As I was watching the swimming Olympic Trials last night, who should appear on the screen but Lindsay Payne! Payne won the 100 breaststroke in the NCAA Division III nationals all four years, and racked up many wins. I know her from a winter study photography class; here are her photos.

In the 100 breaststroke semifinals at the Trials, she tied for 8th with another swimmer (Jessica Botzum), so to determine which of them would make the final, the two swimmers had a match race last night — just two swimmers in the pool, with 14,500 spectators. It was very exciting to watch! Payne started out with a small lead, then at the flip turn they were tied, then Botzum pulled ahead a bit, and in the last stroke it was so even that they touched at the same time. The touch showed that Payne beat Botzum by 0.02 seconds.

Payne will compete tonight in the final (start list - PDF). It will be televised tonight from 8 pm - 9 pm eastern time on channel USA. She will be in lane 8. Y’all come watch now!

Lots of athletics tid-bits over the last few weeks.

First, on the alumni front, several former Eph basketball players have been in the news: Mike Crotty ‘04 for his job with the NBA champion Celtics, and Casey Gibbons ‘06 for the basketball recruiting company he started. Also, check here for a nice feature on former Eph hockey star and current L.A. Kings Director of Amatuer Scouting Mark Yannetti ‘94. Finally, here is a nice story on former Eph All-American Track and Field athlete Dan Austin ‘06

Second, on the current Eph front, Eph football and lacrosse star Brian Morrissey ‘09 was one of the three featured speakers (along with New England Patriot Ben Watson) at the recent Boston Globe all-scholastic dinner, where he spoke to, among others Margie Fulton ‘12. In addition, here is an inspiring article about Eph rower Bianca Czaderna ‘11

Third, several recent features on star athletes in the class of 2012: Karyn Moss and Will Petrie.

Williams has won the Directors Cup (pdf). Look at how strong the NESCAC conference was this year (out of almost 300 listed D3 schools):

1) Williams 1120.5

2) Wash U. 899

3) New Jersey 825.25

4) Amherst 815

5) Middlebury 813.50

Our women’s tennis and rowing teams were national champions this spring - but I’ll leave the details for someone else as I’m rushing to get this posted and get to a meeting.

Go Ephs!

UPDATE (DK): I put the pdf link in-line above. Still no official announcement from the College. Dick Quin is, presumably, writing something now. Could one of our sports experts provide some more commentary on where these points come from? For example, I see that we earned 53 points in mens lacrosse. First, how was it determined that we we’re the 9th best team in DIV III? Second, what is the breakdown in points by finish? I had thought that the drop-off from 1st to 9th was much steeper. Also, how do the points breakdown between mens and womens teams? It almost seems like Williams women, alone, could have won the cup.

Surely there is a member of the EphBlog community who is, or would be willing to become, an expert on the Directors’ Cup. Start here.

Current Eph men’s basketball coach Dave Paulsen ‘87 is the new head coach of Bucknell. Paulsen is familiar with at least one Bucknell opponent, as back in 2004 the Ephs upset perennial Patriot League contender Holy Cross. Congratulations! Paulsen will be a tough act to follow after one national title, one second place finish, four NCAA appearances, and three NESCAC titles in eight years as head coach. Any thoughts on possible replacements?

at 2:00 today. Third ranked Williams looks to avenge an early-season loss to top ranked and undefeated Washington & Lee, which is the defending national champion. The last team to beat them? Williams, in 2007. Follow the action live here. Go Ephs!

Aidan points out this New York Times article on girls and sports and injuries. There is no direct Eph connection, but Aidan was reminded of this EphBlog entry on Eph soccer player Ana Sani’s ‘08 rehabilitation from a similar injury. Friend-of-various-Ephs Laura thought that the article was “crappy” because it made it seem as if sports were too dangerous for girls to play. Comments:

1) Laura is silly to worry about any baleful effect that such articles might have on the future girls sports in America. Just look at the trajectory over the last 20 years and extend that into the future. More girls will be playing more sports for more hours with better coaching and more expensive facilities for years to come. Note how the Eph women’s soccer team webpage lists, not only the their hometowns but their club teams.

