NESCAC

[truenorth]

To buttress the veracity of the Van Siclen story I heard, one of the folks I heard this from was his mom.  I don't think it gets any more real than that.  Again you can't paint all situations with a broad brush without knowing the facts.  Not all NESCAC coaches are equally open to their prized recruits playing two sports that may overlap with each other.  I've had one son who has played at the D1 level and one at the D3 level.  Not all D3 coaches or schools are as enlightened or open minded about their student athletes' interests as perhaps some posters would like to believe...

[luckylefty]

It is very common for Division 3 coaches not to want players to play a second sport.  I know the NESCAC has no formal offseason, but if you think they aren't consistently doing captains practice and have players "heavily encouraged" to attend you are crazy.

I would say its likely half and half in regards to coaches wanting players to play more sports.  Half are willing, the other half are vehemently against it.  With that said, if a kid is immensely talented sometimes a coach is willing to look the other way.

[truenorth]

Well summarized LuckyLefty.

[maineman]

Middlebury currently has a 3 sport athlete, Frank Cosolito, who plays football, hockey and lacrosse and is a major contributor in all three.

[quicksilver]

Middlebury currently has a 3 sport athlete, Frank Cosolito, who plays football, hockey and lacrosse and is a major contributor in all three.

Cosolito is a real throwback -- he was a major contributor in all 3 sports as a freshman . .

[Mr.Right]

To buttress the veracity of the Van Siclen story I heard, one of the folks I heard this from was his mom.  I don't think it gets any more real than that.  Again you can't paint all situations with a broad brush without knowing the facts.  Not all NESCAC coaches are equally open to their prized recruits playing two sports that may overlap with each other.  I've had one son who has played at the D1 level and one at the D3 level.  Not all D3 coaches or schools are as enlightened or open minded about their student athletes' interests as perhaps some posters would like to believe...

I really do not feel like getting into a back and forth over a subject that has nothing to do with the upcoming NCAA Tournament and the 2 Nescac sides still playing.

Van Siclien was not a prized a recruit at the time. He was very very much an unknown quantity because as I have said a Million times his injuries. The talent was there, the club coach recommendations were there, his GK'ing was phenomenal BUT coaches were not ready to take such a risk because if I remember correctly he was injured for most of the year beforehand. That was the ISSUE. I cannot imagine it had anything to do with playing 2 sports because as Blooter mentioned Williams had 3 two sport athletes on that specific roster.......Muellers(Track), Pearce(Baseball) and Kastner(Baseball).   But if thats what the mother stated then we can go with that for now. I will cede but I still say a 2 Sport athlete is not a problem at any Nescac school.

[quicksilver]

It's possible that both Truenorth's and Mr. Right's versions of the Van Siclen story are true.

Here is link to a 2014 article from the Bowdoin student newspaper that quotes Van Siclen discussing how schools stopped recruiting him when he tore his ACL as a high school junior. He mentions Amherst as being one of the schools that stopped recruiting him, making the 2014 NESCAC championship win in PKs especially sweet  . . He recovered relatively quickly from that ACL injury (which was in the late spring of 2013 as best as I can determine) and played a full season of hockey the following season (2013-14).

The Williams' story also makes sense to me as the two-sport thing did not work out for Van Siclen at Bowdoin. He played hockey as a freshman but joined the team very late due to the soccer team going to the NCAAs and did not see much action. In his sophomore year, he once again joined the hockey team very late and was rather quickly badly injured in a way that ended his hockey season. Then he was injured in the fall of his junior year while playing soccer (ankle or foot but it ended his soccer season midway through the season). He did not join the hockey team during his junior season, likely due to the soccer injury and maybe the hockey injury incurred during the 2015-16 season. I was actually pleasantly surprised that he was back on the pitch this fall due to his history of injuries.

[blooter442]

Regardless of what the recruiting situation was -- and I think Mr.Right and truenorth both make valid points, because I can imagine coaches are willing to make accommodations but that it has to be the right situation and that van Siclen wasn't a top recruit because of his injuries -- I think it's a pretty unique story. Particularly, the fact that he rather fortuitously ended up starting his freshman year due to the starting GK's injury rather than being the anointed starter (and then leading the team to an unforeseen NESCAC title) and that he came in and did as well as he did is really cool. Not to say that it was good that the starter was hurt, but that it provided a unique opportunity, and it's obvious that SvS came in and showed everyone what a good goalkeeper he was -- even with Johnson and Mieth conceding just one goal between them this seaosn, van Siclen was the best GK in the conference this year in my opinion.

[Mr.Right]

Bloots the diplomat...

[blooter442]

Bloots the diplomat...

I'll be your spokesman for when you run for USSF president.

[Hopkins92]

I tried playing 2 sports at Hopkins. The baseball coach was not all that enthused and I'm pretty sure it hurt my chances to see the field. (There was a guy on my Legion team that I started over who was a one-sport guy and he definitely was higher on the coaches roster slot than I.)

As I think is generally being said, just in different ways, it really depends on the coach and the situation.

(Fun history note: Hopkins used to have either the head or assistant LAX coach double up and coach soccer in the fall. NONE of them (to my knowledge) had any soccer background. I know mine didn't. One of the stories of lore is that one of our guys lost his head and two-footed a guy... Red card. Coach Haus, turns to the guys on the bench, and through gritted teeth... "What. Is. A. Red. Card.??!!"

