Local College

 Mens BasketBall: With BasketBall season right around the corner there was topic brought up

D3 Hoops regarding the Top Coaches of the Empire Eight. This Gave me an idea to take a look at the

local D3 Coaches from St. John Fisher to S.U.N.Y. Brockport.

    Many factors determine how successville D3 coaches will be, Academics, Financial Packages, and

Recruiting are the big three. For example on the academic side R.I.T. is one of the best Technical

schools in the country, but on a negative side it is more expensive. I will try to break down each one of

the schools the best I can. To be honest, I know more about the Empire Eight then any of the other

conferences.

 

University of Rochester: I will start with probably the premier program in the city. With Coach Mike

Neer. U of R is the only team with a trip to the Final Four in the last ten years gets the nod as top

coach. The positives academics,recruiting and financial packages, with the size of enrollment they have

they are able to get more money for all their top recruits. Coach Neer has been offered D1 Jobs

but has turned them down. That should speak for itself. So Coach Neer is #1.

 

St. John Fisher College:I'm not sure if thier is a coach in the country who has a better record after

his first 9 years as a Head Coach 179-48 with no head coaching experiances. So my #2 is Coach Rob

Kornaker. The last two years is the first time in Coach Kornakers career that he has had a full time

assistant. The positives for Fisher are recruiting and academics. The Fisher staff is known as a great

recruiters,now with a full time assistant it should only get better. Fisher is one of the only schools

to offer a Pharmacy Degree in New York State and is known for its Teaching Degrees.

The Difficulties that Coach Kornaker runs into is the financial packages he can get for his recruits.

Don't get me wrong the tuition is nothing like U. of R. and R.I.T., but with a national power in D3

Football they play second fiddle to the Football program. If Coach Kornaker was able to offer more

financial aid and scholarship money who knows how many more wins he would have.

 

R.I.T.: Going into his 25th year of coaching Bob McVean is #3 in my opinion. The positives of coaching

at R.I.T.  Academics and Athletic program. Coach McVean was able to collect 368 wins in his 24 years

at R.I.T.. It is pretty remarkable how consistant he is at putting a competitive team on the floor year

after year. He is one of the most respected coaches in the country and a top recruiter. Recruiting at

R.I.T. isn't the easiest, all of Coach McVean's recuits know that academics come first and Athletics

second. So any player that chooses to play for McVean is already a special player just based on

academics. Two other things that McVean has to overcome when recruiting, first Financial Aid and

the Hockey program. The tution at R.I.T. is very high so he needs help with financial aid and

scholarships. R.I.T. sort of run's into the same problem St. John Fisher does with Football. The

Hockey Team is the only Division 1 team in the area and they ar very good. But the problem is not that

they are good ,it's that they can not offer any Athletic Scholarships because they are the only D1

program at the school. To offer Athletic Scholarships all teams in the program need to be D1.

He is the all-time winningest coach at R.I.T.

 

Nazareth College: At #4 is Coach Mike Daley,going into his 23rd year at Nazareth he has a total of

285 wins. What can I say about Coach Daley as academics and tution go they are very similar to St.

John Fisher. Coach Daley has recruited section V kids the last couple of years and have gotten them

to go to Nazareth. In my Opinion I believe those kid's would of went to Fisher, but they knew they

weren't going to play right away. He is the one coach in the area that gets less out of his kids then any

of the other coaches. maybe he will prove me wrong this year we will see.

 

S.U.N.Y. Brockport: Incomplete. Coach Greg Dunne has only been there for one year and wasn't

named the Head Coach until after the season. He did have an excellant first season  with a record

of 21-8. he was the #1 assistant for eight years before he got the head coaching jobs. S.U.N.Y.

Brockport has a very good athletic program, low tution and good academics. Which will help Coach

Dunne to continue to recruit. he probably will be in the topp three coaches in a few years

 

Roberts Wesleyan: Roberts gets sort of an incomplete. Coach Rob McCoy who is going into his 6th

season has the benefit of playing in the NAIA and being aloud to offer Athletic Scholarships. They

are the only school in the area that is aloud to do that. Which in my opinion give them an unfair

advantage.

 

So here are the Top Coaches based on what I have seen and witnessed.

1. Coach Mike Neer- Record speaks for itself
2. Coach Robert Kornaker- Record speaks for itself
3. Coach Bob McVean- Consistency and Longevity
4. Coach Mike Daley- Only Reason he is this High is because the other two are incomplete
5. Coach Greg Dunne- Only One Year. But very promising
6. Coach Rob McCoy- Athletic Scholarships and NAIA enough said

.

 

St John Fisher: Today St John Fisher  lost to Salisbury St in Three OT's 58-52. Both teams

combined for over a 1000 offensive yards. Coming into the weekend Salisbury was ranked #17 and St.

John Fisher was ranked #20. With this loss Fisher is now 3-3 and will be looking at the Empire Eight

Title to get into the NCAA Tournament.

 

 

.RIT Hockey: (Friday)RIT loses in opening game against Bowling Green 4-2. RIT scored the first two

 goals ofthe game. But in the third period Bowling Green scored three unanswered goals. Today RIT

 will play Western Michagan and the come home for the home opener next weekend

YesterDay RIT beat  Western Michagan 2-1. Tyler Brenner scored the winning goal in the Third Period

 

Meet R.I.T.'s Hockey Team D&C

 

R.I.T. loses to St. Lawrence:The Tigers lose there home opener in front of sold out crowd 6-4

Once again they took the lead early but couldn't hold on. Hopefully its just a young and they will get

better as the year go's on

 

FOOTBALL RESULTS D&C

 

COLLEGE SCHEDULE D&C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Local College News:  Take a look at D&C notebook by Jim Mandelaro

Honor Roll, Athletes of the week and much more.......