2014 D3 Season: National Perspective

[Brother Flounder]

Shapiro wins COY

http://gotuftsjumbos.com/sports/msoc/2014-15/releases/coach_of_the_year

No surprise there...Certainly well deserved. Congrats.

[Nutmeg]

It will also be interesting to see how he fares next year with some players lost to graduation. I think he will do well

[Midwest Soccer]

After much speculation about who would get National POY, it goes to Jeremy Payne for the 2nd time in his Messiah Career. Probably the most deserving (in my opinion), I didn't think his award in 2012 was as warranted as only a sophomore but he definitely earned it this year.

Travis Vegter was my pick since the middle of the year. Congrats Jeremy Payne. I wonder how many people have won this award twice in their careers?!

*Jack Thompson didn't make 1st team All-Region, but I think many of us would agree he was the catalyst for the team. I'm nominating Thompson for d3boards.com men's soccer national player of the year!

[Brother Flounder]

After much speculation about who would get National POY, it goes to Jeremy Payne for the 2nd time in his Messiah Career. Probably the most deserving (in my opinion), I didn't think his award in 2012 was as warranted as only a sophomore but he definitely earned it this year.

Travis Vegter was my pick since the middle of the year. Congrats Jeremy Payne. I wonder how many people have won this award twice in their careers?!

*Jack Thompson didn't make 1st team All-Region, but I think many of us would agree he was the catalyst for the team. I'm nominating Thompson for d3boards.com men's soccer national player of the year!

Brian Ramirez wasn't too shabby either as far as a catalyst goes.....

[Flying Weasel]

Jeremy Payne wins his second NSCAA POY, but I think his best season was the one in between when he didn't win the award.  Funny that.  And as happy I am for him as a Messiah fan, I am equally disappointed (and dumbfounded) that Jack Thompson was never once named All-American by the NSCAA.

[Mr.Right]

After much speculation about who would get National POY, it goes to Jeremy Payne for the 2nd time in his Messiah Career. Probably the most deserving (in my opinion), I didn't think his award in 2012 was as warranted as only a sophomore but he definitely earned it this year.

Travis Vegter was my pick since the middle of the year. Congrats Jeremy Payne. I wonder how many people have won this award twice in their careers?!

*Jack Thompson didn't make 1st team All-Region, but I think many of us would agree he was the catalyst for the team. I'm nominating Thompson for d3boards.com men's soccer national player of the year!

Brian Ramirez wasn't too shabby either as far as a catalyst goes.....

Ramirez is a great player but a step slow

[PaulNewman]

Here's a link to NSCAA Scholar All-Americans.  I would really like to know how these kind of teams get picked.  There are players in the 3.4s and 3.3s on these teams, some with what appear to be less than strenuous majors.  Brandeis (and I am a big Brandeis fan) get two on the first team and OWU gets two (one on 1st and one on 3rd).  Kenyon gets one on the 2nd team, and none of several others well over 3.7+ get on.  My NESCAC friends will see that there is only one NESCAC selection, Bratt from Wesleyan on the first team, which seems unfathomable.   There must be some coaches with a ton of pull.   There are a couple of schools that never fail to get more than their fair share on all of these various accolade teams.

http://www.nscaa.com/awards/2014-mens-scholar-all-america-teams--college-

[Ryan Harmanis]

Here's a link to NSCAA Scholar All-Americans.  I would really like to know how these kind of teams get picked.  There are players in the 3.4s and 3.3s on these teams, some with what appear to be less than strenuous majors.  Brandeis (and I am a big Brandeis fan) get two on the first team and OWU gets two (one on 1st and one on 3rd).  Kenyon gets one on the 2nd team, and none of several others well over 3.7+ get on.  My NESCAC friends will see that there is only one NESCAC selection, Bratt from Wesleyan on the first team, which seems unfathomable.   There must be some coaches with a ton of pull.   There are a couple of schools that never fail to get more than their fair share on all of these various accolade teams.

http://www.nscaa.com/awards/2014-mens-scholar-all-america-teams--college-

This is pure speculation, but I think, seeing as how it's voted on, individual name recognition and school recognition have to go a long way toward determining who makes these teams. So it's all fine and dandy for Player X to have a 3.9 in a math major at a tough school (I'd love to meet that person, by the way), but if none of the coaches who played against him even remember who he is it's hard to see how he's going to get enough votes to keep advancing all the way to All-American status.

Just looking at the first team, you have five actual All-Americans - Vegter, Bloecher, Williams, Lanahan, Savonen - and the highest GPA between them is 3.71. And all five come from teams that made it past the first round of the NCAA tournament. That's not to take anything away from them, at all, but it does provide evidence that GPA is not the sole factor. Which means that ability and/or reputation plays a major role. Add in that all colleges and all majors are not created equal (or so I told my sports management buddies while slaving through upper-level math courses), and GPA isn't a great universal stat for comparison either.

It's an imperfect system, but kind of goes the same way as the actual All-American teams. Scoring 25 goals in a weak conference against a bum schedule is the equivalent of somebody having a really, really good GPA that is either barely known as a player or is up against somebody from a team with better name recognition.

The last part, and the best way for someone who isn't maybe as well-recognized, is that these are teams where you have to get your name on the regional teams, etc. earlier in your career. I think that's probably just another way to build name recognition but you don't see a single sophomore on any of the three teams and a vast majority are seniors. If you consistently show up from sophomore or junior year onward on some of these teams then people recognize your name when you pop up and it's easier to get votes.