2) The Marxist reading focuses on the economic incentives. Most of the substantive points come for people who make a living selling their injury-prevention services to families and teams. Of course they want to hype injuries as a major issue for girls sports. If there were no problem, they would be out of a job.

3) The girls-sports-industrial-complex is the primary cause of the huge increase in the skill level of Eph womens sports in the last two decade. Although the mens teams of today also play better (?), the womens teams are just shockingly good in comparison to those of the 1980’s.

Today features an unusually interesting Sunday slate of Eph sports.  First on the agenda is the men’s lacrosse Nescac Championship vs. Bowdoin, who the Ephs had to defeat in dramatic fashion just to earn a spot in the seven team tournament.  Sixth-seeded Williams attempts to continue its cinderella run after yesterday’s shocking victory over top seed Middlebury, which had never before lost in eight years of Nescac tourney play.   You can watch the game live over the web today at noon. 

Next up is the (postponed) Williams-Amherst baseball game at Waconah Park in Pittsfield.  The stakes are high as the winner earns the Nescac West championship and a top seed in the conference playoffs. 

Finally, men’s and women’s tennis each hope to advance to the national quarterfinals with wins in today’s NCAA action. 

Williams track coach Ralph White called Caroline Cretti “the greatest female distance runner in school history.” This Sunday, she will be racing the OT marathon in Boston alongside Michelle Rorke ‘06 and America’s top 161 other marathoners. Caroline has more All-American certificates than I could reasonably count up right now. Here is her profile on the Boston Trials website, and here is an excerpt from an interview with her:

Was it difficult to make the decision to pursue professional running, or was it something you knew you wanted to do?
ZAP actually contacted my coach, Pete Farwell, and I thought it sound like an amazing opportunity. You can’t really get a better setup than ZAP. After that, my eyes were opened and I started looking at other places around the country, very superficially—just sort of looking at their web sites. I came down to ZAP, checked it out, and we liked each other. Once they made the first move, it wasn’t a hard decision for me to make.

Did you get strange reactions from anyone when you told them what you’d be doing after college?
Oh for sure, from pretty much everyone [laughs]. I got a couple of reactions at Williams that were like [Cretti puts on a condescending tone], ‘Oh, so you’re just going to be running?’ It was sort of the what-a-waste-of-a-degree reaction. And then, of course, there was the ‘That’s amazing! Congratulations!’ reaction. And then a couple people who I knew in the running world were skeptical, but they looked into it and took it upon themselves to make sure I was making the right decision, which was helpful. And then a lot of people just had no idea what I was talking about. You get all sorts of reactions.

What would you say has been the biggest difference so far between being a professional runner and being a collegiate runner?
This is a roundabout way of answering your question, but being a division III runner, you are surrounded by people, situations, and experiences that are dramatically different from the professional world and the division I world. Every other athlete here ran division I and their experiences in college were so unbelievably different than what I had at Williams that I think, for them, the adjustment is a lot less dramatic.

But in terms of my own experience, the difference is that right now I’m doing a couple of writing [jobs] on the side, but basically all I do is run. By that I mean that my life is based on running. If I’m not running, I’m doing something that will help me run better. Versus, at Williams, it was go to practice—and I worked really hard at Williams for running, don’t get me wrong—but at the same time I had papers and I had social [obligations]. Here it’s just running.

To see Caroline run, come to Boston (details) on Sunday morning.

This Sunday is the Women’s Olympic Trials Marathon in Boston. Two Ephs — Michelle Rorke ‘06 and Caroline Cretti ‘06 — have qualified and are running. I hope that many of you in the Boston area will consider coming out to watch. Here is the course (click for details):

The race starts at 8:00 on Sunday morning, and will last between two and three hours. Over the next few days I will link Michelle and Caroline’s profiles so that you can learn more about them, and perhaps decide to come to the event.

Or so reports Inside Higher Ed.

