Alderson Broaddus Basketball

[BlueBlood]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Wow, breaking news on Wheeling Jesuit:

https://wtov9.com/news/local/wheelin...ncial-exigency

This all after a big contribution last year from the diocese. This is not a good situation for Wheeling Jesuit. Financial exigency is about as bad as it gets. They may have to go D3 or drop a bunch of sports.

Wow. I remember years ago (when houses were appreciating crazily), we refinanced our house twice in about a 2-year period. Our kids were little and my wife wasn't back to work yet. We were spending more than I was making and we pulled money out of the house equity both times just to stay afloat. This reminds me of that. They just got a bailout last year and they are already back in the same situation. Not good.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

They aren't going to get a bailout from the diocese this year after this article concerning the WV bishop:

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/r...4bc6e8af4.html

[UFOILERFAN]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Wonder how much money they put out to start the football program.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I don't know why the school announced it. But there is a reason. Wheeling Jesuit is going to do something pretty drastic soon. What it is? I have no idea.

But you don't announce something like this for no reason. This hurts getting kids come to your school for the upcoming year. It also causes a bit of panic for current students and can cause them to transfer out. I watched a news story last night concerning this. It appears the student body is not sure what is going on. That is not good. At least when AB had some financial problems a few years back, admin from the school met with the student body for a statement and then a Q & A. It appears Wheeling just sent out this release. I guess I go back to what I have said before....I believe May and June could be interesting times. Maybe I am wrong. But with Malone dropping football and now this, it could make for some more shakeup.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Congrats to the baseball team for splitting a 4-game series @ Walsh this past weekend. I watched some of the games. I thought they played well . Tough to lose the last game in 12 innings But our spring sports needed some type of success. Hopefully that spring boards the baseball team this spring in the conference.

I will type some stuff up when we sign some players. We have some offers out.

I have got it confirmed that Bruce Spruell is still up there after sitting out and plans to play next season. He averaged 11.3 ppg and 4 assists per game at SRU.

We lose one player in Mike Davis. That is a big, big loss. He could score, defend and rebound. He was the only senior.

We return the following:

Malik Bocook (JR), a 2nd-team G-MAC selection, who averaged 10.5 ppg and 9.4 rpg. The 6'4" forward came on after missing the first month of the season with a knee injury.

Tyler Golphin (FR) averaged 10.9 ppg last year while trying to play the point. I believe the team will look to move the athletic 6'2" player to the wing next year.

JUCO transfer Coye Campbell came on strong in the second half of the season averaging 10.9 ppg. His outside game was pretty deadly the last month of the season.

6'5" David Shriver had a good freshman campaign averaging 10.4 ppg and 3.1 rpg. He shot 82 of 201 from behind the arc for a 41% shooting average.

6'5" forward Bryan Polanco (JR) had his moments in games. In other games, he disappeared. He averaged 6.6 ppg and 5 rpg.

KJ Walker (FR) did well the second half of the season and started the last month. Cleveland Horton, Gavin Williams and John Grayson gave us some good bench minutes.

Might be a reach....but we did it with James Newberry in the 80s.....Brandon Simmons does have a semester of eligibility remaining. The 6'9" center averaged 13.5 ppg and 9.5 rpg before crashing in academics. I guess you could always play him second semester if he is even around.

I think we have to recruit a couple of JUCOs/transfers especially to fill Davis' slot. We need more size too. With Spruell and Campbell and Shriver out on the perimeter, we could use Davis' schollie on a big. I would say we will hit the JUCO route pretty hard.

