FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Mr.MIAC]

Speaking of acceptable offseason topics, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the passing of Justice Scalia. He helped open UST's School of Law and made multiple appearances on campus over the following years.

Link: http://www.stthomas.edu/news/justice-scalia-praises-catholic-law-school-environment-visit-st-thomas/

Of course his passing has implications far beyond little old UST...

[SJUrube]

WR Evan Clark is also running track for SJU this winter/spring. This is great news for both programs. He adds quality depth to the sprint core but the added, focused speed work should pay dividends this fall.

I was trying to track down some of his HS times from Apollo HS in Glendale, AZ and learned Giants defensive back Prince Amukamara is also an alum who ran track in addition to playing football.

[57Johnnie]

Beer, fishing, beer, ice fishing, beer, wrestling, beer, hockey and craft beer are OK for the Hot Stove League.

And Aussie rules footy... 

You bet and also beer 

[Tom Thumb]

Below is a future football/track Tommie athlete:

Austin Coates, DB/WR, Kennedy HS, IA: https://twitter.com/Austin_Jackets
All State 1st Team DB
Hudl: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/4397432/austin-coates

[OzJohnnie]

Just two moar days until the preseason opens with Hawthorn playing Carlton.  Hopefully, we'll see Cyril soaring high above the Blues all match.




Incidentally, Carlton's new head coach is Brenden Bolton, Hawthorn assistant coach last year. Hawthorn's success under head coach Alistair Clarkson has led to a revolution in gameplay and a unprecedented coaching talent stream into the league.

Bolton to Carlton at the end of 2015
Luke Beveridge to the Bulldogs end of 2014
Adam Simpson to West Coast end of 2013
Leon Cameron to Greater Western Sydney end of 2012
Damien Hardwick to Richmond end of 2009

[OzJohnnie]

On beers, or more accurately, on drinking beers, I had a nice evening after work with a colleague last week.  We stopped for a couple pints at Ponyfish Island, an open air bar under a footbridge crossing the Yarra River in the middle of the city.  It can get far too crowded but somehow we had perfect weather and the place was only half full so it made for an enjoyable "networking opportunity" on the way home from work.

[Mr.MIAC]

Anyone have any recommendations on a good/honest/affordable estate attorney operating in MN? If so, please PM me.

[OzJohnnie]

Anyone have any recommendations on a good/honest/affordable estate attorney operating in MN? If so, please PM me.

Ha!  I'm still laughing.

(On a serious note, I hope you need an estate lawyer as a good planning exercise rather than to assist an executor.)

[Mr.MIAC]

Anyone have any recommendations on a good/honest/affordable estate attorney operating in MN? If so, please PM me.

Ha!  I'm still laughing.

(On a serious note, I hope you need an estate lawyer as a good planning exercise rather than to assist an executor.)

The latter.

[BDB]

I would think USTBench could steer you in the right direction Rev.

[AO]

As an aside, BDB, are you familiar at all with Tommy Novak? I see he played HS at St Thomas Acad, but is from River Falls. What's the deal?

I believe AO has the 411 on this guy. I didn't run into him unless it was at the young levels of youth hockey, that I'm aware of anyway.

River Falls isn't that bad of a commute, I've got a few coworkers from Western WI that make the daily commute to Eagan in less time than I used to spend going from the Northern or Western Burbs to the South Metro.  Bruce Plante had a more critical take on Mr. Novak and commuting after the Cadets beat Plante again.   If there's a saltier high school press conference in history I'd like to see it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLAdkBYolmM

[BDB]

Yeah, I was at that game and Hermantown had some legit reasons to gripe in my view. I watched Plante rush the refs on the ice right after the final horn and you could tell he was about ready to blow an artery.

It's good that St. Thomas Academy went to 2A the next year. Oh, and in the pregame the Hermantown cheerleaders skated over to where the cadets all were seated and waved at them and the cadets went nuts. It was a great high school championship atmosphere.

