SimpleCoach D3 Soccer YouTube Channel

[Kuiper]

My first conversation on the West Coast!  Enjoyed this one and even got to speak Californian for a little.

A SimpleCoach to Coach Interview with Duncan Gillis, Head Men's Coach at CalTech

Nice to hear an interview from a coach in the SCIAC!  Unfortunately, Coach Gillis is too new, too polite, and Cal Tech is too sui generis for him to throw shade at other schools the way Dr. Jay Martin ignores Kenyon to @PaulNewman's utter annoyance.    Gillis could have at least agreed with you that CMS is currently a hot mess, right?

Seriously, though, it would be great for SCIAC and DIII soccer in Socal if Cal Tech found its footing and became more of a competitor.  From 2012-2016, Cal Tech didn't win a single game.  To beat LaVerne 2-1 on the last game of the 2022 season to end at 3-8-2 is a major accomplishment.  Three wins is the second most they have had in any season since 2006, which is as far back as I could find on their website, and this is the first year they have ever had more than 1 conference win going back to 2006.

[PaulNewman]

My first conversation on the West Coast!  Enjoyed this one and even got to speak Californian for a little.

A SimpleCoach to Coach Interview with Duncan Gillis, Head Men's Coach at CalTech

Nice to hear an interview from a coach in the SCIAC!  Unfortunately, Coach Gillis is too new, too polite, and Cal Tech is too sui generis for him to throw shade at other schools the way Dr. Jay Martin ignores Kenyon to @PaulNewman's utter annoyance.    Gillis could have at least agreed with you that CMS is currently a hot mess, right?

Seriously, though, it would be great for SCIAC and DIII soccer in Socal if Cal Tech found its footing and became more of a competitor.  From 2012-2016, Cal Tech didn't win a single game.  To beat LaVerne 2-1 on the last game of the 2022 season to end at 3-8-2 is a major accomplishment.  Three wins is the second most they have had in any season since 2006, which is as far back as I could find on their website, and this is the first year they have ever had more than 1 conference win going back to 2006.

I'm always stunned when reminded that Cal Tech has a program at all, which seems as improbable or more so than Reed having a program or almost as improbable as Deep Springs (OK, that's a stretch and yes I know Deep Springs is a 2 year deal involving a unique combo of Plato, Aristotle, livestock, and agriculture).

I'm gonna let the Dr. Jay Martin reference go as I lose every time and/or pick up more negative karma from the nostalgia elites.  I'll just note that I'm very comfortable with Kenyon's soccer history in the Great Lakes region and nationally, especially over the past decade dovetailing with the period of my greatest interest, and with the Owls #1 spot among US colleges and universities in terms of Fulbright awards, Ph.D.s, world class human beings, and #1 oldest US and college bookstores....No need for any fact-checks...just take my word for it.

I think we're long past overdue to learn a little more about our Kuiper friend who has masterfully and elegantly poked fun at a number of us or our schools and as far as I can tell has yet to feel the sting of wounded backlash.  For all of his excellent participation, all we know (unless I missed it somewhere) is that he resides in California (the warmer part) and is well versed about the college landscape in general and especially the upper tiers of undergraduate education.  He's shown some interest in GK topics but also has had keen insights across a range of topics.  He never dropped out of my top 5 of posters in 2022 and no one would have blinked had he won Newcomer of the Year (and perhaps he did from some publications).  At any rate, was he a GK?  Does he have a kid who is a GK?  A kid on the East Coast?  In the NESCAC or UAA?  Part of the burgeoning W&L industrial complex?  A branch of the Brandon Bianco social media blitz?  Or maybe in the Pac NW at Willamette or Whitman? No pressure at all, but would be interesting to hear whatever you're willing or able to share.

[Hopkins92]

Seconded, PN.

I do find it really weird that CalTech isn't just bad at sports, but, like... Spectacularly bad. Their basketball team rather famously didn't win a conference game for something like 25 years(!).

MIT manages to do just fine on a number of fronts. Curious.

(To be fair, it appears they are quite competitive in XCountry and Tennis. Maybe swim and dive, too. But, even with that, MIT almost doubles CalTech up on the number of varsity sports they compete in.)

[Gregory Sager]

The admissions process is dramatically different at Caltech than at MIT ... or at any other school in D3, for that matter, as far as I'm aware.