I am also glad as a school that we are getting a little progressive as time moves on. This was good to see the school tweet this out:

https://twitter.com/ABU1871/status/1107648956287369216

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Congrats to the baseball team for defeating Ohio Dominican twice today over in Columbus. Big wins as ODU was G-MAC pre-season favorite.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Here is ABU's professor of environmental science Dr. Brandi Gaertner's website. She has conducted research on the impact climate change has on evapotranspiration. The primary purose of her study was to identify how climate change has impacted the length of the growing season, evapotransipiration, and surface flow of rivers which directly affects water resources in the central Appalachian region. This area is responsible for providing 30% of drinking water to downstream cities such as the one I live in. Simply put, the higher the temperatures, the longer trees stay green, the more water trees use, and the less water available for rivers and drinking water. Due to climate change, trees develop leaves earlier in the spring and stay green longer into the fall. Her article, which is excellent, finds that since 1982, the growing season has increased by an average of 22 days, which has led to a 0.5 mm increase in evapotranspiration. In turn, that makes less drinking water available. Her research and article are excellent and I am glad she teaches at Alderson Broaddus.

brandigaertner.weebly.com

We also have a human rights activist speaking at graduation. I think that is great considering we have a more culturally diverse student-body and teaching staff than ever before.

https://ab.edu/news/ab-announces-hum...ement-speaker/

The first three articles on Alderson Broaddus' website actually give me hope and a sense of pride. We aren't stuck in ideas from the 1930s. We actually have some progressive thinking on campus from students and faculty. There is nothing wrong with this on a Christian campus I might add.

What is going on with Wheeling Jesuit? It appears the news keeps getting worse. Some of the West Liberty posters are stating that their athletics may get some bleak news soon. They were posting that they were receiving some info from Wheeling athletic people over on the football board.

AB baseball split with a good ODU program. The softball team split with Lake Erie. Acro and Tumbling defeated WV Wesleyan which is always good. I saw track and field set a bunch of school records this past weekend. They had a decent pre-season G-MAC ranking. Hopefully the spring will boost our standing in the conference.

[JDonAB92]

where we do not have the resources to bridge the gap between highly discounted enrollment, associated academic and athletic programming costshttp://www.theintelligencer.net/news...-in-2019-2020/

[UFOILERFAN]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I really don't see how their athletic department survives.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

We had a good JUCO visit this past week.

Baseball swept D&E on the road and took 3 out of 4 from Cedarville this past week. We are 9-5 in the conference and sit at 3rd place. I thought softball competed real hard against ODU which is undefeated. The girls are playing more competitive softball this year which bodes well. Track and field definitely has some guys that can compete in conference especially our relays. Both lacrosse teams look like club sports. I guess we can hope to defeat OVU and D&E in those sports if that.

[BlueBlood]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I really don't see how their athletic department survives.

I'm not sure how a school survives by only offering 7 majors.

I've spent entirely too much time thinking about this situation - considering I have no ties at all to WJU. I thought about it several times this weekend - not because of WJU, but because its an issue all small schools are dealing with (mostly behind closed doors) - including a lot of our own conference membership. The issues are real and schools are dealing with it in different ways. Some are expanding academic programs, some are cutting programs (WJU). Some are adding sports (and practically making up new sports) to add enrollment, some are cutting sports (Malone). Tuition discounting probably hides a lot of issues. We tend to think of the WJUs, the Lake Eries, the Urbanas and he OVUs when we think of super small enrollment schools that could likely be in peril with one or two bad moves. However, I really have no idea how much discounting some of the G-MAC's larger (but still small) schools like Cedarville, Findlay and Tiffin are doing. If the books are starting not to balance, they could be in just as much peril.

I have two daughters that are choosing colleges. Neither is looking at Cedarville (despite my love for the school). One is leaning towards Liberty in VA. Like Cedarville, it is Baptist and its student body is geographically diverse. Unlike Cedarville, it has a "bigger college feel" and has FBS football. The other daughter wants to go to USF here in Tampa because it is the best economic play - a good education with the fewest out of pocket dollars. Both girls are considering the opposite school and still may sway their sister. In either case, whether choosing "education + the experience", or "education + pure economics", CU is getting boxed out. I'm not sure that I'm a perfect test study, but it does give me pause when I consider what my kids are looking for in concert with what I see happening at WJU, at Malone, at St. Joes (IN), etc.

