NESCAC

[LaPaz]

Sorry forgot Tufts- This coach is impressing everyone with his recruiting and this is the team of the future in this league. They can get players in thru admissions easier than some, its still a well regarded school academically, they have the most kids(4,000 undergrads) right outside Boston. Lots of ++++ for recruits. All they needed was a coach that cared, and Shapiro does. Good young blood. Santos is an absolute STAR and I hear he has a top goalscorer from new england preps coming in. This team needs a couple more building blocks,, but they are close

[NESoccr]

amherst field was beat up.  don't know what it was like before.  someone said it's because they played in the snow during the bad storm.  another person sitting next to same guy said snow storm game plus 3 weekends of sat-sun killed field when they  hosted nescac and ncaas.  don't know about turf alternative.  field didn't seem so bad that couldn't play possession soccer.  good teams can play skilled soccer on dirt, so let's give it a break. 

hey weasel, as you know, soccer can be a cruel game, and i moaned about about results in messiah-newman and cnu-randolph, but not slu-oneota as that looks from boxscore and article like very even game. so, not a nescac thing at all.

amherst loses keeper, center back, and south african center mid, all very good and apparently 3-4 year starters.  tough to lose talent up the middle, but i gather team has guys on the bench and versatile starters who will fill shoes without much problem. 

[Jim Matson]

Wacko or not, I do like the NESCAC board. Yes I do.

[bigguy]

Everyone likes the NESCAC board because they are so much fun to mess with 

[LaPaz]

Very interesting the only NESCAC players to make all-american was 2nd team Vestegaard and Rory O'Neil(who for some reason was added late )..How does the NESCAC POY NOON not get all-american, 15 goals etc etc. This really proves that coaches are shunning amherst program and not giving their players votes.BTW the POY is voted on by players not coaches. While its immature to take this out on the players one can see how much Serpone is disliked by his peers. That much is obvious.

[LaPaz]

2011 NSCAA/Continental Tires NCAA Men's Division III All-America Team
First Team       
Pos. Name Class School Hometown
GK Steve O'Meara Sr. Luther Darien, Ill
D Alex Laird Jr. St. Lawrence Monroe, N.Y.
D Mark Lavery Sr. Oglethrope Woodstock, Ga.
D Sean Moriarty Jr. Christopher Newport Yorktown, Va.
M Cody Costakis Sr. Washington (Mo.) Edgewood, Wash.
M Sam  DeMello* Jr. St. Lawrence Easthampton, Mass.
M Zack  Garcia** Sr. Trinity (Texas) Dallas, Texas
F Eric Anderson* Jr. Babson Scituate, Mass.
F Brian Lybert Sr. Christopher Newport Honolulu, Hawaii
F David  Rosenthal So. St. Olaf Burnsville, Minn.
F Travis Wall* Sr. Ohio Wesleyan Columbus, Ohio
         
Second Team       
GK Nathan Sprenkel Sr. DePauw Zionsville, Ind.
D Curtis Fornarotto Sr. Drew Ewing, N.J.
D Michael Olson Sr. Luther Downers Grove, Ill.
D Phil Vestergaard Sr. Williams St. Petersburg, Fla.
D Niro Wimalase Sr. Case Western Mason, Ohio
M Alex Oesewin Sr. Thomas More Louisville, Ky.
M Cory Dobkins Sr. Ohio Northern Dublin, Ohio
M Rory O'Neill Jr. Wesleyan Silver Spring, Md.
M James Garcia-Prats So. Luther Houston, Texas
M Kristoffer Grahn Sr. North Park Tibro, Sweden
F Vinny  Bell* Sr. Case Western Parma Heights, Ohio
F Matt Fechter Jr. Colorado College Westfield, N.J.
F Jamal  Howard Sr. Albertus Magnus West Haven, Conn.
F Sam Meyer Sr. DePauw Northfield, Ill.
         
