National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Division III notes
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By Jack Copeland
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
Conferences: Eight institutions in New England are forming a new conference that will begin competition during 2008-09. The New England Athletic Conference will include five current members of the North Atlantic Conference: Bay Path College, Becker College, Elms College, Lesley University and Wheelock College. It also will include Daniel Webster College, currently a member of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, and two current independents, Mitchell College and Newbury College. “The formation of this conference brings together eight institutions that have much in common both athletically and academically,” said Louise McCleary, director of athletics at Elms, who will serve as chair of the conference’s athletics directors’ council. Administrators will work during the coming year to establish operating procedures, a marketing brand and a Web site and will establish a commissioner’s office. The league, which will offer championships in 11 sports, is the third new Division III conference formed within the past 18 months. Members of two previously existing conferences — the Lake Michigan Conference and Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference — merged into the Northern Athletics Conference last year, and the Landmark Conference will begin competition later this year ... Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Conference, which currently has 11 members, will replace the five members departing for the NEAC with two new members, and will continue operations with eight institutions beginning in 2008-09. Green Mountain College is in its final year as a Division III provisional member and Lyndon State College is entering its second provisional year, but plans to apply for a waiver to shorten provisional membership to two years. “Following my site visits and the institutional presentations, it was apparent that the philosophies and commitment to the student-athletes on each campus were in line with our current membership and all will benefit by this future affiliation.” NAC Commissioner Julie Muller said ... Another Pennsylvania Athletic Conference member will move to the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Corporation when Eastern University begins competition in the Freedom Conference during the 2008-09 academic year. The action will increase the corporation’s membership to 15 schools (eight in the Freedom Conference and seven in the Commonwealth Conference). Eastern, a charter member of the 16-year-old PAC, will make the move into the Freedom Conference with current conference mates Alvernia College and College Misericordia. “We have long known and competed with the fine institutions comprising (the corporation),” said David Black, president at Eastern. “Importantly, we share their commitment to academic rigor and to the formation of scholar-athletes into ethical people who will lead and influence our complex society.” Eastern recently has increased sports sponsorship, adding programs in men’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s cross country, while also building new outdoor athletics facilities. “I believe that this new affiliation offers our university the best possible opportunity for athletics competition that will be appropriately challenging, while maintaining our goal of minimizing class time missed by our student-athletes due to travel,” said Harry Gutelius, who is ending a five-year tenure as athletics director at Eastern but continuing to serve as a professor and administrator of the institution’s school of education. “I think our new partner colleges will open an excellent set of relationships for our university.”
Facilities: A $1.71 million project to build two new athletics fields is underway at Elms College and scheduled for completion in mid-August. The project includes an artificial-surface field for soccer, field hockey and lacrosse, among other uses, and a new softball field. The new multiuse Field Turf field (including a Musco lighting system) also will be used for early-spring baseball and softball practices and by physical education classes, the intramurals program and the general student population. The softball field features covered dugouts and a batting cage. “One in three Elms College students currently participate in our 15 varsity sports teams, and many of them play more than one sport,” said Russell J. Omer, who chairs the board of trustees at Elms. “In fact, the number of student-athletes has increased 35 percent over the past five years. This dramatic increase in the number of student-athletes gives us cause to renovate our athletics fields so we may better serve our student population.” Athletics Director Louise McCleary said the number of student-athletes has increased by about 75 during the past five years, and the school has hired 11 full-time athletics staff members.
