D-III Rules

I’ve always disliked the Cardinals of North Central College.  They tormented us in softball during Clare’s time at Elmhurst and have made my son-in-law’s life miserable both as a player and coach.  This one story should suffice to give you a sense of what I mean.

Senior year, Clare and the Bluejays travelled to North Central, per the season schedule.  As fate would have it, my daughter would be facing her high school teammate in game one of the doubleheader.  Clare took a 2-2 pitch and laced it down the left-field line for a double and eventually scored our first run of the game.  Elmhurst was ahead 2-1 going into the bottom of the seventh.  One out one on, and the North Central batter hit a ball to this day I have no idea got over the fence.  A doubleheader sweep helped propel the Cardinals to a nice, long postseason run.

Which is just what the football team is doing this year.  That’s not surprising; see above.  What is truly different, though, is the Chicago media has taken note that the football Cardinals are headed to the NCAA D-III championship game after blowing out Muhlenberg 45-14 Saturday.  I mean, I saw TV highlights on the 10 o’clock news, and both papers ran stories, short, yes, but stories nonetheless.  Then, I caught a story about the school and the team on the 6 o’clock news Monday that must’ve gone a good three to four minutes.  Wait, there’s more—the station did a follow-up story yesterday.  It’s as if true amateur college sports actually matters.

Cardinals’ quarterback Broc Rutter has 54 (!) touchdown passes on the season, a record 30 of them to receiver Andrew Kamienski.  My son-in-law Chris got to see this duo up close this year as defensive line coach for the Bluejays.  I don’t know about Chris (who was a graduate assistant for the Cardinals a few years back), but I still hate North Central, although I kind of want them to beat U of W at Whitewater Friday for the D-III championship.

Sol go Cardinals.  I can say that because I’m thinking Cubs.