Colby

[Lax315]

Any coaching there?

[Switzerland]

I guess that depends on what your definition of "any" is.

[sguy9]

https://youtu.be/7g7kH671BVA

[Sidelinehorn!]

I am surprised the HC hasn't been excused from his position....the new AD wants to win now and he has not...I think they got rid of the football coach pretty quickly after a few mediocre/bad seasons....will be interesting to see what happens...

[Unknown Participant]

I was at the Tufts Colby game, an absolute shellacking (27-7 final, 15-1 after 1q and 23-3 after 2q), and I commented to my friends and then to my son that that's a game that can get a coach fired.

[lilax]

I am surprised the HC hasn't been excused from his position....the new AD wants to win now and he has not...I think they got rid of the football coach pretty quickly after a few mediocre/bad seasons....will be interesting to see what happens...

I mean what do you expect?

They have been very bad this year, but Colby has always been a bottom-dweller in the conference.

Does anyone remember what the team was like when the current staff took over?

They went 0-10 in the NESCAC in 2016. Van Arsdale took over in 2017.

Van Arsdale's Record (Conference Record)
1st Year 3-11 (2-8) Wins over Trinity & Middlebury

2nd Year 6-7 (3-7) Wins over Hamilton, Trinity & Bowdoin

3rd Year 8-7 (4-6) Wins over Conn, Trinity, Middlebury, Bowdoin

(COVID) 4th Year 1-2 (0-2)

5th Year 3-1 (2-1) Wins over Conn, Bates

6th Year 4-7 (1-7) Win over Wesleyan

Nothing blowing your hair back, but Colby has been where they have been for the last 10 years. Same place under Sandler, Dominguez and Thompson. Ranked somewhere from 8-11 in the conference.

[ah23]

[Nothing blowing your hair back, but Colby has been where they have been for the last 10 years. Same place under Sandler, Dominguez and Thompson. Ranked somewhere from 8-11 in the conference.

That’s not really accurate. Colby made the NESCAC tournament multiple times under all three of the coaches you mentioned, and was in the middle of the pack under both Thompson and Domingos.

Thompson
2009: #5 seed
2010: #6 seed
Domingos
2011: #5 seed
2012: #6 seed
2013: last in NESCAC
Sandler
2014: #8 seed
2015: #8 seed

They were 29-36 in the NESCAC during that span and 57-49 overall. The wheels fell off in 2016, probably somewhat understandably so given the awful tragedy they had to navigate. Van Ardsdale was hired to take over the following season and Colby has generally been pretty bad since then (though arguably was improving in 2019 into 2020 before the pandemic cancelled the season).

For what it’s worth, I do think the idea of canning Van Arsdale is silly. This isn’t SEC football.

[smoova]

For what it’s worth, I do think the idea of canning Van Arsdale is silly. This isn’t SEC football.

Agreed. Changing the coach is an easy, but unreliable move. At a high-academic DIII, the most effective method of boosting a team's success is to give the existing coach additional juice with admissions.

[Sidelinehorn!]

Gotta start winning to justify that $200 million dollar athletic center....

[SaltCounty]

2010 (10-6): Played Endicott (W), Plymouth St. (W), Union (L), Wheaton (W), USM (W) & Maine Maritime (W)
2011 (9-7): Played Plymouth St (W), SLU (L), Castleton St. (W), USM (W), Maine Maritime (W) & Husson (W)
2012 (7-4): Played NEC (W) & UNE (W)
2013 (6-9): Played NEC (W), SJU ME (W), Babson (W) & USM (W)
2014 (7-8): Played Gordon (W), USM (W), RIT (L) & UNE (W)
2015 (8-7): Played Maine Maritime (W), Emmanuel (W), W&L (W) & UNE (W)
2016 (3-12): Played UNE (W), Emmanuel (W), W&L (L), Keene St. (L) & Maine Maritime (W)
2017 (3-11): Played UNE (L), Vassar (L), Keene St. (L) & Maine Maritime (W)
2018 (6-7): Played Husson (W), UNE (W) & Maine Maritime (W)
2019 (8-7): Played Thomas (W), Husson (W), UNE (W) & Maine Maritime (W)
2020 (2-1): Played Husson (W) & COVID
2021 (2-1): COVID
2022 (4-7): Played Maine Maritime (W), SJU of ME (W) & Thomas (W)

Clearly, there was a time Colby got the support to travel & play nationally recognized programs.
With a 200 Millon + athletic building on campus... you'd think that support was still there.
Thinking Colby needs to find a way to make this happen to turn things around.
No offense intended for D3 in Maine - but does shutting out a team 24-0 help you get ready for Amherst a few days later?

