2017 Season - National Perspective

[Bobcat1]

Conor Coleman of Tufts should be Defensive POY

[NESCAC43]

Conor Coleman of Tufts should be Defensive POY

He is my #3 for DPOY. #2 is Kyle Thomas from Lycoming.

[PaulNewman]

Conor Coleman of Tufts should be Defensive POY

Coleman definitely deserves AA status, and given Tufts' overall defensive record I'm sure Coleman will garner some votes for DPOY.  That said, he is not the overall dynamic phenomenon that Vegter is.  Vegter is in a different category.

[NESCAC43]

Conor Coleman of Tufts should be Defensive POY

Coleman definitely deserves AA status, and given Tufts' overall defensive record I'm sure Coleman will garner some votes for DPOY.  That said, he is not the overall dynamic phenomenon that Vegter is.  Vegter is in a different category.

Completely agree with Paul. Coleman had a breakout year and as much as I would love for a NESCAC player to win the award, Vegter might be the best D3 defender I've seen. Him and Lanahan are the best two in my memory. As Paul said, Coleman will get some form of AA recognition, as he should, but I just don't see him winning DPOY.

[Bobcat1]

Conor Coleman of Tufts should be Defensive POY

Coleman definitely deserves AA status, and given Tufts' overall defensive record I'm sure Coleman will garner some votes for DPOY.  That said, he is not the overall dynamic phenomenon that Vegter is.  Vegter is in a different category.

Completely agree with Paul. Coleman had a breakout year and as much as I would love for a NESCAC player to win the award, Vegter might be the best D3 defender I've seen. Him and Lanahan are the best two in my memory. As Paul said, Coleman will get some form of AA recognition, as he should, but I just don't see him winning DPOY.

Admittedly, I don't know Vegter. Looking at results, he led a defense which allowed 10 goals in 23 games. Coleman anchored a defense that allowed 2 goals in 21 games while playing a much tougher schedule than Vegter. It all depends on your perspective. In looking at Vegter's offensive stats it certainly would appear he is a dynamic player out of the back (4g, 10a). That being said, I think Coleman will get some significant consideration.

[PaulNewman]

Conor Coleman of Tufts should be Defensive POY

Coleman definitely deserves AA status, and given Tufts' overall defensive record I'm sure Coleman will garner some votes for DPOY.  That said, he is not the overall dynamic phenomenon that Vegter is.  Vegter is in a different category.

Completely agree with Paul. Coleman had a breakout year and as much as I would love for a NESCAC player to win the award, Vegter might be the best D3 defender I've seen. Him and Lanahan are the best two in my memory. As Paul said, Coleman will get some form of AA recognition, as he should, but I just don't see him winning DPOY.

Admittedly, I don't know Vegter. Looking at results, he led a defense which allowed 10 goals in 23 games. Coleman anchored a defense that allowed 2 goals in 21 games while playing a much tougher schedule than Vegter. It all depends on your perspective. In looking at Vegter's offensive stats it certainly would appear he is a dynamic player out of the back (4g, 10a). That being said, I think Coleman will get some significant consideration.

You could be right in terms of the award.  Athlete to athlete there is no comparison and that's not a knock on Coleman who was the definition of superb, steady competence.  Vegter is a freak athlete and one of the top talents (at any position) in D3 over the past handful of years....and, amazingly, he's got another year left.  Seems like he and Ocel have been playing forever.

How about this for Tufts and NESCAC fans.....most underrated or under the radar best player....speaking of the sparkling Tufts defense, how about Sterling Weatherbie? 

Btw, does anybody know who scored the so-called Giant Slayer goal?  I hear about it from time to time on the site and was just wondering.

[1970s NESCAC Player]

Btw, does anybody know who scored the so-called Giant Slayer goal?  I hear about it from time to time on the site and was just wondering.

Tufts v. Messiah 2014?  Jason Kayne.

