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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jan 11, 2021 15:58:37 GMT -5
No Dale Carnegie speed-read through that.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 11, 2021 16:06:18 GMT -5
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Post by newfieguy74 on Jan 11, 2021 16:33:06 GMT -5
I have to admit that Canterbury Tales was not my favorite book studied at HC.
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Post by bfoley82 on Jan 12, 2021 3:58:26 GMT -5
What potential do you think they have? They have an average at best lacrosse facility (I would consider it below standards) and aren't fully funded while playing in the same conference as Loyola. A second place finish in the Patriot League would be considered a massive success. Below average lacrosse facility is a flaming hot take. Their stadium needs to be returfed but if you have seen their locker room, weight room, film room, indoor facility you wouldn't be spewing such nonsense. I was speaking of tremendous potential based on where they finish almost every year. This team used to be the Bad News Bears of lacrosse and now they are competitive routinely knocking off Ivy League opponents. They dropped a one goal contest to the eventual patriot league champion army with a first year head coach. I'm not saying this team is going to be early 2000's syracuse but if you think for one second that this team cant be consistently competitve each year with a few slight tweaks you have little to no grasp on college lacrosse good sir. As someone that has covered lacrosse throughout New England for the last ten years, it is terrible. The stands are lacking, media access is horrible, locker room is a million miles away, no real bathrooms, it is a glorified small high school stadium. Outside of the four Ivy Schools, I would put Holy Cross clearly behind Providence, BU, UMass, Bryant, Merrimack and Fairfield. I would even put BC's women's facility ahead of it out of all the places I been. So yes, it is bottom half of New England without a doubt.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jan 12, 2021 6:53:13 GMT -5
Last decade, HC bought this property at 103 Epworth Which is at the SW* corner of Fr. K field (used for lacrosse and football practice). It is my belief that a reason HC bought the property is eventually to run a sewer and a maybe another water line to the fields at the top of the hill. Most likely this route would be cheaper than trenching 8-10 feet down through rock to run a line to the Hart. In fact, you might even need a pump station to lift the sewage up the hill if one were to take that route. (Sewer lines should always run below water lines.) *I am having trouble with my intercardinal points these days, switching from SW to SE and back to SW . The city-town line between Worcester and Auburn is Epworth St. (Epworth St, is effectively a 'paper street in Auburn') and where College St. becomes Pakachoag St. (You would think I would know that.) Due west pf 103 Epworth is about 500 feet into Auburn on Pakachoag St.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 12, 2021 7:01:54 GMT -5
Below average lacrosse facility is a flaming hot take. Their stadium needs to be returfed but if you have seen their locker room, weight room, film room, indoor facility you wouldn't be spewing such nonsense. I was speaking of tremendous potential based on where they finish almost every year. This team used to be the Bad News Bears of lacrosse and now they are competitive routinely knocking off Ivy League opponents. They dropped a one goal contest to the eventual patriot league champion army with a first year head coach. I'm not saying this team is going to be early 2000's syracuse but if you think for one second that this team cant be consistently competitve each year with a few slight tweaks you have little to no grasp on college lacrosse good sir. As someone that has covered lacrosse throughout New England for the last ten years, it is terrible. The stands are lacking, media access is horrible, locker room is a million miles away, no real bathrooms, it is a glorified small high school stadium. Outside of the four Ivy Schools, I would put Holy Cross clearly behind Providence, BU, UMass, Bryant, Merrimack and Fairfield. I would even put BC's women's facility ahead of it out of all the places I been. So yes, it is bottom half of New England without a doubt. I would love to hear that conversation between the 16 yo recruit and his parents. “Sure HC has that beautiful indoor practice field and weight training facilities and the academics are really good just in case I can’t make a living playing lacrosse but the media access at their field is terrible so there’s no way I’m going there. I’m headed to Merrimack. They’ve got bathrooms right behind both benches!”
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Post by rgs318 on Jan 12, 2021 7:03:58 GMT -5
lol That would be quite the conversation, indeed.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Jan 12, 2021 8:44:18 GMT -5
Comparison of the facilities provides an interesting and unequal perspective. From school to school it is clearly Apples to Oranges. When reviewing and criticizing what is lacking in a single Lacrosse facility, such as Fr.K field, one should review a College’s overall athletic infrastructure in the athletic plant.
Many of the schools noted above, the Lacrosse team plays in a competition facility they share with another sport most likely either Soccer or Football. At BU (Nickerson Field), Providence (Chapey Field at Anderson Stadium) Lacrosse shares their varsity competition field with Soccer. Neither College currently has Varsity Football or Baseball Stadium in its physical plant.