Also, its not lost on me that JDon just said that a couple of AB teams reminded him of club-level athletics. With so many small colleges using non-scholarship or partial-scholarship student athlete enrollment to help keep the doors open, I would think that the level of play nation-wide at small schools has to become watered down at some point. Adding to this factor is that in today's economy, a lot of decent HS athletes (who realize they aren't going to play D1 or even get really solid money at a school they want to go to at D2) are choosing to hang up the cleats/sneakers and start "the rest of their life " by going the economic route that my second daughter is leaning toward. This opens the door for less-stellar athletes to fill those shoes at the small-school level. Again, in my own personal situation - having kids this age - I have been shocked several times this year when my daughters tell me that "so and so" got a scholarship (or at least an offer to be on the team) to play "X" sport at a small school. Meanwhile, I have been equally shocked a few times when they tell me that one of their more accomplished schoolmates/teammates is choosing to forgo their opportunity to go to a small school and play college sports and instead are going the commuting-to-USF route (or going two years to a CC with the intention of then transferring to another university).

Like I said, I've spent entirely too much time thinking about these issues.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

AB added 14 sports in the "Creehan era". I realize not all sports are going to be competitive. I get that some are to add enrollment numbers but there are pockets in this country where those sports are popular. Men's and women's lacrosse comes to mind. We draw students from some pretty affluent areas for these sports. We aren't competitive. But if we make coin for the school with these student-athletes, then I am fine with it.

Acro and Tumbling looks to be a very good add to our athletic roster. I think wrestling is fine too.

Football = has certainly added numbers to the school. We are competitive and it gives kids at school something to do on Saturdays. This has certainly been a good add but at a cost.

We have had a swimming pool for a long time. We had 6 women on the swimming roster and 2 men. This is an iffy to me. I don't mind it because their schedule is mostly comprised of local schools in the state of WV or nearby schools. But the numbers for the teams aren't good. Having 2 kids on a roster is pretty darn bad.

We dropped tennis after a few short years. They were not competitive. Sad because the school owns a decent set of tennis courts.

Men's Volleyball was started and I never understood why. We finished this past season losing every match and with 9 guys on the roster. The big issue here is that we really have to spend some coin on travel as very few schools nearby have this sport. That was always the issue with me on this sport. They went to NY, PA, Missouri, NC, SC, etc. to get hammered in matches. This is different from swimming where we traveled 1 to 2 hours for our away matches

Men's and women's golf. The numbers on the rosters are actually pretty decent. The men's team does not do that well but the women are okay. It seems like a good fit for the school.

Rugby = I guess the jury is out, but how many nearby schools have the sport. There has to be an insurance cost here more than swimming, golf, etc. I have no clue why this sport was even started.

Sprint football = I really don't know. I don't see a lot of schools nearby that have it. Maybe the numbers we get for the sport offset travel expenses.

I think having some sports that kids want to be a part of is fine with me. I think you have to have some numbers. Golf has 14 on the roster and I think that makes it pretty good. Men's volleyball just looks like a flounder. I do think ABU's athletic department needs a new vision and direction. Our current athletic director has applied for other jobs. He wants to coach football with little success in his applications. Why is that? I just feel we have a lot of sports in our athletic department to manage for a school our size. I don't agree with him taking a "sabbatical" to coach football in Utah.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I'm not sure how a school survives by only offering 7 majors.

I think they are cutting a lot to make it look like a good bid for it to become a branch campus of WVU. I could be wrong. But Joe Manchin had a vision of cutting down the number of schools when he was governor of WV before. That was his vision. He wants to run for governor again and I believe he will and I believe he will win.

[BlueBlood]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

JDon, I would bet that all of the sports were added with an eye for boosting enrollment - its just that some sports have been more successful than others. (I guess with success having two measuring sticks - butts in the seat and success on the field)

I'm totally fine with small schools building enrollment by adding a lot of sports. Given the difficulties for small private schools these days, if sports allows schools to stay open, I'm all for it. I'm pretty sure I would do it if I were the president of a school that was losing enrollment. At the same time, I think schools need to be looking for other avenues to boost their marketability, because I'm not convinced that you can count on the "I really really want to play college athletics - even if it means going to a smaller school than I wanted to / going to a school I didn't know existed / going to a location I would have never thought of otherwise / I'm willing to pay more in tuition money" method lasting forever.

