2015 D3 Season: NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

[lastguyoffthebench]

Strength of conference, recruiting resources, improvement on W-L record...

Lycoming was somewhat already there.  Kean has been the biggest shocker to me.

When they played Kenyon last year or two years ago, did you watch, NCAC?

[Christan Shirk]

Interesting new poll, although I can't imagine how anyone could really figure out who to vote for.

I haven't been updating the poll as quickly as it should be updated (too much to do, too little time, and sometimes no inspiration for a new poll topic).  Thinking out-loud, that would be a nice assignment to be able to pass off to someone wanting to help us out with the site with a very low time/effort commitment.  Wold only require coming up with a new poll once a week (could be more often) and e-mailing it to me.  Anybody?

Anyway, not sure really what I expected with this poll in terms of reaction and response.  I see the polls serving one or more of the following purposes:
(1) fun/entertainment/friendly debate for the fans,
(2) to get fan opinion/feedback (a survey), and
(3) to inform/educate fans.

So, with this poll, by throwing out so many names, maybe some options will elicit the response "Why are they on this list?" and maybe fans might look up that team's page and their record and results and previous seasons and in doing so learn something new.  I was tempted to include a handful more names (Moe Taylor, PSU-Altoona; Gene Ventriglia, New Paltz St.; Corey Miller, Concordia (Tx.); Connor Erickson, Wentworth) which certainly would have been the types of names/schools that probably would have had many needing to look them up to see why they were included.  I also considered shortening the list and providing a short reason for each coach's inclusion. 

Many of these coaches probably have no chance to be regional or national coach of the year, but I find those awards don't bring to light all the exceptional coaching jobs done each year.  And that's why I really would have liked to expand the list even further, but it was already probably too big.

Given Kean only had three winning seasons in the last eleven under Tony Ochrimenko* and never had more than ten wins in those eleven season, the job by Rob Irvine is definitely worthy of recognition having a winning debut season in 2014 with 12 wins and now this season already collecting 13 wins including big wins over recent NJAC top dogs Rutgers-Camden and Montclair St. They are on pace for their best season since 2001 or 2002, depending how they do down the stretch into November.

* he was very succesful form the late 80's to very early 2000's including the 1992 national title

[PaulNewman]

Christan, I think maybe we're getting a little out of sync on wavelengths.  No criticism intended.  It is an excellent poll, thought-provoking, and interesting for the all the reasons you suggest.  I was simply saying that because of the number of great choices I personally wouldn't know how to vote fairly.  I assume many vote along partisan lines on many of the polls, but I personally try not to do that.  That said, the poll will cause me to think about some of the choices more, and I know I'll pay more attention to some of teams of those coaches that I'm less familiar with.  Anyway, as an example, I thought about Thomas More because I've been on to TMC since I saw them live twice last year, but the coach is new and inherited a really good team, so even though he's obviously doing a great job I'm not sure he's the best choice among all of them, and of course for me the lesson in some of these polls is that there may not be one right choice.

[PaulNewman]

Strength of conference, recruiting resources, improvement on W-L record...

Lycoming was somewhat already there.  Kean has been the biggest shocker to me.

When they played Kenyon last year or two years ago, did you watch, NCAC?

OMG, yes!  Like it was yesterday.  The first in a series of trips to the Jay Martin complex over the course of 2 years, and in all seriousness, one of the great venues in D3 if you ever get a chance to see a game there. 

Kean has to be a completely different team now, and of course their own coaching legend retired since then.  Kean was athletic and physical and probably a little chippy....fit my image of a mid- to mid-lower table NJAC squad.  Kenyon was very pumped up about starting the season (1st game of the year) and blending in a lot of the exciting new faces, like Amolo, Glassman, Lee, etc.  Expectations were sky-high.   Another frosh actually started instead of Amolo, and that was the last time that freshman started.  A junior GK started, started the next game against Calvin, and Clougher came in at the half vs Calvin and started thereafter. 

Kean scored first probably against the run of play, and then Kenyon tied the game late and had the momentum.  In OT the Kean GK boomed a goal kick that bounced between one of our CBs and the junior GK and a Kean player got in between them and knocked an easy ball into the net.  Really bad miscue to lose a game.  The GK got one more half and the CB who came on as a sub, Ernst (now in med school), didn't get off the bench for a long stretch of games, started a few games mid-season due to an injury, and then sat again for a bunch of games until getting into the Wheaton round of 32 game and then starting against Messiah.  Ernst went on to have a stellar senior season in tandem with Justice.  I'm getting far afield from Kean, but the next day was critical as Kenyon played Calvin and was down 2-0 at the half.  Vegter hit one of his lasers to score at least one of those.  So basically in the second game of the season, after what felt like a brutal, fluky loss to Kean, Kenyon was at high risk of starting 0-2 and probably would not have made the NCAA tournament.  Fortunately, Calvin likely was fatigued from playing OWU the night before in a really good game (although in fairness Kenyon had played into OT), and Kenyon came out smoking in the 2nd half to put 4 goals in on Calvin and won 4-2.  Meanwhile, Kean played OWU in the nightcap and got blitzed 6-0.  People tend to forget that OWU was ranked #1 most of that season and were a really great team that year.

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

Strength of conference, recruiting resources, improvement on W-L record...

Lycoming was somewhat already there.  Kean has been the biggest shocker to me.

When they played Kenyon last year or two years ago, did you watch, NCAC?

Not sure what you mean by "was somewhat already there."? Can you elaborate LG?

