FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

Started by admin, August 16, 2005, 04:58:09 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

Grabowski

Sports Illustrated did a ranking of the 600+ NCAA schools in terms of "best" for athletics.  They don't explain how they did it very well, but the top 5 are Stanford, UND, Michigan, Duke, and Virginia, so it's some combo of athletic and academic excellence.  Congrats to Bowdoin and Middlebury for making the top ten.

http://www.si.com/campus-rush/2017/best-schools-for-sports-lovers

PolarCat

Wonderful news about the FKA Lord Jeffs.  Recruiting for all the other NESCAC schools just got much easier, particularly in "manly" sports like football and Men's Lacrosse.  I can hear the conversations in opposing coaches' offices already.

"Johnny, it's great to have you here after having watched all your HUDL highlights.  I understand that Amerst is also interested in you?  Yes?  First, let me say that Amherst is a fabulous school academically, and the program has been great.  But can you really imagine yourself going back to Exeter/Andover/Choate or Steeltown High and telling your teammates that for the next four years you're going to be a FIGHTING POET?"

All of us are old enough to know that the choice of a mascot matters not one whit when it comes to the quality of your education or your success in the real world.  But to an 18-year-old kid with testosterone coursing through his veins?

Wow.

And in case you didn't know, there's already a D3 school with a poet mascot.  They went 0-7 last year: http://wcpoets.com/sports/fball/index They do have pretty uniforms, though.

PolarCat

First post?  Welcome to the neighborhood.

Maybe the new Amherst mascot should be the Pride.  As in "Pride goeth before...."

You could be right about the name not mattering WHEN the Poets start winning championships again.  But a 4-4 season is a long way from a title.  Maybe the POP  (Pissed Off Poets) sobriquet will energize them.  (Heck, maybe it will even help recruiting if it resonates with Millennial snowflakes.  I gave up trying to figure them out a while back).

But those of us who have been around a while remember when the Ephs were a force to be reckoned with, and what has that done for them lately?  All the boys from all the NESCAC schools get great educations, go to the best grad schools and get the best jobs, (and date and marry the hottest girls) so the POP's have no secret edge in recruiting there.  So unless and until the POP's are once again top dogs (top wolves?) in the CAC, it's all wishful thinking.

Heck, even if you don't win a championship again, the Poet thing might be cool.  Coaches smoking briar pipes, wearing corduroy jackets with leather elbow patches.  Cheerleaders reciting haiku on the sidelines.  The Pratt Field concession stand serving tea and crumpets.  Bad, atonal jazz music playing in the warm ups.  Your Prez leading a poetry slam at halftime.  Those little touches would certainly set your program apart.


frank uible

It is certain that Amherst will select a mascot which pleases itself - without the gratuitous help of outsiders.

amh63

#11749
Several comments more on the Mascot topic.....while I smile about the Lady Jeffs' WBB going 33-0 and winning another National Title.  They won over the Tufts' Jumbos for the third time this season...hard to do...win three times over a tough team in a season.
First, Jumbos, the Tufts' Mascot was named from a large metal elephant structure that Tufts somehow "inherited" from a carnival? 
Was on the campus of the Un of Cal-Santa Cruz  about the time their Mascot was selected....Sea Slugs.  Nice campus by the Sea on a rock bed that causes water shortage problems for the school.  Their Mascot is appropriate, imo.
Talking about confusing "Mascot" labeling by bigtime academic oriented schools...need to point out Stanford and the Un. Of Virginia.  Stanford was known as the Indians...like Dartmouth.  Their logo has a redwood tree on it...appropriate Ca. Logo.  However, they are NOT called the Big Trees :).  What are they called?  Aware that some alums in the stands are dressed like Indians at football games.
Now UVA are sometimes called the Cavaliers, but are more affectionally referred to as "Yahoos".  Maybe poster Bucket can explain.
In the end, Frank U's last post is the best on this topic, imo.  Thanks Frank.
PolarCat...thanks for bringing your clever opinions to the subject!  Plus K
Oh yes, what are your thoughts about your school's mascot?...the former Indians, now known as the Big Green!  Inspiring?
Probably like my brother's thoughts as his school is known as the Harvard Crimson.  Heck, he is a big time Alabama football fan...Roll Tide...rooting for a water movement when you about it :).

PolarCat

Stanford teams are known as the Cardinal (singular).  Not the bird, the color.  Sort of like Crimson Tide, Big Green or the (unofficial) Big Blue.  IMHO still showing a certain lack of imagination.

Dartmouth has had a number of referenda over the years to pick a new mascot.  Some of the proposals were almost as bad as the Amherst finalists.  Personal favorites included the Mad Dogs (in honor of a stray German Shepherd mix who was adopted by a fraternity and was quite a devotee of beer pong and marijuana brownies - or so others have told me) and Keggy, who is quite simply a keg of beer.  Keggy still makes appearances from time to time (including surprising aspiring applicants on campus tours), but Mad Dog has gone to that great beer pong table in the sky.

Frank may be onto something when he states Amherst will choose a mascot "which pleases itself without the gratuitous help of others."  The Amherst Masturbaters does have a certain cachet, and unlike the Poets it's certainly unique.  Think of the fear instilled in opponents hearts when they hear "the Masturbaters are coming!"  Great suggestion, Frank.  Plus K.


