Welcome to the MIAC Championship version of “5 Things We Learned on Saturday”! It’s taken us 24 hours to digest all the things that occurred on Saturday (getting in shape for the Thanksgiving Day feast!) and now we are ready to share the top 5 things we learned from a terrific day of Cobber athletics.
5 Things We Learned On Saturday, Nov. 5
1. There is nothing like a championship game/match!
There is nothing like playing for a title. The anticipation in the days leading up to the championship game/match (pay attention and study for class – yeah right!), then waking up on Gameday and getting ready for the game, feeling the nerves in the locker room before the game and then walking out onto the field/court and taking in the crowd and atmosphere – a one in a million feeling! We wish everyone could experience that feeling once in their life. We also wish that teams, players and coaches who routinely get to the title contest would step back and realize what an experience it is to play for a championship. It is something you will always remember. Remember to cherish the moment and don’t let it pass.
2. Cobber fans are the best in the MIAC!
Whether it be packing the swimming pool for an early-season meet with St. Thomas and Macalester to traveling to St. Joseph to root on the women’s soccer team or staying at home and turning out in numbers to be boisterous for the volleyball championship match – nobody in the MIAC does it better! Sure, there are other schools in the conference that have better followings for a single sport but when it comes to supporting the teams across the board – Concordia is in a league of its own.
On Saturday the Cobber women’s team had an unbelievable following at St. Ben’s – and even outnumbered the Blazer home fans. The Kernel made an appearance over a hundred miles away from campus and the field looked more like Jake Christiansen Athletic Complex than St. Ben’s. Less than four hours later Memorial Auditorium was rocking for the volleyball team and their title win over St. Thomas. At times, the gym was as electric as we have ever seen it for a Cobber game.
The bottom line is that other schools can talk about how great their fans are for one sport or another, but when it comes to overall athletic sport – and the willingness to travel to road games – there is only one Cobber Nation! All this, plus the Cobbers fans do it with class!
3. Tim Mosser and Dan Weiler are really good coaches
There are times when coaches take too much of the blame for what the players do on the field or get too much of the credit for the success. Sometimes there are coaches that don’t get enough credit. That is the case with CC volleyball coach Tim Mosser and women’s soccer coach Dan Weiler. What Eddie Vedder is to Pearl Jam and Bono is to U2, that is what Mosser and Weiler are to the Cobber athletic department. To take the John Buccigross-based hook one step farther (and use a hugely popular cliche these days) – Mosser and Weiler are “Rock Stars”!
The two have been the leaders of the top programs in the MIAC for many years. In the past nine years, the two have combined for five MIAC regular-season championships, seven MIAC Tournament titles, 18 trips to the MIAC playoffs (yes, that is every single year in the past nine seasons) and 12 NCAA tournament appearances. There is no other school in the MIAC that can even come close to touching those achievements in volleyball and women’s soccer.
4. The MIAC Conference Office is the best in the business
What Tim Mosser and Dan Weiler are to MIAC volleyball and women’s soccer – the MIAC Conference office is to the NCAA. Executive Director Dan McKane, Assistant Exec. Director Matt Higgins and assistant Natalie Arians (one in a line of many tremendous short-term assistant hires) promote – and show support – for the conference student/athletes better than anyone in the business. They work tireless hours, put up with tons of stubborn coaches and administrators (although we don’t know of any!) and never get discouraged from the mission of showcasing the MIAC in the best possible light.
Before Dan took over as Executive Director the league office rarely showed up for all the championship games/matches/meets and was never a presence at the coaches and administrators meetings. Now, there is always a representative at every championship and the coaches/administrator meetings usually have all three office members in attendance.
On Saturday Dan took in the women’s soccer championship in St. Joseph and then drove to Moorhead to be in attendance at the volleyball championship match. They handed out the trophy to the winning team and took time to get pictures of the winners with the MIAC banner for the conference website. That simple gesture means more to the coaches and athletes then they will ever know.
Kudos to all three on a terrific job! A special “pat on the back” goes to Matt who had recaps, pictures and stats from all the championships on the web within hours of the games being finished – he is a great help to the SID’s in the conference !
5. There is nothing like beating the Yankees
No explanation needed
And that is what we learned on Saturday.
We can now look forward to the NCAA Tournaments which brings a whole new level of excitement to the teams! Plus, the men’s and women’s hockey teams start conference play and the basketball teams are one week away from the start of their seasons.
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