D3football Daily Dose

Having already Dosed on the Atlantic Indoor Football League, here’s another place where former Division III players are still playing the game they love.

Reggie Hayes’ most recent column in the Fort Wayne (IN) News Sentinel focused on former Defiance College cornerback Scott Heighland who plays for the city’s team in the United Indoor Football League.

Heighland isn’t the only Division III player on a UIFL roster. Hayes’ column also mentions Coe College alum and 2002 D3football.com All-American Fred Jackson. Jackson leads the league in touchdowns with 31, only 16 in front of the league’s number two.

Players from across the Division III landscape — Coe, Lakeland, Montclair State, Mount Union, Union, Washington & Jefferson, UW-Whitewater to name a few – dot UIFL rosters.

Plus the UIFL answered the eternal question pondered by philosophers and astrophysicists for years — “Where’s the Beef?” (A: Omaha)

Despite not getting any points from football, Williams holds a comfortable lead in the NACDA Director’s Cup standings, 142.25 points ahead of UW-La Crosse.

The standings, which are based on national finishes in various sports, major and minor, are as follows:

1 Williams 739.75
2 UW-La Crosse 597.5
3 UW-Stevens Point 582.75
4 Washington U. 508.75
5 Middlebury 499
6 Trinity (Texas) 482
7 Calvin* 456
8 New Jersey 443.5
9 Springfield 407
10 Wartburg 395
11 Amherst 379.5
12 Wheaton (Ill.) 355.5
13 Emory* 345
14 Geneseo State* 334
15 Messiah* 330
* — does not sponsor football

Williams gained its winter points from fourth-place finishes nationally in women’s track and men’s and women’s swimming. The Ephs finished 12th in wrestling and 14th in the ever-popular women’s skiing, though that accounts for just 24 points.

Linfield, which won the Division III football title, got 100 points for football and is ranked 94th with 120.5 points, one-half point behind No. 93 St. John’s, which is sure to make fans of both schools… uhm, happy. Linfield finished 53rd in women’s track and field for the other 20.5 points.

Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in up to 18 sports: nine women’s and nine men’s.

One of the best and worst things about football is that all of the games are basically played within a 24-hour span of each other.

It’s great because everyone is playing at more or less the same time, the information comes in fast and furious, and it makes Saturdays a load of fun. It’s bad, however, because it makes it difficult to see more than one game per week.

Well, for those on the east coast, you have a rare opportunity to get three games in in the same weekend, and it’s a scheduling convergence we’re definitely going to take advantage of as much as possible.

On opening night, Sept. 2, you can see a 2004 playoff team and a pair of Top 50 teams square off when Muhlenberg travels to College of New Jersey for a 7 p.m. kickoff in Ewing, N.J. (That’s according to the info Muhlenberg sent us last week. Most Friday night games are subject to change. The backup plan would be a possible NEFC title game preview between Worcester State and Curry.)

Find a good place to crash that night, because you’re going to need it — on Saturday we recommend the 1 p.m. St. John Fisher/King’s game in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. That’s slightly more than a two-hour drive straight up the Northeast Extension on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Photo: TCNJ running back Cory Schoonover ran for 397 yards this past season as a sophomore.

The third leg of our journey is to Selinsgrove, Pa., for the 7 p.m. Ursinus/Susquehanna game. It’s 75 miles from King’s to Susquehanna, mostly on interstates. (If you don’t want to go that far into central Pennsylvania, there’s a game between Western Connecticut and Division I-AA non-scholarship St. Peter’s at 7 p.m. in New Jersey, but we can’t recommend a game involving a non-Division III team.

This is assuming noobdy changes their schedule between now and then, of course.

We hope to see as many of you at as many of these games as possible. Let us know if you are crazy enough to join us!

The Observer-Reporter in Washington, Pa., sure thinks so. After the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Jeff Hand (and no other names) as a finalist for the open Westminster (Pa.) job on Wednesday, the O-R is reporting Hand is the man.

Westminster has a news conference scheduled for 2:30 ET this afternoon.

With a steady trickle of news stories published each day chronicling high school seniors’ college decisions, we’ll do our best to provide a weekly recap on who is going where.