At Merrimack, Duane Stadium, is used for Field Hockey, Football, Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Lacrosse, and Men’s Track and Field and share the same facility. At Bryant, Bulldog Stadium is used for Football, Men’s and Women’s Soccer and Men’s Lacrosse. Bryant’s Field Hockey and Women’s Lacrosse share the same facility.
Fairfield has a very nice Lacrosse facility that opened in 2015 in Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium. Rafferty Stadium is also used by Fairfield Prep for Football, Soccer and Lacrosse.
My solution for those that may criticize HC’s Competition venue for Lacrosse would be to upgrade Smith Stadium with Field turf and have Smith used by both Soccer and Lacrosse. Fr. K Field would be maintained as an outdoor practice facility for Football and Lacrosse. Soccer currently has a grass practice facility next to Fr. K field.
By using Smith, for all four teams, M&W Soccer and M&W Lacrosse, with upgrades to Field Turf, and changes regarding seating on the far side line, and the press box with additional room for media, Smith would be equal if not better to the facilities mentioned above. Also, the lockerooms, concessions and bathrooms would be closer. This solution would be less costly than an upgrade to Fr.K field to add bathrooms and additional seating.
Overall HC has a very robust athletic physical plant and infrastructure that with the addition of the Luth, surpasses the schools mentioned above. Granted, upgrades are needed at the facilities on the lower campus, such as Fitton, and Freshmen Field, however the schools that were previously mentioned, do not have as extensive a suite of teams as HC. Several of the schools do not support and have facilities for Football, Ice Hockey, Baseball, or M&W Track and Field on campus.
If you are not happy with a particular athletic facility at HC, give AD MB a call. He will refer you to Cara, who will let you know how you contribute to the CAF to make the changes happen and for the upgrades to move forward.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 12, 2021 10:24:11 GMT -5
The guy who is "complaining" is really just expressing his opinion as a photographer, not as an alum or even as a fan, player or parent of a player, so let's give him a little leeway. He sure as heck doesn't have enough purple skin in the game to want to make a contribution to improve Holy Cross facilities. Not much different than the posters who complain about the press box at Fitton. As an alum/fan who doesn't go into the press box, the only interest in it that I have is if somehow an improved press box translated into more (any?) games on national TV (no, not streamed on ESPN+). And that's not going to happen. P.S. Crucis, you have much too much knowledge of other schools' athletic facilities!!!
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Post by hcbball on Jan 12, 2021 11:45:00 GMT -5
Perspective from the parent of a HC student athlete. HC showed off the Luth and field to us during recruiting. While both are positives for the school, it was the coach and his approach that sold us on the program.
Unfortunately, that coach is also now gone and I’m not sure what that means for son’s remaining years. Some will value the facilities, some the coaching. IMO the coach has a much more lasting influence and impact on the student athlete.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 12, 2021 11:51:01 GMT -5
Perspective from the parent of a HC student athlete. HC showed off the Luth and field to us during recruiting. While both are positives for the school, it was the coach and his approach that sold us on the program. Unfortunately, that coach is also now gone and I’m not sure what that means for son’s remaining years. Some will value the facilities, some the coaching. IMO the coach has a much more lasting influence and impact on the student athlete. Good post. Agree that the coaching staff probably is the top factor a recruit uses when selecting a school. Whether that should be the top factor given the amount of movement in the coaching ranks is a different matter but that’s the reality.
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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on Jan 12, 2021 12:29:42 GMT -5
Give foley a break. I'm sure he's jostling with dozens of photogs and reporters at HC games and the stands are so packed he has no where to put his camera bag.
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Post by crusadernutjob on Jan 12, 2021 12:31:57 GMT -5
Below average lacrosse facility is a flaming hot take. Their stadium needs to be returfed but if you have seen their locker room, weight room, film room, indoor facility you wouldn't be spewing such nonsense. I was speaking of tremendous potential based on where they finish almost every year. This team used to be the Bad News Bears of lacrosse and now they are competitive routinely knocking off Ivy League opponents. They dropped a one goal contest to the eventual patriot league champion army with a first year head coach. I'm not saying this team is going to be early 2000's syracuse but if you think for one second that this team cant be consistently competitve each year with a few slight tweaks you have little to no grasp on college lacrosse good sir. As someone that has covered lacrosse throughout New England for the last ten years, it is terrible. The stands are lacking, media access is horrible, locker room is a million miles away, no real bathrooms, it is a glorified small high school stadium. Outside of the four Ivy Schools, I would put Holy Cross clearly behind Providence, BU, UMass, Bryant, Merrimack and Fairfield. I would even put BC's women's facility ahead of it out of all the places I been. So yes, it is bottom half of New England without a doubt. Find me one recruit in the nation that cares about media access. You lost me there already. Needs to be a much stronger argument to convince me otherwise that this team has the ability to be routinely competitive, a stark change from their traditional longheld losing tradition.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 12, 2021 12:44:18 GMT -5
Meanwhile, Amanda B is a pillar of stability on the women’s side. Entering her sixth season and coming off her first winning season. Maybe her club is turning the corner. Last season got interrupted right before PL play was supposed to start but they were 5-3 in OOC play.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 12, 2021 13:43:08 GMT -5
Wow, time flies! She's been at HC that long? I suppose there may be something to the expression, "It's not what you know, it's who you know, that counts."
