Well our team didn't win the national championship but we had a great time in Florida

[Reverend_Smitty]

You can't beat a 4 day all expenses paid trip to Orlando Florida courtesy of the NCAA. Our women's soccer team made it all the way to the Division III Final Four this year. We lost to a bunch of bible thumpers from Central Pennsylvania in a game that quite frankly we should have won. I don't think the loss would have stung as much if we lost to any other team, my girls apparently have a palpable hatred for this team and have felt this way for the past several years. I think it was topped off when the one girl started quoting scripture during the team speeches portion of the athletic banquet. However the mood was lightened when a young man from the Middlebury (Vt.) soccer team started laughing during the middle of it. It took all of our collective willpower not to start laughing with him and really look rude. The girl that gave our team speech did a fine job and thanked the athletic training staff (which every other college there neglected to do). If you want to thank Jesus for allowing you to get this far...fine...whatever...but I never saw God out there in pre-season taping blisters and rehabing hamstrings...I'm just sayin...

So yeah we lost in the first game but that gave us all Friday night and Saturday to do what we wanted. So some of the coaches and myself went to Pleasure Island and got sloppy drunk and had a great time Friday night...Saturday when we were all hungover was less fun...oh and the bible thumpers lost in the national title game so that gave us some comfort

[tigereye]

1. glad you had fun...sorry your team was eliminated...

which univ. did you lose to?


( i live in PA)

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. Messiah College

I had no idea that they were so overtly religious until I saw them in action...I heard hymns coming out of their locker room on game day. Very strange indeed

[tigereye]

3. wow, I've never heard of that one...

I guess the name could be a clue....

[Reverend_Smitty]

5. I think they are out by Harrisburg

I was just looking on their website and they don't have any ridiculous dress codes that I can see like at BJU or Liberty but Jesus is pretty big there. It's a small school too only 2,000 students. Although I will say that it is pretty impressive that such a small school had both men's and women's soccer teams make it to the national tournament

[LynneSin]

7. They're in Mechanicsburg PA and it's an amazingly beautiful campus

I had some friends that I had known from Church Camp that went to Messiah. They were a year ahead of me and insisted I visit them at Messiah and possibly attend their college when I graduated.

It took one visit to realize that this was no place for LynneSin. The rules were typical of your average fundie college. What's worse is the rules followed you even when you were home with the family.

Now mind you, I'm not some sort of heathenistic freak, but geez, I don't want rules like that. It's college - I want to get drunk once, perhaps make out with a guy not that good for me, I want to party a little and get my degree.

I went elsewhere, didn't even send in an application

[Reverend_Smitty]

8. Yeah I quite enjoy the Godless liberal culture of a public school...

it's cheaper and we know how to party. I'm pretty sure having school rules follow me home after I turned 18 and especially after I turned 21 would cramp my style severely.

and I bet if we beat Messiah on Friday they wouldn't have had a tenth of as much fun as we did on Friday night :P

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Y'mean...

Jesus never actually saved anything? :(

[Reverend_Smitty]

6. Well they did lose to Wheaton in the finals...

I think Wheaton is a Catholic school...so maybe he is still pissed off about that Reformation thing...who knows :shrug:

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. Shoeless Joe Jesus?

Fixing soccer matches? :shrug:




Edit: Joe Jackson never actually threw anything, but if I'd said "Knuckles Eddie Jesus," it just wouldna been the same.

[Reverend_Smitty]

10. yeah you're right it doesn't have the same ring to it

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. Y'know, in going for the joke, I neglected to say

congratulations to your team — which, of course, includes you. :applause:

And, yeah, D-III rocks. It's so much more pleasurable to work with kids who haven't gotten their heads knocked sideways by a fawning (or lambasting) media.

[Reverend_Smitty]

14. Thanks...they were a great team to work with

now it is on to that dead part of the school year where we only have to deal with a few sporadic basketball games and wrestling matches until the middle of January...or as it is known in my professional circles as "the best time of the year!"

[underpants]

11. At VCU I had some classes with track athletes and tennis players

These athletes are mostly forgotten but what a great thing it is to have a scholarship. I know that DIII doesn't have scholarships. To think of all that they put into this and for what?? Not nationally notoriety or future riches the love of the game and for each other and to get to still go out and play for a little longer. Thousands of "kids" are doing this every year and no one pays any attention to it except for a small circle around each team.

Good for them.

[Reverend_Smitty]

12. DIII athletes do impress me

I've had an opportunity to work with them for the past 5 years and seeing their level of commitment to their sport and going to class every day and actually earning a degree is quite an achievement...especially knowing at the end of the day they are in as much debt as I am in as a non-athlete. A lot of people jump on athletes for being dumb jocks with a free ride, but not these people, they are by and large a great group of dedicated young men and women. I know I'm very proud of my girls. I just wish we could have won it for the seniors. I think we've made the final four the past 4 years and never won that championship