[boredatwork]

2010 (10-6): Played Endicott (W), Plymouth St. (W), Union (L), Wheaton (W), USM (W) & Maine Maritime (W)
2011 (9-7): Played Plymouth St (W), SLU (L), Castleton St. (W), USM (W), Maine Maritime (W) & Husson (W)
2012 (7-4): Played NEC (W) & UNE (W)
2013 (6-9): Played NEC (W), SJU ME (W), Babson (W) & USM (W)
2014 (7-8): Played Gordon (W), USM (W), RIT (L) & UNE (W)
2015 (8-7): Played Maine Maritime (W), Emmanuel (W), W&L (W) & UNE (W)
2016 (3-12): Played UNE (W), Emmanuel (W), W&L (L), Keene St. (L) & Maine Maritime (W)
2017 (3-11): Played UNE (L), Vassar (L), Keene St. (L) & Maine Maritime (W)
2018 (6-7): Played Husson (W), UNE (W) & Maine Maritime (W)
2019 (8-7): Played Thomas (W), Husson (W), UNE (W) & Maine Maritime (W)
2020 (2-1): Played Husson (W) & COVID
2021 (2-1): COVID
2022 (4-7): Played Maine Maritime (W), SJU of ME (W) & Thomas (W)

Clearly, there was a time Colby got the support to travel & play nationally recognized programs.
With a 200 Millon + athletic building on campus... you'd think that support was still there.
Thinking Colby needs to find a way to make this happen to turn things around.
No offense intended for D3 in Maine - but does shutting out a team 24-0 help you get ready for Amherst a few days later?

While your point has merit from a strength of schedule perspective I do think that Colby is in a very difficult spot when it comes to scheduling. I do remember hearing, and please someone correct me if this is not true at this point, that Colby is not allowed to leave the state of Maine for midweek contests (school rule). The way the NESCAC schedule is pushed back to a March start date, it severely limits available options because Saturdays are essentially all booked up by in conference games. So in order to play these teams that people want them to play they are at the mercy of someone deciding to come up to Waterville to play them midweek. I would say the Boston area/keene state are the only schools even remotely close enough to get up there, keene is 4 hours and 15 minutes and Boston is 3 hours 45 minutes.

I don't follow the Colby program closely enough to comment on the coaching but I think the scheduling piece may be one that is just out of their hands.

[sguy9]

Spring Break - leave Maine. Before GVA Colby always traveled for break and were able to play strong out of region opponents.

I believe that the Maine teams need to help each other, and Colby needs to learn how to win games. It is the job of the coaching staff is to develop a schedule that accomplishes both.

If they are not allowed to leave the state mid week then drive to Portland and play a midweek neutral site game - invite a strong out of Maine team and market it to all the local HS and youth programs. If you are hampered by your own rules then get creative, don't just beat the other Maine schools by 20 every year.

In other news the Colby women are currently 11-2 with a win over #1 ranked Salisbury - how did they schedule a team from MD...?

[lilax]

With a 200 Millon + athletic building on campus... you'd think that support was still there.
Thinking Colby needs to find a way to make this happen to turn things around.

Again just playing devil's advocate, have you seen the athletic facility?
https://colbyathletics.com/sports/2020/ ... enter.aspx

Tell me how does it help the lacrosse team?

If you read about it, the majority of the money went to building a state-of-the-art Olympic size swimming pool, state-of-the-art hockey rink, basketball court, and community weight room.

Nothing about locker room spaces or an indoor turf facility.

If anything, it shows that Colby cares about specific sports, and lacrosse is not one of them.

[lilax]

[Nothing blowing your hair back, but Colby has been where they have been for the last 10 years. Same place under Sandler, Dominguez and Thompson. Ranked somewhere from 8-11 in the conference.

That’s not really accurate. Colby made the NESCAC tournament multiple times under all three of the coaches you mentioned, and was in the middle of the pack under both Thompson and Domingos.

Thompson
2009: #5 seed
2010: #6 seed
Domingos
2011: #5 seed
2012: #6 seed
2013: last in NESCAC
Sandler
2014: #8 seed
2015: #8 seed

They were 29-36 in the NESCAC during that span and 57-49 overall. The wheels fell off in 2016, probably somewhat understandably so given the awful tragedy they had to navigate. Van Ardsdale was hired to take over the following season and Colby has generally been pretty bad since then (though arguably was improving in 2019 into 2020 before the pandemic cancelled the season).

