FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[quakes75]

hasa,

And I quote, "I think it's time for someone to step up on that defense and make some plays. I know your out of position but you should be the leader of that defense and get them ready to play. Defensive End is a pain in the butt but your a good player and shouldn't matter where you play at you should be making plays even if your real position is linebacker. Lets go #40 it's your last year."

While you might be making a critique of his leadership skills, others are actually questioning his abilities on the field.  As somebody who personally went head-to-head with him for three years, there should be no question of his abilities.  I personally think he's been handcuffed by the schemes he's had to play again.  Which brings me back to my original point, blame Kiesel & Co. or the entire team.  Don't put the blame on one player.

My point is that he is the best blitzer that I've ever seen. He can time them up and get in and make a hit. I also know his leadership skills and they are very good as well. I just hope to see a better performance this week against those damn people across town.

Honestly the problem is is that they never have been able to run the ball good enough to kill the clock. I just remember the year that we came out and nobody could make a tackle on the field that is the most sickening thing to see in a game. I'm not talking like I could go out there and make tackles because I never was a defensive player but dang make one stop in the game and you will win. 

[Jacketlawyer]

What conference game does your team "mark on the schedule" each year? I'm curious to know which game is the "biggest".  And don't tell me "they are all big" or "we only take one game at a time"

RMC is HSC
HSC is RMC right?
BC is HSC
E&H is BC?
Catholic?
Guilford?
W&L?

Snake, R-MC will always be H-SC.  This rivalry has cooled over the past 5-6 years, but at well over 100 years old, the animosity will always be there.  Although the Catholic feud is a pretty good one, due to proximity.  We have no great love for CNU either for the same reasons, but that's more of a hoops thing.  To date.

On the same topic, I'd think H-SC would always pick us, but for the same reasons listed above, I'm going to go with the Gennies as far as the Tigers are concerned, at least for now.  I know a lot of Tiger alumni and hear more muttering under the breath regarding W&L than R-M these days.

For the most part, tradition keeps the R-M/H-S rivalry alive these days.

Oh, forgot.  We had a good rivalry with E&H through the late '80s and most of the 90's when both programs were doing well.  K-Mack will validate. 8)

I would modestly submit that Bridgewater has no arch-nemesis other than whomever is pushing them for the ODAC title.  As the BC posters are weary of hearing, the Eagles were in the cellar too long to build any tension with any one school.  Now that they're superior to everyone, they have tension with same.  So they're rivals with all the ODAC schools and will continue to get the best from each team.

As for the Wasps, I cannot say.  The Emory people keep to their own, and mind their own business.  When Maryville was in the ODAC, there was that whole proximity thing going on.  If I had to guess (and a guess it is), I'd say E&H pretty much wants to beat anyone at anytime.  They are very EEOC!   This puts the Eagles in that category, of course.

Catholic is a difficult read.  They only play football with us, but nothing else.  A good gauge is always how the animosity spills over to other sports.  Not there for the Cards.  By default, Randolph-Macon, and due to reasons listed above.

Guilford has to be Greensboro.  It can be nothing else, to date.  I'm sure the Quakes also want to beat everyone in the ODAC for any of a variety of good reasons.  But as the only NC school, I think they have other priorities.

W&L is in a class of it's own.  Not to bring back bad discussions, and I think K-Mack put it as well as it can be expressed, the bowties are just in a league by themselves.  They recruit nationally and from a different pool from everyone else.  They outpace everyone in the ODAC in many categories including endowment, facilities, and applicant pool.  I hate saying it, but you can't argue with the data.

For me, W&L's natural rival is right in their backyard, VMI.  The Mink/Keydet feud is age-old and battle-tested, and probably exceeds the R-M/H-S spat in ferocity even when the Jackets and Tigers are both competitive.  And there are the rat-line/frat-pack brawls to prove it.  Believe me.  Additionally, both schools are equally well-funded, and are, of course, now co-ed.

Recently, both schools have embraced this rivalry, but only in lacrosse.  The Lee-Jackson Shootout is a lot of fun, and to date W&L leads the series against DI VMI.  But this is the only time these two schools square off as far as team sports are concerned.  That I'm aware of.

(Big breath)--I've said for 20 years, and probably will at least for 20 more that VMI should get out of DI-AA, and go DIII.  It makes too much sense.  They have a lot of really good in-state rivals at DIII.  But this probably won't happen, at least any time soon.  There is quite a bit of money involved where they are in DI-AA, and then, as always, there is that old VMI pride to consider.  Won't happen anytime soon, my friends.  But it should.

