MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mr_b]

Incidentally, are there any long term plans to renovate the basketball gym? Is anyone else besides me going to be sad to see the crackerbox go when it does?

I don't know what's next on the agenda for the campus, but I think that any plans to renovate the Crackerbox are further down the road.  There has been talk of some more various new classroom and student spaces, but I don't know what's at the top of the to-build list.

[Mr. Ypsi]

We ran the story in football, I believe, a few weeks before the season started.

Pat, when there are several posts in between, use your 'quote' feature or we can't be sure what you're responding to!

I'm assuming that was in response to my post about the expanded definition of in-region?  I apparently missed the story on the football page - I confess that during the off-seasons I usually enter 'posts' directly, and don't read the front page very often.

During the seasons, I check the front page every day (and during the overlap months, check them both)!

[Patrick Coleman]

Dunno what else it would be I was responding to ...

[Gregory Sager]

Helwig will also help a bit with the recruiting.

That's putting it mildly. As Mr. B said, the fact that it's a general-use facility will aid in overall student recruitment. And the fact that it's also a first-rate teaching facility with state-of-the-art classrooms and a top-notch physical training center will definitely help pull in students who have an interest in pursuing careers in physical education, sports medicine, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. But the number and caliber of student-athlete recruits at NPU should increase sharply as a result of the addition of Helwig, and the fact that the new facility has something to offer for every varsity sport on campus should mean that the improvement will be across-the-board.

If I had to guess what two sports will be helped the most in terms of recruitment, it'd be baseball and football. The baseball team no longer has to hold preseason and bad-weather practice in the gym (which, of course, helps the two varsity basketball teams as well), and having an indoor batting cage and a full-sized indoor infield whose turf matches that of the competition diamond at Holmgren Athletic Complex gives NPU, as far as I know, a unique leg up on every other cold-weather D3 school within recruiting range. This should be a great shot in the arm for an NPU baseball program that's already on the rise under Luke Johnson.

The program that should be helped the most, out of all NPU sports, is football. The reason why is obvious to anyone who's taken a look at Helwig: it's the weight room. For as long as I've been around (and probably for as long as Dennis Prikkel's been around, too), North Park has always had the worst weight room in the conference. That's been a huge millstone around the neck of every Vikings football coach, not only in terms of recruiting but also in terms of retention and current-player strength development. In one fell swoop, that disadvantage has disappeared. NPU has gone from having the worst weight room and strength-training facilities in the CCIW to having the best, bar none. NPU head football coach Scott Pethtel, who was like a kid in a candy store this weekend, coached at a number of D1 football programs, and he can tick off the names of a bunch of them that don't have weight rooms as good as NPU now has at Helwig. The NPU football program has now lost most of its excuses for fielding horrible teams on the gridiron year after year after year.

Mr. B hit the nail on the head -- this is a huge "wow factor" facility. I can hardly believe that North Park now has a facility of the caliber of Helwig Rec Center. This will make a huge difference in Vikings sports.

[Gregory Sager]

Incidentally, are there any long term plans to renovate the basketball gym? Is anyone else besides me going to be sad to see the crackerbox go when it does?

I don't know what's next on the agenda for the campus, but I think that any plans to renovate the Crackerbox are further down the road.  There has been talk of some more various new classroom and student spaces, but I don't know what's at the top of the to-build list.

Unfortunately, Mr. B is right. The opening of Helwig culminates and concludes a multi-project fundraising drive for athletics at NPU that also included the Holmgren Athletic Complex upgrade. The two ceremonies this weekend (Friday's dedicating Helwig itself, Saturday's dedicating the McCarrell and Djurickovic Courts) had a definite "well, this is done ... now let's move on to something else on campus" feel to them.

I didn't like that at all -- not that I don't agree that North Park has a half-dozen other items on campus that need to be upgraded with new construction. The next project, both in terms of fundraising and construction, will probably be for a new student union, with the current student union (Magnuson Campus Center) being converted into badly-needed classroom space. But athletics is like an arms race; one CCIW school improves a facility, and then every other one feels the need to upgrade something or other. NPU now has the Helwig Rec Center, but sure as the sun will rise tomorrow you can expect North Central or Augie or Elmhurst or somebody to start planning to build something even bigger and better. If your school is just standing pat, it's actually falling behind. It's great that North Park is no longer the Grand Duchy of Fenwick in terms of the CCIW athletics arms race, but it's imperative that the school doesn't rest on its laurels. My fear is that it will do exactly that.

