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Concordia-Moorhead celebrates their victory over Carleton in PKs in the MIAC Women's Soccer Championship game. Photo by Katrina Styx, d3photography.com

Tonight marks the start of the NCAA Division III soccer playoffs. and the first game kicks off with a men’s match at 5 pm Eastern tonight between Transylvania and Lynchburg, and a women’s match at 8 pm ET (5pm Pacific) between Redlands and Chapman.

We’ll have our best soccer playoff coverage to date with six photographers confirmed for matches around the country:

1. Joe Bergman is covering the SCIAC tournament, starting with the Redlands/Chapman tilt tonight and the winner at Cal Lutheran on Saturday
2. Jeffrey Levy will be at the TCNJ regional
3. Daryl Tessmann will be at the UW-Whitewater regional on Saturday
4. Larry Radloff will be at the UW-Oshkosh regional
5. Scott Pierson will be covering the Macalester regional victors on Saturday
6. I will be at UW-Whitewater for the match between the Saturday victors.

We’ll also have some football covered this weekend with Matt Milless at the CORTACA game (Cortland State vs. Ithaca), Joe will be at the Occidental / Cal Lutheran game on Saturday, too, and I will be at the Monon Bell rivalry game between Wabash College and DePauw University – the 117th matchup between these two teams in the oldest football rivalry game in the Midwest.

Basketball, around the corner

Basketball season is right around the corner. November 15 is the earliest day the NCAA allows Division III teams to schedule a regular season game (they can play up to two scrimmages prior – often against teams from other divisions). This will make the number of sports we have coverage for in a news environment to twelve.

1. Men’s Basketball
2. Women’s Basketball
3. Men’s Soccer*
4. Women’s Soccer*
5. Football*
6. Div I Men’s Ice Hockey
7. Div I Women’s Ice Hockey
8. Div III Men’s Ice Hockey
9. Div III Women’s Ice Hockey
10. Wrestling
11. Men’s Swimming & Diving
12. Women’s Swimming & Diving

* denotes fall sports in playoffs

Wow, that’s a lot. And the baseball season starts in February. We will be working the Division III Men’s Frozen Four at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis for USCHO, the Division I Men’s Frozen Four at the XCel Energy Center in April for CollegeHockeyNews.com, the early rounds of the Div III men’s and women’s basketball playoffs for D3hoops.com, the Stagg Bowl for D3football.com and the men’s and women’s soccer championships for D3soccer.com in December. A busy few months ahead for us, including the MIAC Swimming and Diving Championship and a few other conference meets that we’re going to try and finalize the next few months.

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This was originally published on D3football.com on Sunday, September 26, 2010.

By Ryan Coleman
d3photography.com

Laird Stadium stood under feet of water on Saturday evening, casting the location of this upcoming Saturday’s home game against Augsburg into doubt. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

As the sun rose over Carleton’s picturesque campus in Northfield, Minn., Friday morning Laird Stadium was dry. But as the hours progressed, the rising water of the Cannon River spun the tables on the school’s 7,500-seat football stadium.

At 7 a.m. Carleton officials would have told you that they could host a football game, if scheduled to, on Saturday afternoon. But by 9 a.m. an email went out to players on the football team to come down and empty out the locker room. An hour later there was a foot-and-a-half of water on the field, and it was rising fast.

Southern Minnesota was hit with a monsoon of storms, many local meteorologists likened its arrival as to many winter storms that often hit the state. But this occurred during the warm month of September, not December or January as they often do. If this storm had struck the region in the winter months it could have packed a crippling amount of snow ranging from 30 inches in the Twin Cities to over 100 inches in Amboy, Minn., midway between Mankato (home to Bethany Lutheran and nearby to Gustavus Adolphus and Martin Luther) and Interstate 90.

But the 73-year old Laird Stadium isn’t the only victim to Carleton athletics. Next to the field is the West Gym, home to basketball, volleyball and swimming. By 4 p.m. Saturday the basement had “about 3.5 feet of water,” said Sports Information Director Dave Pape. “I didn’t have hip-waders on, so that’s just an estimate.”

