Canespace

I'm Hurt Dawg, Don't Ask Me If I'm Alright!

University of Miami Director of Athletics Shawn Eichorst announced on Wednesday that Vincent "Vinny" Scavo has been named Head Athletic Trainer.

Scavo rejoined the Hurricanes athletic department in 2011 after working as the Director of Sports Medicine Services and Head Athletic Trainer at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine since 2008.

With the division serving as the official sports medicine provider for the Hurricanes, Scavo had already worked closely with the team doctors and student-athletes.

Scavo has extensive experience as an athletic trainer at the professional, college and high school levels, previously serving as Miami's baseball athletic trainer from 1984-87, including during the Hurricanes' 1985 National Championship season.

Scavo worked with both the New York Yankees (1981-83) and Florida Marlins (1992-96) organizations, earning Minor League Athletic Trainer of the Year honors by the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainer Society and Florida State League Class A Baseball Athletic Trainer of the Year in 1994.

After two years as the Rehabilitation Coordinator for the Marlins' minor and major league teams (1994-96), he was named Director of Sports Medicine at Doctor’s Hospital and then served as the Head Athletic Trainer at several South Florida high schools for 13 years, working at Miami Southridge (1996-2001), Chaminade-Madonna (2001-06) and Coral Gables (2006-08).

Over that time, he developed the curriculum for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools' Coaches Certification Course and the MDCPS Injury Reporting System. In 2006, Scavo was named Florida's High School Athletic Trainer of the Year.

Camping Out

Summer is here and It is time to get back to nature and enjoy camping out in the great outdoors. And nothing is better than camping out in Florida.

The fresh air, the sunshine, the crystal clear springs, the scenic rivers, the wildlife, the friendships made around a campfire, the soft moonlight through the pines, gazing at a majestic, star-filled sky free from the city lights.

The only problem is that you will find none of that on Greentree Field behind the Hecht Athletic Center in Coral Gables. At Al Golden's football camps held at the University of Miami all you really get is a bunch of athletic, hot, sweaty young men either intentionally running away from or deliberately running into each other a hundred times over. 

So unless you are an ambitious high school football player hoping to get a scholarship offer from "The U" we recommend that you simply stay inside the comfort of your air conditioned home in sunny, hot and steamy South Florida.

But what it really comes down to is that is exactly what the camps are intended to do: Determining which high school football players players are deserving of playing for Miami , are likely to get a scholarship offer and will wind up wearing The U on their helmet in college.

Last year around 70% of the players signed by UM camped in Coral Gables.  This year one very special UM football camp partcipant this year is Ventura, California QB Ricky Town. 

You see it just so happens that Ricky's dad  happens to be good friends with a long time Canespacer (who shall go nameless). So we thought we would give him some face time here on Canespace since he is attending the Al Golden Football Camp this weekend.  

Ricky Town is only entering his first season on the varsity squad at Saint Bonaventure High School however this class of 2015 prospect is already getting lots of attention on the recruiting front. 

Teams like Miami, Alabama, Stanford, Boston College and many others are attracted to both his excellent athletic skills and his sterling 4.0 GPA.

Obviously a very smart and talented player, there is a lot to like about Ricky Town. Here are some video highlights of Ricky Town at practice:

Town is a still developing 6'-4" 190 pound quarterback who can fling it with the best of them.  He works a lot out of the shotgun formation with his current high school team and due to his height he has excellent field vision. 

He stands tall in the pocket, delivers a very catchable ball and has solid arm strength. He is spending the Summer working on his strength and speed to become a more complete player.

However, Ricky's best quality may be his understanding of the offensive system, scheme and reads.  According to our sources he is a student of the game, an avid film watcher and would absolutely smoke ESPN's Jon Gruden in one of his now famous 1 on 1 film Q & A sessions.

Town has spent time working with QB coach Anton Clarkson (seen above) who is the son of Steve Clarkson who runs the Super Seven QB Academy held each year.

Clarkson has worked with many other well known and successful college QBs such as Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen and USC's Matt Barkley. Ricky (seen below with his father) is now reportedly one of Clarkson's proteges and one of the top rated QBs in California.

Ricky Town is in town camping out today at the Al Golden football camp in Coral Gables. We would like to wish him the very best of luck at whatever his bright future holds! 

NOTE: We will have reports from our source inside the Al Golden Football camp later today, but for now we can tell you that Ricky Town was selected camp QB MVP today!

Canespace 2012 T-Shirts Are In!

The newly designed 2012 Canespace T-shirts are in and they are absolutely awesome! This year we  upgraded to the Hanes Tagless Tees which are better quality (100% heavy cotton) which makes these shirts really nice.  They are a Canes fan's dream.