Third Team       
GK Peter  Crowly Sr. Babson Lexington, Mass.
D Kevin  Brown Sr. Montclair State Wayne, N.J.
D Miles Colago Sr. Calvin Anoka, Minn.
D Taylor Ferry Sr. Dickinson Wyndmoor, Pa.
D Jake Urbaniak Sr. Texas-Tyler Foresthill, Teas
M Jonathan Balfour Sr. DeSales London, England
M Micah  Rose* Sr. Swarthmore Williston, Vt.
M Dylan Stone Sr. Ohio Wesleyan Easton, Conn.
M Max  Walker Sr. Babson Newton, Mass.
F Eric Fortier Jr. Oneonta Pleasant Valley, N.Y.
F Winston Mattheisen** Sr. Christopher Newport Williamsburg, Va.
F Pat McLean Sr. Washington (Mo.) Kingswood, Texas
F Corey Sindle So. Randolph Gloucester, Va.
F Clint Vatterrodt Sr. Rose Hulman Bloomington, Ill.

[Christan Shirk]

2nd Team All-American defender Phil Vestergaard (Williams) was only 2nd Team All-NESCAC?!?!?!?

So who got this one wrong--the conference or the NSCAA?

I understand that most conferences base their honors on only conference play, but to be one of 30-some All-Americans out of approaching 10,000 D-III soccer players, how could your performance in conference play (typically representing at a minimum 1/3 of your regular season) be such that you do not make 1st-Team all-conference, but your full-season performance gets you All-American recognition?  That just defies reason.  Deep, strong teams often have All-Region caliber players that do not make 1st Team all-conference, especially in the stronger, deeper conferences.  There's reasons for that.  I get it.  But an All-American caliber player not on the all-conference 1st Team?!?  Now something's wrong.

In the specific case of Vestergaard, Williams had a 10-game NESCAC regular season schedule  and their full season was only 16 games.  So for 10 or 16 games he wasn't on of the best 4 defenders in his conference, but in the additional 6 games he did enough to prove himself one of the 7 best defenders in the nation.  Just does NOT make sense.

Any thoughts?  Is he that good (AA caliber)?  If so, why do you think he only got 2nd team All-NESCAC.

[ECSUalum]

I would just like to say that La Paz did a real nice job as a newcomer to the soccer boards this season!!!!

[Christan Shirk]

How does the NESCAC POY NOON not get all-american, 15 goals etc etc. This really proves that coaches are shunning amherst program and not giving their players votes.BTW the POY is voted on by players not coaches. While its immature to take this out on the players one can see how much Serpone is disliked by his peers. That much is obvious.

However, Amherst had two players make All-Region who weren't 1st Team All-NESCAC.  Jae Hoe and Alejandro Sucre made 2nd Team All-New England North despite only being 2nd Team All-NESCAC.  So that runs counter to your suggestion of anti-Serpone (anti-Amherst) voting in general (beyond the NESCAC coaches). 

Also, Spencer Noon did make 1st Team All-New England North.  At that point, I'm not sure how many of Serpone's peers have anything to do with the decisions of which All-Region 1st teamers are selected as All-Americans.  I must admit ignorance on how that works, but I had the impression that was decided by the national NSCAA D-III All-American committee (that is, all the regional chairs). 

[LaPaz]

NSCAA D3 Committee has Jon Anderson on committee..he is one of serpones peers even if in different leagues.  Babson has 3 thats 3 All-Americans. His son is def one but the other two are avg players. Max Walker a decent player not AA and personally the goalie I thought was the weak link. Either way something is up.

[NHsocca1]

just saw the AA's.  Don't think just amherst got shafted but the entire nescac.  how are there 3 babson players as AA, but 2 nescac reps?

Vesteguard from Williams? think he's a good player but surprised he is an AA.  Good to see O'neil get it, thought he had a good year

as far as voting, amherst had 5 guys on all-nescac teams including nescac POY (noon), and 4 guys all-region. if anything I thought they got plenty of votes and might have even be over-represented until the AA's. if there was an anti-amherst vote, it would have showed up in all-nescac, not AA. give the coaches more credit than that.

how about cahill and bishop? first team AA's last year and nothing this year.  seems like the process is messed up.

[D3SoccerEnthusiast]

Hello All -

I have been perusing these boards all year, didn't see fit to attempt to post until now. The NSCAA All-American team, especially with regard to NESCAC players, seems off. 2 NESCAC players, none on the 1st team? Either there is something wrong about the NSCAA All-American process, or this league is under-represented.

