Yearly Archives: 2006

Recruiting Recap: Penn, Harvard kids on the way

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No, not that Penn and Harvard.

Harvard (Ill.) HS products Nick Iftner and Jay Sachs are headed to Augustanta and Lakeland respectively next season. A quick web search on these two turned up an interesting tidbit. The Harvard Hornets have a Cameron Amelianovich listed as a receiver. With that relatively unusual last name, I can’t help but wonder if he’s related to Illinois Wesleyan D3hoops.com All-American Keelan, who attended Neuqua Valley HS in Naperville, Ill..

Two players from Penn High in the South Bend, Ind., area are heading to Division III schools, according to the South Bend Tribune. At 5-10, 185-pounds, Evan Sobecki was limited by a knee injury to 156 yards rushing and two touchdowns. He is heading to Wabash. Beehler (5-7, 150) led the Kingsmen with 38 catches for 747 yards and eight scores. He is off to Adrian.

In other “Penn” news, Bill Crossey of Penn-Trafford HS told the hometown Star that he is looking forward to playing at Washington & Jefferson. Crossey selected W&J over Juniata, Marietta and Division I-AA Robert Morris.

UW-La Crosse has a recruiting class heavy on defensive tackles, says the La Crosse Tribune.

Wellsville (N.Y.) HS linebacker Frank Brown is heading to Rochester. Local rival St. John Fisher might be adding another horse to their running back stable. The Albany Times-Union reports the Cards landed Mohonasen HS running back Bradley Carlton, who put up 3,500 yards and ranks in the top twenty all-time in New York Section II history.

A pair from Plainfield HS in the Indianapolis area are going to Division III schools as well. Lineman (both sides) Mitch Brown is heading to Wabash and receiver/defensive back Patrick Faris has committed at Anderson, according to the Indianapolis Star, which thinks Anderson is in the NAIA.

According to the (Orangeburg, S.C.) Times & Democrat, Thomas Moultrie will set sail from Edisto HS (Cordova, S.C.) for Virginia where he’ll dock at Newport News. Joining his cousin Travis on the Shipbuilders, Thomas brings an impressive high school resume including 176 tackles from his linebacker spot.

Another South Carolinian will travel farther north when Chuckie Scarminach comes from Hilton Head Prep to Carnegie Mellon. Scarminach quarterbacked his team to the S.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association Class 2-A state championship last year.

Brookwood HS (Snellville, Ga.) offensive line teammates Jonathan Milner and Joey Robinson will stay together for college, attending LaGrange. The Panthers will play their first season of Division III football this fall.

If you want to contribute a name, you must provide the published confirmation. (Unless you are an SID or coach, of course, in which case your word is sufficient). You can add the news by posting a comment below or emailing gordon.mann@d3football.com.

Random games

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We’ve seen over 900 games go up so far for the 2006 Division III football season. Some are more predictable than others. Here are some others, matchups that are new this season:

Week 1: Huntingdon at Ithaca. Huntingdon doesn’t duck teams and can’t afford to as a geographically isolated independent. Long trip, though.

Week 2: Kenyon at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The surprise 6-4 Lords and the 3-6 Stags. A random cross-country game between teams in the lower half of Division III.

By the way, Kenyon also plays Grinnell, which normally would be interesting enough to make this list. But Kenyon coach Ted Stanley is a Grinnell grad, which makes that game a lot less random.

Week 3: Kalamazoo at Austin. This is Kalamazoo’s first game of the season, by the way.

Week 4: Washington and Jefferson at Oberlin. These teams aren’t that far away from each other … geographically.

After this point, we end up with too many conference games in the way. What games that are new this year strike you as the most random?

25 schools gave unacceptable aid

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According to an NCAA news summary, 25 Division III schools’ financial aid awards were found not acceptable and were forwarded to the NCAA’s enforcement staff. In these schools, the aid to student-athletes exceeded the aid awarded to the general student body by at least 4%, when comparing students with similar need.

The original list of schools out of the norm was 60, about 14% of Division III. Some details of the various levels of review were included in the NCAA’s piece.

That wasn’t the committee dealings the NCAA chose to emphasize, but it was what leaped off the page at me. The other big news is a proposal to put in year-round drug testing in Division III. One of the justifications was that a 2005 NCAA study put Division III drug usage at or above levels of usage in Division I. That may be true. It might also be the case that Division III student-athletes were simply more truthful in filling out the survey, since there are fewer consequences at the non-scholarship level. The testing proposal is for a two-year pilot program.

There was a list of things that the Management Council urged the Presidents Council and Executive Committee Working Group to consider:

·Further limitation on the provisional class size (one or two per year).
Not a problem. Division III is going to be too large to manage at some point.

·Tightening the standards applied to exploratory and provisional members to begin the process in lieu of the lottery system.
What a concept. Almost like I posted last August.

·Long-term divisional structure in the NCAA.
Does this sound like the late ’90s movement to subdivide Division III? Ugh.

·Optimal size of Division III based on resource allocation.
Optimal size of Division III is pretty darn close to where we are now.

·More aggressive screening of active members consistent with the Division III philosophy, membership and legislative requirements.
Sounds like more enforcement.

·Raising membership dues, if necessary, to address additional Division III resources, services and long-term membership options.
Seems reasonable.

·Changing demographics in the United States in relation to higher education.
Anyone working in higher education please chime in on this one.