After months of discussion and debate, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has for now killed the idea of adding a fourth competitive division to accommodate the increasingly divergent views among officials of the 442 colleges that belong to its nonscholarship Division III.

But that decision, which was prompted by the results of a survey of those colleges that showed overwhelming opposition to breaking up the members of Division III, is unlikely to end the conversation, for one simple reason: That same survey showed wide disagreements among Division III members about many issues, including some core principles that the colleges supposedly share.

Read the whole things for details. I can’t find previous EphBlog coverage of this topic, but Williams folks like Lisa Melendy have been involved in the debate.

Most interesting issue with respect to Williams policies concerns financial aid.

One other result jumped out at a number of observers: More than half of respondents said they supported or strongly supported the idea that “[c]onsideration of leadership in athletics (e.g. team captain) in the awarding of financial aid to students should be allowed provided it is consistent with the consideration of leadership in other student activities.” Although Dutcher of the NCAA said he believed the way the question was framed may have contributed to that result, he and others acknowledged that taken at face value, that answer suggests questioning by a sizable number of Division III officials of a core principle: “that we do not award athletically oriented financial aid,” said Fry. “That piece of data really rocked me,” he added.

If I were a coach/institution that competed with Williams, I would note that the College’s aid budget has tripled over the past decade. If Williams was, in 1998, just using standard “need-blind” financial aid, then, whatever the College is doing now, “need-blind” is not an accurate description. I would see the College as, in essence, giving out merit aid, to athletes and non-athletes alike. I would want to know why I can’t do the same for my athletes. In fact, if I were a trouble-maker, I might file a complaint with the Division III authorities about Williams’ policies.

Interesting interview with Major Bunge Cooke ‘98, USMC. (more…)

Three recent articles have focused on future women’s basketball players Jill Greenberg (a Boston Globe all-scholastic selection as a Junior), Lisa Jaris, and Laura Renfro (who is caoched by Jim Tildsley, father of former Eph Kaylan ‘07).  Congrats to all three.  

Great feature on new Tennessee Vols offensive coordinator Dave Clawson.  There is no more rabid group of college football fans than those at Tennessee, so Dave will be under immense scrutiny.  If he succeeds, he will have his choice of plum Division-I coaching jobs.  Dick Farley comments on Dave’s time as an undergraduate:

“He’s youthful and very bright,” Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said of Clawson, who replaces David Cutcliffe. “I’m smart enough to hire people smarter than me.”

Dick Farley, who coached Clawson at Williams College from 1985-89, knows all about his former player’s intelligence.

It was Farley who shifted Clawson, a Youngstown, N.Y., native, from quarterback to defensive back. Farley, who retired four years ago as football coach, has proudly followed Clawson’s career since he left Williams, a 2,000-student institution in Williamstown, Mass., that has been ranked the No. 1 national liberal arts college in America.

“I always kid Dave that we’re going to put, ‘He was a quarterback,’ on his tombstone,” Farley said. “He was a very smart guy at a school where you have to be pretty darned bright. He just decided to take an Ivy League-like education and coach football instead of going to Wall Street like some of his buddies.”

Farley, whose son played under Clawson when he was Villanova’s offensive coordinator, feels the Vols are getting a mind with a flawless track record.

“Dave is looking all the time at mismatches and where he can take advantage of either a linebacker or safety,” Farley said. “He’s never failed at anything he’s done. He looks like a choir boy off the field, but I know since he played for me, he’s very thorough and very demanding.”

Interesting recruit video for Eph mens lacrosse. Who deserves credit for making this? If you are an Eph interested in the media or sports business, you should contact other coaches about similar projects.

And note the brief appearance by Professor Tom Smith ‘88.

 

 Lacrosse Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This past weekend, I went to BU for the CRASH-B World Indoor Rowing Championships. To the best of my knowledge, I was the only Williams alum there — at least, the only person who listed Williams as their affiliation.* And I represented Williams well, because I won (results):

I had gone to CRASH-B with the Williams crew team four years ago, and did not get in the top three, and these four years I have always wanted to go back and see if I could win the hammer — the prize for first place (in addition to a gold medal). And I did! I won the women’s coxswain division, which is basically a 120-pound weight class where you must be primarily a coxswain (not a rower). So I got the hammer. And the great Williams rowing tradition lives on.

