FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[SagatagSam]

God, I'm starting to sound like a cranky, old fart!

[sfury]

So, basically, Caruso is a Steve Johnson/John Gagliardi/Bill Belichick/Vince Lombardi/Bear Bryant/Nick Saban/Knute Rockne/Phil Jackson/Scotty Bowman/John Wooden/Don Shula/Bill Walsh/Chuck Noll/Eddie Robinson/Bobby Bowden/Connie Mack/Mike Krzyzweski/Gandhi combo.  He preaches love and passion, but isn't afraid to chew an official's ass. 

"Fixed."

-Ron Doney.

[Knightstalker]

The basketball circle thing has been around for a couple of decades at least now...

That shows you exactly how much pumpkin-pushing that I watch!   

Seriously,  I would be embarassed to be involved--just go out there and play.  God, I'm starting to sound like a cranky, old fart!

Glad I am not the only cranky old fart around these boards.

[sfury]

All sports have their little rituals that annoy. But football's "let's all put four fingers up at the end of the third quarter to indicate that we're going to dominate and really, really try hard this last quarter and if we're really feeling inspirational we'll hold up both hands with four fingers each to double the dominance" has to be among the most annoying. Having not really seen many SJU games in person the past decade or since that became a big trend, can I assume that was another no for Gagliardi? I hope.

Also: Softball cheers. The worst.

When I was a senior, and Robert Zimmerman will remember this, at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, we played mighty Alden-Conger. For their intros, they turned off the lights and did the Bulls intro music (this being 1993, it was huge then), complete with a shaky spotlight held by a high school kid who probably spent his days sniffing or eating glue. It was so, so corny -- AC was really bad at basketball and they also had 38 fans there -- but it was also kind of cool. And no one else was really doing it at that level then.

[DuffMan]

Glad I am not the only cranky old fart around these boards.

Yeah, but I am only 31! 

[DuffMan]

Also: Softball cheers. The worst.

Bad.  But the worst...wrestling cheerleaders.  God, I hated them.  Last thing I wanted was them pounding on the mat while wrestling.  And after a loss--get the hell away from me!  I don't need comforting.  The exception was Foley's cheerleaders because they were undoubtedly scrumptious. 

[SagatagSam]

The exception was Foley's cheerleaders because they were undoubtedly scrumptious. 

Only Benton County's Finest for Duff! 

Edit: Come to think of it, wasn't one of Benton's Dairy Princess winners also Princess Kay of the Milky Way right around the time you were wrestling?

[hazzben]

Fair words from Keith today:

But to hear his men say they love each other, to refer to their teammates as family members, and to listen to coaches and parents who have no connection to St. Thomas praise the man -- He's doing something right."

It's not all praise. I admit I've never met the man. He seems to genuinely care about his players...at least the ones who play. And the guy can obviously coach.

My issue is the D3 version of 'over-signing' that Caruso has made his trademark. There are multiple examples now of Caruso over recruiting a class. Going into the home/school of a player, making his pitch, selling the kid on playing football at UST, often instead of playing at other d3 schools in the region. No harm so far. That's the name of the recruiting game. Out pitch/sell/recruit the opposition.

What gets shady is when, two weeks before fall camp, some of these recruits receive a letter in the mail from the UST football department. In essence: Hey buddy, we know we recruited you hard in the Spring, convinced you to enroll in our school, register for classes, pay enrollment and housing deposits and spend the summer working/dreaming of playing college football. Unfortunately for you, we don't want you to come to fall camp (READ: we sold you a bill of goods. There were other players we got who we suspect are better than you. At the end of the day, they get a spot/shot to compete, you don't). In fact, it's not that we don't want you to come to camp, we aren't going to let you come. You are welcome to participate in practice after the first game. We realize you expected to be a part of the team...too bad, so sad. But hey, know that I love you, care about you, and after we give the real players a chance, we'd love to invite you to be the sloppy seconds of our program. Of course, if you don't come out, we don't care either.