[Christan Shirk]

Christan, I think maybe we're getting a little out of sync on wavelengths.  No criticism intended.

And I never took it as criticism.  Apologies if my reply left that impression.  Your comment just gave me chance to chime in a little on the poll (and our polls in general).

[PaulNewman]

Justin Serpone, Amherst
Mike Coven, Brandeis
Ryan Sounders, Calvin
Brandon Bianco, Case Western [strong candidate if don't falter in UAA cauldron]
Rob Russo, Denison  [strong candidate if Denison gets NCAA bid]
Brad Hauter, DePauw
Mark Wagner, Eastern
Greg DeVito, Eastern Connecticut [felt ECSU expected to do pretty well in context of schedule and tradition]
Skip Roderick, Elizabethtown [great job and sentimental favorite?]
Dan Wagner, F&M
Shane Rineer, Haverford [strong candidate if strong season carries through for at least couple of NCAA games]
Rob Irvine, Kean
Chris Brown, Kenyon
Nate Gibboney, Lycoming [not a real surprise but dealing with Messiah factor huge]
Jake Beverlin, Mass-Boston
Ken Bovell, MIT [need to see a little more and another big win]
Todd Tumelty, Montclair St.
Chris Waterbury, Plattsburgh St.
Jeremiah Kneeland, Skidmore [see MIT]
Jason Hirsh, Texas-Dallas [weren't they right around in same spot last year?]
Eric Busener, Thomas More
Wytse Molenaar, UW-Oshkosh [give the nod over UWW's Guinn as UWW expected to be good I think and threat of program elimination]
Tony Guinn, UWW

So, I felt compelled to take a shot at this.  I struck through coaches with teams expected to be top teams (Amherst, F&M, Brandeis, Kenyon, Calvin, Montclair, etc) and/or returning very good teams (TMC, etc) or who previously underperformed but now doing well (i.e. DePauw).  Probably not fair as keeping a good thing going not easy, but got to cut down the list somehow.  Some of the bolded ones are still on fence with their fates to be decided in next 2-3 weeks, so sort of in limbo on whether they've caught some luck, had favorable schedules thus far, etc.  All that said, these my personal finalists at this point in time are as follows:

Molenaar for UW-O
Waterbury for Plattsburgh
Beverlin for UMass-Bos
Irvine for Kean
Wagner for Eastern
Gibboney for Lycoming
Rineer for Haverford
Roderick for Etown
Bianco for Case and/or Russo for Denison (contingent)

I personally can't get further than those 8-10, but I'd lean towards Molenaar, Waterbury, Irvine, and maybe Roderick, with Wagner for Eastern as the darkhorse.

[PaulNewman]

RPI starts 8-0, with some high profile wins, and now 0-3-3 in last 6. 

[TennesseeJed]

@ Christian Shirk, shout out and thanks for the great recent Regional Rankings piece on D3Soccer.com:  http://www.d3soccer.com/columns/christan-shirk/2015/ncaa-regional-rankings-coming-next-week.  Great info and links to NCAA info.

[lastguyoffthebench]

Strength of conference, recruiting resources, improvement on W-L record...

Lycoming was somewhat already there.  Kean has been the biggest shocker to me.

When they played Kenyon last year or two years ago, did you watch, NCAC?

Not sure what you mean by "was somewhat already there."? Can you elaborate LG?

Just meant because they made the tourney in 13 and had a great season last year.  As a whole the Lycoming coach has done a great job, but My vote for coach is only the criteria I listed for this year alone.  Kean was my choice with Thomas More second.   Thomas More was solid last year, but they've had impressive wins this season...

[lastguyoffthebench]

http://scarletraptors.com/mobile/index.aspx?path=msoc


Says live video for MSU vs Rutgers

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

Strength of conference, recruiting resources, improvement on W-L record...

Lycoming was somewhat already there.  Kean has been the biggest shocker to me.

When they played Kenyon last year or two years ago, did you watch, NCAC?

Not sure what you mean by "was somewhat already there."? Can you elaborate LG?

Just meant because they made the tourney in 13 and had a great season last year.  As a whole the Lycoming coach has done a great job, but My vote for coach is only the criteria I listed for this year alone.  Kean was my choice with Thomas More second.   Thomas More was solid last year, but they've had impressive wins this season...

Okay I just didn't want to misinterpret that's all. Kean for sure but TMC wins their conference every year so I wouldn't have their coach at 2. Just my opinion.

[lastguyoffthebench]

MSU misses PK in 85th and scores a min later.   RUC converts PK in 89th min...  1-1

[Mr.Right]

Just another crazy NJAC masterpiece...3 goals last few minutes , missed PK's, Am I reading correctly that MSU had 2 Red's on the bench? Also, add another red card.  Any fights?

[PaulNewman]

Before I forget, want to note some of the big results today so far that may fly under the radar...

Endicott beats WNEC in OT to keep very impressive record intact.

Macalester nips rival Carleton.

Haverford continues streak beating Muhlenberg. 

My new fave, UW-Osh gets cursed, losing to Platteville!

WPI and Babson keep trending down, both held to draws in conference.

Vassar loses RIT (I think it was RIT).

Gordon over Nichols. 

W&L keeps winning in ODAC.

Rowan bounces back.

Ohio Northern quietly on long unbeaten streak.

KZoo has gradually recovered from very poor start and might almost be on the bubble and have a chance to climb on with a game with Calvin coming up.

Colby-Sawyer mimics Thomas (ME), walloping Green Mtn 14-0.

Loras vs Luther should be a good one tonight.

Forgot Eastern held to draw by DeSales.