The annual Soccer Alumni Game was played this past Saturday night, despite the very real fear of cancellation due to the monsoon that hit the area last week and dumped several inches of rain on Marshall.
Rain in August. In Marshall, Texas. What is the world coming to?
That's a subject for another blog, however. The Soccer Alumni Game is always a big event for men's soccer here, and there was an added attraction this year with the first Women's Soccer Alumni Game. Attendance and participation was a bit down for the women's game, but a lot of that is attributed to the newness of the idea as well as the fact the game was briefly cancelled on Friday before being back on again thanks to Marshall High School's willingness to let us use their turf field in Maverick Stadium.
I missed the game again this year, but I always have a good reason. It's typically played on the final weekend before the season opener, and it's always the last opportunity I have to take my wife on a real date before I go into ETBU hibernation until Christmas. Looking at the schedule, I won't have a Saturday available for anything other than Tiger athletics until the holiday season, so the Alumni Game usually has to take second place on this weekend.
But it's always a popular, exciting game. My good friend and unofficial assistant, Jason Soles, of the ETBU Admissions Office, serves as the coach of the Tiger Alumni. And with the weapons at his disposal, armed with several returning All-Americans from years past, well, Soles likes to claim that the Alumni Game is the toughest game on the Tigers' schedule every year.
This year apparently was no different. The current Tigers clipped the Alumni last season, and for a solid year I've had to listen to my buddy claiming the fix was on. Saturday night, it was former Tiger All-American Bryce Morrow scoring a goal in the opening minutes and then making it stand up for a 1-0 win, giving the Alumni the mythical bragging rights for at least another year.
It's got to be a strange night for Coach Alonzo, too, however. As coach of the current Tigers, the game was started a few years ago as a way to bring the old guard back and also to give the current team a very nice, competitive tuneup heading into the season. Knowing Alonzo, yes, his intention every year is to beat his old guys with his new ones. But also knowing Alonzo, he is full of pride every time he sees the old guys come back and work their magic on the pitch again. After all, there are a few of those alumni who helped bring back-to-back NCCAA national titles to ETBU in 1998 and 1999, and memories are always nice -- especially the good ones.
The Tigers will open on the road this Saturday over at Texas College in Tyler, and ETBU actually won't have a men's soccer home game until Sept. 13. The ladies will kick things off with home games Friday and Saturday, the first home games on campus for the new school year. Hope to see you there.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Back In Business
Well, it's mid-August. The fall athletes are back on campus. And it's cloudy and rainy outside. Everything is back to normal in East Texas...
The 2008 Tiger football team has been on campus now for about a week, getting ready for the season opener on Sept. 6 against St. John's. It's an exciting time to be an ETBU football fan. I didn't really say much here on the blog last spring about it, but this is a big game for our program. It's about as big as a season opening, non-conference game can be, I guess.
When you talk about signature programs in college football, you think of a few like Notre Dame, maybe Texas, maybe USC, etc. In Division III, there are a handful of those kinds of teams. St. John's is one of them. Their coach (John Gagliardi) is a legend. He's been at SJU now for over 55 years and is averaging about two losses -- TWO losses -- per season. That's absolutely ridiculous. The Johnnies are national title contenders every season, including this one.
ETBU coach Mark Sartain talked about putting the Tigers on a national stage when he took the job back in December of 2006. There's two ways of doing that -- one, of course, is to make the playoffs, which we've done only once in eight years. The only other way is to schedule top national opponents, such as St. John's. This is the Tigers' opportunity, for one big weekend, to participate in a true national game of the week.
Why is it a national game of the week? You've got the established power taking on a team looking to head in that direction. You've got North vs. South. You've got Minnesota against Texas. Our athletes against their football players. Whatever comparison you want to make, it applies to this game.
The Tigers will get another dose of this in a couple of months when we go out to California to face Azusa Pacific, which is a top-notch nationally-reknowned NAIA program. Texas against California. That one will also carry some juicy storylines in that regard.
