2013-2014 MVC All-Sports Trophy

[1972Shocker]

Some early thoughts on the 2013-14 All Sports Trophy prospects.

The Shocks won last year's All-Sports Award with a record breaking average finish of 2.3 over 15 sports.

I will not be surprised if the Shocks win another All-Sports Award this year but I am not expecting us to put up that kind of average finish in 2013-14.

Last fall we finished with a 2nd in women's XC and two 3rds in Volleyball and Men's XC for 8 points. We have the potential to improve our finish in VB but we will do well to maintain those finishes in XC.

In the winter sports we finished last year with 6.5 points total in MBB, WBB, and Indoor Track & Field. The WBB team with only 1 senior and 7 freshmen on the roster will be hard pressed to match last season's co-championship. We could fall quite a few spots there. Women's T&F are losing two All-American's and huge point gatherers in future Hall of Famers Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton and Tanya Friesen which will provide them with a big challenge in repeating as indoor champs.

Last year, we finished 1st or 2nd in the 7 spring sports excluding softball with our 8th place finish in softball the only sport we did not finish 3rd or better in of the 15 sports in which the Shocks compete. I don't really expect the softball team to be much improved unless freshman pitcher Jenni Brooks proves to be very effective in the circle. The Men's championship golf team lost 3 very good seniors in Rafael Becker, Hunter Sparks and Tyler Gann. The guys should still be pretty solid but that is a lot of quality to replace in one year. Again women's track and field need to find a lot of production to replace Aliphine and Tanya.

I think a realistic expectation for the 2013-2014 season will be a score of around 3.0 which still would have been good enough to win the trophy last year and should put the Shocks right in the mix again this year.

[pogo]

I'll tell you what. Ol' 1972 knows all of his Shocker sports. I think of him to all the non revenue sports as I do Trop and recruiting news. Thank you for all of your information on all sports.

[another shocker]

damn, you know your stuff.

[1972Shocker]

Thanks @pogo: and @another shocker: for those kind words. I just like my Shockers in whatever shape, form or variety they come in.

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

The Shocker men are picked to finish 6th and the Shocker women 4th in the MVC XC preseason poll. That would put them a combined 5 spots behind their 3rd and 2nd places finishes, respectively, from last years record setting All-Sports performance.

If that proves to be accurate we need for the VB team to step it up and take the regular season Valley title this year.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks are indeed picked to win the Valley VB title this year in the annual preseason poll of the league Coaches.

Let's make it happen Ladies.

[1972Shocker]

Based on the finishes predicted in the pre-season polling of Valley coaches the Shocks (3.67) will come out of the fall in 3rd place behind ILS (2.50) and SIU (3.00) and ahead of LOY (5.00).

However, there are only 5 fall sports that count in the AST race and the Shocks compete in only 3 of them. The key for the Shocks will be how our track and field teams (including (XC) perform since they account for 6 of the 15 sports the Shocks participate in. At this point in time I see no reason that the Shocks won't be right in the thick of the AST race come next spring. I'll report back once the fall sports are concluded and we will see how the coaches did with there polling.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks finished the winter portion of the schedule in 5th place in the All-Sports race with a score of 4.17. The Shocker women's XC team finished one sport lower than projected and the co-championship won by the VB team cost 0.5 points vs and out-right championship.

Of course, there are only 5 sports contested by the Valley in the winter and the Shocks only compete in 3 of those. They do not participate in men's or women's soccer.

Standings heading into the winter sports (MBB, WBB, MTF, WTF and WSD) are as follows:

1. SIU - 1.67
2. ILS - 3.00
3. BU - 3.88
4. LOY - 4.10
5. WSU - 4.17
6. MSU - 4.75
7. UNI - 5.63
8. INS - 6.00
9. DU - 6.40
10. EU - 7.40

I expect the Shocks will be at or near the top of the standings after the completion of the winter sport slate and heading into the key 8-sport Spring season.

I think that the Shocks will be very solidly in the mix for another AST win once the dust settles at the end of the year.

[1972Shocker]

All winter sports are now complete with the Shocks moving into 1st place. Here are the updated standings with the 8 spring sports remaining:

1. WSU - 2.71
2. SIU - 3.63
3. INS - 3.69
4. ILS - 3.89
5. MSU - 4.81
6. UNI - 4.83
7. BU - 5.64
8. EU - 6.69
9. DU - 6.83
10. LUC - 7.00

In their 4 winter sports the Shocks average was 1.63 with MBB - 1st, WBB - T-1st, Men's Indoor T&F - 2nd, Women's Indoor T&F - 2nd (1.0+1.5+2.0+2.0 = 6.5/4 = 1.63).

I predict that the Shocks will maintain there current average score through the spring and perhaps even improve on it slightly and will be the only team with an average score under 3 at the end of the year. I see SIU and ILS battling for 2nd place with an average finish in the mid-3's.

[ciaomichael]

Now, tell me about this softball pitcher again. What kind of stuff does she have? A legitimate drop ball or riser to go along with her fastball? Also, I'm impressed you said "in the circle" rather than "on the mound."

[ciaomichael]

All-Sports Fight Song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y6AoDfJBYk

[1972Shocker]

Now, tell me about this softball pitcher again. What kind of stuff does she have? A legitimate drop ball or riser to go along with her fastball? Also, I'm impressed you said "in the circle" rather than "on the mound."

I assume your are referring to Jenni Brooks. Unfortunately, she has not been very effective this Spring so far and will probably not be a significant contributor in the circle this year.

[WuDrWu]

8 spring sports. 1 Championship so far in womens golf. Womens tennis is all but a lock. As it stands now, softball and mens golf are likely. That would be 4. Track and field will probably be picked 2 but I think barring injuries Bolt will sweep. 6. Mens tennis will need to beat Drake but 2 is almost certain. Who'dda thunk baseball would be the weak link?

A 1.5 spring finish is VERY doable. Go Shocks! 14 of 16 was possible this year...unreal.

[WuDrWu]

I'd love to see a point total of 29 or better. We're at 20 with 7 events remaining. Not much room for error.

MG, WT, MTF, WTF, SB all need to win. That's 25. 2nd place from MT and BB would do it. Don't think baseball can do that. They could be a 3 with a MT win. I'd feel pretty confident 1.93 average finish wouldn't be touched any sooner than 35-0.

It's a pretty special time to be a Shocker fan.

[1972Shocker]

8 spring sports. 1 Championship so far in womens golf. Womens tennis is all but a lock. As it stands now, softball and mens golf are likely. That would be 4. Track and field will probably be picked 2 but I think barring injuries Bolt will sweep. 6. Mens tennis will need to beat Drake but 2 is almost certain. Who'dda thunk baseball would be the weak link?

A 1.5 spring finish is VERY doable. Go Shocks! 14 of 16 was possible this year...unreal.

Actually @WuDrWu we have 2 Championships so far. 1 in women's golf and and 1 in women's tennis plus and a 2nd place finish in men's tennis. The All-Sports points for tennis are awarded based on the regular season finish not on the Valley Tournaments. However, the Valley Tournaments do determine the automatic bids to the NCAA Regionals for Tennis.

Hopefully, Louis Cohen Boyer is available to the men's golf team for the upcoming Valley Championships. He did not play in this past weekends tournament.

As far as baseball goes. I agree. Who'd da thunk!