Whenever I heard an older alumnus or alumna say something this weekend to the effect of, "Well, now that we have this great rec center for the students, we can really compete in everything!" or "OK, now let's move on to raising money for a new science building or a new music building," I immediately retorted, "Not so fast -- we still have some serious needs in terms of athletics and fitness on this campus. We're probably the only 3,000-student residential college or university around that doesn't have a pool. And have you taken a look at our gym? It's a joke. It was obsolete even when it was brand-new in the 1950s. It barely seats a thousand people, and the next-smallest gym in the CCIW, Elmhurst's, has a capacity almost twice that. I'm sick and tired of hearing stories about the basketball coaches bringing recruits into our gym, only to have the recruit laugh out loud and say something to the effect of, 'Man, I haven't seen a gym with a stage since I was in middle school!' We owe it to North Park and to our athletic department to build a new gym, or at least seriously upgrade the one we have."

Unfortunately, I got a lot of shrugged shoulders and dismissive remarks whenever I said that. I don't think that the older alumni get it. They probably think to themselves, "Well, as this weekend's ceremonies made abundantly clear, Dan McCarrell and Bosko Djurickovic were able to succeed with the gym we have. If it's good enough for them, it should be good enough for Paul Brenegan and Jack Surridge." They couldn't be more mistaken in thinking that.

Don't get me wrong -- Helwig will help both the men's and women's basketball teams immeasureably. The crackerbox now belongs to them (and the volleyball team), and them alone. They'll be able to practice at the same time every day. Players will never have to worry about finding an empty basket somewhere to shoot or play on their own time. And the crackerbox itself will stay in much better condition thoughout the season (particularly the playing surface).

But ... yeah, it appears that the school is now turning its attention elsewhere as far as upgrading facilities is concerned. And that's a shame, from my perspective. The school desperately needs both a new (or seriously expanded) gym and a new pool. I guess I'm going to be buying lottery tickets for the foreseeable future. 

[petemcb]

Dunno what else it would be I was responding to ...

Pat, I'm guessing Mr. Ypsi might be referring to the above football references re:  North Park's upgraded, new and improved facilities aiding their football recruiting or the Jordan Kemper basketball to football morph  - certainly front page worthy if you ask April or any other diehard Wheatie!

[Jim Matson]

After reading all the replies, I guess I really have to go into town and actually SEE this place.  I thought Wheaton's new athletic facility was top drawer, but you guys are saying the Helwig is better?

[Gotberg]

I'm sure they'll have pictures on the NPU website showing the completed Helwig Center before too long, but here are the most recent photos available.

Hopefully this works:  http://northpark.edu/campusdevelopment/present/recreation/september_wk15/

[diehardfan]

The program that should be helped the most, out of all NPU sports, is football. The reason why is obvious to anyone who's taken a look at Helwig: it's the weight room. For as long as I've been around (and probably for as long as Dennis Prikkel's been around, too), North Park has always had the worst weight room in the conference.

Oh man... worse than the dungeon that wheaton had in the basement of Coray when I was a freshman? That's BAD.

or the Jordan Kemper basketball to football morph  - certainly front page worthy if you ask April or any other diehard Wheatie!

Totally.

I actually was confused about what you meant too Pat... mostly because I read the posts on different days. Plus I like the Jordan idea better! 

[matblake]

Oh man... worse than the dungeon that wheaton had in the basement of Coray when I was a freshman? That's BAD.

DHF, I loved that weight room.  Sure, there wasn't a lot of cardio machines, but the equipment was actually not bad.  Plus, you knew that anybody who was down there was hard core. 

[Jim Matson]

Old Wheaton memories...and not just the weight room.  Just try and find your way around Blanchard Hall in the 80s.

