MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Sam Stichnote may be the best high school 3-sport athlete coming out of Missouri this year.

Wow. Like the best athlete in the whole state of Missouri? 
And he plays 3 sports no less!
No wonder he's going to Millikin! 
Those poor Mizzou Tigers never had a chance.     

He didn't say he is the best athlete.  He said "may be the best high school 3-sport athlete..."

I have never seen Sam Sitchnote play any sport (haven't been to a Southern Boone game in a while), but on the surface, I don't have a problem with Hambo's statement.  First keep in mind how few 3-sport athletes there are nowadays.  In the entire state of Missouri, I mean, how many HS 3-sport athletes could there be? 

Of the kids who are the best pure athletes - the ones going to Mizzou and other D1 schools to play basketball, volleyball, football, track, etc - how many of those played 3 sports? I have to believe that is a tiny number.  So most of these D1 commit kids are pretty much out of the conversation.

And then within the universe of 3-sport athletes in Missouri, how many excel in all 3 sports?  Some really simple Googling seems to indicate Sam Stichnote is a stud in basketball (SG), football (QB), and baseball (SS).  How many kids is Stichnote really competing with for this honor? Are there maybe 5 other HS seniors in the state in the conversation?

[Gregory Sager]

Southern Boone County HS is in the hamlet of Ashland, MO, which has a population of less than 4,000. Given the size of Ashland, and the fact that consolidated rural high schools are frequently named after counties, I'm guessing that Southern Boone County HS is not very large. (Ashland is only 15 miles outside of Columbia, which is a mid-sized city, but that's far enough out to be in the sticks.) The smaller the high school, the higher the likelihood that the jocks are doubling up, or even tripling up, on the number of sports they play.

I'm with Bob on this one. I read HAMBO's post and thought, "Big deal. All this means is that Sam Stichnote is the most versatile rural-school athlete that HAMBO saw this year." That hardly implies the rarefied air of a Mizzou prospect.

[WUPHF]

I think it was two seasons ago when Coach Scherer was hired and Coach Soderberg was retained that I asked about the "Soderberg effect."  That is the the use of the Soderberg family brand in Missouri. 

Hard to know who recruited whom but...

Three freshmen from last season (plus two from "the eastside" of St. Louis), two more from on the way...

It has been three seasons since the Soderberg clan left the state for Millikin and UVA and many more since the elder Soderberg coached at SLU, but still.

As an aside, Lee Summit High School and Mizzou quarterback Drew Lock could have played two other sports for the Tigers.  That proves no point here of course.

[Titan Q]

The more I Google, the more I realize this Sam Stichnote kid is quite an athlete.

He is a football 1st team all-stater...and a 3-time all-stater.  On top of that, on this Mid-Mo all-area team, he was nominated for all-area at 3 different positions (QB, DB, and I am guessing special teams, kick returner probably). https://www.columbiatribune.com/sports/20181228/best-in-mid-mo-2018-tribune-all-area-football-team

He is a basketball 1st team all-stater...and a 3-time all-stater.  He was the basketball conference P.O.Y. http://www.newstribune.com/news/sports/prep/story/2019/mar/21/missouri-basketball-coaches-association-all-state-teams/770869/

I haven't checked out baseball a lot, but it seems Hambo's statement is really safe.

[HAMBO]

I believe Coach Scherer and Coach Soderberg work well together.  They have similar values and goals.  Obviously Soderberg's contacts in the St. Louis area are being utilized.  You may, also, note that the Big Blue football staff recruits heavily in Missouri and the whole greater St. Louis area. Millikin's athletic athletic director, Dr. Craig White, is a Mizzou grad.  Surprise?

[Gregory Sager]

The more I Google, the more I realize this Sam Stichnote kid is quite an athlete.

He is a football 1st team all-stater...and a 3-time all-stater.  On top of that, on this Mid-Mo all-area team, he was nominated for all-area at 3 different positions (QB, DB, and I am guessing special teams, kick returner probably). https://www.columbiatribune.com/sports/20181228/best-in-mid-mo-2018-tribune-all-area-football-team

Being nominated as a three-way football player indicates to me even more that he played for a pretty small high school that thus has a very limited football roster.