* Current Williams athletes can’t put Williams as their affiliation because then it uses up a race, or messes up eligibility, or something. A few current Williams students from the men’s crew team went this year,  and listed their affiliation as the “Green Team” (search in open men and LW men); four years ago, we called ourselves “Team Fuego.”

The mens basketball team was embarrassed in the first round of the NESCAC tournament, losing to Middlebury by 37 (!) points. Even worse, star guard Chris Shalvoy ‘08 is graduating. Recall Dave Fehr’s fears about the future of Eph hoops and the “Nesbitt Net.”

The Ephs, meanwhile, started 12-0 but are finding it difficult to win in their league and have dropped a total of five games at this writing, including two to Amherst.

So, of course, I’m convinced the sky is falling and I’ll never again see these two teams competitive, much less Williams competitive on a national level. The only flaw in this analysis is that I felt the same way a decade ago and was happily proved wrong. When the Mike Nogelo Final Four teams of ‘97 and ‘98 graduated, I figured that was it for Williams and any further NCAA hoops glory. A short five years later, the Ephs were national champs, and they almost repeated in 2004.

One thing has changed, however, as back then there was no Nesbitt Net, which is director of Admissions Dick Nesbitt’s and President Morty Schapiro’s increasingly fine-meshed screen that weeds out applicants, including star athletes, with “low” board scores.

What should Coach Dave Paulsen do? Come up with better plays? Presumably, he is as good a coach as he was five years ago when he guided the Ephs to a national championship. Paulsen knows that “players win games, not plays.” Sounds like he needs some better players . . .

Time call the Admissions Office! We need a star guard. And, good news! Help is on the way.

Lick-Wilmerding boys basketball coach Eliot Smith is trying to enjoy every moment. At some point in the next few weeks, four-year varsity point guard Marcus Wells will play his last game for the San Francisco school.

“My wife told me, ‘You only have a few more weeks and then it goes back to normal,’ ” Smith said after a recent game.

Playing in the anonymity of the Bay Counties League West, Wells is the best player you don’t know about - and he’s fine with that.

“He was the best player on the team when he was a freshman, but I didn’t start him because the other kids would have hated him,” said Smith, whose team is 21-7 and will host St. Bernard’s-Eureka on Wednesday. “Once I saw how he handled it, I knew I had someone special.”

…

Wells drew attention from some Division I programs, but opted for a similar environment to his high school - albeit across the country.

He will attend Williams College in Massachusetts, a 2,000-student school that won the Division III national championship in 2003 and is regarded as the No. 1 liberal-arts college in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.

“I really knew I needed to get a good education,” said Wells, whose father, Marcus Wells Sr., was an All-City defensive back on Lincoln’s 1979 Turkey Day championship team.

As much as Smith gushes about Wells’ physical ability, calling him one of the best he has had in 33 years, the coach continually talks about Wells’ character and the way he treats his teammates.

“We’ve been really lucky,” Smith said.

“I think it goes back to his parents. I think they taught him to believe, ‘This is my gift and the players around me have their gifts.’ “

Good stuff. Williams has a long tradition of excellent point guards going back from Shalvoy ‘08 to Crotty ‘04 to Nogelo ‘98 to Harry Sheehy ‘75. Wasn’t Peter Willmott ‘59, former chair of the executive committee of trustees, a guard and captain of the basketball team back in the day? Surely some of our older readers can tell some Al Shaw stories . . .

Anyway, Wells knows how to play.

For my money, Marcus wells is the most talented point guard in the city. He has more of an all around game than any other and would have been a clear d-1 choice if he’d gone to a school where sports is more of a focus than the academics (e.g., the WCAL). Avg 20 pts, 6 assts, and 7 rbs per game is impressive by any calculation. He may be going d-3 but he’s going to one of the best colleges in the country, that’s equally impressive since he had to qualify with his game and his grades both.