I also make this comment knowing a bit about VMI.  I've got family connections there, but I still hold my opinion.

There, I said it.  Thanks for letting me vent! 8)

[TheEHC52]

The rivalry with Maryville has carried over to today.  All Waspers are taught to hate them from the moment we step on campus.

And while we do keep to our own and are pretty much EEOC when it comes to who we play, W&L was always the game we circled first when the schedule came out.  Pretty much anybody from E&H hates them purely for existing and for the preponderance of arrogance they seem to have.  Around campus they are commonly referred to as, "bow-tie wearing f*****s."  And that hatred carries over to all sports.  To quote one of my best friends who was a baseball player and senior class choice for speaker, "I'd rather have never set foot on the field at Emory & Henry than to play just one game for W&L."

[hasanova]

In my era, Guilford's main rival had to be Elon (and High Point to a lesser degree), but those days are long gone as conference affiliations and NCAA levels have changed.  You had to see the intensity at basketball games to fully understand it.  My ears still ring with the often-used chant "If you can't go  to college, go to Elon!"  In the DIII era, Greensboro is a school we want to beat in all sports and, for now, nothing is sweeter than last year's football win over BC - although, I'll have to admit, I really wanted to top HSC last week.  When you lose to a team eight years in a row, however, it doesn't foster much of a rivalry.    Peace   

[Ryan Tipps]

As for the Wasps, I cannot say.  The Emory people keep to their own, and mind their own business.  When Maryville was in the ODAC, there was that whole proximity thing going on.  If I had to guess (and a guess it is), I'd say E&H pretty much wants to beat anyone at anytime.  They are very EEOC!   This puts the Eagles in that category, of course.

I'm certainly not in the loop from an alum's perspective, but from my dealings this year with folks at both E&H and Ferrum, I've been told that they view each other as top rivals.

A couple E&H people told me that there was a lot of tension and angst when the decision was made to not play the game between the two teams last year. The rivalry has only been going on for a little over two decades, but geography and a decent level of competitive and balance has made this pretty heated.

Some Wasp graduates might be able to shed a little more light on this.

[Snakehandler]

I guess my thoughts on the subject was, Do teams have a competitive advantage when it comes to the "importance" of a game?
Does BC have an advantage in this week's matchup because when the schedule comes out we circle the HSC game, while HSC circles the RMC game?

[algernon]

Snake, R-MC will always be H-SC.  This rivalry has cooled over the past 5-6 years, but at well over 100 years old, the animosity will always be there.  Although the Catholic feud is a pretty good one, due to proximity.  We have no great love for CNU either for the same reasons, but that's more of a hoops thing.  To date.

On the same topic, I'd think H-SC would always pick us, but for the same reasons listed above, I'm going to go with the Gennies as far as the Tigers are concerned, at least for now.  I know a lot of Tiger alumni and hear more muttering under the breath regarding W&L than R-M these days.

For the most part, tradition keeps the R-M/H-S rivalry alive these days.

Jacketlawyer .... Great post; good karma to you!

I'd say that Hampden-Sydney students certainly learn a rivalrous attitude toward Randolph-Macon from the day they set foot on campus (if not before).  However, I think that the sense of rivalry is different, depending upon what sport we are talking about.

Football -- While "THE GAME" at HSC is still the end-of-the-season game against RMC, with whom HSC has the longest continuing small-school rivalry in the south .... about 110 years now!! .... the Tigers have certainly developed a sense of rivalry with the Eagles over the past 6 years.  During 2 of the past 5 years, the Tigers ONLY loss has been to the Eagles.

Basketball -- There is no doubt whatsoever that Hampden-Sydney fans most want to beat RMC.  The Tigers' 30-point victory over the Yellow Jackets near the end of last season was bliss and euphoria.  The rivalry with the RMC squad is not only born of tradition -- and long-standing in length -- but it definitely intensified in a huge way during the years that both teams were nationally ranked in the Top 10 at the same time (2001-2004).  Perhaps the sweetest moment in HSC basketball history was in March 2003, when the Tigers cut down the nets in Crenshaw Gym following their victory over Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the Elite Eight ... the Yellow Jackets had been eliminated by Oshkosh the night before and did not seem to share the HSC euphoria that night. 

HSC has also developed a real sense of rivalry over the last 3-5 years with Virginia Wesleyan on the basketball court .... and there has been a definite sense of rivalry with the Roanoke Maroons for 10 years now.

