Southeastern NC Yosef Spring Tour

[Capt. Ed]

My buddy and I attended the Spring Tour Stop in Wallace NC held at River Landing Country Club. It was incredible from all aspects except one.

River Landing is a beautiful club with outstanding facilities. The food was awesome, highlighted by a whole pig cooked to perfection.

All the coaches and staff were present a good hour before the meeting started and well after. It was great fun sharing a beer with Coach Satterfield and talking about last year's incredible season. Coach Fox and AD Gillian couldn't have been more open and friendly.

A special treat for me was meeting David Jackson and Rick Beasley. Both are outstanding people and I hope we don't lose either in the coming years.

No real new news, but a lot of enthusiasm and excitement for the coming year from the staff. On conference additions, AD Gillian indicated in general terms the desire was to add one more school this year to the conference.

The only not so great part was the low attendance. While it allows for a lot of access to the staff for those attending, it doesn't reflect well on App Spirit here in the eastern part of the state. I'm sure the staff would appreciate any feedback on improving attendance you might have.

[PhillyApp1]

All the yosef tour events started with small attendance. Spread the word and help Yosef

[moehler]

hate to hear that about the attendance, but it shouldn't be that big of a surprise, we traditionally just don't have a lot of fan support in that part of the state. I'm glad they are trying to expand into areas we are weak, but its going to take time, win a couple of national championships in football and they will come around, (ha!)

[JTApps1]

Wallace is an interesting choice as it is pretty isolated compared to all of the other stops on the tour. It would be interesting to see how/why they chose to hold the event there.

Interesting comment about the general feeling was to add a school this year considering the potential Championship game changes.

[moehler]

not sure about the status of New Mexico and Idaho as members going forward, they might be trying to find schools to replace them. But, one thing is for sure, if they pick another West school, the App administration is going to go ballistic!! We were more less promised a traveling partner, if we cant get JMU, than Eastern Kentucky isn't a bad choice. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of promising schools out there ready to move up.

[AppSt94]

Wallace is an interesting choice as it is pretty isolated compared to all of the other stops on the tour. It would be interesting to see how/why they chose to hold the event there.

Interesting comment about the general feeling was to add a school this year considering the potential Championship game changes.

I agree, the venue is right on I40 but still quite a bit of distance from any dense population. I went last year and I think that the event is hosted by a local alum that is part of the facility. I could be mistaken. At least that's what I hear from my wife a lot.

[AppSt94]

not sure about the status of New Mexico and Idaho as members going forward, they might be trying to find schools to replace them. But, one thing is for sure, if they pick another West school, the App administration is going to go ballistic!! We were more less promised a traveling partner, if we cant get JMU, than Eastern Kentucky isn't a bad choice. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of promising schools out there ready to move up.

I can't help but think that this whole paying the full cost of scholarships deal is going to force these G5 schools to look for cost cutting measures to compensate for the added expense of giving someone money on top of a free education. One of the easiest solutions is to create regional conferences to cut down on travel.

[Capt. Ed]

The site for the tour stop is River Landing CC which is owned by the Murphy Family, a very successful enterprise in the Wallace area. Dell Murphy is the son of founder Wendell Murphy and heavily involved in the family business. Dell is also an App grad and a passionate supporter of all things App. We are fortunate for their overall support and the use of their facilities.

I understand why the event is held there and have no problems with it. It's not that far from the Wilmington area and easily doable for one trip a year. Some of us in attendance wondered if a bus was supplied to pick up folks in '
Wilmington, would it help. Other thoughts were to get an email list going so we could better communicate and perhaps get some car pools going for next year. Any thoughts and/or ideas are appreciated.

Interestingly both JMU and EKU were mentioned as possible adds in informal conversations. It was acknowledged JMU was a long shot and EKU has some work to do to get ready. None the less, I sensed EKU has impressed our staff as to their commitment and might have a shot. All staff I questioned about Liberty consistently said their private status and ability to raise money made them a bad fit for the SB.

[moehler]

agree 100% about eventually G5 schools coming to their senses and forming conferences based on regional rather than tv markets. Terry Holland, 6, 7 years ago, at the time the AD at ECU, suggested they should eventually join a regional conference with schools such as App, Charlotte. His feeling was it was more important for G5 schools to be in a strong regional conference, with strong rivals, than to chase the tv dollars. Holland, a very wise man, was way ahead of his time in making that suggestion. I hope that someday we will be in a regional conference with Georgia Southern, ODU, Charlotte, JMU, Marshall, maybe even Chatt, it makes all the sense in the world for that to happen, unfortunately, the Conference USA people who are in charge, strongly believe that TV markets are more important than a regional conference, personally I thing that's a flawed plan, I'm hoping that next year, when their tv contract is up for renewal, they get a poor deal, which maybe, just maybe, will start the process of them rethinking how they move forward with adding schools.

[JTApps1]

The site for the tour stop is River Landing CC which is owned by the Murphy Family, a very successful enterprise in the Wallace area. Dell Murphy is the son of founder Wendell Murphy and heavily involved in the family business. Dell is also an App grad and a passionate supporter of all things App. We are fortunate for their overall support and the use of their facilities.

I understand why the event is held there and have no problems with it. It's not that far from the Wilmington area and easily doable for one trip a year. Some of us in attendance wondered if a bus was supplied to pick up folks in '
Wilmington, would it help. Other thoughts were to get an email list going so we could better communicate and perhaps get some car pools going for next year. Any thoughts and/or ideas are appreciated.

Interestingly both JMU and EKU were mentioned as possible adds in informal conversations. It was acknowledged JMU was a long shot and EKU has some work to do to get ready. None the less, I sensed EKU has impressed our staff as to their commitment and might have a shot. All staff I questioned about Liberty consistently said their private status and ability to raise money made them a bad fit for the SB.

Ahh, the Murphy connection certainly makes sense!