NESCAC

[PaulNewman]

A12SNoon, can you share a piece on what playing D3 college soccer meant to you for 4 years and how your life has been impacted?  Would love to see bright, articulate fairly recent alums share that here.  You don't even have to mention Amherst specifically if you want to avoid the Amherst stuff but obviously you could talk about that as much as you wish.  Take your time and do it right.

[Shooter McGavin]

If you actually want the serious statement Mr. Right here it is. My point I was getting at before the pine tree came out of no where was that the NESAC gets too much hype. Just like the Centennial and UAA. They are the SEC of college soccer. It's not that those schools/conferences, and in the case of our argument the NESAC, are overrated but it's more that all the other conferences are underrated. Bottom teams upset or tier top tier teams in conference play all the time. The atmosphere is so much different from non-conference to conference. That's why having a "blemish" in a conference that's considered bad is annoying because a team in a "good" conference loses and its not a blemish because it's a good conference...but a a team loses or ties in a "bad" conference and their season is over unless they win it. I would like to see the comparison of certain conferences and teams vs each other. It varies year to year for sure. But this year I am pretty sure the Freedom side of the MAC has a leg up head to head vs the Commonwealth side of the MAC. Would anybody in their right mind that knows soccer at all say the Freedom is better than the Commonwealth? No. Never. Even though they won the majority of the head to head it doesn't mean that conference is better. The same holds true for a hypothetical that if the Empire 8 teams would win more head to head against NESAC. Does that mean that the Empire 8 is better than the NESAC? Hell no! So that's great that Haverford lost an early season game when they were figuring things out. It's not a 100% sole justification that the NESAC is better than the Centennial because Wesleyan beat Haverford. That's a stupid assumption my friend and for someone as yourself Mr. Right that does obviously know a lot and follow the game closey I would have expected better from you. Donations for my hospital bill will be posted in the "GoFundMe@Shooter" topic I am going to start tomorrow. Thanks.

[12SNoon]

A12SNoon, can you share a piece on what playing D3 college soccer meant to you for 4 years and how your life has been impacted?  Would love to see bright, articulate fairly recent alums share that here.  You don't even have to mention Amherst specifically if you want to avoid the Amherst stuff but obviously you could talk about that as much as you wish.  Take your time and do it right.

Heh, appreciate the shoutout @NCAC New England. I think that's an offseason piece for me when I have more time on my hands. I'm a little busy for your homework assignment right now as building seatgeek.com with 3 other Amherst and Williams soccer alums(!) takes up too much of my time. I will say this though: D3 and NESCAC soccer are incredibly special to me. So much so that I'm taking a train up to Amherst right now for Saturday's game. I've seen every home game this season in person .

...and here are my picks for Saturday.

Colby 0 at Hamilton 1

Middlebury 4 at Bates 1

Bowdoin 1 at Connecticut College 0 | OT

1 Tufts at Williams 1 | 2OT

0 Wesleyan at Amherst 1

[PaulNewman]

That's really cool @12SNoon....It's fascinating (and cool) to see how many alums feel pulled back to their teams/schools and do exactly what you are doing right now.  Enjoy the game.  And a long train ride is a perfect time to compose your thoughts, drift into a visceral nostalgia, and get that piece done .

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

Never used that site but I am looking for tickets for a game. How's it work? Is it a safe and reliable website to get tickets from? Thanks.

[12SNoon]

Never used that site but I am looking for tickets for a game. How's it work? Is it a safe and reliable website to get tickets from? Thanks.

We aggregate tickets from all over the web, similar to Kayak.com in the travel space. Definitely safe, reliable, and growing! http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2015/04/02/seatgeek-scores-62-million-for-its-ticket-selling-app/

That's really cool @12SNoon....It's fascinating (and cool) to see how many alums feel pulled back to their teams/schools and do exactly what you are doing right now.  Enjoy the game.  And a long train ride is a perfect time to compose your thoughts, drift into a visceral nostalgia, and get that piece done .

Thanks! It should be a good one.

CHEERS......Since 2000 Colby Men's Soccer might be one of the worst programs in any sport in Nescac or maybe even the country....

Colby's Nescac Record since 2000.............................27-101-17..........I will not even bother getting that win %......

In 16 years Colby has made the Top 8 (Nescac Play-offs) 2 TIMES.....Enough said

I wouldn't be surprised if one of these years Colby turns it around. They have good players but they're in the best conference. I think it's a bit harsh to say they're one of the worst programs in the country though. I'm just going to leave this here... http://athletics.greenmtn.edu/sports/msoc/2015-16/teams/greenmountain

[madzillagd]

I would like to see the comparison of certain conferences and teams vs each other.

I don't know if this exists on the soccer side or not but this is something people have done regularly on the basketball side and the results are exactly what you'd think they'd be.  The top hoops conferences, NESCAC/WIAC/CCIW, end up at the top every year with all the others falling in line below them pretty much in alignment with what their reputation is.  I'm guessing if we had the soccer stats it would line up the same way most years.  There's a reason why reputations are earned over the course of many years.  There are going to be up years and down years but I don't think it's as offbase as you think it is. 

[Sandy]

It's fascinating (and cool) to see how many alums feel pulled back to their teams/schools.