They come in white (for purchase) and black (U have to earn them) and here is the deal: Due to tough economic conditions, I can no longer afford to give all the shirts away for FREE. 

 

However, there are ways to earn discounted and even free shirts if you follow these guidelines:

If U just want to buy one straight up and support the site they are $20 (includes shipping).

If U are lucky and get a "FIRST" the shirts are offered at a reduced price of $10 (includes shipping).

If U work hard enough and blog often enough then you can earn a BLACK shirt for absolutely FREE.

Black shirt recipients for 2012 are:

OhioCane: No explanation needed. The most dedicated Canespacer.

Orange & Green in the Vein: Wrote the countdown to the BCS championship.

Six: Rarely comments but when he does the most detailed information.

CaneRock: Consistent, dedicated and good content from sources.

NativeCane: Hit the road with us to Tallahassee with no fear and great gear.

OcalaCane: My best friend and most faithful supporter since forever.

CGNC: She knows her stuff in multiple sports and has been here since 2006.

For The Fans, By The Fans

If you have been around the Canespace blog for any length of time then the title of this blog should sound very familiar.  "For The Fans, By The Fans" has been our tag line since we started Canespace almost exactly six years ago. 

That's right 'Canes fans we will be celebrating our sixth anniversary this June 16th. We can remember almost all of the legendary bloggers, most of the exciting games and even some of the outrageous tailgate parties. 

But as I think back about our humble beginnings way back in 2006, after "The Legion" left the Sun-Sentinel blog to form Canespace, it definitely seems that time really flies when you are blogging! 

After 6.2 million hits (site visits), over 525,000 comments and over 1,200 feature articles a lot of Hurricane fans became part of Canespace and a lot of words, ideas and opinions have crossed our computer screens. 

Over that time we have gained, and lost, thousands of fans and bloggers.

Now, the University of Miami wants to hear from you the fans at Canespace about your game day experiences - what you like and don't like - about Miami Hurricane athletic events. 

That's right Hurricane Family this is your chance to sound off about the athletic department, the customer service and ticketing process, the on and off campus facilities, pre and post game activities, access to information, players and coaches and any other issue that comes to mind.

Earlier this week I was chatting on Twitter with Chris Freet, the UM Associate Athletic Director for Sports Information, and found out that he wants your feedback so that he can share it with the newly hired Tim Wise.

Wise you see was recently hired by UM to improve the fan experience at athletic events.  He came to Miami (much like UM AD Shawn Eichorst) from Wisconsin with many years of experience in managing the Badgers' athletic facilities and events. 

Here is a brief career summary for Tim Wise the designated "New Guy" at UM: 

Tim Wise begins his first year as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Facilities and Event Operations at the University of Miami.

Wise, who has over 16 years of experience in college athletics as an event manager, facilities director and administrator, was hired by the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department as assistant athletic director for events and facilities in August, 2008. In January 2012, he was named Interim Associate Athletic Director and elevated to the Senior Management Team with oversight of the University Ridge Golf Course and $125 million in capital projects.

Wise also had supervisory oversight of the UW Athletics event management, facilities, food and beverage and guest services units and oversaw an annual budget of approximately $15 million. He also served in a lead role in administrative coordination of UW Athletics concerts, summer camps and event parking.  Wise will have oversight of the following areas:

+ Facilities and Maintenance Services
+ Capital Projects/Construction
+ Facilities Master Planning
+ Event Management and Guest Services
+ Camps/Clinics
+ Risk Management
+ Information Technology
+ BankUnited Center/Global Spectrum Liaison
+ Sun Life Stadium Liaison

So let it rip Canes fan - give us the positive and the negative - about your UM athletic event experience.  Take into account the entire process from ticketing to tailgating and events at Sun Life Stadium, the BankUnited Center and Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.

'Canes Get Kicked Out Of Their Own House

Just when you though things couldn't get any worse for the Miami Hurricanes baseball team, they did. After getting stoned to death by little ol' Stony Brook on Friday night by the humbling score of 10-2, Miami head coach Jim Morris and his team apparently hadn't had enough.

So on Saturday Miami returned for another beating, this time all about the head and neck, in another losing effort in a loser's bracket game to Missouri State. Miami lost by the shocking score of 12-2, which effectively eliminated the Hurricanes from their own Regional Tournament at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Stadium in Coral Gables. 

The Hurricanes were basically pushed around and kicked out of their own home and later found left laying helpless somewhere out in left field where they will be forced to watch in-state rival UCF battle Stony Brook or Missouri State for the Coral Gables Regional Championship. 

Miami lost the two games by a combined score of 22-4 to Stony Brook and Missouri Sate. Now that's definitely gonna leave a mark.  Maybe several.

