Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

https://heartlandconf.org/news/2022/11/15/hcac-announces-2022-football-all-conference-awards.aspx

Offensive Player of the Year – Josh Taylor, Mount St. Joseph University
Defensive Player of the Year – Noah Hammond, Mount St. Joseph University
Special Teams Player of the Year – Jailen Hobbs, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Newcomer of the Year – Da’Realyst Clark, Defiance College
Coach of the Year – Tyler Hopperton, Mount St. Joseph University

Team                    1st-2nd-HM
Mount St. Joseph   11 - 7 - 1
Rose-Hulman         12 - 4 - 0
Hanover                 4 - 4 - 2
Franklin                  4 - 9 - 2
Defiance                 3 - 4 - 6
Bluffton                  0 - 5 - 4
Anderson                0 - 0 - 8
Manchester             1 - 4 - 2

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Mount St Joseph goes down 41-21 to Alma. Tied at 21 at halftime, MSJ could do nothing in the 2nd half. Their drives went 3 and out, 3 and out, punt, downs, 3 and out, 3 and out, interception.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

One HCAC player made the all american lists

Jailen Hobbs from RHIT made 4th team All American at returner.

[Spartan27]

Manchester head coach resignation

https://muspartans.com/news/2023/1/10/new-chapter-ahead-nate-jensen-resigns-as-head-football-coach.aspx

[Spartan27]

https://muspartans.com/news/2023/2/27/hunt-named-head-football-coach.aspx

[wally_wabash]

https://muspartans.com/news/2023/2/27/hunt-named-head-football-coach.aspx

Very cool!  Excited about this opportunity for Vann.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

With the NFL draft going on, thought it'd be a good time to look at the non-conference schedules for the coming season.

Anderson: vs Trine, TBD, TBD, TBD
Bluffton: vs Kenyon, vs Albion, @ Adrian, OFF
Defiance: TBD, @ Adrian, @ Kalamazoo, TBD
Franklin: vs Olivet, vs Aurora, @ Trine, OFF
Hanover: @ Centre, OFF, @ Olivet, vs Trine
Manchester: TBD, TBD, vs Greenville, TBD
Mount St Joseph: @ Baldwin Wallace, vs Hiram, @ Hope, OFF
Rose-Hulman: vs DePauw, @ Trine, @ Albion, OFF

Three teams still have unknown games, Anderson and Manchester both with 2 games to reveal and Defiance with 1. I'm assuming Anderson will play at Alma in week 3 as that's the only MIAA team not paired up yet. Of the other 5 teams, 4 will take week 4 off while Hanover is taking their bye in week 2.
Trine appears to be trying to join the HCAC as all four of their non-conference games are against fellow Hoosiers.

MIAA- 12; NCAC- 3; NACC- 1; OAC- 1; SAA- 1; UMAC- 1; TBD- 5

[uwwcontra2007]

I think I can help with these.  I've been tracking schedules for a few years now, and I have all of the non-conference games for the HCAC based on other schools releasing their schedules.  These are subject to change, but here is what I have:

Anderson: vs Trine, @Depauw, @Alma, OFF
Bluffton: vs Kenyon, vs Albion, @Adrian, OFF
Defiance: vs. Mount Union, @Adrian, @Kalamazoo, OFF
Franklin: vs Olivet, vs Aurora, @Trine, OFF
Hanover: @Centre, OFF, @Olivet, vs Trine
Manchester: vs North Park, vs Alma, vs Greenville, OFF
MSJ: @Baldwin Wallace, vs Hiram, @Hope, OFF
R-H: vs Depauw, @Trine, @Albion, OFF

Again, this is based on the other schools releasing their schedules to their respective websites, or the HCAC schools releasing their schedules to their own websites.

[Ron Boerger]

Surprising (and a bit sad) to see SID/Associate AD Kevin Lanke leave Rose-Hulman for a somewhat similar role at tiny (around 800 on campus, but less than 600 undergrads) NAIA Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.  Back in the day when they were in the SCAC (yes, a long time ago) I had the chance to work with him as a regional writer for D3football and he was always very helpful, extremely knowledgeable, and quite pleasant.  According to the story above, a "driving force in this allegiance swap [between schools], he said, was having a fundraising and publicity team that was on the same page."  Given a tiny endowment (somewhere around $15M from what I can gather) and a $5M campaign that's been underway since 2016 and is less than halfway to goal seven years later, I hope this move works out for him. 

[crufootball]

Surprising (and a bit sad) to see SID/Associate AD Kevin Lanke leave Rose-Hulman for a somewhat similar role at tiny (around 800 on campus, but less than 600 undergrads) NAIA Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.  Back in the day when they were in the SCAC (yes, a long time ago) I had the chance to work with him as a regional writer for D3football and he was always very helpful, extremely knowledgeable, and quite pleasant.  According to the story above, a "driving force in this allegiance swap [between schools], he said, was having a fundraising and publicity team that was on the same page."  Given a tiny endowment (somewhere around $15M from what I can gather) and a $5M campaign that's been underway since 2016 and is less than halfway to goal seven years later, I hope this move works out for him.