Indeed. Welcome to Williams.

Soccer goalie Lauren Sinnenberg ’10 appeared in this week’s Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd.  Congrats!  I’d love to see a list of all the Ephs who have been so featured … I wouldn’t be surprised if we had more than any other college or university in the country, I seem to recall quite a few over the years. 

 (And while I would have posted the link to Lauren’s accomplishment in any event, yes, the additional link to the cover shot of David Tyree’s already-legendary catch was perhaps a bit gratuitous). 

Lots of interesting Eph sports-related news of late.  First, today is the Amherst vs. Williams hoops double-header, take two.  See previous discussion of this rivalry here.  Last time, both Jeffs squads emerged victorious, but Williams has the home court advantage today.  The Ephs are slight underdogs in both contests (Amherst women are undefeated, and the men are ranked third in the country), but will be looking for payback.  Speaking of basketball, two recent news stories featured future Eph ballers Jordan Mickens and Brian Emerson.  Emerson was on last year’s Boston Globe all-scholastic super team.   

Second, Will Bruce won the Wooden Cup.  This is an absolutely incredible accomplishment recognizing the most outstanding role model in all levels of college athletics.

Third, a few weeks back Dave Clawson ‘89 was appointed offensive coordinator of the University of Tennessee football squad.  In light of his prior success as a head coach, if he performs well in this high-profile (and very high-pressure) role, he is sure to ascend to a big-time Division I head coaching position. 

Finally, today’s NYTimes has a feature on bridge-playing Eph undergrads, led by the legendary Frank Morgan.  No word on whether they successfully employed Morgan’s famous “soap bubble gambit” strategy … Chris Willenken of the great class of 1997 is often featured in the NYTimes for his bridge acumen. 

As much hype as College GameDay provided for Williams-Amherst football, the schools have an even better men’s basketball rivalry: unlike in football, each is often a national championship contender featuring one or more Division-I caliber players, and the rivalry is dead-even.  Consider:

Williams vs. Amherst all-time favors Williams 111-83.  But since 1996, Williams’ overall record vs. Amherst: 14-18.  Amherst has the edge overall during that time period, but Williams has the edge in big games: 3-0 in NCAA tourney play, and 3-2 in NESCAC tourney games (including 3-0 in NESCAC title games). 

The two teams have combined since 1996 for seven final four appearances (Williams with four, Amherst three), two national titles, three national coach of the year awards, two national player of the year awards (former Eph Mike Nogelo ‘98 and current Jeff point guard Andrew Olson ‘08), one win at Division I Holy Cross, the Division III record for consecutive home court wins, and all seven NESCAC tournament wins (Amherst with four, Williams three) (the tourney started in 2001). 

Williams has not won a regular season game at Amherst since 1996.  Williams has won two NESCAC tournament games against the ‘herst on its home court during that period, including last year’s dramatic upset over a Jeffs squad that went on to win the National Championship.  You can see that game here and read about it in Tim Layden’s great SI.com article.

For a taste of the drama that is Williams-Amherst, listen to this clip from D3hoops.com announcers of a game that Williams eventually won in overtime.  That same Williams team went on to beat Amherst in the Final Four. 

This year, defending NESCAC champion Williams is 12-0 and ranked fourth in the country.  Defending national champion Amherst’s 9-2 record is deceptive: the two losses came against number two Brandeis and a non-Division III team; hence Amherst is ranked just above Williams, at third.  The men’s game is at 4:00 on Saturday, following the women’s game which is at 2:00. 

The women’s game also features an interesting story line: Amherst women have not beaten Williams since 2001 (giving Williams a 14 game winning streak vs. the Jeffs), but Amherst enters this game undefeated,  and they are favored to break their streak against a very young Williams squad that starts two first-years.  The Eph women lead the all-time rivalry 41-20. 

You can listen to the games here.  Go Ephs. 

Updated 1/11/08.  Thanks to an interested Eph fan who emailed me some additional information as well as a correction! 

