New MountAthletics.com Feature/Bel Air Patch

As you may have noticed, my time is limited since my site has launched. If you live in or have interest in Harford County, namely Bel Air, hit up BelAirPatch.com. A14-year-old music and athletic star who was fatally hit by a car last Friday has dominated coverage lately. It's a sad, but inspiring story.
---
One thing thing I have to bring attention to while I'm here, though, are the new segments on MountAthletics.com. I've watched most of both "Up Against Atupem" episodes and plan on catching up with Leah Westbrooks, too. A genius segment that is entertaining and informative from the Mount's athletic department. Check them out and sorry for the short and intermittent posts.

MountAthletics.com to launch YouTube page today

The MountAthletics.com staff is expected to announce the launch of its official YouTube channel today. Videos have been available for days featuring an interview with new women's lacrosse head coach Lindsey Munday, as well as player profiles with all the men's and women's soccer teams. One of the most recent interviews is with women's soccer head coach Tom Gosselin after last night's draw with George Mason. With updates like this being put up immediately after games, this site will be the place to go for up-to-the-minute videos. Eventually each student-athlete will have their own intro page. I would have loved to have had my own intro video last year! Why couldn't they unveil this one year sooner??


Regardless of my selfish desires, this is another great idea and addition to the MountAthletics.com resources. Also be sure to check out and "Like" its Facebook page.


Update 12:09 p.m.:


Here is the link to the full release, which is pasted below.

Schedule update - Northwestern road trip right before Christmas

Because I am not perfect, I have yet another schedule update. Word from the academic side of the Mount is that Mount 2000 (you don't want to know) is the weekend of the (incredibly stupid) rivalry weekend with Wagner. Therefore those games have been flipped. (I probably had it wrong with which to begin, but that is the reason we can't be at home that Saturday.)

Additionally, a source close to the team tells me that the Mount will travel to Northwestern two days before Christmas. Traditionally the Wildcats are one of the weaker teams in the Big Ten, but with a holiday fast approaching, an expected lack of students at the game, and the Mount's recent ability to play BCS conference teams tough on the road, I like this addition. Of all the games on our schedule against power teams (Cincinnati, Penn St., Virginia Tech, Dayton) I think this is our best chance to pull an upset.


Note: 2:30 p.m. The addition of the Northwestern game is not tied to the hiring of Lindsey Munday, as the game was on the schedule before she was hired.


Update: 3:40 p.m. As the poster noted, I had the first LIU/SFNY series backward. Guessing the order of some of these conference games was a little tricky after basing it off of Sacred Heart's schedule, so my apologies.

Hopefully this is the final schedule. Updated games in bold.

Nov. 13 @ Dayton*
Nov. 15 @ Cincinnati*
Nov. 20 Savanannah State*
Nov. 22 @ Niagara
Nov. 27 Florida A&M*
Nov. 29 Navy
Dec. 2 @ Sacred Heart
Dec. 4 @ Quinnipiac
Dec. 7 @ Penn St.
Dec. 11 @ Loyola (Md.)
Dec. 18 @ Albany
Dec. 20 American
Dec. 23 @ Northwestern
Dec. 29 @ Vermont
Jan. 2 @ Virginia Tech
Jan. 6 St. Francis (Pa.)
Jan. 8 Robert Morris
Jan. 13 @ Long Island
Jan. 15 @ St. Francis (N.Y.)
Jan. 20 Sacred Heart
Jan. 22 Quinnipiac
Jan. 27 @ Central Connecticut State
Jan. 29 @ Bryant
Feb. 3 Monmouth
Feb. 5 Fairleigh Dickinson
Feb. 9 Wagner
Feb. 12 @ Wagner
Feb. 17 Long Island
Feb. 19 St. Francis (N.Y.)
Feb. 24 @ St. Francis (Pa.)
Feb. 26 @ Robert Morris
*Global Sports Main Event Tournament

Poll Open Thread: Coach under most pressure?

This post is to be used as an open thread for the most recent poll in the upper-right portion of the page. There are three choices, and they should be assessed in a vacuum. In other words, don't hold the fact that basketball is the top sport at the school against Burke, but analyze the other elements that directly affect the pressure on his tenure in specific. Same for Munday and Nagro.

Again, which of the Mount's three new coaches is under the most pressure to perform in their first seasons?