I do think that Creehan-method (I'll call it that because I forget the guys name from Adrian College that started it) has worked. I also think there has to be a law of diminishing returns at some point too. As more schools utilize the methodology, I think the overall specialness and effectiveness for all schools probably lessons - as does the average quality of athlete. Also, a lot of the schools in D2 that are adding sports for enrollment purposes aren't offering the full allotment of scholarships allowed by the NCAA. So, they will be fighting an uphill battle for competitiveness.

If a school is relying solely on sports and doesn't have a second or third enrollment driver, it runs the risk of closing as soon as the sports craze dies. I know that I'm preaching to the choir here - you and I traditionally agree on far more than we disagree on.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I do think that Creehan-method (I'll call it that because I forget the guys name from Adrian College that started it) has worked. I also think there has to be a law of diminishing returns at some point too. As more schools utilize the methodology, I think the overall specialness and effectiveness for all schools probably lessons - as does the average quality of athlete. Also, a lot of the schools in D2 that are adding sports for enrollment purposes aren't offering the full allotment of scholarships allowed by the NCAA. So, they will be fighting an uphill battle for competitiveness.

If a school is relying solely on sports and doesn't have a second or third enrollment driver, it runs the risk of closing as soon as the sports craze dies. I know that I'm preaching to the choir here - you and I traditionally agree on far more than we disagree on.

I think there is some good and bad at AB. I do think some of the student-athletes come to AB for primarily academic reasons. I looked briefly at the bios of men's lacrosse, golf and lacrosse. I would say that almost all are at AB for their major, they like the type of school-environment and as a kicker, they have an opportunity to play a sport they like (and likely wouldn't have an opportunity to play it elsewhere. I think the academics of these guys are probably pretty decent and they are there primarily for academic reasons. I am sure there are quite a bit of students that come to play a sport. I am not saying those are the only sports like that, women's volleyball has some good successes in the academic field. But I was just highlighting those. I agree that it can't be the total focus of a school. I think we might have gone too much that route (but maybe out of necessity).

With some of our recent success stories for the school especially in Physician Assistant program and the sciences, I believe that helps. I hope. The business department seems to really be at a good level compared to the past. We had to cut certain majors and quite frankly they were good moves. I know cutting a lot of the music majors was a tough call, but there were not a lot in some of those majors and quite frankly, the graduates from those departments were not giving much back. AB was long known for its medical majors and science majors. I think getting the business department rolling will help a private school.

Talking to people I know up there, retention has been a problem over the years. I don't know if that has improved, but it certainly needed to. Cost of schools does come in to play there.

We seem to be a bit low to me in terms of enrollment. I think we need around 1100 to be considered good. We have three similar institutions right next to each other in D&E and WV Wesleyan. I don't see us all surviving ten years from now. I see where Salem has pretty good numbers, but I don't know how reliable those are. There is talk in WV of Glenville State becoming a 2-year school for WVU. They have low numbers for a state instituion (1243). There was a report that urged making Glenville that and combining Concord with Bluefield State.

I worry for my school. I do think we have good leadership right now. He also has a financial background and administration background. He really got us thru a financial storm.I know we aren't out of the woods, but it seems to have calmed down. Securing a good loan for the school and a good interest rate seems to have helped.I will note that Wheeling had good academics (as good as it gets) but they were mismanaged over the years especially with Acker in charge. ABU seems to market itself better than ever. That may or may not help, but I like what some of the people do with social media, with the great photography and video we have, and getting information out about the school (success stories). I just don't think WV can support so many higher institutions over time. I think 10 years from now that WV will have cut down on the number of higher ed schools.