Students at the 11 NESCAC member institutions may soon have one more avenue for trash-talking - not in the packed gymnasiums and athletic stands spread across New England, but from the comfort of their very own desk chair.
A team of recent NESCAC graduates have launched an online forum called "NESCAC Nation," a Web site currently under development that would connect the conference schools through their shared athletic experiences and eventually span from social coordinating to alumni networking.
Derek Falvey, a 2005 Trinity graduate and four-year member of the Bantams baseball team, spearheaded the project with several of his friends, including David Kelly (Trinity '05) and Brad Kasnet (Colby '05).
"We saw all the schools as independent bubbles, but with the same kind of students," Falvey said. "We thought there was a niche for some type of community forum, and we started with sports because that's the one thing that truly connected us as a conference."
Kelly pointed to the unique athletic dynamic that exists among the NESCAC schools, which are often noted for their academic excellence and the fact that they attract many of the same core applicants.
"The fact that schools are so competitive and a lot of people know people at all other schools and went to high school together, and that they're playing so close to one another - it all allows for a different sort of competition," Kelley said. "Sports may not be the number one priority in the conference, but I think that it's a necessary outlet for the students and lets them interact on another level."
While the Web site used the logical athletic connection between the schools as a springboard, Falvey sees something deeper that connects the 11 NESCAC member institutions - their strong intellectual reputation and geographic proximity combine to create similar student body profiles.
"It's really not just sports - we have the same kinds of concerts, the same type of activities and yet we don't really know anything about the other schools," Falvey said. "No one ever shares those ideas back and forth. We thought eventually it could expand past sports."
Kelley believes NESCAC Nation will create a bridge of sorts to connect those on and off the campuses of the conference's schools.
"The league itself can be in a way isolating and having the Web site out there will increase presence for students as well as alumni, parents, and friends who aren't on campus and can't go to all the games," Kelley said. "The forum will allow discussion and interaction between schools that sometimes is missing in the NESCAC. We want to just take it wherever it goes."
Another eventual aspect of the Web site will be alumni networking, which was also a large impetus behind its creation.
"When you graduate here and go into the work world, you meet people from every one of the NESCAC schools," Falvey said "They're everywhere. NESCAC kids are the types of kids a lot of people want to hire, and to have a way to connect them, through their schools and their professional lives, is a great opportunity."
Currently, the only conference-wide resource is www.NESCAC.com, the league's official Web site, which reports scores, statistics and awards, such as Player of the Week and All-Conference selections.
"There isn't a lot on [NESCAC.com] about interconnecting the schools," Falvey said. "The conference as a whole isn't very united and it's so easy not to be, to just get caught up at your own school, and this might be a way to approach that."
Currently, the Web site is in its beginning stages and includes articles about recent league games and discussion forums devoted to specific sports. And there is plenty to talk about, as 23 NESCAC teams were in the top 25 in the latest national polls in the six ranked team spring sports - baseball, softball, and men's and women's lacrosse and tennis.
Bowdoin sophomore Lauren Benson is the head sports editor for the campus weekly newspaper, the Bowdoin Orient, and sees the Web site as a resource for both her staff and the NESCAC community.
"This sounds like a really great idea, and could definitely help sports sections across the NESCAC," Benson said. "I've started a thing in our paper called NESCAC Notes which summarizes the NESCAC happenings at the end of each article. The NESCAC Nation Web site will be a great way for us to keep up with the conference."
And while Falvey and his team of coordinators have some lofty goals in mind, they recognize that the competitive spirit and deep-rooted rivalries that exist within the league would fuel much of the Web site's popularity.
"People really do have a close association with their school, and there's some serious pride," Falvey said. "We assumed that that would be the crux of it, to base it off of individual schools and then bring it together as a community forum."
