Messages

Other than WKU game having a tough time following things on tourney site. Not getting much help on Valpo either with slow reporting.

I did go to SDSU site & found out they won suspended game 3-2

Went to Pitt site & see although we outhit them 14-8 lost to them this morning.

I assume the W. Michigan game is going, but can;t get any live stats & no info on sites.

Looks like we have been hitting the ball quite well, but have been leaving a lot on base in KEY situations. Maybe someone that went can recap for us when they have time.

Don't know much about the teams we are facing this w/e, except I saw a little blog on W. KY. & they look like a nice team. Not sure how tough of a schedule the teams we are playing have faced, but it looks like only 8 wins between them all. Does anyone know anything about the upcoming games?
Hope we continue on with a good start. The key is to get ready for conference, I do see a 2-3 of our conference teams are playing VERY tough schedules & have been getting beat up a bit [ just from scores I have seen]

How can a conference survive with only 5 teams? What can be done?

Was out of town & didn't see Valpo scores until today, good to see a couple of wins to start off. Not sure if jackson State pitched the pitcher who beat SEMO State, but if they did that was a good win.
The International tie breaker is used in all these early tourney's & is great way for them to keep on schedule & not get behind for other games to follow. It does take some special coaching to win those games. It is almost a must to score a run & key is to get 2 in your half of inning. I have seen tie-breakers themself go on 3, 4, 5, innings before getting a winner.
Looks like tourney coming up in 2 weeks for Valpo will be a little tougher.
Did anyone see some of the teams that Horizon teams were playing this week, some were really big time. Wisconsin_GB was tied 7-7 with Alabama & Al. had to put in their #1 pitcher to finally get the win. What a shocker that would have been.

With the start of the season this w/e, thought they would have a preview of the season or a coaches blog. for those close to the subject, how are things looking for opening week.
I see jackson State & central Ar. as the toughest, they both have a good pitcher & quite a few players back.
I would think Belmont & WIU should be a couple of wins. I know Valpo will get the hits, Joy,Duncan & Marinic for starters.Pitching will be the key & will need a couple to put any kind of a string together.
Maybe if local paper had or has an article, someone can post it.
Good luck to the team this w/e.

I don't know how our pitching looked this Fall, will have to leave that up to Boomdad or others who watched the games against the D-1 competition . We do have some very good hitters coming back & Joy coming back was a HUGE plus.
Loyola with Gardner as #1 pitcher & Ciran #2 should be tough. I think Green Bay will be MUCH better & will bare watching & YTS seems to be on the upswing.

I saw where Loyola signed a couple of Middle-infielders from 2013/14 [ from Bev Bandits ] that could solidify them for 3-4 years up the middle.

College Sports Madness.com added college softball [ I think 2nd year ] & picked pre season All Conference teams. Valpo had Ichyama & Duncan on 1st team & Marinec on 2nd.
Loyola had most represented.

Actually I believe its 19 and 17 (Bowling and FB are outside the HL). 2011-2012 was the breakthrough year for titles.  Prior to that the benchmark was just to have enough wins to make the cut for the post-season HL tournaments that determined who would get the NCAA slots. 

Regular Season Men's Basketball Title (2012)
Regular Season Men's Soccer Title (2011)
Regular Season and HL Tournament Women's Softball championships, Plus NCAA 1st round (2012)
Regular Season and HL Tournament Men's Baseball championships, Plus NCAA 1st round (2012)

VB has always been near the top but has never won an HL crown to my knowledge

Thanks for info. So previous to the 2012-13 season, Valpo was in Horizon 5 seasons.
17 teams  x 5 = 85 possible titles and we have won 4. I would hope we could do better.
We could win MBB this season and have baseball & softball coming in Spring [ both strong programs since being in Horizon], any others where we could add to our total?

Need to light a fire under the total athletic picture imo. Go Valpo

VULB- I agree with your post.
You listed 20 sports[ 18 in Horizon] Since being in Horizon, do you know how many conference championships we have won? How many conference tourneys? How many NCAA tourneys? I know for NCAAs that on swimming,track, it might be individuals that qualify, but we still could have won conference.
IMO, the teams that have been a threat since we joined the conference are MBB, VB, baseball & softball [ VB probably won the most? ] [MBB/SB been most competitive ].

Wonder what the top schools would be in Horizon if you consider all sports? Might have been Butler?

Unfortunately, Valpo Football is the one weak link in the Athletic Department.  It would be great for the university to see significant improvement.......I hope Coach Carlson can do it!!!!!!!  Coach Carlson has a reputation of being a turnaround specialist..........let's hope he can somehow get the job done in these difficult circumstances!!!!!!

I am curious,what sports at Valpo do you consider strong? I would say success would be going to the NCAA [ or PFL Playoff] winning the conference or maybe even being consistently in top 3rd.
I see 3-4 sports that might do this since becoming a member of the Horizon. valpo is a GREAT school & should imo be strong across the board.

