CCIW

[markerickson]

In specific, how much time can elapse between your first competitive season and the completion of your fourth year of competition in the same sport?

At the DI level, a case can be made for six years, but no more.  Someone has a RS year and then subsequently takes a year off because she got pregnant.  I wouldn't think DIII rules would give someone more than six years but am not sure.

[Gregory Sager]

There is no eligibility clock in D3. You are allowed ten semesters / fifteen quarters of full-time enrollment in which to use your four seasons of eligibility, and those semesters or quarters do not have to be consecutive. For instance, you can be a full-time student for four years and play your sport in three of those years, take three years off of school, and then come back as a 24-year-old and play as a senior.

That's why Austin College was able to use a 61-year-old kicker in a football game last season.

[Gotberg]

I have been told that a Swedish friend of Grahn who is more talented than Grahn will play for the Vikings next fall.

Also, look for one or two former Viking defensive specialists to return to the squad while pursuing graduate degrees.  Not sure what the NCAA rule is on this.

Mark - have you been told his position?

[Gregory Sager]

The CCIW coaches have picked Elmhurst to repeat this fall.

[markerickson]

I wonder who gave North Park its first place vote.

Is Elmhurst for real?  In other words, how many top starters return this year to defend their first-ever crown?

[Gregory Sager]

I wonder who gave North Park its first place vote.

Is Elmhurst for real?  In other words, how many top starters return this year to defend their first-ever crown?

Elmhurst returns ten starters this year.

[Gotberg]

It looks like the NPU roster is in the process of being updated:

http://northpark.edu/Athletics/Mens-Sports/Soccer/Roster

Greg - are you broadcasting home games this year?  I think you previously mentioned that possibility.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU is going to have live webcasts this year for soccer as well as basketball. But I don't know who will be broadcasting for the booters; I haven't been asked to do so. I presume that John Born is looking for someone who can say "Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!" in one breath like the guy from Telemundo.

NPU has 37 players listed on the roster this season. For the first time, the Vikings will field a junior varsity team reserve side. Nine of the 37 are Swedes, which is great -- there always seems to be a direct correlation between the number of Swedes on the NPU roster and the success of the team. I hope that it transfers over to the North Park golf team, of which eight of this year's sixteen players will be Swedes. They're talking about having their own intrasquad Ryder Cup. And word has it that NPU's Swedish golfers all dress as crazily as Jesper Parnevik.

I doubt that North Park has had this many Swedes on campus since Woodrow Wilson was in the White House. Why settle for Swedish-Americans to play the sports in which the sons of Svea excel when you can get the real thing, eh, Gotberg? Now if we could only add hockey, biathlon, and bandy as varsity sports ...

[markerickson]

Greg scoooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrressss.  The Swedes fared very well in the golf tournament, which NP won and broke a school record.  I'd like to know if Coach Brenegan is actually recruiting overseas or are these guys coming over based on word of mouth? 

[Gregory Sager]

I'll have to ask him the next time that I see him. I'm pretty sure that North Park isn't paying Paul Brenegan to go over to Sweden to recruit golfers. John Born has been to Sweden for recruiting purposes, but I'm not sure that he does it every year. Gotberg will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the preponderance of Swedes that the NPU soccer program has had over the years has more to do with Born's having built up recruiting contacts over there and his using those contacts to help draw good players. NPU has good word-of-mouth over in Sweden, because the city of Chicago is such a great draw for international students who want to study business (NPU's international business major has been the preferred choice of study over the years among Vikings soccer players who hail from the homeland). The fact that Tre Kronor is across the street from the campus probably doesn't hurt, either, as Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson has attested.

I'm very impressed with the NPU soccer team's new crop of Swedes. Sehten Hills, who is actually a Liberian by way of Sweden, has been starting at striker, but the two newcomers that have really wowed me are midfielder Filip Lindmark and defender Hannes Granlund, the latter of whom was the CCIW's Defensive Player of the Week last week. Lindmark's from Skovde and Granlund's from Trollhattan, which I mention because Mark Erickson and Gotberg may actually know where those two towns are located in Sweden.

[Jim Matson]

We've got a NPU grad coming up to cover the Wheaton/North Park.  We'll be putting is work on the front page that evening - even if North Park wins

[thePietist]

Anyone see the NP game tonight?  Seems like a solid matchup and a good win for the Vikings.

[thePietist]

From the box score I see that Grahn put the game away on a free kick in the 85th minute.  Looks like Sehten Hills continues his target practice (5 shots on goal!).  Must have been an exciting match. 
But what's up with that red card in the 89th minute??

[Gotberg]

Anyone see the NP game tonight?  Seems like a solid matchup and a good win for the Vikings.

I watched a bit of the video stream.  It seemed like NP dominated play for the first 66 minutes, then it was pretty much even for the final 24.  I believe Hills hit the crossbar twice, but kind of hard to tell by the stream.

The new players this year from Sweden are really fantastic and assuming they stay for the remainder of their eligibility, NP looks to be in fanastic shape for the next several years.

I was away from the computer when the red card occured, so can't speak to what happened.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU did indeed dominate the match for the first two-thirds of it, as Gotberg said. A lot of that has to do with Aurora's style, which is defense-oriented and predicated upon counterattacking, but most of it was simply North Park's superior ball-handling and passing ability, which was really spotlighted in this game. Special notice should be given to freshman defender Hannes Granlund's uncanny ability to make accurate airborne cross-field passes that started several NPU rushes. The reason why play evened out in the last third had a lot to do with NPU getting frustrated -- the Vikings had chance after chance after chance, and just couldn't finish -- and pressing too hard, and Aurora patiently waiting until those good counterattacking opportunities arose.

The winning goal, which came with five minutes left on a Kris Grahn free kick from 23 yards out, was a thing of beauty. Aurora's wall didn't completely block out the net, so he rocketed the ball just past the left arm of the Spartan on the far right side of the wall, and buried it in the extreme right side of the net.

The red card was just an inexcusably dumb play on NPU sophomore midfielder Chad Latka's part. With the clock ticking down under ten seconds left in the match and NPU having buried the Spartans deep in the far corner of the AU end of the field, Latka had a throw-in that he flung straight into the chest of the Spartan who was defending the throw-in, bouncing it off of him like a basketball player attempting to save a ball going out of bounds by throwing it at an opponent's legs. It was not only unsportsmanlike, it was completely unnecessary. With five seconds left in the match, how in the world is Aurora going to intercept the throw-in, get it from the corner at their end all the way down to the other end of the field, and score a goal, anyway?

His name isn't in the box score, but junior midfielder Ryan McNaughton made his first appearance of the year for the Vikings, coming off the bench to spell freshman Oskar Joelsson for a second-half stint. That was great to see; McNaughton, who has been fighting a quad injury, is a big piece to the puzzle for NPU.

Aurora's a good team. This was a strong win for the Vikings, who now get a respite until their big Homecoming match a week from tomorrow night against preseason CCIW favorite Elmhurst.

Pietist, you're much too young a North Park alumnus to be calling it "NP" like the oldsters who refuse to acknowledge the "U" part of the school's name.