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Post by crusadernutjob on Jan 12, 2021 15:13:02 GMT -5
Comparison of the facilities provides an interesting and unequal perspective. From school to school it is clearly Apples to Oranges. When reviewing and criticizing what is lacking in a single Lacrosse facility, such as Fr.K field, one should review a College’s overall athletic infrastructure in the athletic plant. Many of the schools noted above, the Lacrosse team plays in a competition facility they share with another sport most likely either Soccer or Football. At BU (Nickerson Field), Providence (Chapey Field at Anderson Stadium) Lacrosse shares their varsity competition field with Soccer. Neither College currently has Varsity Football or Baseball Stadium in its physical plant. At Merrimack, Duane Stadium, is used for Field Hockey, Football, Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Lacrosse, and Men’s Track and Field and share the same facility. At Bryant, Bulldog Stadium is used for Football, Men’s and Women’s Soccer and Men’s Lacrosse. Bryant’s Field Hockey and Women’s Lacrosse share the same facility. Fairfield has a very nice Lacrosse facility that opened in 2015 in Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium. Rafferty Stadium is also used by Fairfield Prep for Football, Soccer and Lacrosse. My solution for those that may criticize HC’s Competition venue for Lacrosse would be to upgrade Smith Stadium with Field turf and have Smith used by both Soccer and Lacrosse. Fr. K Field would be maintained as an outdoor practice facility for Football and Lacrosse. Soccer currently has a grass practice facility next to Fr. K field. By using Smith, for all four teams, M&W Soccer and M&W Lacrosse, with upgrades to Field Turf, and changes regarding seating on the far side line, and the press box with additional room for media, Smith would be equal if not better to the facilities mentioned above. Also, the lockerooms, concessions and bathrooms would be closer. This solution would be less costly than an upgrade to Fr.K field to add bathrooms and additional seating. Overall HC has a very robust athletic physical plant and infrastructure that with the addition of the Luth, surpasses the schools mentioned above. Granted, upgrades are needed at the facilities on the lower campus, such as Fitton, and Freshmen Field, however the schools that were previously mentioned, do not have as extensive a suite of teams as HC. Several of the schools do not support and have facilities for Football, Ice Hockey, Baseball, or M&W Track and Field on campus. If you are not happy with a particular athletic facility at HC, give AD MB a call. He will refer you to Cara, who will let you know how you contribute to the CAF to make the changes happen and for the upgrades to move forward. That was a pretty brilliant solution... I'm on board with that wow. Makes a lot of sense.
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Post by bfoley82 on Jan 12, 2021 15:31:14 GMT -5
The guy who is "complaining" is really just expressing his opinion as a photographer, not as an alum or even as a fan, player or parent of a player, so let's give him a little leeway. He sure as heck doesn't have enough purple skin in the game to want to make a contribution to improve Holy Cross facilities. Not much different than the posters who complain about the press box at Fitton. As an alum/fan who doesn't go into the press box, the only interest in it that I have is if somehow an improved press box translated into more (any?) games on national TV (no, not streamed on ESPN+). And that's not going to happen. P.S. Crucis, you have much too much knowledge of other schools' athletic facilities!!! Not exactly...Maybe you should recognize this is some of my work www.insidelacrosse.com/author/brian-foley/63
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 12, 2021 15:33:34 GMT -5
Serves me right for trying to defend your last post.
I won’t make that mistake again.
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Post by bfoley82 on Jan 12, 2021 15:40:39 GMT -5
Serves me right for trying to defend your last post. I won’t make that mistake again. It should be noted when I was working for Inside Lacrosse, they would NOT assign me to Holy Cross games since there was no way to report from the game since there was no media seating. That is the largest lacrosse publication in the country, not covering your program. This is a PROBLEM.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Jan 12, 2021 17:21:13 GMT -5
HC currently has other immediate priorities than upgrading a Lacrosse facility that is needed approximately 20 times a year for varsity competition. The private schools that BF mentioned, have meet varying degrees of success, with Loyola being the outlier regarding national recognition in Lacrosse. But again, Loyola does not have facilities for Football, Ice Hockey, Baseball, and Softball. The Track and Field facility is shared with Johns Hopkins. Lacrosse is their one trick pony regarding a premier facility at Ridley. They do not have a permanent indoor practice facility, but they do put up a bubble for the winter. Among the small private Colleges in the East, only Holy Cross and Bryant have permanent indoor facilities for Lacrosse teams.
