This week on the DII Sports podcast we're joined by Marcus Porter, linebacker at Fairmont State. We caught up with Marcus following a week one loss by the Falcons. They've since started to right the ship by defeating Urbana in week two. From on the field to off the field...this interview runs the gamut. And get this...Marcus isn't the only Porter o…

Week 1 is in the books! We look back, and forward, with Paul Tortorella, head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In his first season as head coach, Tortorella brings years of experience and knowledge to the position, spending the last 22 seasons as IUP’s defensive coordinator. So far, so good as the Crimson Hawks are 1-0 on the very young…

The DII football previews continue this week with Gary Dunn, head coach at California University of Pennsylvania. Dunn, in his second season as head coach, was a four-year starter for the Vulcans and brings several years of experience as offensive coordinator at the FCS level to the table. As you'll hear in the interview, there's much more beyond w…

Our DII football previews continue this week with Jason Woodman, head coach at Fairmont State University. Coach Woodman has done a remarkable job of turning around the Fighting Falcons program in just a few short years. Spending time around some of the biggest names in the sport probably didn't hurt. Before coming to Fairmont State, Coach Woodman w…

Before the season kicks off in a couple weeks I wanted to give you guys my take on how I think things are going to unfold. You know, that's because I can predict the future. Haha, yeah right. Let me just say right now that I have NO CLUE what's going to happen. But that's what makes things so damn exciting. There are so many teams scattered all acr…

With kickoff just around the corner we were lucky enough to grab Matt Mitchell, head coach of the Grand Valley State Lakers, for a season preview. Coach Mitchell is always one of my favorite interviews. The guy just gets it. He loves football and his teams are always in the running for the national title...and this year is no exception as most of t…

It's official, football is back, and yours truly could not be happier! From this point on we hope to bring you some top notch interviews with players and coaches from around the country. We're starting things off this week with Maurice Carnell, senior cornerback for the University of North Alabama. UNA had a great run last season, eventually losing…

I can't imagine there are many things tougher than an NFL training camp...but one thing that comes close, if not exceeds it, is training to do an IRONMAN. It's something that I'm very familiar with...not because I'm competing, but because my wife, Mary Kate, has now competed in several. The latest one was in Lake Place in upstate New York. This epi…

Ahhhh....so close we are to the start of training camps scattered across the country. When we started this podcast late last season, we only caught the tail end of the football season and then the playoffs, so I'm super excited that we'll be able to cover this coming season from beginning to end. To give you a taste of what you can expect to hear o…

We're now just a couple weeks away from NFL camps opening and just a few days beyond that for college camps. I CANNOT wait. Between Penn State and the NFL, I've lost count as to how many camps I've been through. Suffice to say it was a lot. And because of that I think I have a pretty good feel as to what goes into it, both as a player and coach. So…

So you wanna be a pro athlete, eh? That's what players all across the country are thinking as they prepare to start training camp in a matter of days and weeks. If you want to make it to the pros, one of the biggest challenges, maybe the biggest challenge, will be staying healthy. Trust me when it comes to this subject as I know a thing or two abou…

Another week down means another week closer to NFL training camps opening. Man, I cannot wait! I love talking and learning about other sports, but let's face it, football is my thing.As you're listening to this episode there are guys just out of college preparing all across the country as they try to make it in the big time. And that includes plent…

Sometimes the truth hurts. And the truth of the matter when it comes to college athletes is that most won't make it to the big time. After college, they'll be done. Then what? What's next? What are they going to do for the rest of their lives? That's what happened with Bryan Keys, our guest this week on the show. Bryan played DII football and spent…

Well, after a recent heat wave in the Northeast, some of which I experienced without air conditioning, suffice to say that summer is officially upon us, which means that things have gone dark on campuses across the country. Okay, not entirely dark. While the games may be over for a while, the training continues...heck, it never really stopped. With…

The school year may be pretty much over, but that doesn't mean things completely shutdown, especially when it comes to football. Nowadays it's basically a year-round process. With the season just around the corner, you can be sure that coaches are out there trying to lock up those final recruits as they get ready to open training camp in just a cou…