That's the reason why Caltech has been so spectacularly bad (as Hopkins92 aptly put it) at almost every sport for generations, aside from isolated instances in which they've hired a really gifted coach. The standout example is Oliver Eslinger in men's basketball, a coach so good that he can truly maximize whatever limited amount of hoops talent has somehow managed to slip in through the admissions process. He has actually brought the Beavers up to the level of mediocrity in a few seasons here and there, which is the Caltech equivalent of a Final Four appearance. Same with Caltech women's volleyball coach Tom Gardner, on a somewhat less dramatic scale than Eslinger.

[Kuiper]

My first conversation on the West Coast!  Enjoyed this one and even got to speak Californian for a little.

A SimpleCoach to Coach Interview with Duncan Gillis, Head Men's Coach at CalTech

Nice to hear an interview from a coach in the SCIAC!  Unfortunately, Coach Gillis is too new, too polite, and Cal Tech is too sui generis for him to throw shade at other schools the way Dr. Jay Martin ignores Kenyon to @PaulNewman's utter annoyance.    Gillis could have at least agreed with you that CMS is currently a hot mess, right?

Seriously, though, it would be great for SCIAC and DIII soccer in Socal if Cal Tech found its footing and became more of a competitor.  From 2012-2016, Cal Tech didn't win a single game.  To beat LaVerne 2-1 on the last game of the 2022 season to end at 3-8-2 is a major accomplishment.  Three wins is the second most they have had in any season since 2006, which is as far back as I could find on their website, and this is the first year they have ever had more than 1 conference win going back to 2006.

I'm always stunned when reminded that Cal Tech has a program at all, which seems as improbable or more so than Reed having a program or almost as improbable as Deep Springs (OK, that's a stretch and yes I know Deep Springs is a 2 year deal involving a unique combo of Plato, Aristotle, livestock, and agriculture).

I'm gonna let the Dr. Jay Martin reference go as I lose every time and/or pick up more negative karma from the nostalgia elites.  I'll just note that I'm very comfortable with Kenyon's soccer history in the Great Lakes region and nationally, especially over the past decade dovetailing with the period of my greatest interest, and with the Owls #1 spot among US colleges and universities in terms of Fulbright awards, Ph.D.s, world class human beings, and #1 oldest US and college bookstores....No need for any fact-checks...just take my word for it.

I think we're long past overdue to learn a little more about our Kuiper friend who has masterfully and elegantly poked fun at a number of us or our schools and as far as I can tell has yet to feel the sting of wounded backlash.  For all of his excellent participation, all we know (unless I missed it somewhere) is that he resides in California (the warmer part) and is well versed about the college landscape in general and especially the upper tiers of undergraduate education.  He's shown some interest in GK topics but also has had keen insights across a range of topics.  He never dropped out of my top 5 of posters in 2022 and no one would have blinked had he won Newcomer of the Year (and perhaps he did from some publications).  At any rate, was he a GK?  Does he have a kid who is a GK?  A kid on the East Coast?  In the NESCAC or UAA?  Part of the burgeoning W&L industrial complex?  A branch of the Brandon Bianco social media blitz?  Or maybe in the Pac NW at Willamette or Whitman? No pressure at all, but would be interesting to hear whatever you're willing or able to share.

Sorry to take the jab at you on the Jay Martin/Kenyon thing.  I couldn't resist (perhaps I should have!), but the contrast between the earnest, fresh-faced Gillis complimenting CMS and its program when Simple Coach tee'd him up by raising it, with the OWU/Kenyon thing was stark.  To be fair, Cal Tech doesn't have a rivalry with anyone as far as I can tell, although they beat LaVerne twice this season (my guess is they have never beaten a league opponent twice in one season in their history), so I expect the Leopards will have Cal Tech circled on their calendar for next season.

For reasons that are personal to me, I would like to maintain my anonymity, but I'm surprised you don't remember that my older brother played soccer at Kenyon.  I watched several of their games (both home and away) when I was a kid, including one game at Ohio Wesleyan.

Back to the Cal Tech point, I think it's useful to note that Coach Gillis references his AD several times.  Of course, that's his boss so he's not exactly neutral, but I don't think it would be surprising to find out that schools that chronically under-perform more or less across the board have ADs (and Boards of Trustees) that simply don't care much about success or failure on the field and the funding and support reflects that.  Cal Tech has attempted to change that to some extent.  For example, going to the Pacific Northwest to play Linfield College and Lewis & Clark is definitely not going to put Cal Tech in contention for an NCAA bid, but it might give them a chance to compete against teams closer to their level (especially Lewis & Clark, which will be in its second season) and it's not a cheap trip since you have to fly there.