Over at dcat a Williams alum and friend asked why I had not written something on Gamday’s sojourn to Williams. Here is a copy-edited and augmented version of what I wrote in the comments of another post:

I intended to, but time got away and I found that I wasn’t sure what I had to say. My first impression was that I really regretted not going up to Williamstown, which until just a few weeks ago was a very real possibility. Let’s face it — Williams gets a lot of attention for a school of its size, but Gameday ain’t coming by again any time soon. Just for that it would have been worth it, but more significantly, the footage from Williamstown really made me misty for the alma mater.

My second impression was how little the Gameday guys get DIII, whatever peaens they gave to its purity. For example, they depicted Williams and Amherst as schools for rich kids, apparently unaware of the vast resources that also allow them to provide financial aid for anyone they admit. They got a lot of mileage out of the cost of the two schools without providing any larger context, and in this case, context really is everything.

Third, there was a somewhat patronizing element to their presentation. I thought that they were really proud of themselves for giving the cute little DIII schools some attention. I realize DIII isn’t LSU, but DIII is lots of great things, and in fact the level of competition is pretty damned good — these guys are elite athletes compared to the average person, even to the average athlete. And as much as they talked about academics, they probably should have emphasized that angle even more. We can talk ad nauseum at the flaws of ranking systems, and we have here at Ephblog, but I believe the only mention of the US News rankings, which is certainly something the average Gameday viewer would grasp, came in barely readable agate type in one of the graphics.

In keeping with that, they kept emphasizing how “none of these guys are going to the NFL,” which in the most literal sense is true, but it might have been worth pointing out that periodically DIII guys do defy the odds and make the NFL (including several currently), and that Williams alone has sent four guys to the NFL just since I got there in 1989, including two who made practice squads (Sean Keenan and Ted Rogers) and two who made actual rosters — my friend Ethan Brooks and Scott Farley. Ethan even started a number of games in the NFL, and spent a season as a starting tackle for the Ravens. That might have made for a decent story, rather than the narrative they preferred to emphasize, which seemed awfully “aren’t they cute” for my admittedly somewhat defensive tastes.

All that said, it was a wonderful thing for this old alum to see. It made me miss Williams. It provided a nice break from the constant BCS palaver. And in the end, I thought they did a decent job of representing DIII, even if, as my arguments above indicate, they could ahve done better. Plus, Corso tossing the Lord Jeff head and putting on the Williams Cow head was one of my favorite television moments in a long, long time. I do hope someone was able to convert that to YouTube and is willing to to place it on Ephblog or send it to someone who can.

Oh, and Williams 20 Amherst 0 is pretty cool too.

As mentioned in a comment to the sports update, Michelle Rorke ran 2:49:52 in today’s New York City marathon, placing 24th among all women and 15th among Americans. Rorke’s time is not a personal best; she ran 2:43:08 in the 2006 Boston Marathon. That’s good, because the Olympic Trials qualifying time is 2:47; this performance wouldn’t have gotten her in.

Michelle is not the only Eph to be on the Olympic marathon scene; she is joined by Caroline Cretti ‘06 and Marzuki Stevens ‘96.

Caroline Cretti ran 2:43:11 in the Twin Cities Marathon last weekend, qualifying her for the Olympic Trials marathon. Cretti is running as a full-time job now. She also made the Olympic qualifying standard for the 10,000 meters, running just under 34 minutes, allowing her to compete at the Track and Field trials at the end of June.

Marzuki Stevens qualified with a 2:20:11 (the men’s standard was 2:22) in the 2006 Boston Marathon; he ran the men’s Olympic Trials marathon yesterday in New York City, placing 70th with a time of 2:25:18. The top three make the Olympic team; sadly, Marzuki was not among them.

The women’s marathon trials will be held in April, the day before the Boston Marathon, on the legendary Boston Marathon course. Rorke’s and Cretti’s 2:43 performances will be tested against the likes of Deena Kastor (bronze medalist in Athens). As Kastor’s qualifying time was 2:19:36 (an American record), Michelle and Caroline will face steep odds.