I'm not as sure about rivalry in other sports, but my personal sense is that the rivalry with Washington and Lee is not that strong, except perhaps in lacrosse, golf, and tennis.

[Jacketlawyer]

I guess my thoughts on the subject was, Do teams have a competitive advantage when it comes to the "importance" of a game?
Does BC have an advantage in this week's matchup because when the schedule comes out we circle the HSC game, while HSC circles the RMC game?

I'm pretty sure Marty circles that game.  He wants a title.

[Bwana]

Good article in the DNRonline today about the challenges of creating a D3 schedule that can put a school in the running for an at-large bid:

http://www.dnronline.com/sports_details.php?AID=12451&CHID=3

[Bwana]

I would modestly submit that Bridgewater has no arch-nemesis other than whomever is pushing them for the ODAC title.  As the BC posters are weary of hearing, the Eagles were in the cellar too long to build any tension with any one school.  Now that they're superior to everyone, they have tension with same.  So they're rivals with all the ODAC schools and will continue to get the best from each team.

W&L is in a class of it's own....
For me, W&L's natural rival is right in their backyard, VMI.  The Mink/Keydet feud is age-old and battle-tested, and probably exceeds the R-M/H-S spat in ferocity even when the Jackets and Tigers are both competitive.  And there are the rat-line/frat-pack brawls to prove it.  Believe me.  Additionally, both schools are equally well-funded, and are, of course, now co-ed.

I would agree on both of these points.  I know most alums from my era (we have our 25th reunion in a few weeks) focus on who is on the schedule for Homecoming and Parents weekend, or when BC is playing at a college close/reasonably close by.  There was no one we really got our dander up about.  Even during the 1980 ODAC championship season there was no one to view as a rival...BC lost it's first ODAC game that year to H/SC and had to win all the rest.

I will attest from personal experience to the W&L-VMI relationship...many years ago I was visiting a friend in lexington, and as we drove out of town to his place (having just hit "the Palms"-is that place still there?) we saw a very large number of keydets in cammie BDU type uniforms and face paint heading into town.

The story I was told that two keydets had gone to a fraternity party at the invitation of friend...but when they arrived the friend was not there, and they took substantial abuse from his frat brothers who claimed the VMI guys were trying to crash the party by lying about an invite.  They told their brethren about it upon returning to campus, and a large number decided they were going to go "party" with the WL guys.  The police chief also saw the large number of keydets heading toward the fraternity area, and had to call the president of WL and the commandant at VMI to come out and quell the situation...nope, not a lot of love lost there.

[Jacketlawyer]

I will attest from personal experience to the W&L-VMI relationship...many years ago I was visiting a friend in lexington, and as we drove out of town to his place (having just hit "the Palms"-is that place still there?) we saw a very large number of keydets in cammie BDU type uniforms and face paint heading into town.

Bwana, yep the Palms is still there.  HICCUP!!

A friend of mine was a W&L Phi Kap back in the day.  For those of you who don't know, Phi Kap is the W&L fraternity closest to the VMI grounds.  For reasons that have now been lost to time, there was a scrap between this house and the Keydets.  Said friend remembers here a loud collective yell coming from outside on  Saturday afternoon, and he took a look outside.  There, running down the street, were literally hundreds of Keydets, all dressed the same, making a beeline for the front door of Phi Kap.  Needless to say, sheer bedlam ensued.

I think things have died down a little bit since then.  The above story comes from the late'80s or early '90s.  But historically there's been very little love betwen the male students at those schools.  VMI even had some tee shirts printed up about the brawls, dates and locations.  I'm sure the current administration is glad those days are gone (or so we think).

[Snakehandler]

Don't TAZE me Bro!!!

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

Don't TAZE me Bro!!!

Ha!

Funny thing is, they kept the mascot's head on the whole time.  Like they were arresting Duke Dog.

[skoaltrain]

Don't TAZE me Bro!!!

Ha!

Funny thing is, they kept the mascot's head on the whole time.  Like they were arresting Duke Dog.

The arresting officer was probably Greg Deeds. BC Class of 88'.  Sorta looks like him.

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

Don't TAZE me Bro!!!

Ha!

Funny thing is, they kept the mascot's head on the whole time.  Like they were arresting Duke Dog.

The arresting officer was probably Greg Deeds. BC Class of 88'.  Sorta looks like him.

A student caught on camera: http://youtube.com/watch?v=LQY3xH6FNNY