It's week two of our crash course in the world of DII track and field. This week we're talking with Jerry Baltes, head coach of both the women's and men's programs at Grand Valley State. That fact is what drew me to Coach Baltes. What's it like coaching both programs? What are the differences? The similarities? The biggest challenges? He's obviousl…

New episode, new sport. As the school year winds down, we thought we’d get in a little track and field before it all wraps up. Who better to educate us than a four time Olympian? And that’s exactly what Jud Logan is, as well as the head coach at Ashland University. As you’ll hear, Jud runs his program like a finely tuned machine, so it’s no surpris…

For the second time in a couple weeks we're joined by Wayne Cavati from NCAA.com. Why you might ask is he already back on? It's because the baseball and softball playoffs are upon us and no one knows this stuff better than Wayne. That's no exaggeration. After talking to him for 20 minutes my head is spinning trying to figure out how he has all this…

The softball postseason is basically here and this week we're talking to Judy Lawes, head coach at Kutztown University, one of the teams expected to make a run at the title. This certainly won't be the first rodeo for Coach Lawes as she's been at the school for 30 years! Yes, 30! Good Lord, that's an eternity. As you'll hear, it was basically her f…

This week on the DII Sports podcast we're breaking down the national baseball and softball picture with NCAA.com writer Wayne Cavadi. We were lucky to find Wayne for two reasons: 1) he knows his stuff and 2) he's a damn good interview! He also has a neat background as he went from being a teacher to pursuing his love of writing and sports and turni…

It's that time of year...NFL Draft time. I tell ya, the NFL has done a masterful job of staying relevant year-round. Over the next few days dreams will come true and dreams will be shattered. Sure, most of the names called out by Roger Goodell will come from the major programs like Alabama, Florida, USC, Penn State, etc. But trust me when I tell yo…

This week we're sticking with softball and talking to Mike Davenport, the longtime head coach at North Georgia. Going back to my days of playing for Coach Paterno at Penn State, I'm always impressed by coaches who stay at one program for years or even decades. I always wonder how they can keep doing it at the same place for so long? How do they kee…

Spring is officially upon us, so that means it's time for a new sport here on the DII Sports podcast. Today we're talking softball, yes softball, with Travis Scott, head coach of the program at Angelo State in San Angelo, Texas. Coach Scott currently has his Rams ranked #1 in the latest poll. Under his guidance, Angelo State has averaged 46 wins pe…

With the NFL Draft being held later this month, we wanted to dip back into football this week by interviewing E.J. Parnell, defensive end from North Alabama. I had the chance to work with E.J. earlier this year as he was preparing for the draft. Coming from DII, the cards are really stacked against any player trying to make it to the NFL. Hearing t…

The DII basketball season is over with Ashland University (women) and Northwest Missouri (men) winning the titles and cutting down the nets. We were lucky enough to have both head coaches, Robyn Fralick and Ben McCollum, on the podcast earlier in the year. If you didn't hear them the first time around we're going to rerun them this week. It's no sm…

Talk about good timing! This week we're wrapping up the DII basketball season with Zach Schneider from Northwest Missouri State. I'll let you in on a little secret...we recorded this interview just as the tournament was kicking off...now there are only eight teams left...the elite eight...and Northwest Missouri is one of those teams still standing.…

With March Madness in full swing we're talking more hoops on the DII Sports Podcast. This week it's Hadyn Herlocker who played her ball at Pittsburg State. Despite having a solid regular season and winning the conference title, the lady Gorillas came up short in the tournament, losing in the second round to Emporia State. And just like that it's ov…

This week we chat with Dan Monteroso, starting guard on the men's basketball team at West Liberty. Dan is unique in that he's a dual athlete, playing both football (previously at Purdue) and basketball. We chatted with Dan as the Hilltoppers were preparing for the MEC Tournament which they went on to win. The team is now getting ready to kick off t…

It's officially March which means tournament time is just around the corner. To get a big picture roundup we talk with NCAA dot com writer David Boyce. David has been covering the DII sports scene for a long time and provided some good insight as to what we should be looking for come tournament time. As always, if you like what you hear, leave us a…