[4samuy]

Conor Coleman of Tufts should be Defensive POY

Coleman definitely deserves AA status, and given Tufts' overall defensive record I'm sure Coleman will garner some votes for DPOY.  That said, he is not the overall dynamic phenomenon that Vegter is.  Vegter is in a different category.

Completely agree with Paul. Coleman had a breakout year and as much as I would love for a NESCAC player to win the award, Vegter might be the best D3 defender I've seen. Him and Lanahan are the best two in my memory. As Paul said, Coleman will get some form of AA recognition, as he should, but I just don't see him winning DPOY.

Admittedly, I don't know Vegter. Looking at results, he led a defense which allowed 10 goals in 23 games. Coleman anchored a defense that allowed 2 goals in 21 games while playing a much tougher schedule than Vegter. It all depends on your perspective. In looking at Vegter's offensive stats it certainly would appear he is a dynamic player out of the back (4g, 10a). That being said, I think Coleman will get some significant consideration.

I was at the Chicago-Calvin game this past weekend and had mentioned that Chicago, after scoring early, was consistently making Calvin build from the back. This was the first time I had seen Vegter in person and have to say he was an absolute stud.  I guess you can question how many goals one team gives up vs another, but I can see how this kid had 10 A and 4G.  As Calvin would spread the pitch Vegter would be putting left footed lasers 50 yds down field and no more than 10 ft off the ground right onto the boots of his wings.  It really was an amazing display. 

[NEFutbol90]

Speaking of AA Teams I know it is a long ways away in terms of announcements, but I was wondering what comes into play other than the normal statistics? Not to beat a broken drum, but a player like Brett Mattos (St.Joes, Maine) comes in at 20 goals on 68 shots and Remillard (WNE) with 23 at 85 shots or Alonso Fragoso (Marian) with 23 goals on 80 shots, but 2-3 less games than most at the top. My point about shots to goals was a bit more compelling a few weeks ago as Mattos compiled 19 shots in his last 4 games(Post-Season), but prior to that he was at 18 goals on just 49 shots.


How much does SOS, conference, statistics comparisons like shots/goals, etc. play a part in these and does small school have as big as an effect as it does on gaining other national or even regional attention. A situation similar to this could be Denali Sexton (Colby Sawyer:2015) who had 18 goals/13 assists in 2015 which ranked well into the upper echelon of D3 soccer stats that year, albeit with little team success that year. Was left off any AA teams but made NSCAA 3rd team. Something I imagine is in Mattos and one or two other Monks near futures.

I love the integrity and significance of the All-American Teams, but I can't help but think how many special players, seasons, accomplishments go unnoticed.

[blooter442]

Speaking of AA Teams I know it is a long ways away in terms of announcements, but I was wondering what comes into play other than the normal statistics? Not to beat a broken drum, but a player like Brett Mattos (St.Joes, Maine) comes in at 20 goals on 68 shots and Remillard (WNE) with 23 at 85 shots or Alonso Fragoso (Marian) with 23 goals on 80 shots, but 2-3 less games than most at the top. My point about shots to goals was a bit more compelling a few weeks ago as Mattos compiled 19 shots in his last 4 games(Post-Season), but prior to that he was at 18 goals on just 49 shots.


How much does SOS, conference, statistics comparisons like shots/goals, etc. play a part in these and does small school have as big as an effect as it does on gaining other national or even regional attention. A situation similar to this could be Denali Sexton (Colby Sawyer:2015) who had 18 goals/13 assists in 2015 which ranked well into the upper echelon of D3 soccer stats that year, albeit with little team success that year. Was left off any AA teams but made NSCAA 3rd team. Something I imagine is in Mattos and one or two other Monks near futures.

I love the integrity and significance of the All-American Teams, but I can't help but think how many special players, seasons, accomplishments go unnoticed.

I can definitely understand how it would be frustrating to put up incredible stats on a team that doesn't play the most difficult schedule. That said, it can work the other way where a guy plays in a tough league, puts up pretty good stats, but misses out to someone who has inflated numbers. (Not saying one omission is less worse than the other, but just outlining the point.)