Notwithstanding its increased support, I think Gillis is being too modest about his own role.  He has been actively recruiting at many of events in Southern California.  It's a really tough job because most of your time is wasted given the admissions standards, but he's right that his freshman class demonstrates that it only takes a couple of pretty good kids a year to make a difference.  If they do nothing else but keep kids in CA who might otherwise get into MIT, Hopkins, Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, etc and get a kid every so often who could qualify at Cal Tech, but prefers Harvey Mudd because of the superiority of the soccer team at CMS, he will have done a ton.

[PaulNewman]

Lol, Kuiper.  If you're anonymous, how am I supposed to know who your older brother is...unless you are a Myers or a Barrera?  I assume you're a bit older than peers of my kid.  And now you're gonna drive me crazy trying to figure it out!

[Kuiper]

Lol, Kuiper.  If you're anonymous, how am I supposed to know who your older brother is...unless you are a Myers or a Barrera?  I assume you're a bit older than peers of my kid.  And now you're gonna drive me crazy trying to figure it out!

I meant that you and I discussed it on the board.  I mentioned an anecdote from my childhood where my brother ended up in the hospital with mono and a spleen that almost ruptured after playing in a game for Kenyon.  When my mom asked why he didn't just sit out because he was feeling so sick and he responded that "I had to play!  It was the Ohio Wesleyan game!"

[PaulNewman]

Kuiper, I completely forgot that story.  Fascinating, because not something I usually would forget and also because if had been an active memory I'm sure would have influenced how I read some of your other posts.  We always have filters when we see and read things even when we don't always know what they are.

If I try hard enough I can twist the Martin disrespect into a very, very deep neon sign of respect.... because... it's only when having something so substantially standing in the middle of your road in your head that you are forced to so self-consciously hard-veer around it.

We've seen this dynamic among NESCAC foes...when we can't get a Tufts guy to tip his cap to a Conn championship and get Tufts, Amherst, and Williams alums to participate in a group hug.

[PaulNewman]

The admissions process is dramatically different at Caltech than at MIT ... or at any other school in D3, for that matter, as far as I'm aware.

That's the reason why Caltech has been so spectacularly bad (as Hopkins92 aptly put it) at almost every sport for generations, aside from isolated instances in which they've hired a really gifted coach. The standout example is Oliver Eslinger in men's basketball, a coach so good that he can truly maximize whatever limited amount of hoops talent has somehow managed to slip in through the admissions process. He has actually brought the Beavers up to the level of mediocrity in a few seasons here and there, which is the Caltech equivalent of a Final Four appearance. Same with Caltech women's volleyball coach Tom Gardner, on a somewhat less dramatic scale than Eslinger.

While awaiting Gregory on the other thread....

MIT also is about five times larger (undergrad to undergrad) and aside from being a D3 athletically I think tends to view its institutional peers as more like Harvard and Stanford.

Cal Tech is actually smaller than tiny Haverford.

[SimpleCoach]

Another coach and program that truly impressed me.  Another one in Texas.

SimpeCoach to Coach Interview with Nick Mims, Head Men's Coach at Concordia University

[Kuiper]

Another coach and program that truly impressed me.  Another one in Texas.

SimpeCoach to Coach Interview with Nick Mims, Head Men's Coach at Concordia University

Thanks for making an effort to introduce your viewers/listeners to some coaches and programs in Region X.  I don't think people back east really understand the travel challenges they face.

[SimpleCoach]

Another impressive coach and program.  The more I do this, the more impressed I am with the caliber of coaches out there. 

Bill Garno, Head Men's Coach at RIT

[Kuiper]

Condolences SC.  Rough way to lose for Mount Union in the MBB national championship game.  At least they have men's soccer to look forward to, right? 

[SimpleCoach]

Condolences SC.  Rough way to lose for Mount Union in the MBB national championship game.  At least they have men's soccer to look forward to, right? 

Crest fallen, indeed.  I don't know anything about Basketball, but the play by Mount at the end, looked like a foul.  Then the CNU layup to win it, looked like a foul.  The bitters indeed go to the losers....

So with that, I will leave you with this.

Around D3 - Lets get Ready to Rumble!

[SimpleCoach]

And another impressive coach in this latest SimpleCoach to Coach.

Garrett Eldridge, Head Men's Coach at Ithaca College