You get the gist. That is dirty pool. It's a nasty thing to do to the kid and family. They are left blowing in the wind, late in the summer, with little option but to still attend UST. Maybe they can transfer at semester, but they've gotten robbed of their first year of eligibility or have to switch schools. It's dirty pool to the opposing coaches. We all see what he's doing. The more kids UST gobbles up, the fewer kids that can play for the competition. Better yet, if UST lets the kids know this late in the game, they don't have to worry about coaching them but can probably make sure that no else gets to either. That way, even if this kid is better than they originally deduced (i.e. Ross Petterson v. Tommy Becker) the other teams won't benefit from the oversight.

You can only do this for so long. There are already a growing list of families, coaches (HS and college) who are sick of it. When a HS coach watches one of his kids get burned like this, he's not likely to sit idly by the next time Caruso & Co. swing by. Caruso probably does care deeply about some of his players. He seems to have legitimate affection for the Waldvogels, Beckers and Tracys of the program. But that is a load of garbage to the kids he pulls the other stunts on. He doesn't give a rodents posterior about them. Not to mention that it's a total manipulation of the athletic scholarship free ethos of D3. You couldn't pull this stunt, with signed letters of intent, at the other levels. Glenn would be committed, contractually, to honor the offer.

I could care less if he wants to legitimately stockpile talent. If you can recruit 50 kids per class, good for you, and onus on the other coaches to step up their game. But if you convince 60 kids to come to UST, then you should invite all 60 to camp, not just the 45 or 50 that you're really high on. And if you feel like a handful of guys won't be invited to camp, let them know early enough that they can still look to pursue their dream of playing college football somewhere else.

[ron doney]

Doney,

Funny that you would be the first predicting the demise of U$T.

How so?

[ron doney]

Fair words from Keith today:

But to hear his men say they love each other, to refer to their teammates as family members, and to listen to coaches and parents who have no connection to St. Thomas praise the man -- He's doing something right."

It's not all praise. I admit I've never met the man. He seems to genuinely care about his players...at least the ones who play. And the guy can obviously coach.

My issue is the D3 version of 'over-signing' that Caruso has made his trademark. There are multiple examples now of Caruso over recruiting a class. Going into the home/school of a player, making his pitch, selling the kid on playing football at UST, often instead of playing at other d3 schools in the region. No harm so far. That's the name of the recruiting game. Out pitch/sell/recruit the opposition.

What gets shady is when, two weeks before fall camp, some of these recruits receive a letter in the mail from the UST football department. In essence: Hey buddy, we know we recruited you hard in the Spring, convinced you to enroll in our school, register for classes, pay enrollment and housing deposits and spend the summer working/dreaming of playing college football. Unfortunately for you, we don't want you to come to fall camp (READ: we sold you a bill of goods. There were other players we got who we suspect are better than you. At the end of the day, they get a spot/shot to compete, you don't). In fact, it's not that we don't want you to come to camp, we aren't going to let you come. You are welcome to participate in practice after the first game. We realize you expected to be a part of the team...too bad, so sad. But hey, know that I love you, care about you, and after we give the real players a chance, we'd love to invite you to be the sloppy seconds of our program. Of course, if you don't come out, we don't care either.

You get the gist. That is dirty pool. It's a nasty thing to do to the kid and family. They are left blowing in the wind, late in the summer, with little option but to still attend UST. Maybe they can transfer at semester, but they've gotten robbed of their first year of eligibility or have to switch schools. It's dirty pool to the opposing coaches. We all see what he's doing. The more kids UST gobbles up, the fewer kids that can play for the competition. Better yet, if UST lets the kids know this late in the game, they don't have to worry about coaching them but can probably make sure that no else gets to either. That way, even if this kid is better than they originally deduced (i.e. Ross Petterson v. Tommy Becker) the other teams won't benefit from the oversight.

You can only do this for so long. There are already a growing list of families, coaches (HS and college) who are sick of it. When a HS coach watches one of his kids get burned like this, he's not likely to sit idly by the next time Caruso & Co. swing by. Caruso probably does care deeply about some of his players. He seems to have legitimate affection for the Waldvogels, Beckers and Tracys of the program. But that is a load of garbage to the kids he pulls the other stunts on. He doesn't give a rodents posterior about them. Not to mention that it's a total manipulation of the athletic scholarship free ethos of D3. You couldn't pull this stunt, with signed letters of intent, at the other levels. Glenn would be committed, contractually, to honor the offer.