A list of all the women’s qualifiers so far is here; Rorke is ranked 48 and Cretti 49 out of 135 qualifiers so far. I hope to attend the race, and since David Kane lives near the course, perhaps we can get an Eph contingent in Boston in April to cheer them on!

The Men and Women Cross Country teams both won ECAC titles.

Volleyball beat Amherst 3-2 for the NESCAC title.

Women’s Soccer shutout Bowdoin 4-0 for the NESCAC title.

Men’s Soccer lost to Middlebury in the semifinals in penalty kicks. (corrected from earlier)

Field Hockey lost to Bowdoin in the semifinals, 2-1.

This weekend, seven different Williams teams will be competing, with 4 teams in various NESCAC tournaments, including the 14-0 women’s soccer team. Cross Country is also hosting the ECAC Division 3 championship after a very strong NESCAC showing last weekend. (Thanks &)

Most of these games should be available on the web for FREE. See the link for further detail.

(more…)

Eph women’s soccer is bringing it this year. I have the pleasure of broadcasting the games, and they deserve their 12-0 record, only allowing two goals in the entire season. The team is also ranked sixth nationally in Division III.

Two more games remain in the season, Tufts (9-2) and Amherst (4-4-3) at home.

For more information, see the Record article.

Just a few weeks after the ESPN.com feature on the Williams-Amherst rivalry, Williams athletics are again the focus of an ESPN.com article, this time concerning Division III athletics in general. Since this is the first in a four part series, I imagine that this won’t be the final Williams mention.

Coach White just sent the following e-mail to the members of the track team:

Hello Gang,

I hope all is well and that you are enjoying the summer, making a lot
of money and spending quality time with your family. As you know, in
February, the college decided not to renew my contract. I appealed
the decision as I do not agree with their stated reasons. I just
received a letter that my appeal was denied, after several months.
Although I am extremely disappointed, I am not surprised, as the
rules are written by Williams for Williams. I just wish I had the
opporunity to speak to those that I have worked for or with for the
last seven years. There are a lot of people and things I will miss,
and some I will not. However life goes on and I will make the best of it.

Coaches Farley and Farwell will continue to lead you, and the team
will not miss a beat. There is no one person, coach or athlete, whose
loss cannot be overcome. I expect great things to continue as I
really believe the best is yet to come. Work together and be positive
and supportive of each other. I would be disappointed with anything less.

I have loved my seven years at Williams. As a coaching staff and team
it is second to none. I took a tremendous amount of pride in you and
possibly cared TOO much but your efforts deserved my enthusiasm. It
was great seeing you develop as people and as athletes and I will
surely miss that. I will continue to follow your progress as you
continue to be the envy of the nation. Keep on making me proud by
doing things the right way, and focus on the future, not on the past.

Best of luck and please do not hesitate to contact me if there is
anything I can do for you (although right now I am out of town with
limited access to email.) Thank you very much for all of your support
during these trying times, I will not forget it. I hope we cross
paths in the future.

This is the longest email I’ve ever written. This shows you how
special you are.

Coach White

Too bad for Williams! He will be greatly missed. It will be interesting to see who the track coach will be next year. (I have heard rumors of a minority female.) I am sure that Coach White will meet with coaching success wherever he goes.

Construction of a new all-weather football field and track forced graduation exercises at St. Helena (Ca.) High School off the field, where they had been held for 34 consecutive years. Freshly minted grad and “running star” Brian Cole didn’t think much of how his district handled the situation.

“The area where they had graduation wasn’t as big a deal as how the district went about the graduation planning. That’s the only thing that peeved me,” said Cole, who added he plans to attend Williams College in Massachusetts, possibly to study environmental science. “I think someone needs to start calling them on the way they do business.”

Better get used to it, fella!

Cole finished 4th in the mile (in a smoking 4:11.74, mind you) at the California state championships earlier this June. Here’s a nice little Q&A from the local paper, where Cole said he’ll run both cross country and track for the Ephs.