Both TCU & Texas had a ton of Freshmen playing this year, i know they were 1 & 2 in B12 & both high in NCAAF.
For teams with players returning, heard yesterday that Wisconsin has only 6-7 srs [ 2rs]. I look for Big 10 to be very good next year.

IMO, many coaches stay around way too long...Joe P, Bowden, etc., why not do like Lou Holtz?

Anyone hear anything on recruiting? Most scholarship schools should be pretty much finished by now.

Not really, it is just getting interesting.  Coaches have a few more days until a 3 week quiet period, where they can't contact the recruit by phone or in person.  Until signing day (early Feb), everything is in play.  With some kids not committing until signing day, other schools that were in the mix now have to sign another player, and so on it goes.  Some recruits are waiting to hear back from the top tier schools (if a scholarship opens) before signing with a lower BCS school, and so on...

Recruiting for the scholarship schools are just getting warmed up - far from over.

You are right, guess I meant that we should pretty much know those being recruited or with intentions to go D-I or II.
I hope we are not waiting until February to make the decisions on who we are going after. there should already be a number of players on our radar & hopefully the coaches spent some time under the Friday night lights watching them.
For my skilled positions [ including LB/DB ], I'd look for kids that make plays/players.
I always get a kick out of coaches that put so much value in size, speed or even to some extend where kids played & miss out on " good football players".
I remember Zach Thomas that walked on at TT & ended up leading the big 12 in tackles 2-3 times & still didn't get picked until the late rounds of NFL [ too short, too small, too slow ] LOL, guess the fact that he could tackle missed the coaches eye somehow [ think he was All-Pro a few Times ]

Been following all the different college FB playoffs [ FB junkie that I am ] & there are some pretty good teams in Indiana. D-3 Franklin was pretty dang good, Indianapolis had a salty D-2 team, Butler is pretty good & on upswing for PFL & NAIA, how about Marian ? We should be able to put together a good team, gotta be all about recruiting. Let's hope coach brings in some good players this year to go with what we have coming back.

Anyone hear anything on recruiting? Most scholarship schools should be pretty much finished by now.

KL3- The loss of the 3 pitchers at Valpo will definitely hurt, they started for 4 years & got better & better. I don't know anything about this years pitching.
We do have some very good hitters coming back and should have good leadership with Joy & Marinec. Duncan could have a monster year with Joy or Marinec batting behind her.
Still, it will take some pitchers to step up? Should be fun, either way.

I would not look at YTS as a sure win. They have both pitchers back & 2 very good players in Rumph & Ingalls. Might want to keep eye on Canada recruit Castiglione & a big slugger from Coal city, Il. We blew them out 2 times last year, but 2 games were 4-3 & 13-12. Loss of Thomas will hurt them.

Should be some good games pre-conference.[ Horizon should be much improved  top to bottom]
Belmont will be better LY.
Dayton & Charleston Southern will be better LY.
Temple will be good this year & Central Ar. pretty salty.
FGU & TN.  & W KY.will be very tough.
Maryland lost Knight the big time pitcher, but will be good.
Iowa State has not been good in past & Valpo shut them down LY, but they are banking on 3 big time recruits, have to wait & see.

As I read many of these posts I smile at how so many accept Valpo being poor or mediocre in SO Many of the sports. Such a great school this should not be the case, I don't get it.

Valpo would have a difficult time in MVC.
They might be top 3 in MBB, top 4 in VB & maybe baseball. Don't know enough about soccer top to bottom in MVC to say. Other sports they would be in deep doo-doo, unless they step up recruiting by a long ways. Track & CC would get killed.

Great site for seeing how competition is doing on top recruits, google up; goldfastpitch.com/verbals- shows 2013-2015 Golds that have signed intents or verbal.

Do you think Valpo could beat either Franklin or Wabash?

My point is if d-3 schools can put great programs on the field, why not Valpo?

It's all about recruiting the right players & there are a lot of very good players out there that I'm sure would love to play at a great school like Valpo, we just have to go get them.

Wabash & Franklin are both D-3 schools in Indiana. I would say if Valpo was as good as either one that they would be at least .500 in PFL. Not to name the great D-3 lutheran colleges in the midwest that would compete in the PFL...don't get it.

 Don't know who said it, but I like this one by a coach with a big losing streak, " At least it makes practice easy all you have to work on is receiving kickoffs & blocking extra points.".

Anyone who watched, how did they do in last weeks scrimmages? With Duncan,Doerfiler,Marinec & Joy all back,they have some pretty good sticks, how did pitching look & new players ?

Do they have a lot coming back for alumni game?

A Lutheran school in Iowa [Wartburg college], won a d-3 championship in 2 different sports in the same day. Winning Woman's indoor track & wrestling, this has NEVER been done at any level in the NCAA.

Great win by Valpo over NMSU,they are a good team with some quality wins this year over likes of Indiana, Tx-El paso, others. NMSU has played a tough schedule & yet Valpo took it to them. Great pitching effort tonight.