Recruiting recap: All sorts of sports

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Cobber

‘Tis the season that we read about Division III football players enjoying athletic success in other sports. Like IWU’s punter-pitcher Drew Himes and place kicker-outfielder Mike Berry whose Titans are competing in the NCAA Division III Baseball tournament this weekend.

So this week’s Recruiting Recap goes out to those incoming freshmen who’ve excelled athletically on and off the football field.

Concordia-Moorhead will receive a three-sport star when Moorhead High School senior Cory Johnson enrolls at the school. Along with playing high school football for the MHS Spuds, Johnson was all-state in track and a junior hockey league prospect.

After not being selected in the recent United States Hockey League draft, Johnson decided he’ll trade in his Spuds duds for Cobbers’ maroon and gold.

“I get to play for a great program and get a great education. That made the decision a lot easier,” Johnson told The (Fargo, ND) Forum
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On a side note, Johnson’s high school mascot was a Spud? His college mascot will be an angry ear of corn? I’m bursting with bad, side order-related puns right now. We need to move on.

Another multi-sport star will suit up for the Washington & Jefferson Presidents this fall. Southwestern (NY) HS senior Matt Mazgaj, who was recently honored for his wrestling prowess, will travel south to join the defending PAC champions. According to the Buffalo News, Mazgaj was a two-time state wrestling champion in the 215-lbs weight class.

Dinwiddie (VA) HS product Khalee Prothro will attend Widener University after completing a three-sport career in high school. Prothro, who also played basketball and ran track at Dinwiddie, saw action on offense and special teams on the football field.

“I like football the most,” Prothro told The (Petersburg, VA) Progress-Index. “It gives me a chance to let out some steam.”

Meanwhile a couple programs who are never short on good recruits were named as high school players’ college of choice.

Dan Georgatos of Foothill (CA) HS will enroll at Mount Union.

Redwood Valley (MN) HS quarterback-wide receiver tandem Luke Radel and Bryan Busack enjoyed playing together so much, they hope to do it again at St. John’s University. The Redwood (MN) Gazette points out that Radel’s brother Jeff also played college ball in Collegeville.

Other recruits who’ve found a home include:

– Shorecrest (FL) HS graduate Bill Wood at Amherst.

– Cave Spring (VA) HS teammates Wade Hammes and Chaffin Scott at Bridgewater (VA).

– Johnsburg (IL) HS senior Nick Biederer at Concordia (Wis).

– Mahnomen (MN) HS graduate Levi DeVries at Concordia-Moorhead.

– Jimmy King of Hidden Valley (VA) HS at Ferrum.

– Rosewood (NC) HS quarterback Danny Langston at Guilford.

– Milton Strother of Daphne (Al) HS at Huntingdon.

– Anthony Catucci of Spalding (MD) HS at McDaniel.

– Dustin Stephens of Prairie Central (IL) HS at Millikin.

– Mount Vernon (OH) HS seniors Bobby Peck and Ty Callkins at Ohio Northern.

– Severna Park (MD) teammates Chris Anthony and Tim Hackmann at Salisbury.

Impress your friends and neighbors with your knowledge of recruits’ destinations by checking out a longer list here.

And please remember that any comments posted below with recruiting news must be accompanied by the related newspaper story’s URL. No ifs, ands or Spuds about it.

Nibbling away

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A handful of schools have yet to release a 2005 schedule, but we’ve gotten final schedules from Newport News, Ursinus and Gustavus Adolphus over the past week. About half of the schedules still missing are from the NESCAC, which only affects the teams on that little island anyway.

The Gustavus folks say they still might have an announcement soon about adding a tenth game. If so, it might have to be a long trip, or someone from outside Division III, or Crown, or a second game against St. Thomas. Either that or Northwestern is looking to play three games in one day. (For those who missed it, the first-year provisional members are already taking on mighty Trinity Bible and Macalester on the same day, Oct. 8.)

There are some games which we know must exist, but just don’t know for sure when. We assume Rochester and Worcester Polytech will play each other this year, since both are in the Liberty League. Rowan would be expected to play Kean, right?

Millsaps only has eight games at this point. Well, they have nine games listed on their own Web site, but one of the schools on the list, “Concordia (AL)”, doesn’t appear to have varsity football.

One school sent us a schedule that claimed it was playing SUNY-Maritime in its opener this year. Interesting, considering Maritime doesn’t play varsity football until 2006.

Montclair State and Huntingdon are still an opponent short after the Thomas More/PAC fallout. You know, considering that the PAC appears intent on adding more teams — “Long-term, we envision a PAC with 8-10 members … we expect to reach our desired membership level in the near future,” said the leader of the conference’s presidents council — if I were a coach, I’d be very leery about scheduling ANY teams in that conference right now. Who would want to be caught in the next PAC land grab?

And in closing, even though we haven’t asked for them yet, we have received two 2005 season previews. So dig in!

Open coaching jobs: Where do we stand?

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There are three open head coaching jobs that we’re aware of, and here’s what we know about them:

Kings Point (3-7, 3-4 Liberty League in 2004)
Tim McNulty resigned at the end of March and the school intends to introduce his replacement tomorrow afternoon. All indications from the rumor mill point to Mike Toop, head coach at Division I-AA non-scholarship Davidson. Toop is an alumnus of the institution, also known as the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. He’s 17-22 at Davidson, which has moved recently to playing almost exclusively I-AA schools instead of mostly I-AA and a handful of D-IIIs.

Pomona-Pitzer (4-5, 3-3 SCIAC)
Roger Caron left the school in early April to coach at Cheshire Academy in Cheshire, Conn. The school still has his name on the Web site and his voice and name are still on the voice mail. That’s because Pomona-Pitzer believes Caron is taking a one-year leave of absence, according to athletic director Charles Katsiaficas, who expects Caron to return next spring. Scott Rynne will coach the team in 2005.

Waynesburg (7-4, 3-2 PAC)
Jeff Hand left for conference rival Westminster (Pa.). The school says it intends to go through a search and hire a “permanent” replacement but time is awful short for that.

Also, Brent Becker was named interim head coach at Lake Forest in February, but will be coaching there in 2005. A search will begin at the end of the season.