Article on the future of the MEC

[Sportsnut]

Re: Article on the future of the MEC

Knowing the locations of many of the MEC schools I don't think Frostburg will have any trouble recruiting and being a contender within several years for both football and basketball. The Baltimore/Washington area is full of good athletes.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: Article on the future of the MEC

I would hope that a former SID has better sources than this board, but I guess you never know.

You'd be amazed how often news breaks on here long before in the media. This is the leading news source for D2 sports ... at least the major ones.

Don't forget our schools are all in podunk towns. The schools essentially run the media and call the shots of what gets in and what doesn't.

Many, many stories get tipped on this board. Some, of course, are total b.s., but, ...

[JDonAB92]

Re: Article on the future of the MEC

This author has some validity and inside information.

Duane Carpenter is a former SID at WV Wesleyan. He also worked along side Jesse Skiles at Wesleyan. Skiles was recently hired as AD at Glenville State but was a long-time track/cross-country coach at WV Wesleyan. Skiles has been around the WVIAC/MEC a long, long time. He is well-known and respected as a coach. Skiles also worked as a sports writer for this publication and the Clarksburg paper.

I would say Carpenter has a little more pulse on the situation than most writers in the state. Some of these smaller papers near the institutions actually know people that work in the athletic departments and the information tends to be a little more credible.

[boatcapt]

Re: Article on the future of the MEC

Knowing the locations of many of the MEC schools I don't think Frostburg will have any trouble recruiting and being a contender within several years for both football and basketball. The Baltimore/Washington area is full of good athletes.

It will be interesting to see this play out. Frostburg has the in state advantage that should put them in a very good position when recruiting against they fellow MEC and PSAC teams. Also their apparent ability to give in-state tuition to student athletes from out of state would be a huge advantage.

Watching DII over the years, it seems the major difference between a good team and a bad one is the quality of the Head Coach. It's been shown on numerous occasions that a new GOOD HC can come into what was assumed to be a very bad program and turn them around seemingly overnight. Equally, a poor HC can take a team loaded with individual talent and do next to nothing with them.

Fitzgerald at Frostburg seems to be a very good football coach from an X's and O's standpoint and they have been very successful at D3 recruiting. If he can make the shift to IDing and recruiting DII level athletes, they could become good in football rather quickly.

Basketball on the other hand, I think will be a problem. Yes, they have the same recruiting advantages as the football team but they are starting at a much worse place and they have a new HC who really hasn't proven all that good...particularly as a coach for a men's team. Who knows, he may end up being the second coming of Crutch but more likely, he will struggle.

Also to consider and perhaps even the MOST important factor, how does the alumni base react to this change and do they realize they need to donate specifically to the athletic department to fund athletic schollys? D3 scholarships for athletes in many ways is a wink and nod shell game were athletes seem to always get particular "academic" or "diversity" based scholarships. Alumni simply donate to the college and the college funds these schollys in accordance with their internal procedures. Not that way with athletic schollys. I believe it is the same way in MD, but most states there is a bright line between athletic scholly funding and academic schollys with most (many?) states requiring athletic schollys to be funded 100% from donations made specifically to the athletic department. If the alumni either don't know that they need to change how they donate OR don't really support the move to DII, Frostburg may have to limit their athletic scholly level and that would have direct effect on the field.