the lack of linemen in the upcoming recruiting class.  It seems like nearly all of the big name recruits/transfers the past two or three years have been linemen, and the o-line only loses one starter from last year (Gamache).  Still, it wouldn't be the end of the world if these linemen turned their pedigrees and experience into actual production next year. 

The thing we've really been lacking that past could seasons is elite skill position players and it sounds like the upcoming class has a couple potential stars in Steve Johnson and Nick Schneider.  Goldsmith and Meath sound like a couple of decent kids from the metro, and they got another Gans to play linebacker and another kid from Wayzata to (presumably) jerk around at QB. 

What's troubling is the confluence of two factors: a)  it sounds like alot of the metro recruits specifically mentioned choosing St. John's over St. Thomas and b) they got only two kids who will be playing in the upcoming Minnesota High School All Star game, down from 8-10 in the years preceeding the 2003 national championship game.  You have to wonder how many of the UST/SJU battles (and presumably similar ones with Bethel and Concordia) didn't go our way.

Has anyone heard any news on potential (or confirmed) transfers?  With NDSU's conversion to Division I, I'm worried that a major Johnnie talent source might be drying up.  A player transferring from D-II to D-III has to be much more common than a I-AA-to-III switch, no?
*****
Anyone have any thoughts on the Twins?  I do, but I'll try to keep it brief.  If they can keep treading water until Mauer's back, I think they have a decent shot.  A big part of that equation is the fact that it might only take 85 wins to take the Central this year.  They aren't a playoff team without Mauer, so I'm not too concerned that they aren't in first place right now.

You know what does have me concerned?  The gripping, action-packed, tri-weekly Disasterpiece Theater performances, starring your Minnesota Twins middle relievers.  Yuck. 

[TC]

I spent WAAAAAAAAY too much time on this, so please humor me...

88 players (44 metro, 44 outstate) took part in the 2008 Minnesota High School All-Star Football Game.  Of those 88...

79 went on to play college football:
7 went to Div. 1-A schools
10 went to Div. 1-AA schools
30 went to Div. 2 schools
6 went to Junior Colleges

That leaves 26 that played Division 3 football.  I know that there are significant limitations to using these players as a proxy for blue chip recruits--the best players may not be chosen, chosen players may not play, etc., etc.--but here is the breakdown of where those players ended up:

St. Thomas (7): 
Jesse Amar, Andover LB
Dan Brown, Osseo WR
Greg Morse, St. Paul Como Park QB
Tait Sande, Cook County/Grand Marais RB
Dakota Tracy, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva DB
Mike Valesano, Brainerd LB
Fritz Waldvogel, St. Thomas Academy WR

Gustavus (6):
Matt Dvorak, St. Croix Lutheran RB
Logan Becker, Blue Earth Area QB
Jason Hankins Cleveland OL
Matt Herr, Owatonna DB
Elliott Hrdina, Blooming Prairie WR
Blake Kerkhoff, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva LB

St. John's (4):
Jimmy Stodolka, St. Thomas Academy OC         
Nick Zweber, New Prague LB          
Eric Dirkes, Albany OL
Jimmy Loonan, Waseca RB

Concordia (2):
Josh Herzog, Detroit Lakes DE
Tyler Spiczka, Sauk Rapids-Rice DB

Bethel (2):
Billy Morgan, Rosemount LB       
Josh Aakre, Dawson-Boyd LB  (QB @ BU)         

Carleton (1):
Erik Fabry, Eastview TE, P

Augsburg (1):
Peter Joppru, Minneapolis Washburn LB         

St. Olaf (1):
Leon Clark, Rochester Century DB

UW-Stout (1):
Paul Bernier, Lakeville North RB

UW-Eau Claire (1):
Brady Cobb, Lakeville North DB

You might recognize Waldvogel from the '08 All-MIAC team, Morse from the 5 TD passes he threw in limited action, or Hrdina from the state prep career receiving record he held.  They're good players, and St. John's seems to be operating a deficit in bringing top-notch talent like this to campus. 