Thinking of 2012, when Kamali Webson of Roger Williams was named a 2nd team All-American (NSCAA) for a team that conceded 1.01 goals per game. I watched him quite a bit that year, and I even played against him in a few small-sided games. Very good imposing player.

Was he a good center back? Absolutely. Was he an All-American caliber center back. Don't think so. Sure, he had 6 goals and 1 assist from center back, which is impressive, but I can think of a few other center backs who played much more difficult schedules (and conceded less goals) that I would have had as an AA selection before him.

Again, this isn't to say it's "just" for a guy racking up double-figures in goals on a .500 SoS team to be left off, just that it can very much go both ways. I myself would have Remillard on an AA team, and, as it pertains to the Monks, I'd have Mullen in goal on an AA team. The guy gave up one goal on 53 shots, and made 10 saves against Tufts. Very impressive.

[Gregory Sager]

Mr. Sager,

Congrats on the incredible season for North Park and the first trip to the Final Four for the Vikings.  Wish my team was there instead or that my team would have at least gotten a crack at the Vikings.

Thanks, PN. And I'm happy to answer some of your questions.

Was this kind of season anticipated?

I'd say yes and no. No, in the sense that the CCIW coaches picked NPU to finish third in the league in the coaches poll. That was possibly in part because the leading scorer for the Vikings, Gianfranco DeCarne, had opted to leave school in order to try to land a spot overseas in the Italian leagues, but mostly because Carthage appeared to be on the cusp of national relevance and the league's mentors were still favoring fading Wheaton on sheer momentum and force of habit. But it's also true that the Vikings hadn't won the CCIW regular-season title in a decade (although they've finished in the top three almost every season since), or the CCIW tourney title since 2010, and North Park hadn't been to the national tournament since 2014. There may have been a sense that NPU was yesterday's papers as far as the CCIW was concerned.

But the Vikings did return three players who made All-CCIW in 2016 (not including CB Gustav Leander, who broke his leg in August and didn't see action for NPU this season until the CCIW tournament final against Carthage two weeks ago). Also, CB Ricky Pimentel, who had made the All-CCIW first team as a freshman in 2015 but then had gone on to play for D1 Illinois-Chicago last season (he actually started in three matches for the Flames), had decided to transfer back to NPU, so there was plenty of hope coming into this season that the Vikings could exceed those expectations. That was also true in part because Carthage's star CB had signed with Queens Park Rangers (he currently plays on their under-23 team), and Wheaton was in obvious decline. Regardless, in the preseason when I talked to head coach John Born, he seemed unusually optimistic about his own team. He told me that this was going to be the deepest side he'd ever fielded -- but what he didn't tell me was that he'd brought in several new Scandinavians with very high skill levels who had the potential to take NPU over the top and into the terra incognita that awaited beyond the first weekend of the D3 tourney.

What are the ingredients that made this season so special, while acknowledging that North Park has enjoyed a long history of success in men's soccer?

Depth and balance. The depth isn't as noticeable this deep into the tourney, since everybody shortens their rotation, but it has played a key role in NPU's 20-match non-losing streak and 10-match winning streak. The Vikings began the season with three starters and a key reserve out with injuries, and they never missed a beat. The balance is top-notch as well, not just in terms of the team not having any apparent weaknesses, but also in the blend of players that John Born has shaped into a team. NPU has always had a mixture of American and Swedish players (now American, Swedish, and Norwegian players) during John Born's tenure, with some of the American players in turn coming from Chicagoland's Polish and Hispanic immigrant communities, and there's been varying results with that over the years in terms of team chemistry. To generalize, the Swedes usually provided the skill and the Americans provided the heart. Now, he's got Scandinavian players who are as passionate about North Park soccer as are their American teammates, and Americans who have highly accomplished abilities and soccer technique. And the team is seamless and tightly-knit; there are no cliques, either ethnic or otherwise. They definitely have an all-for-one, one-for-all spirit.

Also, could you tell us more about North Park, the institution, as especially us Easterners are likely far less familiar with the school than the other participants?  How did the connection with Sweden get started and what has been key to the continued connection over many years?  What are the school's calling cards academically and socially?

