Should Jamestown be accepted into the NSIC?

[Stanger86]

Football now, I see them always struggling. if they get the right coach he'll be gone soon.

Honestly, I've thought Tom Dosch might be the eventual next guy there if a change happens. Might be able to get them at least to where Northern was for years.

[Stanger86]

I think the local/regional recruiting bit has been blown out of proportion. Of course, "locking down your area" is simply unrealistic, especially at this level. Sometimes, no matter how hard you recruit a player from your area (or even recruits with legacy ties to your school), they want to go elsewhere. But I think the important part is that teams put in the effort, and hopefully your team isn't so in the toilet that a player actually gives the school a fair chance.

I give a couple of examples on the basketball side: one men's and one women's:
-Brayson Boike is joining the SMSU men's basketball program this fall. Despite being "the local school", it would have been easy for SMSU to just bypass him in recruiting because his dad went to Northern State and multiple brothers played at Augie. But they targeted him early, and he ended up staying close to home.
-About 10-15 years ago, Shaunteva Ashley was a big time player in WBB. I don't know if SMSU even recruited her or if she just looked past us because the program was in the toilet, but she ended up being a major difference-maker at Augie.

That doesn't mean you don't look further than your own region during recruiting, but I also have noticed some SMSU teams make a concerted effort to recruit somewhat regionally. Everyone on the SMSU WBB team is within 180 miles of campus. They're not all SW MN, in fact, hardly any of them are. But it's still recruiting kids close enough to keep that connection, but yet far enough to where they feel like they're not staying home. Not quite as tight of a circle, but most of SMSU's MBB recruiting is concentrated within a roughly 4-hour radius. VB has a pretty local focus, but the ones not "local" are also not too far away. Is it coincidence that these programs are three of SMSU's best in the past ten-plus years? It might be, but I think there are also other factors to this that are at least worth exploring.

It just gives a higher hit rate at some schools compared to others. Friends and family can travel to games easier if you are driving in from 5 hours away as opposed to taking a 3 hour flight and then taking your rental another 3 hours to get to the school. It also helps if the student athlete gets homesick over the course of the season and just needs to get home to rejuvenate. Somewhere like CSP, sure it's probably easier to just recruit wherever because the airport is right there. Then again, maybe it also helps explain part of why they struggle with attendance so much despite being in easily the biggest market.

[SW_Mustang]

My point was - SMSU volleyball picks up a lot of talent that I would consider to be local. I never meant to imply that rosters are exclusively from Marshall, or SWMN - or that we shouldn't look elsewhere - or that we didn't look elsewhere - or that talent from those regions can't go elsewhere either. I implied the same for a few other teams I keep an eye on.

I will concede - I shouldn't have lumped UMD, WSU, and SCSU in with the other teams I follow more closely. I also don't know anything about basketball nor do I claim too - I was talking about volleyball only. Each sport is a different beast - and I think I said that, and I think we all know that.

Look - this is a message board. We're painting with broad strokes here. Things get lost in context. We're not sitting around the dinner table hammering this stuff out with fluid conversation. I hope we all realize that.

Now - given I retracted my claim about UMD/WSU/SCSU - my original claim was:

-SMSU picks up a lot of talent in an area I consider to be local.
-CSP picks up a lot of talent in the Twin Cities area.
-NSU and AU pick up a lot of talent in South Dakota
-WSC picks up a lot of talent out of Nebraska

According to the NSIC's preseason players to watch list:

-SMSU McKenzie Tolk, Minneota, MN
-CSP Cassie Sieling Bloomington, MN
-NSU Abbey Schauer, Harrisburg, SD
-AU Sydney Tims Sioux Falls, SD
-WSC Channalee Robles, Norfolk, NE

We can go around and around on the significance of this data, nitpick what my original claim was, etc. etc. I understand how anecdotal information works. But the NSIC seems to agree with the claim I made before this list was released.

(And to ruin someone's "gotcha" moment- I know Schauer was originally an SMSU commit - I've seen her play before)

Back to the regular chaos. I got a hot dog waiting in the other room that requires my attention.

[SW_Mustang]

I also want to clarify one other point I made - the reason I don't follow club/HS volleyball is just due to time.

I didn't want anyone to read that and assume I was dogging on the athletes.

[laker]

Are you ready? Looks like a nice stadium at Jamestown.

Jamestown Football on X: "We love to hearing this… FOOTBALL. IS. BACK‼️ #JimmiePride | #ChopAndCarry https://t.co/wAPhoNgEJX" / X

[vikingfaithful]

Are you ready? Looks like a nice stadium at Jamestown.

Jamestown Football on X: "We love to hearing this… FOOTBALL. IS. BACK‼️ #JimmiePride | #ChopAndCarry https://t.co/wAPhoNgEJX" / X

Sweet little stadium! No track, sunk down in a bowl and well landscaped. Congratulations Jimmies.

[Purple Mav Man]

Are you ready? Looks like a nice stadium at Jamestown.

Jamestown Football on X: "We love to hearing this… FOOTBALL. IS. BACK‼️ #JimmiePride | #ChopAndCarry https://t.co/wAPhoNgEJX" / X

Is that cheer camp?

Nice little facility, probably keeps some of the wind away.

[Stanger86]

Looks like a nice stadium at Jamestown.

Honestly, in my own rankings, I'd probably have it similar to where I had Upper Iowa's Eischeid Stadium.....which was pretty high.

[laker]

Honestly, in my own rankings, I'd probably have it similar to where I had Upper Iowa's Eischeid Stadium.....which was pretty high.

I was at the old stadium and then the redone one. I thought that they did a great job with it. The visitor's side was much improved. My biggest complaint there was lack of parking. I liked the little pond on the northeast end.

[vikingfaithful]

Is that cheer camp?

Nice little facility, probably keeps some of the wind away.

Cheer camp...A bunch of burly young men chanting Jimmies in unison. Reminds me of the Mickey mouse song. M -I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Gawd I showing my age in my posts the last 2 days.

[WSUWarriorFan]

Cheer camp...A bunch of burly young men chanting Jimmies in unison. Reminds me of the Mickey mouse song. M -I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Gawd I showing my age in my posts the last 2 days.

Mickey Mouse March? I remember playing that song for 5th grade marching band.

[Millsy]

Mickey Mouse March? I remember playing that song for 5th grade marching band.

When the Red Line Swingers, the volunteer pep band for hockey, were active at Bemidji State, they would play/sing it every time an opponent had to skate to the penalty box.

[laker]

Mickey Mouse March? I remember playing that song for 5th grade marching band.

I remember what Annette grew up to be.

[njmav1]

This thread is like a box of chocolates.

[SW_Mustang]

Augustana gets the privilege of being the first team to host the Jimmies with an XC meet, then Bemidji with Golf.

The countdown begins...(?)