Today I spent my time working on updating the incoming freshman's emails for the roster. The coaching staff has a list of all the incoming freshman but did not have their new school email addresses or their personal email address on file as of yet. My job was to go through the school directory and obtain their university email addresses and update the freshman roster with those email address.
Once I completed this task, I had to go through the admissions list for all of the football team and obtain the freshman's personal email address. Once I went through the list I would then take the email addresses and update the roster again so the coaches then had both their university and personal email address in order to keep the players up to date with any news.
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With Coach Paul gone and most of the other coaches, I spent the afternoon helping with inventory of the teams equipment. While this isn't the most glamorous of things to do it is something that is necessary. This is especially true at the Division III level where having equipment managers would be considered a luxury. Since Ohio Northern does not employ a equipment manager it is up to the staff to do inventory on all of the equipment, right down to counting and sorting out the chin straps. While this was one area in which I helped, I also helped inventory the practice jersey's and their condition in which they were in. Basically, myself and one other coach went through all the white and black jerseys that were on hand. We would see what numbers we had and if they were in good condition or needed to be sewn. This was decently time consuming but something that again was necessary so we could see what needed to be ordered.
I spent yesterday going over some of the local universities to look at what kind of renovations projects that they have done most recently. I looked over Bluffton, who has built a really nice indoor facility that had been in the works for about 6 years before it opened. I also looked at schools like Defiance, Tiffin, and Findlay. Findlay actually has the approval to build a new stadium for its football team but for some unknown circumstances has hit a bump in the road. The stadium was expected to be opened last season but they have failed to even break ground as of today. I have finished up with this project unless the Coach would like to have me look at any other schools. I will be working with some of the other coaches today at the stadium tomorrow getting things setup for this upcoming weekend.
Today I did not get to spend as much time as I would have liked to get everything going but was able to dive into some new schools. I wanted to start looking at the Heartland Conference since it was a local conference. I don’t expect to find a whole lot of new renovations because the schools, even though Division III are smaller with a lower enrollment than the OAC and NCAC schools. Today, I started looking at Bluffton University since I am very familiar with the school and their recent projects.
Today I finished up with the NCAC schools and the renovation project that they have done with their athletic facilities. Again, it is amazing to see some of the additions these smaller schools have done with their facilities. Some have done a lot and have spent a lot of money, while a few others have done the bare minimum with their facilities. What I have noticed is the donors that have contributed. With the schools that have done a lot of renovations, they donor base contributions have been very significant. While the other schools that have not done very much have very little in contributions from their alumni. To me it just shows that if you have a strong alumni that really loved their school they will be willing to donate back in order to make the school even better for future students. Tomorrow, I will spend time reviewing the NCAC to make sure I covered everything and start looking at some local schools as well.
With Coach Paul out of the office this week, I haven’t been in as much as I would have liked to be. However, I have continued to work on the NCAC conference and looking though what the schools have done with renovations. As I worked though several more today, more and more have invested upwards of $20 million in renovations to their athletic facilities. This also includes recreational centers that students and faculty can use as well. Most try to combine the athletics with this because not only does it save money but it also makes the other students who aren’t athletes feel that this is just as much for them as it is for the athletes. These complexes are also getting bigger and bigger, including adding indoor facilities for baseball and lacrosse practices. I should be able to finish up with the conference tomorrow and will start to look at a few local universities to see what additions they have made as well, this will probably even include my Alma Matter, Tiffin University.
Just when I thought I was done with the project. I was just done with the OAC conference. While we wanted to see what upgrades were done within the OAC, they wanted to see about other local universities as well and what they were doing. Therefore, I started looking at the schools in the NCAC and seeing what kind of upgrades they have been doing to their athletic facilities. So far I was able to get a few schools in and they are doing some great things in the NCAC conference. I was highly impressed with the facilities at Allegheny, they seem to have gone first class all the way for a Division III school. As I progress through the conference I will update some of the more intriguing universities and what kind of renovations they have made or planning to make.
Today marks the first week of May and I was able to finish up my last two schools Otterbein and Wilmington College. Wilmington is the newest member to the Ohio Athletic Conference who came in the year 2000 replace Hiram that left in 1999. As I worked today I discovered that all of these schools combined have had some huge projects and renovations to their athletic facilities over the past several years. It is not even those schools that have been the most successful but those that have not been quite successful at all that are investing millions of dollars into these facilities. Looking at Wilmington College’s newest sports facility today intertwined an athletic facility with its academic core. They spent a little over $10 million on this new facility but made sure that it included state of the art classrooms and labs for learning as well. Most of the other facilities were sports related only, not that there is anything wrong with that but it was nice to see a school that was using part of their new facility for sports training in the classroom as well. When I come back in tomorrow I will do a quick update on Ohio Northern’s recent updates and then most likely start to look at some surrounding schools to see what kind of upgrades they have done, a lot like Tiffin and their indoor football facility that they have built.
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