North Park University is the only four-year school of the Evangelical Covenant Church, a small evangelical denomination of about 235,000 worshipers that is now very multi-ethnic but which originally sprang out of the late nineteenth-century revival movement in Sweden and among Swedish immigrants to the United States. The denominational seminary, North Park Theological Seminary, is located on the NPU campus. North Park has about 2,000 undergraduates, with a resident-to-commuter ratio of about 40:60, and 1,000 graduate students. It's primarily a small liberal-arts college in the classic D3 tradition, but the graduate schools give NPU a legitimate university status as well.

To quote from the NPU website, "The University's academic programs and learning environment are informed by three institutional values. Our community is: Christian – We nurture faith, balancing commitment and freedom; City-centered – We engage Chicago as a dynamic place of learning and service; Intercultural – We embrace and value all people, celebrate the global cultural tapestry, and support the reconciling mandate of the Christian gospel."

When the school moved from Minneapolis to its present location on the banks of the North Branch of the Chicago River in 1894, the surrounding area was strictly rural, characterized by dirt roads and small vegetable farms owned by Swedish immigrants. It soon was swallowed up by the nearby city of Chicago as it expanded north, and it now sits at the border of two distinct neighborhoods; North Park, a mostly-white bedroom community for Chicago's professional class, and Albany Park, a first-landing neighborhood for immigrants that is a bewildering mosaic of humanity. Within a ten-minute walk of the NPU campus you will encounter Nigerian, Assyrian, Romanian, and Puerto Rican churches; a mosque; a synagogue; two Arab sweets shops; innumerable Korean mom-and-pop stores (NPU is within Chicago's Koreatown); Mexican taquerias, Salvadoran pupuserias, and Guatemalan eateries; community centers for Chicago's Cambodian and Ecuadorian immigrant populations; and Ethiopian, Thai, Chinese, Swedish, Persian, Brazilian restaurants, among others. The U.S. Census Bureau has identified North Park's zip code as the most diverse zip code between the two coasts.

It's the kind of neighborhood that really brings to the fore NPU's oft-stated claim that the biggest and best classroom that the school has to offer is the city in which it's located. And with Chicago's world-famous el only a five-minute walk from campus (the Brown Line, to be specific), the city is right at the feet of North Park students. It's a pretty exciting environment to attend college.

How did the connection with Sweden get started and what has been key to the continued connection over many years?

Because of the school's heritage and religious affiliation, for generations it largely had a student body made up of Swedish-Americans. Everywhere you looked there were blonde kids named Johnson, Anderson, Carlson, Peterson, Erickson, etc., with the occasional Bergstrom or Lundquist or Holmgren thrown in for variety. That's largely changed in recent years, but the school has always sought to maintain strong ties to the motherland. There aren't more than a half-dozen colleges and universities in the U.S. that still offer Swedish as a major (even other Swedish-American colleges such as Augustana and Gustavus Adolphus only offer the more generic Scandinavian Studies major), but North Park is one of them. There has been an exchange program with NPU's sister school in the southern Swedish city of Jönköping since the 1970s, and NPU's Center for Scandinavian Studies has worked with the admissions department to recruit students from Sweden and Norway for almost as long. The irony is that I doubt most of North Park's Scandinavian students come over because of the whole heritage thing; it's the city of Chicago itself, the school's international business program, and the endless possibilities for internships that really draw them.