The sump pumps were shut off as they just were unable to keep up with the amount of water coming in through the foundation. The basement, a full level below the gymnasium floor, has been used primarily for storage of equipment and is the home to the filter and pumps for the natatorium. Pape added that there may have been some loss of historical archives, but he was not sure to what extent.

Student-athletes had been helping take as much out as they could that was not already lost to the rising water. He is confident that the water will not rise high enough to reach the gymnasium floor — a situation, should it occur, could very well be devastating to Carleton hosting any more home events in volleyball or basketball.

And past the gym, a little further upstream is the football and men’s soccer practice field. In the middle of that field sits a regulation soccer goal, with all but the last foot of the eight-foot tall frame underwater. (Soccer is played on a field across campus, on higher ground.)

Carleton’s practice field is on the other side of the gymnasium, on lower ground. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

Three bridges that directly connect the campus to the western part of town, where fellow Division III school St. Olaf sits on much higher ground, have been closed by the National Guard. The city has declared a state of emergency and Division Street (which runs along the side of Laird Stadium, the West Gym and the practice field) is open only to campus traffic and is closed beyond the library parking lot. Laird also has 22 dorm rooms nearby, with 30 students living in them. They have been evacuated, although their living arrangements were unclear.

Former athletic director Leon Lunder, a Northfield resident since 1950, told Pape that he has never seen water reach Laird Stadium before.

But what does this leave Carleton with? They have their homecoming scheduled next Saturday against Augsburg at 1 p.m.. School president Steven Poskanzer is insistent that Laird Stadium will host homecoming on time but athletic director Gerald Young told WCCO-TV on Saturday that may not happen.

“I think it’s a long shot. That’s why at the beginning of the week we are going to look at what some of the other options of what we have to do. We would love to get out here for homecoming, but I think it’s a real long shot.”

They have a few options, although nothing is confirmed and may not be for many days: They could play at Laird, except it will take days for the water to subside, the field to dry and the facility to be approved for use after it has dried out. St. Olaf is hosting Bethel and does not have lights.

Northfield High School’s field has lights and, according to an email from Carleton, does not have any events scheduled for it on Sept. 25.

Contributing: Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

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Are you a die-hard fan of Division III athletics? Do you own a digital SLR camera with a good lens? Are you willing to shoot and upload your photos within a few hours of an event? Can you shoot a couple of events a month through the school year?

Then we might just be looking for you. We’re looking to expand around the country. On the map below, we’re looking for photographers in states where there are NCAA Division III schools, the full color circles are where we currently have photographers, some of them are extremely dense regions (Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles) and we’re looking for a few photographers there.

There’s more to Division III than football. We also cover Mens and Womens Soccer for D3soccer.com, Mens and Womens basketball for D3hoops.com and baseball for D3baseball.com. Starting in October, 2010, we will be covering Division I Womens Ice Hockey and Division III Mens and Womens Ice Hockey for USCHO.com, and we also cover Division I Mens Ice Hockey for CollegeHockeyNews.com

There are a few things you need to know before contacting us:

1. We have both a flexible deadline and expectations. We expect you to do the editing, uploading of both proof images shortly after the game and the full resolution files within a couple days of the game.
2. We do not pay per game. You are paid a percentage out of your sales. All of our photographers are paid in this manner and we have been operating this way since 2003.
3. We do not reimburse mileage, meals or food. You can write those off on your taxes out of your sales next spring.
4. You are expected to be your own salesperson at events. While we give you resources to help you (shirts, sweatshirts [for purchase], business card designs, marketing on facebook and on our media partner websites) you need to make your sales happen.
5. We’re a resale outlet for you. We will sell on your behalf, we will provide images to newspapers, schools, other media outlets that come to us.
6. You own your images. You’re just letting us resell them to make you some extra income and give the fans something to look at and hold on to remember the games by.
7. This is “At will employment.” And you are a contractor. We will not take taxes out of your sales.

Are you still interested? Send a link to your portfolio, your coverage area and experiences to newshooter@d3photography.com

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