Keep in mind, too, that Concordia (North Dakota) and St. Olaf (Florida) have a significant out-of-state recruiting base to augment their in-state talent.

And after getting 4 All-Stars in 2008, St. John's only got 2 in 2009.  That's not a good trend.

*****

And out of the 9 players that haven't gone on to play college football, one is playing baseball at the U of M...  and one is playing baseball at St. Thomas.  6 seem to have disappeared altogether.

And one, believe it or not, might be in jail.  He got convicted of a felony for vandalizing his high school, at least (which means he'll likely turn up at Augsburg).

[OzJohnnie]

flash;

You gotta take care of the ladies.  They're getting outta control...

[janesvilleflash]

Those two ladies pretty much typify women I have a chance with anymore. Sucks getting old.

[johnnie_esq]

And after getting 4 All-Stars in 2008, St. John's only got 2 in 2009.  That's not a good trend.

Forgive me, and nothing against the kids that play in the All-Star game (as they are all very talented players), but as a high school assistant coach, I know of a number of kids that could have or should have been playing in that game but are held out because of coach politics, conference politics, etc., not to mention some kids take vacations or are otherwise unavailable for the game.   So I don't read TOO much into who plays in the game-- I take more stock into all-state teams, and even then-- politics play extremely heavy into that as well. 

If a coach doesn't lobby hard enough to get his kids in, or if another conference coach doesn't get along with a fellow conference coach, some very talented kids are left out of this game.  And I say this not because my school should have had some kids in this game-- rather, I have seen some kids in the conference not get into this game.  E.g. Harry Awe (now at SJU) was dynamite at Minnehaha Academy.  Rock solid, lights out-- carry the ball 30 times per game by diving into the middle and making something happen.  But because the Minnehaha coach resigned after the season, and a certain other coach in the conference is extremely dismissive of his opponents, and perhaps because the game interfered with summer baseball, Awe did not compete.  In my opinion, did he deserve it?  You bet.   And that is from an opponent's perspective even before he mentioned he was headed to SJU.

So TC, want to do the same calculation with all-state teams???

[repete]

Hey gang-- been a while and hope all is well.

Anyone catch wind of the mountain-out-of-a-molehill that occurred at UWW over the past couple days?  Interesting situation-- but a case where the reaction of the coach caused the hubbub instead of the journalist.

Short synopsis:

• Student writes editorial blasting football players for refusing to take out their IDs to be admitted to work out.
• Liepold blasts reporter, insults soccer team.
• Liepold bans students from ANY access to football team
• Papers in Madison and Milwaukee pick up the story
• Liepold apologizes, restores access to football team (Oops!)

Story could happen at just about any school-- but it was Liepold who blew it out of proportion.  Things are starting to heat up-- is it September yet?

Not surprising to me in light of his display at halftime of the playoff game with SJU.  Leopold's engine is gonna blow a gasket.

Right on the money Clark you old dog.  I was thinking this exact thing, but didn't wanna be accused of sour grapes after the 'Hawks piss pounded the J's in the 2nd half.  Leipold was way outta line at halftime against the Johnnies.  He really lost control of himself and shoulda been thrown out.  That referee sure took a lot of flak and I would find it hard to believe ole Lance didn't say the "magic word".  I watched this incident intently and it was a Billy Martin/Lou Piniella/Earl Weaver-esque meltdown.  This guy clearly has a temper and can be rattled...even in April.

Hadn't heard about that flap at the game, but it confirms what I was thinking.

Anyone tho can turn a pissing match with a STUDENT NEWSPAPER -- not to mention one called the Royal Purple -- into a national embarrassment for their program has to possess that attractive personality combo of short fuse and oversized ego.

Plus, doesn't he know no one's reading newspapers these days, especially college students. Instead, he kicks it into the blogosphere where the Deadspin thread alone is approaching six figures in views and 86 comments. Nice work, LL.