Robert Burke - Men's Basketball. Highest-paid coach in school history, strong resume as an assistant as a member of the staff at offensive juggernaut Siena, Big East power Georgetown, and most recently, respected Patriot League contender American. Burke is replacing the man, Milan Brown, who, by all accounts, was the most liked as well as the most successful at the Mount in the last five years. No sport won multiple NEC (or MAAC) titles in the last half-decade, but Brown was fortunate enough to win one. He is the only sport to notch an NCAA victory in that same window, albeit in a play-in game. As big-shoes-to-fill goes, Burke takes the cake.

Anna Nagro - Softball. She's only 24 years old (turning 25 in September). There's not much more to say there. Coming from D'Youville College in New York, Nagro has not been involved with an NCAA Division I program since her playing days at St. Bonaventure. While she may be a great coach, and we should all hope that she is, she replaces men's golf coach Kevin Farrell as the youngest at the school, is probably the youngest coach of any sport in the conference, and I bet she's one of the 25 youngest head coaches in any Division I sport in the country. Oh, and some of the softball players from last years team (returning and graduated players alike) ran the last coach, Larry Alvis, out in a revolt of sorts. This after they didn't sniff the playoffs (they've only made it once in the last five years.) Meet your team, Anna!

Lindsey Munday - Women's Lacrosse. See yesterday's post for my overblown rant on the main idea here - she comes to us from Northwestern. Not only was she the top assistant at arguably the greatest NCAA program in any sport of the last decade (she wasn't a coach for the entire decade) but she also played there. Twice she was a Tewaarton (think Heisman for lacrosse) semifinalist as a player. After Sonia LaMonica snagged the Towson job, which Munday also vied for, the Mount snagged Munday. Even with the third coach in as many seasons taking over the program, we may be better off with Munday than we ever could have been with LaMonica. I'm also hearing that she is well-compensated with an intricate, multi-year contract to boot. None of that, though, equals the pressure placed on her by President Thomas H. Powell, who laid this quotation down in the press release: "I am confident this dynamic coach will take us to the next level and bring home a national championship." If Munday does that, I'll be the first to buy her dinner and a drink at Ott's. Look at the bright side: At least Powell didn't say how soon he expects that national title. (Again, I like the ambition in the quotation, it's just a real pressure-cooker.)

Without further ado, please, comment to your heart's content.

BelAir.Patch.com launching

For anyone who is from or cares about Bel Air, Md., I have good news. The BelAir.Patch.com site for which I'm the editor will be launching next week between Sept. 7 - 10. When the final date is set I'll let you know.  If you have no association with Bel Air, or don't care what I do for a living, then I'm sorry you wasted your time reading this post.


For a semi-preview, check out one of our other 115+ sites at Patch.com.


Also check out my extreme fried food experience at the state fair on the Timonium.Patch.com site.


You can follow Bel Air Patch on Twitter @BelAirPatch and Like on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BelAirPatch.

Schedule update - Savannah State game moved to Emmitsburg

Savannah State has confirmed what a poster asked recently - the Nov. 20 game will now be played in Emmitsburg. This is a nice break so that we don't play our first four, and eight of the first 10, on the road. Here is the updated schedule:


Nov. 13 @ Dayton*
Nov. 15 @ Cincinnati*
Nov. 20 Savanannah State*
Nov. 22 @ Niagara
Nov. 27 Florida A&M*
Nov. 29 Navy
Dec. 2 @ Sacred Heart
Dec. 4 @ Quinnipiac
Dec. 7 @ Penn St.
Dec. 11 @ Loyola (Md.)
Dec. 18 @ Albany
Dec. 20 American
Dec. 29 @ Vermont
Jan. 2 @ Virginia Tech
Jan. 6 St. Francis (Pa.)
Jan. 8 Robert Morris
Jan. 13 @ St. Francis (N.Y.)
Jan. 15 @ Long Island
Jan. 20 Sacred Heart
Jan. 22 Quinnipiac
Jan. 27 @ Central Connecticut State
Jan. 29 @ Bryant
Feb. 3 Monmouth
Feb. 5 Fairleigh Dickinson
Feb. 9 @ Wagner
Feb. 12 Wagner
Feb. 17 Long Island
Feb. 19 St. Francis (N.Y.)
Feb. 24 @ St. Francis (Pa.)
Feb. 26 @ Robert Morris
*Unnamed tournament


Unrelated sidenote: If you go to Jameer Nelson's Twitter page, you'll see that there is a Mount logo under the people he follows, thanks to Mount assistant coach Mike Farelly, who played with Nelson at St. Jospeh's.