Am I reading it wrong or do some of those quotes have an edge to them? Bold move when you are staying in town.

[Ron Boerger]

Surprising (and a bit sad) to see SID/Associate AD Kevin Lanke leave Rose-Hulman for a somewhat similar role at tiny (around 800 on campus, but less than 600 undergrads) NAIA Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.  Back in the day when they were in the SCAC (yes, a long time ago) I had the chance to work with him as a regional writer for D3football and he was always very helpful, extremely knowledgeable, and quite pleasant.  According to the story above, a "driving force in this allegiance swap [between schools], he said, was having a fundraising and publicity team that was on the same page."  Given a tiny endowment (somewhere around $15M from what I can gather) and a $5M campaign that's been underway since 2016 and is less than halfway to goal seven years later, I hope this move works out for him.

Am I reading it wrong or do some of those quotes have an edge to them? Bold move when you are staying in town.

Definitely seems to be something he was unhappy about, whether it's how RHIT supported the athletic program or something career-related.  Maybe after 25 years in basically the same role, he was ready for a new challenge. 

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Surprising (and a bit sad) to see SID/Associate AD Kevin Lanke leave Rose-Hulman for a somewhat similar role at tiny (around 800 on campus, but less than 600 undergrads) NAIA Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.  Back in the day when they were in the SCAC (yes, a long time ago) I had the chance to work with him as a regional writer for D3football and he was always very helpful, extremely knowledgeable, and quite pleasant.  According to the story above, a "driving force in this allegiance swap [between schools], he said, was having a fundraising and publicity team that was on the same page."  Given a tiny endowment (somewhere around $15M from what I can gather) and a $5M campaign that's been underway since 2016 and is less than halfway to goal seven years later, I hope this move works out for him.

Am I reading it wrong or do some of those quotes have an edge to them? Bold move when you are staying in town.

Definitely seems to be something he was unhappy about, whether it's how RHIT supported the athletic program or something career-related.  Maybe after 25 years in basically the same role, he was ready for a new challenge.

There's been something going on behind the scenes at RHIT. We've discussed it a bit on the WBB board after their season got cancelled after a few games due to "lack of players". One of the parents (Jester1390) hinted at it being a somewhat toxic situation with the administration and/or recently hired AD.

[Dr. Acula]

Surprising (and a bit sad) to see SID/Associate AD Kevin Lanke leave Rose-Hulman for a somewhat similar role at tiny (around 800 on campus, but less than 600 undergrads) NAIA Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.  Back in the day when they were in the SCAC (yes, a long time ago) I had the chance to work with him as a regional writer for D3football and he was always very helpful, extremely knowledgeable, and quite pleasant.  According to the story above, a "driving force in this allegiance swap [between schools], he said, was having a fundraising and publicity team that was on the same page."  Given a tiny endowment (somewhere around $15M from what I can gather) and a $5M campaign that's been underway since 2016 and is less than halfway to goal seven years later, I hope this move works out for him.

Am I reading it wrong or do some of those quotes have an edge to them? Bold move when you are staying in town.

Definitely seems to be something he was unhappy about, whether it's how RHIT supported the athletic program or something career-related.  Maybe after 25 years in basically the same role, he was ready for a new challenge.

There's been something going on behind the scenes at RHIT. We've discussed it a bit on the WBB board after their season got cancelled after a few games due to "lack of players". One of the parents (Jester1390) hinted at it being a somewhat toxic situation with the administration and/or recently hired AD.

They cancelled their basketball season because they didn't have enough players?  That doesn't seem good when you're talking about basketball and not football. 

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

I put it in quotes because apparently they still could field a team but not much off the bench. Apparently others were willing to play to keep it going but the school decided to end the season after just 20% of the schedule.

The best discussion of the situation starts with this post and the next seven or so messages (basically until I start talking into the void that the HCAC board sometimes is). Took place a week or two after the season was halted.
http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=623.msg2067468#msg2067468

While I don't have any inside info, Jester's daughter played the previous 3 years but was one of several ladies who quit the team. Enginerd is a RHIT alum. I trust their knowledge of things Rose-Hulman related.


As far as Kevin Lanke leaving, you have the WBB situation, RHIT hired a new AD only a year or two ago, SMWC just went fully coed I think in 2016, and moved from USCAA to became a full NAIA member last summer. The Terre Haute schools (RHIT, SMWC, and Indiana St) get on well. It seems like there's been quite a few changes in the past handful of years and after 25 years at the same place he gets a fresh start in the same city with a school moving up the ranks.

[Martindale]

Berea to the Heartland.  That has to be good news for the conference.