IOW, there was no pressure coming from that sport. :-))

Yes...This was very common up until the mid 90's...Coaches usually had 2 assignments with your weaker assignment being a sport you were not all familiar with. Sometimes though you had Bowdoin's Head Basketball Coach was the Men's Soccer Coach as well up until the lat 90's. This is a whole other topic though..


So Hopkins,

What can you give us on your namesake? You got a good scout on Hopkins for us?

Honestly, I missed the alumni game this year, and have only caught snippets of games streaming. My beef with this coach and his style is that he does this thing with a 352 and when we work out of the back he pushes the center-back really high and then has his outside backs play possession 30 yards from each other. If the other team doesn't chase, it bogs down. And if the other team presses with two, bad things can happen. That said, they arguably should've beaten Messiah in Grantham. Flip side is that they had a weird stretch in October where they couldn't score and had some bad results. Looks like they've course corrected, as they are putting the ball away.

This is a very skilled squad. They are not going to try and bang bodies. As I said, they play a pretty patient possession style that relies heavily on beating the opposition with quick passing and combination play. The defense is very solid with a senior goalie that messing with the record book (shakes fist) with # of shutouts and number of shutout minutes. Also, I have suspicion that the coach altered that possession out of the back. Don't be surprised if it's a more traditional set up coming out of the back.

Their danger guy is #7 Achim Younker (so) who moves around from fwd/mid. 17 goals on the season... Fast, good first touch, savvy. The set-up guy is RJ Moore (fr) who is fun to watch. He can beat guys off the dribble, and his passing is higher level.

Last thing to mention. They have a senior GK and a couple of other upper-classmen in the back. Elsewhere, they have at least 7 freshmen and sophomores that either start or have played a ton of minutes off the bench. Not sure how those guys are going to react playing the defending natl champs. They got out of Glasboro, so youth didn't seem like an issue last weekend. We shall see.

[luckylefty]

They are so good in possession. It will be interesting to see how they react to being aggressively pressured from Tufts. They are so tough to get the ball from and their possession allows them to keep the game under their thumb, they just always feel in control. With that said if Tufts press can cause problems they could very easily make a mistake in their end and have it cost them the game.

[Mr.Right]

Hopkins, +k

That is really well done. Thanks for taking the time as it is much appreciated. You have me even more curious now as I cannot wait to see this Tufts v Hopkins matchup on Saturday. Personally, I do not like a 3-5-2 going against Tufts BUT if they play as quickly as you say and play to feet they will be able to break Tufts down enough to get some dangerous looks on net. St.Joe's did not really test Tufts GK Mieth except the 1 rip in OT but we have yet to see a game where the opponent gets multiple good looks on net and really tests Mieth. The key though is the faster Hopkins play to feet and move the ball on the counter IMMEDIATELY as soon as Tufts gives the ball away the better chances they will get before Tufts get set defensively. Maybe some solid 1v1 play on the flanks and good service into the box. I guess I am just curious how Hopkins will come out in the first 20 minutes of the game. That should give us a great indicator of the flow. I have no idea how big Hopkins is or if Hopkins is very fit and press like mad but that is how I would start the game. Middlebury in  the Nescac Final came out of the gates and absolutely pressed the crap out of Tufts for the first 15-20 minutes and looked very good doing it. They just could not get themselves a ton of chances. I am guessing Hopkins will have much more skill than Midd so quick counters on giveaway's will be key. One thing about Tufts is they WILL give the ball away a ton during the game its just other Nescac's were to conservative, slow, uninterested in attacking to get anything out of the giveaway's.

[Mr.Right]

[quote author=luckylefty link=topic=7480.msg1835096#msg1835096 date=1510879969
They are so good in possession. It will be interesting to see how they react to being aggressively pressured from Tufts. They are so tough to get the ball from and their possession allows them to keep the game under their thumb, they just always feel in control. With that said if Tufts press can cause problems they could very easily make a mistake in their end and have it cost them the game.
[/quote]



I have said this before but I saw Hopkins play Dickinson in the Centennial Semi's and Dickinson pressed them and were forcing giveaway's in the back which led to 1 Dickinson goal. That is why i said Hopkins MUST adapt and not play short square balls in the back just to play short square balls and switch the field. They are going to have change and hoof a few more long balls then they are probably used to BUT it will be necessary to negate Tufts press and force Tufts to change and keep them honest.

[luckylefty]

[quote author=luckylefty link=topic=7480.msg1835096#msg1835096 date=1510879969
They are so good in possession. It will be interesting to see how they react to being aggressively pressured from Tufts. They are so tough to get the ball from and their possession allows them to keep the game under their thumb, they just always feel in control. With that said if Tufts press can cause problems they could very easily make a mistake in their end and have it cost them the game.

I have said this before but I saw Hopkins play Dickinson in the Centennial Semi's and Dickinson pressed them and were forcing giveaway's in the back which led to 1 Dickinson goal. That is why i said Hopkins MUST adapt and not play short square balls in the back just to play short square balls and switch the field. They are going to have change and hoof a few more long balls then they are probably used to BUT it will be necessary to negate Tufts press and force Tufts to change and keep them honest.
[/quote]

I don't think they will do that. It's not who they are. Obviously getting pressed in your own end is a huge threat, but they've played this way all year. They would be fools to try to change that now. The benefit to playing this way is that they control the tempo of the game all the time.

I respect the hell out of Hopkins for playing this way. And their 3-5-2 is tactically very sharp. Tufts will have to commit a lot of numbers forward to press them off it, and if Hopkins can find a few combinations they will break Tufts open.