Vesteguard is a good NESCAC defender, but he was not even voted the best defender on Williams for the All-Conference team. When you are a 2nd-team All-NESCAC defender, the system has to be flawed if you also make 2nd team All-American. Additionally, the Williams soccer team did not even make the NCAA tournament, this is extremely disappointing as there were other worthy defenders in the region (Trinity's Buckley, Williams' Ratajczak).

Rory O'Neill of Wesleyan was the only choice the coaches got right. He had a great year, Wesleyan had a good year. Scoring midfielder that played on both sides of the ball, especially in the air.

Amherst's Noon and Tsatsimpe seem left out. Amherst finishes as the top-ranked New England team, yet does not manage a single AA? Meanwhile, Babson registers 3 AA even though they finish below Amherst in the regional rankings.

Noon leads one of the toughest conferences in the nation in scoring and does not make any team? I cannot remember a year when the NESCAC POY did not make 1st Team All-American.

Would also like to see more representation from Trinity in the AA team. Buckley and Schoenburg were great for the league's best defense all year, yet they do not get any love? Seems wrong.

Either way, once again the NESCAC showed they are one of the toughest leagues in the nation. While the NSCAA did not seem to highlight this, many soccer fans across New England realize this.

[LaPaz]

Update:
Quietly Bates has "promoted" George Purgavie to a new role of supervising both mens and womens soccer programs. A younger English assistant gets the head coaching job for the men. After a season from hell and a 0-10 Nescac record, I do not think this move suprised anyone. I give Purgavie credit for having some good teams in the middle of this decade but it became clear at the end he had lost some interest and lost his team as well.  I do not understand not having a nationwide search for the job as there are some great D1 assistants and D3 Head coaches / assistants that would have jumped at this opportunity. Instead they just hand the reins over to the assistant. Wish the new coach good luck as I am sure he will find out like Purgavie did a long time ago that Bates might be the toughest school in Nescac to recruit for.

[LaPaz]

Early Pre-Season Poll-Just a Quick one-1-2 Notes...Will do a more precise one after rosters are set Sept 1st

1. Amherst-Still best talent and the weakest out of conference schedule maybe in history. Lose a few key players but replacable
2. Williams-Lose very little. Good freshman class coming in, especially kid from Hotchkiss / Ghana. Still no true goal scorers
3. Tufts-Great freshman class coming in to join Santos. Lose very few players, first game at Midd should give good indication
4. Wesleyan-They lose some decent players and always find a way to replace them.Toughest out of conference schedule.
5. Middlebury- They lose an abundant amount of good players. One + is a favorable conference home schedule
6. Bowdoin- The true unknown. After last years debacle and losing 3-4 good players and still no goalkeeping.
7. Conn College-The coach turning things around. Still no true goal scoring threat and they lose whole defensive line.
8. Colby-Slepper team. Meisel can get them some wins but he needs help. Maybe some frosh or improved play from upperclass
9. Trinity-Besides Midd they lose an abundant of talent and goalscoring and leadership. This team will drop considerably.
10. Hamilton-Wasnt impressed last year.one + is  favorable nescac home schedule with less travel. Def Unknown here
11. Bates-Coahing change will invegorate players I would hope. Murphy a gret talent but he needs help.Brutal schedule to start

[nescac1]

Nice analysis, LaPaz. 

Good article on incoming Amherst frosh Forest Sisk, which talks generally about the adjustment from high school to college soccer:

http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/soccer/articles/2012/08/16/lincoln_sudbury_grad_sisk_determined_to_be_an_impact_player_on_the_pitch_at_amherst/

Amherst is absolutely loaded with goal scorers this year, and could really dominate the conference so long as they find a capable keeper (I imagine they brought in a big time recruit in this department).  I agree re: Williams, Ephs should have a stingy defense led by two very experienced keepers and all-American defender Ratajczak plus emerging defender Burbank-Crump, but they will need their leading scorer to have a LOT more than four goals this season to contend for an NCAA spot.  Hopefully the frosh you mention can help out, Kushaina can continue to improve (in the season preview Russo was saing he expected him to double his goal output, he has the ability if he gets more chances), Ebobisse who can really create offense will finally stay healthy (plagued by injuries throughout his time at Williams), and at least one from the Lima/Grady/Kastner group will emerge as a consistent scoring threat.