Whitt: What is the biggest lesson you have learned in your four years at St. Helena High School?

Cole: To not worry about what other people think of you. To do what you feel is the right thing to do whether other people believe it is the right thing, whether other people think you are doing the right thing or not.

Does somebody have a lot to learn, or what?

Kudos to the Eph women for winning the NCAA Division III crew championship. But spare a thought for the Eph female lacrosse team of a decade ago, denied their chance to compete in the NCAA. (Unfortunately, my link to that story in The Game of Life no longer works. Perhaps someone could type it in the comments. I will see that it is preserved forevermore.)

Where does that leave the Sears Cup? We had some informed commentary on the topic last week. Could someone knowledgeable comment?

UPDATE: We won! We won! Informed sources report that Williams has won the Directors’ Cup for the 9th year in a row. Official announcement to come on June 8th.

**Coach White asked that this letter be distributed to the College Community, and I have done so at his request.**

May 22, 2007

To the Williams Community,

For the past several weeks, I have watched while many students, parents, and alums have worked tirelessly to express their support for me in response to the College’s decision not to renew my contact. I cannot thank you enough. Your efforts mean more to me than you can imagine. However, in the process, some great intentions have gotten out of hand. I understand the strong feelings involved, as this has taken a heavy toll on my family and our track teams. However, several good people are having their names and reputations tarnished. Making hurtful comments and allegations is unnecesary and harmful. We are better than that.

I am currently fighting the decision through the schools administrative processes and it is my hope that the College will conclude that its initial decision was based on incomplete information. I am optimistic that when all is said and done we will prevail.

That said, I have heard of some actions on my behalf that I cannot accept. I have tried to stay focused on my team, but I have been told about a petition that I strongly disagree with. It is my understanding that a number of students, parents, and alums have begun a petition to withhold money from the College to both make a point and to ease any financial hardship on my family. My wife and I are truly touched, but we cannot condone this effort.

Over the past seven years, my wife and I have come to love both the area, and, more importantly, the College community. We have invested much here. Williams is a special place and will remain so, no matter what happens to us. It deserves the support of its students, parents, and alums. While I strongly disagree with the College’s decision, there is more to your relationships with the College than with me or track & field, and those must endure.

That is not to say that I do not appreciate your support. I do and am honored by it. It is overwhelming that so many of you would offer to help my family. However, we urge you to continue to support the College, as we do, and if you believe it needs change, to do so from within.

We feel blessed to have the support of all of you and hope that support continues going forward as we continue to challenge this decision. Many thanks.

Sincerely,

Ralph & Lisa White

The following letter comes from Letsrun.com, also linked from WSO and posted in a previous EphBlog comment thread. It is posted at the request of Shamus Brady ‘04.

Editor’s Note: [Letsrun.com] received the following email from Suzanne Ivey [the parent of a current Eph] on the attempted firing of Ralph White, the coach at Williams [College] (and the NCAA DIII coach of the year).

I am one of the founders of Friends of Williams Track and Field wishing to speak to several points coming up on this conversation.

There is no smoking gun, there are no devious means to success, and there are no improper relationships and no performance enhancing drugs, and no friend-of-a-friends first cousin who had a funky recruitment experience. Coach White can’t recruit someone who would not get into the College otherwise, even though many rejected by Williams run for the Ivy’s. Quell your imagination and just look at what is in front of you. The College hiding behind confidentiality is protecting no one, except possibly the administration. Please stop imagining horrific secrets, and stop listening to rumors which impugn not only Coach White but some amazingly committed, hard-working and capable young people as well who have done nothing to deserve your unkind speculation but to put themselves heart and soul on the track and field!

Yes! Coach White is amazingly successful, and has brought many winning athletes to the podium since being at Williams. But what readers here don’t get, is that the success is not the primary goal but one of many outcomes of a deeply engrained belief system, some of which by its very power rankles and threatens others in the system, both within the Department, the administration of the College and maybe within the Division and NCAA, which by the way has once again named him Coach of the Year in all of New England, all Divisions.

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