The road to Salem

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FIFTY YARD LINE — Arrived in Salem this afternoon for the presentation of the Gagliardi Trophy as well as this afternoon’s practices.

The weather is beautiful here. Currently breezy and low 60s. Head on down to Salem and take this game in — this year is a great opportunity to see the game and the weather at its best.

Field looks alright but not perfect. A couple bare spots that will probably be painted green by the time we hit kickoff.

On the way down here, on the actual road to Salem, Ryan and I passed a pairt of trucks, one of which was being towed. Those trucks just pulled into the stadium — they’re the television production crew.

Reminder that we hit the air for pregame two hours before kickoff. http://www.d3football.com/audio/

Stop in and say hi on the blog when you get to Salem.

Anticipation of Stagg Bowl XXXIV

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So I’m at my real job on Sunday, on the sports copy desk at USA Today, sitting not far from a Wisconsin native. Another editor stops by his desk. The Wisconsin native asks the other if he saw that UW-Whitewater won and would be headed back to the Stagg Bowl.

Some people here know me as a Division III football geek/guru (you make the call), but in this case, I was like a fly on the wall, listening to two casual fans’ honest opinions about Division III football.

“You see who won?”
“No, who?”
“Wisconsin-Whitewater. They’re going back to the championship to play Mount Union.”
“Oh. Now they’ll get killed.”

Normally, I’d butt in there, as most of us expect a pretty tight rematch between the Warhawks and Purple Raiders. But for some reason I kept listening.

“You’ll never guess who scored three touchdowns?”
“Who?”
“Derek Stanley. The guy who used to be a running back at Wisconsin (Madison), and beat up his girl and got kicked off the team. He must’ve ended up at Whitewater.”

‘Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?’ I thought to myself. ‘I didn’t know that. I’m supposed to know stuff like that about D3. I’ve never heard anyone say a negative word about Derek Stanley. And Whitewater doesn’t really seem like it would need to build with transfers with questionable pasts. And he’s a receiver, not a running back. I’m so confused.”

So eventually I spoke up. And we determined that it was BOOKER Stanley who was convicted in July of beating and choking a woman in his off-campus apartment. The running back was kicked off the team this offseason by new UW coach Bret Bielema, and according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in April, inquired about enrolling and playing for Whitewater.

The Warhawks already had a Stanley, thank you very much (not to mention some running back that appears to be holding down the starting job). As far as I know, DEREK is a model citizen.

A journalist always gets his facts straight … eventually.

The moral of the story, kids, is: You might learn a lot more about Mount Union and UW-Whitewater this week than you ever thought you would. But don’t believe everything you hear, and always consider your source.

Definitely keep this in mind as you read fans’ chit-chat about Saturday’s national championship game. 🙂

Have at it everybody:

A different trip to Alliance

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This was about the strangest trip to Alliance I’ve ever been on. It was my seventh time at Mount Union, my sixth time at the national semifinals, and this one was decidedly different than the others.

First of all, usually Keith McMillan and I drive together, leaving D.C. far too late on Friday night, not getting much sleep, calling the game and driving back listening to (and singing) the ’80s songs that permeate the airwaves on a Saturday night.

But, of course, this trip did not go down that way. Keith and I don’t live in the same state anymore, so we traveled separately. It was a painfully long drive back to Connecticut. I’ll have to get a second driver or fly the next time I do that.

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand.
Just like that river twisting through a dusty land.

Usually this trip results in us seeing a blowout. I made the trip solo in 1999, spending the night at the home of Mount Union broadcaster Ric Brienza. Mount Union lost to Rowan in overtime the next day and, for some reason, I have not been offered a bed for the night since. 🙂

Ray Martel and Pat Cummings and I made the trip in 2000: Mount Union 70, Widener 30.
Keith and I went in 2001: Mount Union 35, St. John’s 14
Ray and Keith and I went for a regular season game in 2002: Mount Union 35, John Carroll 16. I did not partake of the semifinal rematch, won by Mount Union 57-19.
Keith and I went in 2003: Mount Union 66, Bridgewater 0
Keith and I went in 2004 as well, for the loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor.

But this trip was none of that. It was a Mount Union win, in a close game.

We’re headed for Venus, and still we stand tall.
Cause maybe they’ve seen us, and welcome us all.

Sometimes I felt like I was witnessing my own final countdown on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in December on the way to and from Alliance. (Best thing about I-80 — it’s not the Turnpike!) My favorite combination — wind, snow, darkness, a twisty road and an old car. No thanks. One year I got directions that took me across the tip of West Virginia just to get off the turnpike sooner, but it wasn’t worth it.

Oh, we’re halfway there. Oh, living on a prayer.

Usually Keith and I are about the last ones out the door from the stadium. In 1999, when I was basically doing the site solo, Ed Barmakian of the Newark Star-Ledger and I baked in the old press box until at least 6 p.m. (Old heat, too, though it sure worked.) Lately it had become a routine to stop for dinner at the Arby’s on the Pennsylvania Turnpike just over the border from Ohio. And usually we pull into the Washington area about 1 a.m.

Everybody tell me have you heard? Pop goes the world.

This time I found out one of our Alliance staples was to be no longer. The Buffalo Wild Wings in town is giving up the franchise name and becoming a generic sports bar. A memorable experience there in 2000 made BW3/Buffalo Wild Wings a staple for D3football.com road trips. And a less than memorable morning after made the Mount Union/Widener game even less bearable.

But it was strange, but good. I enjoyed meeting some more Mount Union fans I hadn’t yet gotten to know. St. John Fisher fans either weren’t in the restaurant or didn’t want to say hi. I won’t hold it against you.

So you better go back to your bars, your temples …
your massage parlors.