For several months this fall, I’ve been serving as the play-by-play commentator for the NSCAA Small College Game of the Week, a collaboration between NSCAA-TV and Tourbeau Sports. Our crew has been broadcasting games featuring ranked teams from NCAA Division II, Division III, and the NAIA. Our longest stretch of the season just wrapped up this weekend, with five enticing matches in a ten-day span, and we drove over 3,000 miles total to get to all the sites. Here’s our journey, both calling the games and in between…

9/17: Ohio Wesleyan vs. Ohio Northern

The first game of this stretch was a rematch of my very first game with Tourbeau, when Ohio Wesleyan overcame a second-half deficit to win on the road 2-1. In 2014, the Battling Bishops were dominant throughout the game, defeating the Polar Bears 5-1 after striking first inside three minutes. OWU has had the upper hand historically in this Division III rivalry, and this match proved no exception.

The following day, my producer and I encountered an 11-hour drive from Delaware, Ohio to Springfield, Missouri. Along the way, we stopped in Casey, Illinois, home to the World’s Largest Golf Tee, Wind Chime, Knitting Needles, and Crochet Hook! (The largest Rocking Chair is currently in construction, too!) Casey’s unofficial motto is “Big Things in a Small Town”, and their impressive sights are must-sees for travelers on Interstate 70. Upon reaching St. Louis, we drove past the Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium (the Cardinals did have a home game that night), before finally arriving in Springfield, located in the southwest part of the Show-Me state, and home to our second broadcast of this stretch…

 

9/19: Drury vs. Indianapolis

Since both head coaches are from Scotland, and with the game coming a day after the historic vote on independence, I was curious to hear thoughts from the two men; both had wanted Scotland to become its own nation, but weren’t surprised at the result. As for the match result, Drury earned a tough conference home win, with Nick Ammann scoring the lone goal to gain some revenge for their two losses to the Greyhounds in 2013.

On the drive to Lawrenceville, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta), we encountered a cargo fire outside Chattanooga, and were backed up in traffic for 45 minutes. We did arrive in Georgia safely, and two days removed from Springfield, broadcast our first doubleheader….

9/21: Georgia Gwinnett (Men) vs. William Carey; Georgia Gwinnett (Women) vs. Northwood

Georgia Gwinnett College was founded in 2006, and the Grizzlies have not wasted time in fielding competitive athletic teams, claiming two NAIA national championships this past spring. The men’s soccer team came into their match with William Carey with a lot of confidence, having bested then-second-ranked Auburn-Montgomery in their previous game. The Grizzlies used that confidence to their advantage quickly, with both goals of the 2-0 win coming in the first 12 minutes. In the women’s match, Northwood took an early lead before Georgia Gwinnett tied the game midway through the first half, but a 39th-minute free kick put the Seahawks back on top, and an insurance goal late in the match secured a 3-1 win.

After our doubleheader, we embarked on a two-day trek back into the Central time zone, where I drove through St. Louis again, and through Kansas City, where I saw Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium up close. Our final destination on this trek took us to the hometown of Tom Osborne: Hastings, Nebraska, and this matchup…

9/24: Hastings vs. Kansas Wesleyan

This game came a day after the first NAIA coaches’ poll of the regular season, which kept the host Broncos in the Top 10, and put the Coyotes in the Top 20. The main action of this match came in the final half-hour, with Kansas Wesleyan erasing a halftime deficit to go up 2-1, only Hastings to tie the game on a penalty with 20 minutes to go. But the final quarter-hour belonged to the Coyotes, who scored three goals to get a signature 5-2 road win in their first season with a new head coach.

Driving back to Columbus, my producer and I traveled through several more hometowns: St. Joseph, Missouri (where Walter Cronkite grew up); Hannibal, Missouri (Mark Twain); and Springfield, Illinois (Abraham Lincoln). The local college in St. Joseph, Missouri Western State, had a Cronkite memorial that provided interesting artifacts from the news anchor’s career and personal life. It’s located close enough to U.S. Route 36 that visitors don’t need to take many service roads to reach it, and it is a stop worth checking out.

Our next NSCAA Game of the Week broadcast comes October 3rd from Kansas City, when Rockhurst hosts Quincy, and continues the following evening with Benedictine-Baker from Atchison, Kansas. Our final game of the series is October 30th, when Mobile visits 2013 NAIA National Runner-Up Auburn-Montgomery. You can view the matches for free on YouTube or NSCAAtv.com.