Milestones: Ric Lessmann won his 1,300th game in baseball April 5 (counting victories at the community-college level) when Washington College in St. Louis defeated Westminster College (Missouri). Lessmann, who ended his 14th season with the Bears with a 339-190-1 record, also has coached at Harris-Stowe Teacher’s College and Meramec Community College ... Eric Podbelski notched his 300th career victory in baseball when Wheaton College (Massachusetts), which is in its 10th season of varsity competition, beat the University of Southern Maine May 4. Podbelski, the only baseball coach at the school since it added men’s sports, has coached his teams to nine New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference regular-season titles during those 10 seasons. Wheaton also has appeared seven times in the Division III Baseball Championship, finishing second last year ... Two Plattsburgh State University of New York coaches recorded milestone wins recently. First, Kris Doorey picked up his 100th victory in baseball after six years at the helm April 26 when his team defeated nationally third-ranked State University College at Cortland April 26. On May 10, Sean Cotter collected his 200th win in softball in a victory over Keuka College to open play in the Division III Softball Championship’s Northeast region. The Cardinals ultimately won the regional and advanced for the first time to the championship series in Salem, Virginia. Cotter just completed his eighth year at the school ... Matt LaBranche won his 200th game in baseball April 6 when Western New England College defeated Rivier College.
Miscellaneous: Student-athletes at the nine member institutions of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference collected food items during athletics events, went door to door on campus to solicit donations, and even planned events around holidays such as Halloween in staging its most successful “Help Feed the Hungry” campaign in the six-year history of a partnership with Ministry Health Care. The student-athletes more than doubled last year’s haul by collecting 11,577 items during 2006-07, and efforts at the University of Wisconsin’s Oshkosh and Stout campuses each generated at least 2,000 items. Eight of the conference’s nine member schools posted increases in donations from last year. Each institution distributes the collected items to a food pantry located in its community.
Facilities: A $1.71 million project to build two new athletics fields is underway at Elms College and scheduled for completion in mid-August. The project includes an artificial-surface field for soccer, field hockey and lacrosse, among other uses, and a new softball field. The new multiuse Field Turf field (including a Musco lighting system) also will be used for early-spring baseball and softball practices and by physical education classes, the intramurals program and the general student population. The softball field features covered dugouts and a batting cage. “One in three Elms College students currently participate in our 15 varsity sports teams, and many of them play more than one sport,” said Russell J. Omer, who chairs the board of trustees at Elms. “In fact, the number of student-athletes has increased 35 percent over the past five years. This dramatic increase in the number of student-athletes gives us cause to renovate our athletics fields so we may better serve our student population.” Athletics Director Louise McCleary said the number of student-athletes has increased by about 75 during the past five years, and the school has hired 11 full-time athletics staff members.
Milestones: Ric Lessmann won his 1,300th game in baseball April 5 (counting victories at the community-college level) when Washington College in St. Louis defeated Westminster College (Missouri). Lessmann, who ended his 14th season with the Bears with a 339-190-1 record, also has coached at Harris-Stowe Teacher’s College and Meramec Community College ... Eric Podbelski notched his 300th career victory in baseball when Wheaton College (Massachusetts), which is in its 10th season of varsity competition, beat the University of Southern Maine May 4. Podbelski, the only baseball coach at the school since it added men’s sports, has coached his teams to nine New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference regular-season titles during those 10 seasons. Wheaton also has appeared seven times in the Division III Baseball Championship, finishing second last year ... Two Plattsburgh State University of New York coaches recorded milestone wins recently. First, Kris Doorey picked up his 100th victory in baseball after six years at the helm April 26 when his team defeated nationally third-ranked State University College at Cortland April 26. On May 10, Sean Cotter collected his 200th win in softball in a victory over Keuka College to open play in the Division III Softball Championship’s Northeast region. The Cardinals ultimately won the regional and advanced for the first time to the championship series in Salem, Virginia. Cotter just completed his eighth year at the school ... Matt LaBranche won his 200th game in baseball April 6 when Western New England College defeated Rivier College.Miscellaneous: Student-athletes at the nine member institutions of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference collected food items during athletics events, went door to door on campus to solicit donations, and even planned events around holidays such as Halloween in staging its most successful “Help Feed the Hungry” campaign in the six-year history of a partnership with Ministry Health Care. The student-athletes more than doubled last year’s haul by collecting 11,577 items during 2006-07, and efforts at the University of Wisconsin’s Oshkosh and Stout campuses each generated at least 2,000 items. Eight of the conference’s nine member schools posted increases in donations from last year. Each institution distributes the collected items to a food pantry located in its community.© 2010 The National Collegiate Athletic Association
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