Before we start, keep in mind a few details about Division III recruiting:

1 – Incoming freshmen don’t sign letters of intent. Even when the newspapers say they do. Of course, as a faithful Daily Dose follower you already knew that.

2 – Tracking Division III recruits is a unique challenge so we’re not trying to be comprehensive here. We’ll list recruits as we see them mentioned in newspaper articles online.

If you want to add someone, feel free to do so using the comments feature below. But please provide the newspaper link as verification. Even if you list the recruit’s position, stats, high school class schedule and favorite brand of cereal to prove your fidelity, we need the newspaper link.

Enough with the disclaimer. On with the show…

East: Springfield Reloading Rushing Attack?

At least two high school running backs have announced their intentions to suit up for the Springfield College Pride.

The Pride successfully lobbied for the services of Pennsville (NJ) HS product Andrew Jackson. Then Walkill (NY) HS senior J.J. Maloney, who overcame ACL injuries to rush for 20 touchdowns, announced he would enroll at Springfield according to the Times-Herald Record of Middletown, NY.

Of course there’s no guarantee that either player will stay at the running back position at the college level. But you can’t blame them for being attracted to a triple-option offense that rambled for close to 4,000 yards last season.

Shawn McMann of Lely (FL) HS announced he will make the long trip north to attend Fitchburg State in Massachusetts.

North: Talent Gathers in Ohio

Jupiter (FL) High School tackle Chris DeCamillo will play for Ohio Northern.

“They’re Division III but they’ve had players go to the NFL and I thought I might get a good look,” he told the Jupiter Courier. “They also have a freshman team and I’m pretty sure I can start on that.”

Eaton HS wide receiver Chad Norton will join OAC rival Mount Union.

Andrew O’Connell, a Penn High School senior, will continue his academic, football and baseball careers at Wooster.

Savas Melidis who played offense, defense and special teams for Carthage (IL) HS will attend Millikin University.

South: Gantt Keep a Good Man Down

The Brewton (AL) Standard reports that W.S. Neal Senior Brandon Gantt, who overcame a shoulder injury during his high school career, will attend Huntingdon this fall.

“I had a chance to visit the campus. I felt I had a good workout for them. They have a good staff and a new weight room. They’re doing some work on their field, but it should be ready by next fall,” remarked Gantt on his visit to the Montgomery based school.

Bellaire (OH) high school linemen Dirk Soland and Luke Sulek will play for Washington and Jefferson. Each played both ways in high school.

Dion Moore and Bryan Randall of Henry County (GA) HS will head to Maryville.

West: True Blue Boys

The first year of college always brings some anxiety because of the unknown, so why not keep some familiarity where you can?

Richard Tanner and Zach Reed who played for the Blueboys of Carthage (IL) HS will attend Illinois College, which has the same mascot.
Reed told the Hancock County (IL) Journal Pilot that he looks forward to joining his brother Joe who will be a junior at the Jacksonville, Illinois school: “”He really encouraged me to come over there,” said Zach. “Me and him are pretty close. He had good things to say about them, and I feel comfortable going there.”

Naples (FL) HS product Kai Sanders will attend Lake Forest while teammate Eloy Ozaeta will enroll at Dubuque.

If you’re looking for information on St. John’s recruits, check out this St. Cloud (MN) Times article.

Similarly you can track which high school students are heading to Linfield, Puget Sound and Willamette at this OregonLive.com site.

NOTE: Thanks to Cat11 and Johnnie Esq. for the heads-up on those links.

Moving on to Division III alumni whom the national media have pronounced correctly, Jerheme Urban (just pronounce it “Jeremy”) burst onto the national scene with a touchdown catch for the Seahawks last season on Monday Night Football.

But it’s been a bit of a trying offseason for the former Trinity (Texas) D3football.com All-America wide receiver. More from the Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune.

D3football.com First Team All-American and 2004 Gagliardi Trophy Winner Rocky Meyers will play football this summer for the Schwabisch Hall Unicorns of the German Football League according to a Wesley College newsletter issued on April 1.

Earlier this spring the Northwest (Ill.) Herald reported that Wisconsin Lutheran Strong Safety Ryan Elbrecht has signed a contract to play for the Helsinki Wolverines (logo pictured) in a Finnish professional league.