I am not sure if the actual first alumni was a Q or not. I’m sure he probably whistled a tune or two back in 1844-ish, though.

The issue of large numbers of cadets roaming around outside the stadium (and all the ones we don’t see who are nowhere near the place) has been sticking in my craw for a few years now.

I’m sorry I missed the Randy Bresnik spot. (I’m in DC)… Randy and I were in Band Company together; he was my cadre corporal.

A couple of thoughts on Randy:

1. The first alumni of The Citadel will be a Q!

2. My Redskins fan wife wants to know if Randy can take Dan Schneider with him into space.

I watched on Bulldog Insider since I am in DC. What I could see of the crowd was disappointing, especially after looking for the crowd pictures you posted. I didn’t see an empty seat behind General Clark.

We fixed some of the problems we had at Princeton (I attended that one), such as all the dropped balls. That being said, we allowed PC somewhere around 200 yards rushing which does not bode well. I think we may have game planned a little too much for the pass. Whatever is going on with this team (we had different issues at Princeton than we did against PC) it needs to get fixed or it is going to be a long Saturday afternoon this coming weekend.

In the case of PC moving to D-1 in all sports, it’s a tough move to make, especially right now, but it says almost as much about inequities in Division II as it does the “riches” of Division I. I get the impression that the school felt D-2 had become a wasteland.

Yes, it is extremely difficult to recruit talented female athletes to The Citadel. It’s not impossible, but very difficult. If a young lady had a choice between playing soccer for the College of Charleston or The Citadel, very few would choose to attend The Citadel. While the education is first class, the atmosphere is not attractive to most young women. There are the unflattering uniforms that must be worn everywhere. They have very few free nights and limited free weekends, especially for the freshmen (knobs). Plus there’s the joy of constant verbal abuse from your upper classmates. Add to that the reality of actually winning very few of the matches you participate in during your athletic career and its hard to imagine why anyone would subject themselves to that. It’s the road less traveled. The accomplishment of personal goals and learning to handle stress under pressure. And learning to handle defeat.

As for Alabama State, I’m at a loss as to why their coach would have put those 8 players on a bus and driven them 7.5 hours from Montgomery, AL to Charleston, SC for these “contests” versus The Citadel and Charleston Southern. Why did the AD allow them to spend their scarce resources on such a boondoggle? Did they learn anything? Did they improve their competitiveness?

Getting back to your original blog post, I too was surprised that they don’t have a single freshman on this year’s roster. Yes, they recruited one who didn’t make it beyond the first week, but if you understand the system you know that that happens at The Citadel. You have to expect some early attrition.

Speaking of attrition, if you study the rosters of nearly any other women’s soccer team in the Southern Conference, you will find that they are dominated by freshman and sophomores. By the time many of these athletes become juniors and seniors they stop playing soccer, either to concentrate on other things or because they’ve been surpassed by younger, faster players. At The Citadel, once a player makes it through the infamous hell week, they have a very high likelihood of graduating in 4 years and playing 4 years of soccer. Of the 6 female soccer knobs who arrived in my daughter’s class, 5 now wear the ring.

Other reasons that the athletes at The Citadel tend to stay with their sport for the full 4 years are the added benefits. Athletes have their own mess hall and have the opportunity to leave campus for out-of-town matches, while their classmates endure PT and yet another thrilling SMI.

Charley
Andre Dawson for the Hall of Fame
http://hawk4thehall.blogspot.com