When I see what these schools are doing to attract students these days, I think I should re-enroll.

[Patrick Coleman]

Good line.

[Gregory Sager]

After reading all the replies, I guess I really have to go into town and actually SEE this place.  I thought Wheaton's new athletic facility was top drawer, but you guys are saying the Helwig is better?

Let me know when you're coming into town, Jim, and I'll give you a tour myself. Seriously.

My daughter Alicen got a first glimpse of the outside of the completed Helwig Center at NPU last week and dubbed it the "Cheesebox".

A clever and, given the nickname of the building across the river, thoroughly appropriate moniker for Helwig.

Sorry Dan - I still love ya - but that's not going to happen under the present basketball regime.  After watching highlights of McCarrell's 1980 third championship and Bosko's 1987 second championship teams, new North Park president David Parklyn asked the current North Park basketball team to stand at the end of the McCarrell/Djurickovic recognition dinner.

I've seen more height in a high school girls basketball game over at Rolling Meadows High School.  Maybe its because I was seated, but I counted only three players over 6-3 of the 16 that stood up and most of them were in the 5-11 to 6-1 range.

Nice to see that you haven't lost your knack for snap judgments based upon insufficient information, Dennis. The Vikings roster this season will include Glen Woodside (6'7, if not 6'8 by now); Mike Ventura, Stefano Jones, and Anthony Lenoir (all 6'6); Jay Alexander (listed at 6'6, probably more like 6'5); Nick Williams (went by 6'5 as a high school senior, but probably more in the 6'4 range), and Mike Church (6'4). That's just off the top of my head. A significant number of those guys were not at the recognition dinner. The sixteen or so players who were at the recognition dinner represent less than 2/3rds of this coming season's roster. There are somewhere around two dozen players who will be showing up for the first practice on the 15th (probably 25 or 26 players; I can't remember the exact number). The Vikings will be at least average for a CCIW team in terms of overall height, and probably a bit on the slender side in terms of weight (although not dramatically so).

Perhaps you should show up for Midnight Madness and attempt to guess how many games the Vikings will win this season by assessing their various shoe sizes.

[Gregory Sager]

Incidentally, Jim, I don't think I'd characterize Helwig as "better" than the new Wheaton facility. It's different, with a different range of purposes. Wheaton has the bigger building, and it contains facilities (the natatorium, for example, and the competition gym) that NPU's doesn't. Wheaton's climbing wall is bigger, and if I remember correctly, it has three auxiliary basketball courts besides the competition court in King Arena. Helwig has two, McCarrell Court and Djurickovic Court.

I've never taken a comprehensive enough look at Wheaton's facility to be able to compare the athletic training and classroom areas with Helwig's. But NPU definitely has the better of Wheaton in terms of fitness and training equipment, particularly in terms of weight training. Even the Wheaties (and ex-Wheaties) who have seen Helwig have conceded that. And Wheaton doesn't have anything like the Nelson Practice Turf, which may be the most singular advantage NPU gains over its conference rivals via Helwig in a number of sports.

Incidentally, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the 1st annual double elimination 3-on-3 tournament that inaugurated the McCarrell and Djurickovic Courts on Saturday was won by the former NPU varsity quartet of Rick Alspach, Brian Greene, Denny Keizer, and Keith Peterson (Translation: They will badger me if I don't mention this). They won the title by beating a team led by former NPU JV player Greg Applequist that also included Matt Dyment, the former starting PG for Linfield (a D3 school in the Northwest Conference). Dyment, who graduated from North Park Theological Seminary in '03, put on quite a show during the tournament (he also won the trey-shooting and FT-shooting contests, hitting 16 treys and 28 free throws in 45 seconds apiece), leading Team Applequist to an upset win over the aforementioned varsity alumni in their first contest. Alas, Dyment sprained his ankle in a subsequent game and thus the former varsity Vikings went on to an easy championship win. We may have to wait until next year to see if Rick, Brian, Denny, and Keith could stop a healthy Dyment.

Of course, this could all be moot if Rob Berki gets off his duff and assembles a team for next year's tournament. Hint, hint.

[markerickson]

What former varsity players attended the festivities?