[Tom Thumb]

Jake Roney, C/G, Totino-Grace, son of former UST Coach Don Roney, appears to be heading to SJU to play football: https://twitter.com/roney_jake

[wm4]

Ok, I'll bite.  It's the off-season and what else is there to do?

So, Rev, you reckon Perra called up the Pioneer Press sports desk and said, "Have I got a story about me for you!" or do you reckon that maybe the Tommie media office helped a little?   it's funny that he's being told by Caruso in the PP that he needs to make the team to get play time.  That's the sort of conversation I would have expected to happen before deciding to transfer (or speak to the PP about playing ambitions).  Different strokes, I guess.

If Caruso is speaking to a player, he's speaking to the players (and parents) that have been hanging on for thier chance at Tommie glory only to see it snatched in some high-profile media campaign.  "We wouldn't take a tranfer unless..." sounds like a message to the spurned, not the annointed.

EDIT: Undoubtedly he's speaking to the spurned.  A quick re-read lead to this statement in the article, But when Perra reached out to Caruso, the coach was more than excited about the chance to work with a player he had hoped to land out of high school. 

I can just imaging GC, "You see, everyone?  He initiated it.  I didn't lie when I said your boy was going to make it big time.  This happened.  Out of the blue.  And I was trying to get him out of high school so it's all consistent see?  If I had picked him up a year ago then your boy would have never had a chance anyway so it's all honest."

And this, The Tommies, who reached the Division III national championship game last fall, only add a handful of transfers each year.

"You see" says GC.  "It's just bum luck that we only take a few, ready to play transfers and it just so happens that your kid (whom I was so glowing of all last year as he sat on the bench) gets the short end of the stick.  It's not my fault."

So let's look ahead to 2016 and the QB position for St Thomas.  They should be very well set at QB for the next 3 years.

Senior Alex Fenske - 6'5" 210.  Played backup last year, saw lots of action, started some games in '13 when Matt O'Connel went down.  Not one to leave the pocket.  Many UST receivers say his passes are very easy to catch. He's back for his 5th year in '16. Odds would say the position is his to win?

Junior Dylan Andrew - 6'1" 205 - Was 3rd string last year, missed all of '14 with a leg injury.  Saw action in 5 games and played a bunch on special teams.  Has two more years remaining.  Great combination of passer and runner.  Great athlete who plays the position really well.  Similar to John Gould in blend of skills.  Could push for the starting job.  Chicago area kid who was all DuPage County in 8A level.

Sophmore Tommy O'Neil - 6'0 195.  Missed all of '15 with an injury.  Was 3rd string in '14 and saw fair amount of action.   Very good runner/athlete.  Probably in the mold of Matt O'Connel and with a strong arm.  Will be interesting to see where he is in the mix.  Has 3 more years remaning.

Sophmore Jaques Perra - 6'3" 223.  Three years remaning after transferring from the U.  Saw game action vs. Purdue in '15.  Highly decorated out of high school in '13.  Big kid with a strong arm making the transition from D1 to D3.  How quickly will he pick up the offense?

QB will be a strength for this team for the next 3 years, no doubt.  Competition this spring will be huge and whoever emerges will have been pushed very hard.  GC knows he's got great assets at this position and I'd expect he and Killian to make this position a point of emphasis for '16.  QB has been a tough position for the Tommies the last few years in term of injuries.   Hopefully everybody stays healthy!

[OzJohnnie]

BDB just prompted me to do a little twitter maintenance, something I haven't done in well over a year, and it led to me to looking back in my timeline to find out how I ever put out over 1700 tweets.  Overwhelmingly they were retweets.  (I save my original content publishing for here.  Aren't you all lucky?)

I found this picture in the tweet line.  #2 has retired (at 13!) from club gymnastics but this photo is from a trip to Tasmania over a year ago when the Hawks happened to be on the same plan going to tour their second Premiership Cup in a row.



#2 is standing in the back row of gymnasts, first from the left.  She's standing in front of captain-extraordinaire, Luke Hodge, and the coach de ré·sis·tance, Alistair Clarkson, just behind her to her left.