Five rounds, five journeys
By Pat Coleman
D3football.com
RESTON, Va. — My playoff odyssey might not have been as
interesting or nearly as long as Pacific Lutheran's, but I can at
least claim credit for about 4,500 miles traveled this postseason
in pursuit of Division III football.
Thankfully, a family vacation to Minnesota for Thanksgiving
accounted for about half that distance. And thankfully my
2-year-old remembers what I look like. But that includes two games
at St. John's, one at Montclair State, one at Mount Union and the
Stagg Bowl in Salem. That's a game in each bracket except for the
South, my home region.
Each of these towns has a unique relationship with its team, but
none more than one Alliance, Ohio. In fact, we'll see if they ever
invite me back after their team lost for the first time in four
years on my first visit!
Talk before that game ranged from a particularly incendiary Terry
Pluto column in the Akron Beacon Journal regarding Rowan's
roster, to the possibly mythical Danny Sheridan line on the game
favoring Rowan by nine, to reports that head coach Larry Kehres was
interested in the Princeton head coaching job.
This is a group of people that considers Salem a second home, that
still chuckles over the Johnnies of St. John's after a playoff
blowout from 1993 and that basically bleeds purple.
After the game, silence from the Alliance crowd. Except for the
hundreds of people standing outside the Mount Union locker room,
applauding each player as he exited.
More than an hour after the game ended, one lone Mount Union
senior was walking the field for one last time, with his head down.
Hopefully he'll remember the 54 games his graduating class won, not
the one that got away.
Even later, one person was upset that she had already gotten
airplane tickets to Virginia. What, you can't drive to Salem?
Like much of small-town America, this is a friendly group of
people. OK, so I didn't meet famed poster "Wartburg Fan," but I met
all the nice ones. I'm told I haven't missed anything.
And in case I had forgotten in my six-hour drive home the
historical significance of the game I had witnessed, the local
Washington, D.C., all-news radio station reminded me. The Streak is
over.
Long live Alliance.
Salem is similar. Maybe it's because there are so many Mount Union
fans there. Though this was my first Stagg Bowl, it was my third
trip to Salem — the two for two previous men's basketball
Finals Four.
Though, at least Salem is on an interstate.
Salem always manages to put on a show. It's a town that loves its
Division III athletics, relishes its semi-annual moments in the
sun, and with apologies to Frosty Westering, they make the big time
where they are. And they turn out for the games as well. With one
team that traditionally does not travel well (Rowan) and another
from 3,000 miles away (Pacific Lutheran) how else did they draw
more than 4,000 for the game?
I imagine not too many other places have the mayor of the town out
for the official banquet. Let me know if I'm wrong, but I'm sure
Rudolph Giuliani wasn't around for the 1997 women's Final Four!
Here's looking forward to another trip to Division III's Titletown
in March.