Since even before men's soccer transitioned from a club sport to a varsity program in 1981 there were Swedes on the soccer team. Some of North Park's best players in the era before John Born were Swedes, such as four-time All-CCIW first-teamer Magnus Ramstrom in the early 1990s. But there weren't any intentional efforts undertaken to recruit Swedish players before Born was hired in 1999. He realized immediately that North Park was in an ideal situation to import players from that soccer-crazed country, and set about making recruiting contacts over there. The upgrade in the team's skill level once the program began bringing in specifically-recruited Swedes was immediately apparent, and in the mid-2000s Born was able to parlay that upgrade in tandem with a great crop of American players to break Wheaton's perennial stranglehold on CCIW soccer and forge a legitimate rivalry with Wheaton that remains white-hot to this day. And, of course, as the Swedes attain both academic and athletic success at NPU and return home singing the praises of the school and the program -- and of Chicago, a city that's still overlooked by Europeans, who tend to think of American cities in terms of NYC and LA alone -- it's only helped make recruiting in Sweden even easier. A key to this is that one of NPU's Swedish stars, former All-American Kris Grahn, has settled in Chicago, married an American, and has become John Born's associate head coach and right-hand man. He's not there strictly to recruit and coach the Scandinavians, but his presence certainly helps in that respect.

A big shift in the past two or three years is that there is now a very strong Norwegian element in the program as well. The CCIW's Player of the Year (Matias Warp), the CCIW's Newcomer of the Year (Peder Olsen), and the second-team All-CCIW goalkeeper (Mattias Stulen) are all North Park players from Norway. NPU has eight Swedes and five Norwegians on this season's roster. While I knew all about Swedish soccer, I had no idea until a couple of years ago just how strong Norwegian soccer is as well. Like their Swedish cousins, Norwegian children start kicking soccer balls as soon as they learn how to walk. They've fit perfectly into the mix in the NPU program, too.

What are the school's calling cards academically and socially?

The old joke is that North Park produces "teachers, preachers, and nurses". There aren't a lot of captains of industry or highly-influential politicians and professionals who've emerged from the alumni ranks, which has definitely kept NPU's endowment a modest one. But the world needs educators and health professionals, too, and NPU's education and nursing departments are considered to be top-notch within the Chicagoland area. It also has a really solid music school, and the business programs on both the undergrad and graduate levels are improving as well, as the school learns how to take better advantage of the amazing resource of being located in a world-class economic powerhouse of a city. NPU has chosen in particular to focus upon educating non-profit business leadership as its calling card in its business school.

Socially, it's an interesting place. Lots of Covenant kids from all across the country, lots of Chicagoland suburban kids, a very large international-student community, and a lot of young people from the city itself and the inner-ring working-class suburbs who are the first people in their families to attend college. It's a very diverse campus; less than half of the student population consists of white middle-class Americans. North Park is an avowedly Christian school, but it's not heavy-handed about it; there are no religious requirements for admission, chapels are not mandatory, Christian-based course requirements are comparatively modest, and nobody blinks an eye over things like evolution being taught in biology classes. The Christian aspect of the school is strongly reflected in the push to get students to perform community service of some sort as a part of their educational process, and to recognize the dignity and worth of people from other backgrounds as a Gospel-based value. NPU is a dry campus, and it has no fraternities or sororities.

As regards the soccer team, is the average team age older than most D3 teams?  Do some of the players from Sweden come over in their mid-20s or generally at 18/19?

The average age is probably older than most D3 teams, but not by a tremendous amount. The Scandinavian players tend to be a year or three out of high school, although some of them do come over at 18. The edge in experience and physical maturity does help, although it varies from year to year with each particular crop of Swedes and Norwegians.

Lastly, given the discussion about the uniqueness of two teams within the same city limits, do North Park and U Chicago have any kind of significant sports rivalry that precedes the high stakes battles this season in men's soccer?

No, they really don't. North Park's rival is Wheaton, although it's a one-sided rivalry in every sport but men's soccer; North Parkers despise Wheaton, and Wheaties are barely aware that NPU even exists, unless they're soccer fans, in which case they're very aware that North Park exists. Chicago's stated rival is its closest UAA neighbor, Washington (MO) down in St. Louis, but, honestly, I question just how much juice there is in that rivalry. The undergraduate population of the U of C appears to be blissfully ignorant, for the most part, of the fact that the school even has sports. The stereotype that U of C students essentially live in Regenstein Library has more than a grain of truth to it. There's a popular t-shirt on campus that bears the slogan, "University of Chicago: Where Fun Goes To Die". That's the U of C in a nutshell.