I'd like to think a fair percentage of us recent grads are drawn back in. Especially if conditions are set up for it to happen easily. Besides the bonds you forge and memories you create there are other factors that I think contribute to people getting "pulled back", as you say, to the teams after graduation.

At SLU we have an extensive network of alumni who follow the team year in and year out. We're told as soon as we commit that there are guys that graduated over a decade ago that are supporting us all over the country. Every year at our alumni weekend we befriend the alumni who we only heard about through stories or emails they'd send in support of our season. As soon as the whistle blows during our last game we are already know them well and are immediately embraced as fellow alumni. We then follow in their footsteps and support the current teams in whatever capacity we are able to much like they did and continue to do.

[Mr.Right]

Never used that site but I am looking for tickets for a game. How's it work? Is it a safe and reliable website to get tickets from? Thanks.

We aggregate tickets from all over the web, similar to Kayak.com in the travel space. Definitely safe, reliable, and growing! http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2015/04/02/seatgeek-scores-62-million-for-its-ticket-selling-app/

That's really cool @12SNoon....It's fascinating (and cool) to see how many alums feel pulled back to their teams/schools and do exactly what you are doing right now.  Enjoy the game.  And a long train ride is a perfect time to compose your thoughts, drift into a visceral nostalgia, and get that piece done .

Thanks! It should be a good one.

CHEERS......Since 2000 Colby Men's Soccer might be one of the worst programs in any sport in Nescac or maybe even the country....

Colby's Nescac Record since 2000.............................27-101-17..........I will not even bother getting that win %......

In 16 years Colby has made the Top 8 (Nescac Play-offs) 2 TIMES.....Enough said

I wouldn't be surprised if one of these years Colby turns it around. They have good players but they're in the best conference. I think it's a bit harsh to say they're one of the worst programs in the country though. I'm just going to leave this here... http://athletics.greenmtn.edu/sports/msoc/2015-16/teams/greenmountain

Yes Green Mountain really makes a great case for a D4 or D5....I was responding to Colby's absolute ineptitude in Nescac...They have a New President, AD and COaches and they are going to be focusing on Athletic facilities and beefing up their programs so you might be right that in 5-10 years Colby could be a force but let's wait and see....I also was responding to the absolute ugliness of how they play currently...It is a bit harsh to say their Men's Soccer program is one of the worst in the country and maybe I went a tad overboard but let's face it 27-101-17 is A VERY BAD NESCAC TEAM in the last 16 years...Other Colby athletic teams have had better success so it goes without saying  that Colby Men's Soccer can and should have done a tad better the past 16 years

[lastguyoffthebench]

Colby 0 at Hamilton 1

Middlebury 3 at Bates 0

Bowdoin 0 at Connecticut College 1

1 Tufts at Williams 2

0 Wesleyan at Amherst 2

[PaulNewman]

It's fascinating (and cool) to see how many alums feel pulled back to their teams/schools.

I'd like to think a fair percentage of us recent grads are drawn back in. Especially if conditions are set up for it to happen easily. Besides the bonds you forge and memories you create there are other factors that I think contribute to people getting "pulled back", as you say, to the teams after graduation.

At SLU we have an extensive network of alumni who follow the team year in and year out. We're told as soon as we commit that there are guys that graduated over a decade ago that are supporting us all over the country. Every year at our alumni weekend we befriend the alumni who we only heard about through stories or emails they'd send in support of our season. As soon as the whistle blows during our last game we are already know them well and are immediately embraced as fellow alumni. We then follow in their footsteps and support the current teams in whatever capacity we are able to much like they did and continue to do.

Great to hear, and didn't mean to just single out Mr. Noon.  Would love to see a thread or regular feature where newer alums (and older) share their experiences and what those experiences still mean to them.  I'm also curious about whether ex-players consider ex-players from other schools, including rival schools, part of a larger fraternity.  Was cool to hear about alums of Amherst and Williams working on something together. 

[lastguyoffthebench]

How come the presses didn't stop when Green Mountain beat SUNY Cobleskill?

[Mr.Right]

How come the presses didn't stop when Green Mountain beat SUNY Cobleskill?

Because SUNY Cobleskill has also not won a game and rumor has it they used a GK with one leg

[Sandy]

I'm also curious about whether ex-players consider ex-players from other schools, including rival schools, part of a larger fraternity.  Was cool to hear about alums of Amherst and Williams working on something together. 

I think there is to an extent. Some people may be a little salty but it's always cool to find out a player that you now play with used to play on a rival team in your league, even if there was some bad blood between the teams. Union in my case especially. On a few of my teams after college I've played with kids from Clarkson, Union, Bowdoin, Ithaca, Macalester, WNEU, ECSU (which my brother plays for now), Hamilton and some others. Haven't played with too many NESCAC players but I went to high school with and/or played with a few on my club teams growing up, including Noon. It's different when you're playing against each other and even when you've graduated as well as when your alma maters clash. I do think the rivalry dies down outside of those times though, at least in my experience.

[1970s NESCAC Player]

Sandy, congratulations on your fine career at SLU.  My son graduated in 2012 from Union and was also a LL all-conference defender (2d team) in 2011.  Union and SLU had some great games from 2008 to 2011, including back-to-back OT games in 2010, in one of which SLU's winning goal at Sandy came late in the 2d OT.