I could care less if he wants to legitimately stockpile talent. If you can recruit 50 kids per class, good for you, and onus on the other coaches to step up their game. But if you convince 60 kids to come to UST, then you should invite all 60 to camp, not just the 45 or 50 that you're really high on. And if you feel like a handful of guys won't be invited to camp, let them know early enough that they can still look to pursue their dream of playing college football somewhere else.

Interesting....first I have heard of this.  Is this explained to the kids when they are recruited initially?  That is, only 45 freshman can come to camp?

[hazzben]

Is this explained to the kids when they are recruited initially?  That is, only 45 freshman can come to camp?

Nope. And these aren't just chumps that are recruiting themselves to UST. Can't speak for ever kid who gets a letter, but plenty have been actively recruited by the coaches. The examples I've heard of, the kid is getting ready to go off to college and start camp in a few weeks, when, out of the blue, he gets a letter in the mail telling him he's not welcome. I haven't heard that UST or Caruso have set an actual number on how many can come to camp. Sounds more like they have a rough idea of what is 'too much' or more than they want, and drop the bomb on the unfortunate players in late July/early August.

[ron doney]

Is this explained to the kids when they are recruited initially?  That is, only 45 freshman can come to camp?

Nope. And these aren't just chumps that are recruiting themselves to UST. Can't speak for ever kid who gets a letter, but plenty have been actively recruited by the coaches. The examples I've heard of, the kid is getting ready to go off to college and start camp in a few weeks, when, out of the blue, he gets a letter in the mail telling him he's not welcome. I haven't heard that UST or Caruso have set an actual number on how many can come to camp. Sounds more like they have a rough idea of what is 'too much' or more than they want, and drop the bomb on the unfortunate players in late July/early August.

That doesn't sound good.  Has it happened more than one season? 

[Robert Zimmerman]

All sports have their little rituals that annoy. But football's "let's all put four fingers up at the end of the third quarter to indicate that we're going to dominate and really, really try hard this last quarter and if we're really feeling inspirational we'll hold up both hands with four fingers each to double the dominance" has to be among the most annoying. Having not really seen many SJU games in person the past decade or since that became a big trend, can I assume that was another no for Gagliardi? I hope.

Also: Softball cheers. The worst.

When I was a senior, and Robert Zimmerman will remember this, at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, we played mighty Alden-Conger. For their intros, they turned off the lights and did the Bulls intro music (this being 1993, it was huge then), complete with a shaky spotlight held by a high school kid who probably spent his days sniffing or eating glue. It was so, so corny -- AC was really bad at basketball and they also had 38 fans there -- but it was also kind of cool. And no one else was really doing it at that level then.

Yes, and then after those hideous introductions, they would play Whitney Houston's "Star Spangled Banner" and although amazing singing, it seemed like it took forever.  With a long night on the bench ahead of me, I didn't need to draw the night out longer!

[ron doney]

So, basically, Caruso is a Steve Johnson/John Gagliardi/Bill Belichick/Vince Lombardi/Bear Bryant/Nick Saban/Knute Rockne/Phil Jackson/Scotty Bowman/John Wooden/Don Shula/Bill Walsh/Chuck Noll/Eddie Robinson/Bobby Bowden/Connie Mack/Mike Krzyzweski/Gandhi combo.  He preaches love and passion, but isn't afraid to chew an official's ass. 

"Fixed."

-Ron Doney.

Relax.  I used "fair" for a reason.....Keith does a nice job of weighing the different opinions of Caruso and formulates well thought commentary on the coach.

[Tom Thumb]

Growing up in the St. Joe area myself...

Did you go to Apollo?  When?

No, I moved over to the south side of St. Cloud and went to Tech for a year.  After that I moved to St. Paul.  I graduated from high school in 2003.