North Park and Chicago play each other in lots of sports, and have for years. But there's no real rivalry there, any more than North Park has a rivalry with other closely-located non-CCIW schools such as Dominican, Concordia (IL), Lake Forest, or Illinois Tech.

[Ommadawn]

Great stuff, Gregory Sager! +k for sure (adding to your massive total).  Thank you for the extensive overview of North Park.

[Buck O.]

I'm more interested in the fact that this Final Four includes two schools that are located in the same town. I strongly doubt that any NCAA championship in any sport has ever had that happen in a Final Four. I certainly can't think of one.

BC and BU were in the D-1 Frozen Four (along with Wisconsin and Colgate).  Also, Yale and Quinnipiac, who met in the 2013 final, are only eight miles apart, which is closer than NP is to UC.

That's a good try, Buck O., but both attempts hit the post. Boston College isn't in Boston; it's in Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Boston, while Boston University is in the city itself.

I'd like to check with the VAR, because I think my first attempt hit the post ... and went in!  Chestnut Hill is not a suburb of Boston.  Part of it is in Newton, part is in Brookline, and part is in Boston.

My recollection, from when I used to drive around that area more often than I do now, is that the Boston-Newton town line more or less bisects BC's main campus, so that the eastern half is in Boston and the western half is in Newton.  And Google Maps seems to back that up.  (Type "Boston" or "Newton" into Google Maps and see where the boundary line falls.)

[Buck O.]

I'm more interested in the fact that this Final Four includes two schools that are located in the same town. I strongly doubt that any NCAA championship in any sport has ever had that happen in a Final Four. I certainly can't think of one.

BC and BU were in the D-1 Frozen Four (along with Wisconsin and Colgate).  Also, Yale and Quinnipiac, who met in the 2013 final, are only eight miles apart, which is closer than NP is to UC.

That's a good try, Buck O., but both attempts hit the post. Boston College isn't in Boston; it's in Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Boston, while Boston University is in the city itself.

I'd like to check with the VAR, because I think my first attempt hit the post ... and went in!  Chestnut Hill is not a suburb of Boston.  Part of it is in Newton, part is in Brookline, and part is in Boston.

My recollection, from when I used to drive around that area more often than I do now, is that the Boston-Newton town line more or less bisects BC's main campus, so that the eastern half is in Boston and the western half is in Newton.  And Google Maps seems to back that up.  (Type "Boston" or "Newton" into Google Maps and see where the boundary line falls.)

One more:  UCLA and USC seem to play in the water polo championship games most years (four out of the last six).

[PaulNewman]

Mr. Sager...wow!  You did your school proud.  An impressive and persuasive description/endorsement of NPU.

One further question, if you know.  All of the immigrant communities you cited as living in North Park and creating that impressively diverse zip code make sense intuitively, to me at least, except for Sweden.  What were Swedes in the 1890s fleeing?  I think of Sweden as a wealthy and very attractive country to live in, and in some ways perhaps preferable to our grand USA.  Maybe that was not the case in the 1890s as I know virtually nothing about the history of Sweden, or perhaps the affiliation with that specific religious faith was the key.

Did you know former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was a Kenyon grad, overlapping with yours truly (re:  the real Paul Newman)?  He wrote a senior thesis about the United Auto Workers union.  He was assassinated in Sweden in 1986...."His murder by an unapprehended assailant on a street in Stockholm on 28 February 1986 was the first of its kind in modern Swedish history, and the first assassination of a national leader since Gustav III. It had a great impact across Scandinavia.[1] Local convict and addict Christer Pettersson was convicted of the murder in the first instance court tingsrätten, but was acquitted on appeal to the Svea hovrätt." (Wikipedia)

RE:  U Chicago and is reputation for brutal misery.....all the more impressive that such talented soccer players can manage the rigors of the school with the commitment necessary to compete at a high level.  I think of Swarthmore and Hopkins as perhaps similar for really smart kids with perhaps a bit of a masochistic streak.