But, if Stichnote is that much of a stud in football, regardless of the level of competition he saw in high school, is he going to play in the fall for Dan Gritti at Millikin as well as for Mark Scherer in the winter?

[kiko]

499 students covering grades 9 through 12 in the 2015-16 school year, per this link:

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/missouri/districts/southern-boone-co-r-i/southern-boone-high-11915

[Titan Q]

Ron Rose has found a lot of good players in Missouri (St. Louis area)...

* Nick Anderson ('14)
* Mike Mayberger ('14)
* Pat Sodemann ('15)
* Bryce Dolan ('16)
* Joel Pennington ('16)
* Alec Bausch ('17)
* Danny Baker ('19)
* Matt Leritz ('22)

[WUPHF]

It does make sense that Millikin and Illinois Wesleyan successfully recruits Missouri, given their proximity.

Illinois colleges do typically have a significantly higher sticker price ($10,000 or so more), but otherwise.

[Titan Q]

Illinois colleges do typically have a significantly higher sticker price ($10,000 or so more), but otherwise.

The one in Bloomington is up to, what, $61,000 now? Ugh.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Illinois colleges do typically have a significantly higher sticker price ($10,000 or so more), but otherwise.

The one in Bloomington is up to, what, $61,000 now? Ugh.

Do we know what the typical price is for students?  I saw a private school advertisement the other day that said, "all admitted students get a minimum $8,000 tuition discount."  I guess you keep the tuition where it is to reflect cost of education, but at some point those numbers get a little silly.

[WUPHF]

I guess I should always defer to the net price, but there is more variance in net prices between institutions in the two states.  The research would say that the sticker price does still matter, hence the tuition resets that make the news every few years.

[Gregory Sager]

In CCIW administrative news -- I know how excited you all get about that -- I was looking at the CCIW constitution this morning in order to answer a question posed by AndOne on another board, and I came across an interesting tidbit of new information. This is from Article III of the constitution, which addresses conference membership rules:

Section 2: Core Sports. In the men's program, every member of the Conference must play every other Conference member in football, soccer, basketball and baseball and must participate in the Conference (meet) program of at least four other sports. In the women's program, every member of the Conference must play every other Conference member in volleyball, soccer, basketball and softball and must participate in the Conference (meet) program of at least four other sports.

From the beginning of the league shortly after World War Two ended (or at least very early on), the then-CCI had a constitutional rule about core sports. Every CCI member was required to field a team in what used to be called America's Big Three sports: football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. Furthermore, every CCI member had to participate in the league's schedule in those three sports.

When the CCIW began sponsoring women's sports in the 1986-87 school year, Article III, Section 2 was changed to reflect that by adding the requirement that each CCIW school field teams in women's volleyball, women's basketball, and softball, and have them participate in the CCIW schedule, each sport acting as a seasonal parallel to the existing men's core sports.

At some point since the last time that I looked at the CCIW constitution (i.e., sometime over the last three or four years), the CCIW Council of Presidents changed the constitution again. Men's soccer and women's soccer have been added to the core sports. That's not only a nice recognition of two sports in which the CCIW has had both success on the field and increasing popularity in terms of attendance, it's also a good forward-thinking move of the CCIW's leadership in staying abreast of the changes in American sports culture and the interests and activity of upcoming generations of Americans.

One wonders if the day will come somewhere down the road when football needs to be removed from the CCIW's core-sports list because of a decline in participation or a catastrophic increase in ancillary costs such as equipment or insurance, all due to the negative impact that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (brain injury) is having upon participation in football at the youth-league and high school levels. I'd ask that question over in the CCIW football room, but I don't want to spend the entire week defending myself from the charge that I'm some kind of Communist for bringing it up.

[WUPHF]

I think there will come a day when football is no longer recognized as an NCAA sport.

[augie77]

Futbol over football??  You are propagating the red menace!