[lastguyoffthebench]

After much speculation about who would get National POY, it goes to Jeremy Payne for the 2nd time in his Messiah Career. Probably the most deserving (in my opinion), I didn't think his award in 2012 was as warranted as only a sophomore but he definitely earned it this year.

Travis Vegter was my pick since the middle of the year. Congrats Jeremy Payne. I wonder how many people have won this award twice in their careers?!

*Jack Thompson didn't make 1st team All-Region, but I think many of us would agree he was the catalyst for the team. I'm nominating Thompson for d3boards.com men's soccer national player of the year!

Nobody has won it twice:
1996-Brad Murray, Williams
1997-Jason Cairns, TCNJ
1998-Robert Mouw, Wheaton (IL)
1999-Dan Annan, St. Lawrence
2000-Scott Deopere, Wis.-Oshkosh
2001-Alex Blake, Williams
2002-Hayden Woodworth, Messiah
2003-Josh Smith, Trinity (TX)
2004-Patrick McGinnis, Colorado Col.
2005-David McClellan, Messiah
2006-Dana Leary, Williams
2007-Kai Kasiguran, Messiah
2008-J.D. Binger, Messiah
2009-Jon Ports, York (PA)
2010-Geoff Pezon, Messiah
2011-Travis Wall, Ohio Wesleyan
2012-Jeremy Payne, Messiah
2013-Joshua Wood, Messiah
2014-Jeremy Payne, Messiah



Since the beginning of the Award in 1996, six of the ten POY from conferences (two were from independent schools) were not conference POY.   (Posted by Flying Weasel in 2009 in another forum)...

2013 NSCAA National Player of the Year: Joshua Wood, Messiah
2013 Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year: Jeremy Payne, Messiah (Offensive POY), Carter Robbins, Messiah (Defensive POY)

2010 NSCAA National Player of the Year: Geoff Pezon, Messiah
2010 Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year: Nick Thompson, Messiah

2006 NSCAA National Player of the Year: Dana Leary, Williams
2006 NESCAC Conference Player of the Year: Patrick Huffer, Williams

2005 NSCAA National Player of the Year: David McClellan, Messiah
2005 Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year: Kai Kasiguran, Messiah

2002 NSCAA National Player of the Year: Hayden Woodworth, Messiah
2002 Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year: Matt Bills, Messiah

1998 NSCAA National Player of the Year: Rob Mouw, Wheaton (Ill.)
1998 CCIW Conference Player of the Year: Eric Brown, Wheaton (Ill.)

[Mr.Right]

I know all the Williams guys but want to give a shout out to Jason Cairns from TCNJ rrr Trenton St. He was a physical presence up top with a nose for the goal. He had tremendous speed and skill.

[lastguyoffthebench]

For 2015 early POY candidates, Mr. Right style:

Marshall Hollingsworth, Wheaton (Ill.)     5/1
Nico Pascual-Leone, Amherst                15/1
Steven Golz, Wheaton (Ill.)                  15/1
Lucas Terci, Montclair St                       25/1
Greg Conrad, Middlebury                      25/1
Mike Ryan, Rutgers-Camden                 25/1
Tony Amolo, Kenyon                            25/1
Johnny Rummelhart, Loras                   30/1  (is he returning in 2015, Kickin?)
Peter Lee-Kramer, Tufts                       30/1  (if he returns)
Tom Carwile, Trinity                            40/1
Danny Brandt, Messiah                        40/1
Field                                                   2/1

[Falconer]

Just a brief comment in response to Ryan, who notes (rightly) that if you aren't really noticed on the field your GPA isn't going to do it for you, when it comes to being named to "all-academic" teams. No one from Messiah was named to any of the academic AA teams, and I'm not suggesting that this was an oversight. If any Falcon had been named, however, perhaps it would have been Nathan Eagan: http://gomessiah.com/news/2013/12/5/MSOC_1205134706.aspx?path=msoc

That was 2013, and this is 2014, but I doubt the academic side of the picture has changed very much, if at all. Nathan (http://gomessiah.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=3830&path=msoc) played outside defender in all of Messiah's games, but started just 5 of them when other players were hurt.

Wheaton's Jordan Golz won the award this year--fully deserved, no doubt. http://www.ncaa.com/elite-89

[Mr.Right]

I have heard from very reliable sources that Danny Brandt wants out of Messiah. He wants D1 soccer and plans to transfer. Please if my information is wrong correct me

[Mr.Right]

Ill take Mike Ryan and Greg Conrad at 25/1...500 on the field

[PaulNewman]

RH and Falconer, the problem is that the analysis offered only gets at some of the results for academic all-americans.  Where are the Golz brothers on the NSCAA list?  They are well know and with very high GPAs.  If you took all fairly well known players from known programs with high GPAs who made at least regional NSCAA and/or all conference teams you still would find a bunch of names that didn't make the list and that would raise doubts about some of the choices.  It's a very flawed method, but as long as people go to the trouble to have these accolades they should try to have some method that is a little better IMHO.  The other thing that doesn't fit is that in fact there are quite a few selections from lesser known and weaker programs.  And RH, Justice is the 3.9 math major you are looking for.