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St. Thomas will defend its championship without its head coach.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com
Denning retires as UST coach
"I love it, but I'm just not physically up to it."
That was how Dennis Denning summed up his decision to retire from the head coaching position at St. Thomas, coming more than six months after his team won its second Division III national championship. Denning announced his retirement on Tuesday, Dec. 15, in a news conference on the school's campus in St. Paul, Minn.
Under Denning, the Tommies were 522-157 (.769) and 250-50 in MIAC regular-season games (.833). St. Thomas made the NCAA playoffs in 14 of Denning's 15 seasons, highlighted by the 2001 and 2009 national championships and second-place national finishes in both 1999 and 2000.
But despite the program's current position on top of the Division III baseball world, Denning said that was not part of his motivation for stepping down.
"I told them the most important thing is not winning the big championship," Denning said. "The most important thing for us is the path to get there."
Denning still likes his team's chances, with or without him at the helm.
"We have a good team coming back, a really good team coming back. Plus every kid is a first-class kid too. If I was a sharp person, I'd probably come back this year. I'm going to miss coaching them.
"I realize that I do not have the right energy that I expect of myself and that they deserve, the players deserve, so I made the decision that no, I'm not coming back."
Ohio Northern's voluntary program is based on improving explosive strength, overall strength, balancing body strength, learning your own body, and increasing confidence.
Photo by José Nogueras, Ohio Northern Athletics
MIAC proposed rule change to wait for 2011
by Dave Kisor, D3baseball.com
With the fall "nontraditional" segment of the baseball season having ended on October 31st, most players have embarked on voluntary winter strength and conditioning programs in personal preparation for the "traditional" spring season. The objectives of these programs vary to some degree, but they all have the goal of improving the student-athlete's performance in the spring season. The objectives of one such voluntary program at Ohio Northern is found in the Daily Dose. Due to NCAA regulations, strength and conditioning programs or other winter programs cannot be mandatory. However, with a multitude of exercises for strength and conditioning, many schools provide guidance for the voluntary workouts so the players can "maximize gain" while avoiding injury.
Earlier this year, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) put forth a proposal that is meant to support the student-athlete by helping them prevent injury due to inappropriate strength and conditioning. The stated intent of the proposal is to "permit certified strength and conditioning personnel to conduct voluntary workouts for all student-athletes." Here the specificity of a certified individual is evident. Currently, the NCAA Division III Bylaws state that "If the strength and conditioning coach is also a coaching staff member for one of the institution's intercollegiate teams, the monitoring may occur only if that staff member performs monitoring duties for all student-athletes using the facility at that time." No mention is made of the strength and conditioning coach being certified. Read more inside
Fall games herald new season
Bluffton's Cody McPherson gets some work this September in the Beaver's fall scrimmage.
Division III baseball season gets underway
By Dave Kisor
The preparation for conference championships and long tournament runs leading to the Division III Baseball Championship doesn't start with spring training; it starts with the fall "nontraditional" segment, essentially the first week of fall term classes at most institutions.
The 2009-2010 NCAA Division III Manual defines two playing "segments" of which one ends with the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships. This "traditional" segment is of course the spring season; however, this "traditional" segment starts the same day as the fall "nontraditional" segment. How can this be? As it turns out, the Division III baseball playing season is set at a maximum of 19 weeks. This is the combined total of time of the fall and spring segments, thus, the start date for Division III baseball, regardless of the segment, is set as "September 7 or the institution's first day of classes for the fall term, whichever is earlier." The fall segment must end on October 30th. In reality, what is typically called the "fall season" or "fall ball" is part of the playing season and optimizing the fall segment as preparation for the spring segment is the priority.
The NCAA limits the number of contests a team may have during the playing season to forty in the spring segment, here including games and scrimmages. For the fall nontraditional segment teams are limited to "one date of competition", so it is typical for the fall segment to include intra-squad "games" and other contests that are not official, as well as regular practices.
So what are the objectives of the fall segment? Head Coach Jeff Jenkins of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology has clearly defined objectives. According to Jenkins, the first thing to accomplish is to "Get our new players comfortable with D III baseball and our program here at Rose-Hulman". For the given playing season and starting with the fall segment, it is clear that the new players are adjusting to many things, on and off the baseball field, so it is understandable that getting the players comfortable is a priority. As Jenkins states, "The players need to accomplish working baseball around a very rigorous academic schedule." The fact that the playing season starts at the time fall term classes start clearly puts the new D III baseball player on a steep organizational learning curve. When considering the fall segment relative to the spring segment, the fall segment can provide the opportunity for the coaching staff to determine the "make-up" of the team. As Jenkins points out, "Players will know where they are on the depth chart and what they need to do to move up that depth chart."
James Grandey, Head Coach at Bluffton concurs; "The fall is a very important time for evaluation and team development. We only get 16 days to evaluate our team on the field and see how our first year players compliment our returners."
As the team progresses in the fall segment, the groundwork is being laid for efficiency in the time leading up to the official contests. On the team level, coaching staffs are sharing their approaches to the game and giving the players vital experiences in "game" situations. "We put in all our drills, defenses, philosophies and the players know exactly where they are in our program." Furthermore Jenkins offers "the players have a comfort level with the program and the coaches." Read more inside
