When Joe Cook was serving in Iraq, he often asked himself, "If I didn't do this, what would I be doing?"

The answer that came to him was simple: playing football. And this past weekend that happened for the first time, as he took the field for Oberlin in a game at Washington and Jefferson.

"With a military background, you appreciate everything a lot more, just being afforded the opportunity to play."

What Cook did in the Marines, how Cook's parents reacted to the trade-off of dress blues for road whites and how boot camp prepared him for football in this week's Around the Great Lakes, by Matt Florjancic.

A pair of Division III coaches went through an offseason regimen of a different kind. Salisbury coach Sherman Wood and Bridgewater (Va.) assistant head coach Stephon Healey took part in a diversity program, the NCAA's Expert Coaches Football Academy, for minority coaches. That's because there's a lot more to being a head coach than knowing your X's and O's. More about the program, including a recommendation for current coaches, in Ryan Tipps' Around the Mid-Atlantic column.

It's only one game, but it looks like Franklin got some of its questions answered. Clyde Hughes talks to the Grizzlies in Around the Midwest. And Willamette might have some questions of its own, but Concordia-Moorhead showed it could put last year's struggles behind them. Adam Johnson was there and has more in Around the West.

Division III's two newest programs met each other in their programs' mutual debut, and they put on a show. Tom Haley was there and has the story in Around the Northeast. That and more in this week's Around the Region columns.