The worst part is that the Hurricanes lost the games at home in front of their always supportive but now somehwat conflicted home town fans.  Several Miami fans vented their obvious frustrations after the humilating loss and a few even called for Morris to resign or be fired.

For the record I support Jim Morris and would like for him to leave the UM program on his own terms when he is ready.  If that is now or in another year or two or more then that is fine with me.  After all he has won two National Championships and has taken the 'Canes to the post-season on a regular and consistent basis.

I will admit that the quality of play has declined since 2009 and the lack of post-season success over the last 4 years has not been up to par with Miami's past success and is reason for concern.  Morris has been at Miami for 19 years and it is possible that winning may not be quite as important as it once was and that the dynamics of the team may be getting stale. 

Nineteen years is a LONG time to do anything, much less be a head baseball coach at one university.

Yet please remember that while Morris is ultimately responsible for the product on the field he was not pitching, hitting or fielding the ball yesterday or Friday.  An equal share of blame must be placed on his assistants, pitching coach JD Arteaga and hiting and fielding coach Gino DiMare. 

It is a fact that Miami's pitching did them no favors in the Regional (22 runs in two games) and that the Canes batting average (.260) and fielding % (.955) were among the lowest in the ACC this season.

Still, with a combined 57 years of college baesball experience, Morris, Arteaga and DiMare have forgotten more about baseball than most fans will ever know.  The tough question remains though: Can they win a CWS title and bring home a National Championship again?  That question remains to be answered.

After the game skipper Jim Morris had this to say about the game, the team, the fans and the season:

Opening Statement: “First of all, like to congratulate Missouri State; they played very well. Outstanding club, Johnsons an outstanding pitcher. He pitched very well against us and the entire team played good. Very discouraging end for us. When you’re the host you’d like to think you have a good chance to win when you’re the number one seed. Right now we’re going to meet as a team on Tuesday. A lot of thoughts going through my head right now but number one on my mind is to get Miami baseball back to where Miami baseball been for many years.”

Reaction in clubhouse: “I had a very short meeting cause I want to collect my thoughts before talking to the team.”

On mistakes uncharacteristic of Miami baseball: “We didn’t make any mistakes today. We played good defense. We’re not a club that scores a lot of runs, ever. We got to pitch. We got down big. It’s very difficult for this team to come back…Today’s game was a crazy game…It’s a tough loss. I’d rather have lost today than the way we lost yesterday. Today we got beat.”

On fan’s frustration: “I mean, first of all, I understand our fans are very spoiled and I know they’re frustrated, you know, I’m not crazy… We’re very spoiled. We’re expected to go to Omaha every year. It’s a very, very tough thing. I can only say that we got to get better. We got to get better recruiting
classes, got to coach better as a staff, execute better as a team and we’re addressing that and were talking about it.”

On evaluating the baseball program: “I do this every year whether we win a national championship or we finish the way we finished today. I sit and think a lot personally. I write down things, get my coaching staff together, talk to them about what we need to do to get better as players, as coaches in all phases of the game…and then its time to recruit.”

David Stones Goliath

We tried to warn you but you would not listen.

We tried to tell you not to take the Stony Brook baseball team for granted.

We tried to prepare you for what now appears to have been the inevitable against the Seawolves.

Your Miami Hurricanes lost their openinng round game in the NCAA regional tournament by the score of 10-2.  And so it came to pass that Goliath (Miami) was stoned in public by David (Stony Brook).

Stony Brook head coach Matt Senk had this to say after the game: "We did what we always try to do and that is to pitch and play defense and we played errorless. Our pitchers came in there and did a terrific job and our guys scored first and we answered back and did a lot of really, really terrific things tonight that allow you to beat an outstanding team like Miami. So, time is certainly the crooked numbers later in the game that was due to some timely hitting and we played a really solid game tonight and obviously were very pleased to starting off this tournament off with a win and being in the winner’s bracket.”

A clearly dejected Jim Morris was brutally honest during  his post-game remarks: “First of all I would like to congratulate Stony Brook for winning. I probably shouldn’t say this but this was the worst big game the University of Miami has played in my entire coaching career. The worst big game that the University of Miami has played in a big game in my entire coaching career at Miami, in all phases of the game. I’m very sad to watch the way we played the game tonight. Stony Brook played outstanding and we played just the opposite. I told the team that I was very disappointed.”

Miami now faces a tough, uphill climb out of the losers bracket of the Coral gables Regional.  That struggle begins today at 2 PM with an elimination game aginst Game 1 loser Missouri State which dropped a 2-1 decision to UCF.