In this decade, major facility upgrades and expansion will be needed for housing and dining. Building a new housing village, as well as complete renovation of the 5 Easy Street dorms have to be on the immediate horizon for the campus master plan. After housing upgrades, research and faculty infrastructure will also required as well increased endowment for financial aid.
It would be great to have world class facilities across the board throughout the entire physical plant, very few schools if any can provide that for every single academic, athletic, and student services program. I remember when my daughter was applying to colleges, she refused to apply to the Ivy League University an hour away from us, that our neighbor’s two daughters were attending. The reason why.... deferred maintenance of the physical plant, particularly in the dorms, where non human inhabitants had taken up seemingly permanent residence.
Again, for those who complain about Fr. K field, the solutions that come to mind would be to convert Smith to accommodate both Soccer and Lacrosse. To do so requires a targeted gift. Powerball and Megamillions is currently at the .5 billion range. Go out and buy a ticket, and with your winnings, put your money to the CAF for your pet athletic grevience.
Besides financial aid money for all students, funds are needed to attract and retaining eminent faculty scholars, then endowed coaching positions.
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Post by bfoley82 on Jan 12, 2021 19:50:01 GMT -5
HC currently has other immediate priorities than upgrading a Lacrosse facility that is needed approximately 20 times a year for varsity competition. The private schools that BF mentioned, have meet varying degrees of success, with Loyola being the outlier regarding national recognition in Lacrosse. But again, Loyola does not have facilities for Football, Ice Hockey, Baseball, and Softball. The Track and Field facility is shared with Johns Hopkins. Lacrosse is their one trick pony regarding a premier facility at Ridley. They do not have a permanent indoor practice facility, but they do put up a bubble for the winter. Among the small private Colleges in the East, only Holy Cross and Bryant have permanent indoor facilities for Lacrosse teams. Boston College does have a permanent indoor football (I think Women's Lax practices there in bad weather) and a separate softball/baseball facility. Dartmouth has an indoor football facility also dartmouthsports.com/news/2020/4/20/athletics-newest-athletic-facility-a-game-changer-for-eight-varsity-teams.aspx
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Post by Crucis#1 on Jan 12, 2021 20:41:40 GMT -5
I am aware of the new indoor facilities at BC and Dartmouth that came online last year, two years after the Luth was completed. From looking at pictures, it seems that the Dartmouth facility is smaller than the other facilities and cannot be used for punting and field goal practice for football.
Both schools have large endowments, that should have been able to construct permanent indoor practice facilities a decade ago.
Guess you did not see that I said small private colleges in the East. Neither BC nor Dartmouth are considered small colleges.
The three other Ivy schools in New England do not have permanent indoor facilities. Even mighty Harvard has a bifurcated Lacrosse facility issue as the Harvard Lacrosse team has to play at Jordan Field during the first part of the season, as there is a temporary bubble inside Harvard Stadium.
Yale with its 2018 National Championship in Lacrosse plays at Reese Stadium, which it shares with soccer. It does not have an indoor practice facility that the Lacrosse team can use in December, January and February. Yale and Harvard have oodles of bucks that could be used to build a facility.
Since Fitton cannot be used for Lacrosse, the only immediate solution would be to sharing Smith. However, it may require Park and Linda Smith’s agreement, since they provided the gift for the Stadium construction.
Not sure what your point is regarding your continued criticism of HC athletic facilities. My observation is HC is punching above its weight regarding overall on campus athletic facilities and athletic programs for a school with approximately a 3,000 undergraduate enrollment.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jan 13, 2021 6:24:32 GMT -5
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Post by HC92 on Jan 13, 2021 8:17:40 GMT -5
I had no idea Georgetown had won the national championship in soccer in 2019. Pretty impressive.
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Post by newfieguy74 on Jan 13, 2021 8:22:08 GMT -5
Several years ago my wife and I visited a large number of small liberal arts colleges with our daughter as she decided where she wanted to go. As it turned out a lot of these were in the midwest. They were all outstanding academically (Carleton, Macalaster, etc.). Many are D2 or D3 in sports. Some had pedestrian athletic facilities, a few had decent ones, but none came close to Hc's facilities. I agree with the comment that HC punches above its weight. To me, it's breathtaking that HC keeps the number of sports that it does and has the athletic facilities it has. I'm not saying we shouldn't discuss ways to improve things, but I think what HC, a small undergraduate school, accomplishes is amazing. When I was at HC (a million years ago) my roommate played lacrosse; it was a little above a club sport and they practiced (I think) on the top of the hill pre-Hart Center.
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