I've had the opportunity to go out and watch a couple of practices already, enough to have a first-look opinion. The Tigers are interesting. The coaches welcomed 146 players last Wednesday for fall camp, including about 60 freshmen and a dozen or so transfers. We typically take media guide photos on reporting day, so I had the opportunity to see these guys up close.
Physically -- and again this is my opinion -- this is the most impressive-looking ETBU team we've had in nine years. I'm talking about just pure physical, athletic-looking guys. Fans of the Tigers will be shocked to see this team in uniform compared to some in the past. They look like -- and not meaning to slight anyone who's worn an ETBU uniform in the past, by any means -- but these are just different-looking players.
None of that translates into a single win, touchdown, or even first down, unfortunately. But ETBU should be a much more explosive, exciting team to watch this season -- on both sides of the ball. If the opener were today, there would be 10 players who have started games at ETBU on the field on defense. Offensively, the team speed is three times better than last, with an offensive line that returns five starters. And there's a deep class of talent at quarterback, led by incumbent starter Stephen Oehlschaleger.
We are expecting an exciting year. You have to practice and perform in games, of course, and the Tigers have their work cut out for them with arguably the toughest schedule the program has ever faced. But it will be interesting to see this team unveil itself in less than three weeks up there in Minnesota.
The 2008 Tiger football team has been on campus now for about a week, getting ready for the season opener on Sept. 6 against St. John's. It's an exciting time to be an ETBU football fan. I didn't really say much here on the blog last spring about it, but this is a big game for our program. It's about as big as a season opening, non-conference game can be, I guess.
When you talk about signature programs in college football, you think of a few like Notre Dame, maybe Texas, maybe USC, etc. In Division III, there are a handful of those kinds of teams. St. John's is one of them. Their coach (John Gagliardi) is a legend. He's been at SJU now for over 55 years and is averaging about two losses -- TWO losses -- per season. That's absolutely ridiculous. The Johnnies are national title contenders every season, including this one.
ETBU coach Mark Sartain talked about putting the Tigers on a national stage when he took the job back in December of 2006. There's two ways of doing that -- one, of course, is to make the playoffs, which we've done only once in eight years. The only other way is to schedule top national opponents, such as St. John's. This is the Tigers' opportunity, for one big weekend, to participate in a true national game of the week.
Why is it a national game of the week? You've got the established power taking on a team looking to head in that direction. You've got North vs. South. You've got Minnesota against Texas. Our athletes against their football players. Whatever comparison you want to make, it applies to this game.
The Tigers will get another dose of this in a couple of months when we go out to California to face Azusa Pacific, which is a top-notch nationally-reknowned NAIA program. Texas against California. That one will also carry some juicy storylines in that regard.
I've had the opportunity to go out and watch a couple of practices already, enough to have a first-look opinion. The Tigers are interesting. The coaches welcomed 146 players last Wednesday for fall camp, including about 60 freshmen and a dozen or so transfers. We typically take media guide photos on reporting day, so I had the opportunity to see these guys up close.
Physically -- and again this is my opinion -- this is the most impressive-looking ETBU team we've had in nine years. I'm talking about just pure physical, athletic-looking guys. Fans of the Tigers will be shocked to see this team in uniform compared to some in the past. They look like -- and not meaning to slight anyone who's worn an ETBU uniform in the past, by any means -- but these are just different-looking players.
None of that translates into a single win, touchdown, or even first down, unfortunately. But ETBU should be a much more explosive, exciting team to watch this season -- on both sides of the ball. If the opener were today, there would be 10 players who have started games at ETBU on the field on defense. Offensively, the team speed is three times better than last, with an offensive line that returns five starters. And there's a deep class of talent at quarterback, led by incumbent starter Stephen Oehlschaleger.
We are expecting an exciting year. You have to practice and perform in games, of course, and the Tigers have their work cut out for them with arguably the toughest schedule the program has ever faced. But it will be interesting to see this team unveil itself in less than three weeks up there in Minnesota.
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