The Golden Knights will face the Seawolves in a winners bracket game at 7 PM at A-Rod Park.

Canes Face Stony Brook In NCAA Regional Opener

This article was submitted by Canespace Blogger WGT22...

A word of caution to Jim Morris and his # 21 ranked Miami Hurricanes: You better not take this Stony Brook baseball squad lightly in the opening game of the Coral Gables NCAA Regional Friday night.

The Seawolves are the America East Conference Champions. And before you ask, yes, the American East Conference is a Division-1 conference fielding teams from Colleges and Universities like Albany, Boston U. Hartford, New Hampshire, Binghampton, Vermont and Maine.

Sounds like a hotbed for hockey teams but certainly not baseball champions, right. Well, this Stony Brook team is making a quite name for itself and it's Conference and on the diamond rather than on frozen pond of water.

Here are some quick facts about the Stony Brook Seawolves:

• They currently lead the entire Nation and have the # 1 winning percentage in College D-1 Baseball in the Country at a clip of .807 % and 46-11 record.
• They hit nearly .340 as a team compared to Miami's .260 team average.
• They are one of the Top fielding teams in the Country @ .980% and combine that with a stellar team pitching ERA of under 3.00. at 2.87.
• Of their 11 losses, 6 were by one run in games where each team scored under 5 runs. Another 3 losses by just 2 runs. And 10 of their overall 11 losses were by an total of just 15 runs.
• They have at least 3 MLB prospects in this years draft including Baseball America's # 1 Prospect and American East Player of the Year, All-American and Golden Spikes award finalist Travis Jankowski. This kid's a spray hitting machine, batting .411, with 77 career steals and 86 RBI in just 3 years.
• Their Big Stick is 6-2/220 3B William Carmona hitting .380 with 10 HR's and 60 RBI this year. The other 6 starters and their DH all hit between .300-.350 on the season.
• On the mound they boast 2 solid starters plus a true stopper that all received various Conference and National honors as well. The Canes will likely face the Seawolves and America East's Conference Pitcher of the year Righthander Tyler Johnson. 9-1 in 12 starts, 1.76 ERA, 40 k's, 76 innings pitched with only 1 HR allowed all season. Good arm, but not just a thrower. A true Pitcher in that he works locations, changes speeds with movement basically letting hitters get themselves out rather than just trying to blow it by batters. But he can be upper 80's-low 90's sneaky fast. His go to out pitches are heavy sinkers and change-ups with great location being the key to his success. No doubt Patience, fouling of pitches and a good 2-strike approach to up Johnson's pitch count is what I'm sure Canes Hitting instructor Gino DiMare will be preaching and imbedding these next few days into his Miami batters minds.
• RHP Brandon McNitt is the #2 starter. Another smaller but hard thrower at 5-10/180. 14 starts, 8-2, 87 innings 55 k's with a 2.26 ERA and also only 1 HR allowed all season.
• At the end of games for the Seawolves is when the ball is handed over to 6-2/205 Righty Frankie Vanderka. He boasts solid numbers with a 1-2 record, 5 saves, 2.22 ERA, 39 k's in 48 inngs. with a paltry .181 against B.A. against him.

Now I know there are some of "U" Cane fans out there that will scoff, roll your eyes and say "Stony Brook"?  Really?  Puuuuleeease!  Well let me tell you. They are not a bunch of Upper Long Islander stick ball playing scrubs. They were a lot closer to being a solid #3 National seed than a lower #4 seed.  This is a good, solid team with excellent fundamentals.

As for Miami they will start #1 pitcher Erik Erickson as they know that they MUST win this first game. To even take a chance on having to come from the losers bracket and have to essentially play maybe two more games than the team on the winners side could spell their doom.

Sure UCF and Mizzou. St. are also very good and deep teams. But I guarantee the sleeper of this entire 64 team field could very well be Stony Brook, and that is a consensus opinion from many, many baseball people I've spoken with lately from around the Country. There were lots of thoughts that they very well could have been a solid #3 seed and placed closer to home in an Atlantic or North East Regional. But ironically enough, the snowbird New Yorkers were sent South to Miami. Tough break!

This is why many are now calling The Coral Gables Regional not just one of the most underrated Regionals but one of, if not the toughest to get through of all of the 16 Regional sites and make it next round to a Super Regional.

So please College Baseball fans of the Miami Hurricanes, do yourselves a favor and DO NOT take this opening game with lil' 'ol Stony Brook lightly.  

Get out to the games early and in numbers this entire weekend.  Let's make "The Light" what it should be...The Mecca of College Baseball.

Wanna know a little more about Stony Brook?  Here you go:

http://www.goseawolves.org/sports/m-basebl/ston-m-basebl-body.html