HSCTiger74

Quote from: amh63 on March 19, 2017, 11:11:23 AM
Several comments more on the Mascot topic.....while I smile about the Lady Jeffs' WBB going 33-0 and winning another National Title.  They won over the Tufts' Jumbos for the third time this season...hard to do...win three times over a tough team in a season.
First, Jumbos, the Tufts' Mascot was named from a large metal elephant structure that Tufts somehow "inherited" from a carnival? 
Was on the campus of the Un of Cal-Santa Cruz  about the time their Mascot was selected....Sea Slugs.  Nice campus by the Sea on a rock bed that causes water shortage problems for the school.  Their Mascot is appropriate, imo.
Talking about confusing "Mascot" labeling by bigtime academic oriented schools...need to point out Stanford and the Un. Of Virginia.  Stanford was known as the Indians...like Dartmouth.  Their logo has a redwood tree on it...appropriate Ca. Logo.  However, they are NOT called the Big Trees :).  What are they called?  Aware that some alums in the stands are dressed like Indians at football games.
Now UVA are sometimes called the Cavaliers, but are more affectionally referred to as "Yahoos". Maybe poster Bucket can explain.
In the end, Frank U's last post is the best on this topic, imo.  Thanks Frank.
PolarCat...thanks for bringing your clever opinions to the subject!  Plus K
Oh yes, what are your thoughts about your school's mascot?...the former Indians, now known as the Big Green!  Inspiring?
Probably like my brother's thoughts as his school is known as the Harvard Crimson.  Heck, he is a big time Alabama football fan...Roll Tide...rooting for a water movement when you about it :).

   While I'm sure that fans of rival schools wouldn't argue about calling UVa supporters yahoos the alternate name is actually Wahoos, but I've never heard an explanation why.
TANSTAAFL

amh63

mariner75 and HSCTigers74.....thanks for the info and corrections to my errors. Plus K  to both of you.  Of course, I will probably forget again.  So it was an actual stuffed animal!  Must complain to my eye doctor, a Tufts alum. :).   Bucket will be mad at me for calling his adopted D1 school a web browser.
Last year, I was on a tour of prominent old homes in Florida.  There were several fellow travelers that graduated from UVA.  I did address them as Wahoo, correctly and received warm smiles in return.  However, I never got an explanation from them wrt the nickname.

amh63

#11754
HSCTiger74....assume you are an alum of Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia.  If so, is your school still an all male college?   Forgive me if I misspelled the name.  Met an old grad in Richmond...older than me even.  Would chat with him whenever I visited.  Also stayed at a historic Tidewater Inn a number of years ago.  Owners...married couple...were graduates of Smith College and HSC.  The HSC grad was the senior Navy Diving Officer...a Navy Captain working out of Norfolk at the time. Wife and I had a nice stay and conversations over wine with them.

HSCTiger74

Quote from: amh63 on March 20, 2017, 11:58:40 AM
HSCTiger74....assume you are an alum of Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia.  If so, is your school still an all male college?   Forgive me if I misspelled the name.  Met an old grad in Richmond...older than me even.  Would chat with him whenever I visited.  Also stayed at a historic Tidewater Inn a number of years ago.  Owners...married couple...were graduates of Smith College and HSC.  The HSC grad was the senior Navy Diving Officer...a Navy Captain working out of Norfolk at the time. Wife and I had a nice stay and conversations over wine with them.

   amh63, I am indeed an alum of HSC and, yes, it is still all male (one of four left in the country, if you don't include religiously oriented schools like Yeshiva or various Catholic seminaries). As for the spelling, it's currently Sydney but there was a long stretch when they used the other form so nobody gets too exercised when we see it.  :)
   And I'm not surprised that you met some of our alums when you visited the Richmond and Tidewater areas. There are a lot of guys like me who have moved on to other places, but there are far more who have stayed in the Old Dominion.   
TANSTAAFL

amh63

#11756
As the Nescac Teams close out the winter sports and the Spring sports return to NE, I want to point out the advantages of attending D3 schools in the conference.  One such is the opportunities to play multi sports at a high level during one's college years.  Today it is very rare in D1 while in college.  Remember Jim Brown played football and Lax for the Orangemen...Dutch Royal Family Name vice the fruit :).
Anyway, the Amherst Baseball team has a pitcher that is also a football kicker.  The Kicker from the SFrancisco Ca. Area turned down some D1 offers in football in order to participate in several sports.  The Amherst WBB team won its 2nd National Title on Sat.  There is a Soph PG on the team that also contributes on the soccer team.  Would not be surprised if she starts on both teams in coming years. There is a poster on this board that was a captain on both the football and basketball teams at Amherst.  His basketball team won a National title.

JEFFFAN


Maybe an interesting topic for the post-season doldrums!   Can folks from the various NESCAC schools on this site give some names and dossiers of the best multi-sport athletes that they remember from their schools?   Agreed that there are not as many out there right now but history is littered with excellent multi-sport athletes from all of the NESCAC schools.

nescac1

From Williams, just a few that quickly come to mind:

Ethan Brooks: all-American in both football (where he had a long NFL career) and track and field
Sean Keenan: NESCAC POY in football / top back-up on Final Four hoops squad
Dana Leary: national POY soccer / solid hoops contributor
Chris Kenney: all-American football player and NESCAC POY in baseball
Jamal Pollock: elite football player and wrestler


dman

Also from Williams going a bit further back, Rob Bice- Basketball and Golf; and Rich Williams- Football and Basketball.