FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

The first Elimination Final between Hawthorn and the Footscray (now called the Western Bulldogs) next Friday night has sold out in 5 1/2 hours.  90k+.  Capacity at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is a little over 96k so I expect there will be small sale later in the week of public access to leftover corporate tickets.

I've got tickets in the Members.  It's going to be a wild night.

[Ice Bear]

Any rumblings about how camp is going for our beloved Baptist Royals? Scrimmages, McElroy, player standouts?

[BiggieSmalls]

Any rumblings about how camp is going for our beloved Baptist Royals? Scrimmages, McElroy, player standouts?

They interviewed Coach McElroy on the recent D3 podcast so have a listen. He did mention they return all 11 defensive starters. New OC from Berry and WR corps has the usual Kidder/Niewald senior duo with Geebli and others returning.

He didn't say this, but obviously QB is the big question mark.

[art76]

It's a long podcast this time, but chock full of BU goodness, and lots of MIAC mentions if you listen through the whole podcast. It's gonna be a wild season with a full-tilt offense. Can't wait to see them in action at Northwestern in just 16 days.

[SagatagSam]

High school football gets going in South Dakota this weekend for all classes. It's going to be good to get back on the field and officiate games.

I have a connection to the NAIA and Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) that may be able to get me substituting on a college crew next year.

Fear not, non-Johnnie MIAC fans, I will not be on a MIAC crew anytime soon (or ever), so I won't have to ever defend why I would have thrown a disproportionate number of flags on Bethel.

[johnnieboy41]

If that's your standard, then yes, it's OK. But simply making the MIAC playoffs is not a super high bar.

Making the MIAC playoffs is being able to average a slightly better than .500 record.

Exactly. I wouldn't be surprised if SJU would like to do better than that.

If that performance were applied to the football team, this board (and beyond) would be calling for the head coach to be fired. (See D3boards.com MIAC Pages from 2010-2012)

I the 2024 SJU football team misses the playoffs this year there will be outrage.

Deep breath boys. Let's not try to fire a 5 time MIAC COTY because we got screwed last year. Gary likely has 2-3 years left and then we can hand it off to one of the quality assistants for another long haul of success.

[GoldandBlueBU]

High school football gets going in South Dakota this weekend for all classes. It's going to be good to get back on the field and officiate games.

I have a connection to the NAIA and Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) that may be able to get me substituting on a college crew next year.

Fear not, non-Johnnie MIAC fans, I will not be on a MIAC crew anytime soon (or ever), so I won't have to ever defend why I would have thrown a disproportionate number of flags on Bethel.

Did you do football last year as well?  I got into HS reffing last year, partially on your positive vote, along with that of a dad on my daughter's soccer team who has been doing it a long time.  It's fun.  More challenging than I anticipated when all of the action is right in your face, and even once you make a call - it's not just the simple men's league officiating - but all the mechanics of reporting calls, switching, etc.  I did about 20 games last year - mostly 9th and 10th, and a couple of JV.  No interest at the moment of doing varsity - 3 person crew and shot clock would overwhelm me at this point - in addition to everything happening faster with older groups.

[SagatagSam]

Did you do football last year as well? 

Glad to hear you are doing it!

Yep. I officiated football last year. As I've said before, my only regret is not doing it 15-20 years ago. Not only is it a great mental workout, but its the best workout regimen I have had since being on the SJU track team some 17 years ago. I've lost about 30-35 pounds since reffing my first basketball game in December 2022.

You're in a good spot getting comfortable with sub-varsity games. Believe it or not, I think it gets a little easier in many respects as you move up in skill level. You start to shed the sloppy play and overwhelming incidental contact that comes with kids that are getting to know the game and the rapidly growing bodies they occupy.

I'm trying to focus on three-man mechanics for basketball so I can try to develop into an official the SDHSAA would consider for a state tournament--plus its necessary for officiating college games, which I hope to do some NAIA/Juco this year.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Did you do football last year as well? 

Believe it or not, I think it gets a little easier in many respects as you move up in skill level. You start to shed the sloppy play and overwhelming incidental contact that comes with kids that are getting to know the game and the rapidly growing bodies they occupy.

That is definitely true!  The 9B games are typically frustratingly sloppy to ref.  Fortunately they're often running time, so the suffering is limited.

The other interesting dynamic of doing to lower level games is there are a lot of older refs who used to do varsity, but are now in their 70's and can't cover the court anymore, but still want to keep reffing. They're often a really good resource for learning more, and having pointers for me - but the trade-off is they DO NOT run the court - you're covering every fast break, whether you're the lead or the trail official.   

[sjusection105]

If that's your standard, then yes, it's OK. But simply making the MIAC playoffs is not a super high bar.

Making the MIAC playoffs is being able to average a slightly better than .500 record.

Exactly. I wouldn't be surprised if SJU would like to do better than that.

If that performance were applied to the football team, this board (and beyond) would be calling for the head coach to be fired. (See D3boards.com MIAC Pages from 2010-2012)

I the 2024 SJU football team misses the playoffs this year there will be outrage.

Deep breath boys. Let's not try to fire a 5 time MIAC COTY because we got screwed last year. Gary likely has 2-3 years left and then we can hand it off to one of the quality assistants for another long haul of success.

If the Johnnies win the MIAC and make a deep play off run with no Pre-Season All Americans, Gary is a lock until 2050!

[carletonknights]

It's a long podcast this time, but chock full of BU goodness, and lots of MIAC mentions if you listen through the whole podcast. It's gonna be a wild season with a full-tilt offense. Can't wait to see them in action at Northwestern in just 16 days.

Art, happen to hear any tidbits on the teams down in Northfield? I've done a poor job of following this offseason. Life stuff

[sjujohnnie]

Did you do football last year as well? 

Glad to hear you are doing it!

Yep. I officiated football last year. As I've said before, my only regret is not doing it 15-20 years ago. Not only is it a great mental workout, but its the best workout regimen I have had since being on the SJU track team some 17 years ago. I've lost about 30-35 pounds since reffing my first basketball game in December 2022.

You're in a good spot getting comfortable with sub-varsity games. Believe it or not, I think it gets a little easier in many respects as you move up in skill level. You start to shed the sloppy play and overwhelming incidental contact that comes with kids that are getting to know the game and the rapidly growing bodies they occupy.

I'm trying to focus on three-man mechanics for basketball so I can try to develop into an official the SDHSAA would consider for a state tournament--plus its necessary for officiating college games, which I hope to do some NAIA/Juco this year.

I live just south of Sioux City. My wife went to Morningside when they were still a Division II school. Planning on going to Morningside's first game of the season this Saturday night against Benedictine (KS) who is ranked in the top 25 of the NAIA poll.

[art76]

It's a long podcast this time, but chock full of BU goodness, and lots of MIAC mentions if you listen through the whole podcast. It's gonna be a wild season with a full-tilt offense. Can't wait to see them in action at Northwestern in just 16 days.

Art, happen to hear any tidbits on the teams down in Northfield? I've done a poor job of following this offseason. Life stuff

There's  a lot of Northfield/Carleton stuff about the coach's son that is playing summer baseball up here, but attends Wooster in Ohio. You should carve out the time to take a listen on a long commute, perhaps.

[kubiack78]

I actually live in Sioux City about 5 minutes from the stadium and my wife and I were planning on going to the Morningside game on Saturday night. I remember when Whitewater played them about 10 years ago at a home and home.(Whitewater won both games) Morningside always seems to have a good squad though

[BiggieSmalls]

Looks like the Tommies are having a tough start to 2024 season versus D2 University of Sioux Falls 'Coo...