Goodbye to a D3 lifer

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Earlier in the offseason Pat posited an interesting theory that there are two kinds of successful Division III coaches – lifers who spend a long career at a particular college and those who pursue jobs at other levels after gaining success here.

By that theory, today we say good bye to a Division III lifer in Southern Maine Coach Gary Fifield. He spent his entire college coaching career in Gorham, Maine after coaching high school ball in Vermont. Over that 21-year run, he won an astounding 541 games, took his team to five Final Fours and became the face of a highly successful program.

I only interacted with Coach Fifield a couple times during the Huskies’ recent playoff runs. My impression is that he was very loyal to his players and inspired the same loyalty in return. One of his players told me that the thought of winning a national championship for him gave her goose bumps.

He never engaged me in small talk – it’s fitting that there isn’t a standard quote from Fifield in the University’s release – but his answers to my substantive questions were thoughtful. And I felt that his program was focused on his players, and not him. He was calm and composed on the sidelines in intense situations, whether it was a jubilant win or a heart-breaking loss.

Loyal, thoughtful, calm and focused on his players. In retrospect, it’s easy to see why he inspired loyalty and enjoyed such a successful run.

Brandon Adair overseas

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Two-time D3hoops.com All-American Brandon Adair spent last season playing in Germany, which I was aware of. He blogged about it for a while last season, however, which I was unaware of.

Adair has started blogging again and so far it’s an eye-opening look at the life in Germany, playing and practicing, even some thoughts about personnel moves. Worth keeping an eye on.

And Brandon, best of luck.

Wabash always ranks

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Every year Princeton Review releases a set of rankings that colleges trumpet (“One of the Top Schools in the Country!”) or down play (“Rankings, schmankings”). Here is a quick look at which Division III schools cracked the lists related to sports. I wouldn’t take them too seriously after seeing who made the list of places where intercollegiate sports is supposedly unpopular. But they might help people pass the time through a slow off season.

    Students pack the stadiums

1. University of Florida
14. Wabash College

    Best athletic facilities

1. University of Maryland
3. Wabash College
20. St. Lawrence University

    Intercollegiate sports unpopular or nonexistent

1. Eugene Lang College (NY)
14. University of Chicago
15. NYU
16. SUNY-Purchase
17. Harvey Mudd College (part of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletics)
20. Emerson College

Note: Originally I had shown St. John’s (MN) on this list. The website says St. John’s (NM). I’m not sure if I read it wrong or the site had the letters of the state transposed and fixed it. I assume its the former and I apologize for my mistake. I still question the credence of this list given the inclusion of NYU.

    Jock Schools

1. Clemson University
3. Wabash College

Incidentally Wabash was also ranked #3 in best career/job placement services behind Northeastern (MA) and Claremont McKenna (CA). You can look at the all the rankings, including those not related to sports here.

Homeward bound

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I came out to the East Coast in August of 1990, 17 years old, about to start my freshman year in college.

And other than going home for the summer between that and my sophomore year at Catholic University, I’ve been out here ever since.

It’s been a long 18 years; it’s time to go home. We’re doing our own version of the Mid-Atlantic Shuffle, leaving Northern Virginia in August and moving to Minneapolis.

I’ll miss the vast number of Division III schools there are here on the East Coast, where I can basically stumble over a D-III school every 20 minutes on the highway. I’ve seen 222 Division III football teams play, as near as I can tell, and been in 67 teams’ stadiums. Now I’m looking forward to seeing a whole new group. I’ve been to Hamline’s gym and Macalester’s now-defunct gym, seen St. Ben’s and UW-River Falls, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Platteville. How many Iowa gyms will I get into this year?

There will be a lot of new things to experience.

Like flying to the Final Four. 🙂

So I apologize that it’s been a bit of a quiet offseason around here, other than the silly season with all the coaching changes. We’ve spent a lot of time repairing, painting and packing. I’ll keep the same day job, as sports editor of the Verizon Central Newsroom, and simply work from there instead of Virginia.

Thanks to everyone who has been so hospitable over my years here on the East Coast. Hundreds of SIDs and coaches have made time to help us cover Division III in the past decade. Now I’ll get a different perspective, meet new people and spend a lot more time on I-94 and I-35 rather than I-95 and I-66.

Choosing Division III

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Our friends at the Double-A Zone have asked the question, Who chooses Division III? It’s the NCAA’s official blog, so you have to take that into consideration, but unlike many ways in which the NCAA deals with Division III (can’t get its own playoff brackets right, doesn’t know how many Pool C bids there should be), the blog has a healthy knowledge of Division III, run by former Brandeis baseball player Josh Centor.

In light of the fact that Division II has spent a fair amount of time over the past few years trying to find its identity, there’s now apparently some sort of buzz. For me, I’m not sure what “I Chose Division II” actually means, while Division I’s identity is fairly clear and Division III has staked out the student-athlete high ground as the only purely amateur division (non-scholarship) in college athletics.

However, there seems to be some discussion from commenters, not much of it well-informed, as to what Division III’s identity is. Those people need a good dose of D3sports.com readers to fill them in. (I myself have a comment that is awaiting moderator approval.)

Meanwhile, the core question: Should Division III do more to brand itself? Speaking as someone who has done most of the branding of Division III over the past decade, absolutely. I look at what Division II has done in this area over the past few years, in terms of fancy promotional spots, games on CBS College Sports and football playoffs on ESPN, a full package of streaming video broadcasts of football and basketball, and I am definitely jealous. All Division III fans should be.

Division III should be branding itself. It should not be left to people like us here at D3sports.com or Steve Clay and D3Cast or Robb Modica and D3Scoreboard.

We just wasted a bunch of time and money figuring out Division IV was not the place we really wanted to be. So let’s spruce up our house a little bit while we’re here. Let’s show the rest of college fandom that this is not just glorified intramurals. Let’s get our games out there for people to see.

Why did you choose Division III? Go tell them.

And tell us below.