For what it’s worth, I do think the idea of canning Van Arsdale is silly. This isn’t SEC football.

Looks to me like the wheels started to fall off when Thompson's recruits started graduating.

As I said, they have finished somewhere 8-11 in the last 10 years. Van Arsdale has been status quo since he's been hired.

2012: 6th
2013: 11th
2014: 8th
2015: 8th
2016: 11th
2017: 9th
2018: 9th
2019: 6th
2020: COVID
2021: COVID
2022: Could finish anywhere from 9-11

[SaltCounty]

Sguy...
Very similar feelings.
The other thought is to use NESCAC Road games as a chance to play Back-to-Backs w/ a quality opponent.
IE. @ Amherst on a Saturday... WNE or Springfield on a Sunday.
Hard to imagine those schools saying no to hosting...
And at a time where NCAA tournament is playing Back-to-Backs, it makes sense.

lilax-
Understand your point.
Was speaking generally that the school clearly has the means to support if they are making investments, as such.
And would hope that support could be lent to improve the schedule; whether it be assisting with travel costs or whatever.
There was no point made about the facility helping the team...

[ah23]

I do remember hearing, and please someone correct me if this is not true at this point, that Colby is not allowed to leave the state of Maine for midweek contests (school rule).

Just based on looking at the men's and women's recent schedules I don't think that's actually the case. Both teams have gone out of state to play games during the week in the past few years, though it's uncommon. The men's team played at Williams on a Monday this season and at Keene State on a Wednesday in 2017; the women's team played at Montclair State on a Wednesday in 2019 and at both Endicott and Salisbury on different Tuesdays in 2017.

As a sidebar, Colby's athletics websites (or at least the sites for M/W lacrosse and football) are atrocious. Unless I'm missing something very obvious, they have wiped all information about literally everything that happened (stats, schedule, etc.) before 2017. What was Colby's record in 2015? Who was their leading scorer in 2013? Who knows! I would have to go onto the NESCAC website to find any of that (and the NESCAC website is pretty bad at archiving previous seasons in its own right). Complete joke.

Spring Break - leave Maine. Before GVA Colby always traveled for break and were able to play strong out of region opponents.

If they are not allowed to leave the state mid week then drive to Portland and play a midweek neutral site game - invite a strong out of Maine team and market it to all the local HS and youth programs. If you are hampered by your own rules then get creative, don't just beat the other Maine schools by 20 every year.

In other news the Colby women are currently 11-2 with a win over #1 ranked Salisbury - how did they schedule a team from MD...?

Really like both of those ideas. I know both Wesleyan and Bowdoin (maybe others?) played games in Florida at some point in the 2010s. Lastly, FWIW the Colby-Salisbury game was on a Saturday.

[Tim29]

For what it’s worth, I do think the idea of canning Van Arsdale is silly. This isn’t SEC football.

I don't disagree that canning a HC is the answer to all of Colby's issues, but does Colby's AD mix it up and hire someone new? Can't imagine it's easy finding someone to head that far north.

GVA hasn't made progress in 6 seasons, what will keeping him on for another do?

[Switzerland]

Yes. This facility is unconstitutionally nice. However, let's remember that the men's lacrosse program conducts the essential aspect of their sport regarding official standings OUTSIDE, and it is still in Waterville, ME.

https://colbyathletics.com/sports/2020/ ... enter.aspx

[lilax]

For what it’s worth, I do think the idea of canning Van Arsdale is silly. This isn’t SEC football.

I don't disagree that canning a HC is the answer to all of Colby's issues, but does Colby's AD mix it up and hire someone new? Can't imagine it's easy finding someone to head that far north.

GVA hasn't made progress in 6 seasons, what will keeping him on for another do?

The point I am trying to make is simple.

At some point, you are who you are.
And for Colby, since Jon Thompson, they are a below average team.

If you get rid of Van Arsdale who are you going to hire?

You could actually make the argument that the team has improved under him up until this year.
First winning season since 2015, in 2019.
Best Finish (6th) since 2013 in 2019
First top 10 win in a long time this past year.

That's been better than what a lot of the bottom teams like Trinity, Hamilton, and Conn have done in the past five years. And no one has complained about Colby being bad up until this year.