With tournament time just around the corner, this week we talk to Lane Lord, head coach of the women's program at Pittsburg State. Ranked inside the top ten, and on the heels of having clinched their first MIAA title outright since 1991, Coach Lord is hoping to lead the Lady Gorillas on a deep March Madness run. As always, please leave a rating or …

It's a first for us here on the DII Sports Podcast as we have our first student athlete on the show...Laina Snyder, a star play for the Ashland University Eagles. Currently undefeated, the Eagles have big plans for March with only one goal in mind. It would be the cherry on top for Snyder who earlier this season joined the Ashland University women'…

The crash course in women's athletics continues this week as we chat with Jess Strom, head basketball coach at California University of Pennsylvania. In her sixth season as head coach Strom has led the Vulcans to a 109-35 record, including the 2015 NCAA National Championship. It also doesn't hurt that Jess and I have something in common...we both p…

We can now officially say that March Madness starts *next* month, so naturally we are keeping with the basketball theme on the DII Sports Podcast. This week we're back in the men's game with Chris Fite, head coach at Shippensburg University. With a record of 18-1 the Raiders are tuning up to make a big postseason run. We also talk to Coach Fite abo…

It's a first for us on the DII Sports Podcast as we talk some lady hoops with Robyn Fralick, head women's basketball coach at Ashland University. After a few months of doing this I have to put this interview near the top...we really enjoyed it. There's no doubt Coach Fralick is a rising star worth keeping an eye on. Last season, her first as head c…

The basketball crash course continues as this week we talk to Bart Lundy, head coach of the men's basketball program at Queens University of Charlotte. Coach Lundy has quite the story, a story that has come full circle as he's now in his second stint at Queens. In between he spent some time at Marquette where he worked with eight future NBA players…

We continue the transition into basketball this week with a conversation with Jerrod Calhoun, head coach of the men's basketball program at Fairmont State University. As is usually the theme on the podcast, the conversation wasn't so much about the current season but more about life in Division II athletics in general. The ups, the downs and all th…

As the football season wraps up we transition into basketball...and just like their football program, Northwest Missouri is also a powerhouse on the hardwood. In the middle of a busy week head coach Ben McCollum took a few minutes to talk to us about how his team is doing early on this season. We also talked a lot about his background and what it's…

Now that the football season is over we talk to West Chester University head coach Bill Zwaan about the recruitment process and all the challenges that come along with trying to recruit athletes at the lower levels of college football.The DII Sports Podcast

This week we talk to Neil Malvone, founder of the Dream Bowl. The Dream Bowl is a College Football All-Star Showcase of the best FCS, D-II and D-III players from across the country. The game and the series of events held over Martin Luther King Weekend are a celebration of the excellence, commitment, and sacrifice made by the players and their fami…

Northwest Missouri State head coach Adam Dorrel joins us to preview the championship game against North Alabama. At a very hectic time for the program, Coach Dorrel was nice enough to come on and talk about the upcoming game, what he thinks the keys to victory are and what happens once the season wraps up. It's crazy just how quickly these guys are…

This week we talk to Bob Eblen, national columnist for D2Football.com. To say Bob knows his stuff would be an understatement as he has been covering D2 football for well over a decade. We get his thoughts on the semi-finals, talk a little Harlon Hill and figure out just how Bob became so interested in Division II athletics.…

On the show this week we talk to Bobby Wallace, head coach of the North Alabama Lions. As the playoffs unfold, the Lions are favored by many to win their fourth Division II National Championship.The DII Sports Podcast

This week we talk to Adam Dorrel, head coach of Northwest Missouri State. The Bearcats take the field this weekend favored by many to win another Division II championship.The DII Sports Podcast

This week we talk to Colby Carthel, head coach of Texas A&M - Commerce. The Lions are preparing for their first round playoff game this weekend.The DII Sports Podcast

On the show this week we talk to Matt Mitchell, head coach of the Grand Valley State Lakers. Mitchell has his team undefeated as they prepare to roll into the playoffs.The DII Sports Podcast