2008 Woodie Awards
PUC has a history of struggling with athletics
By: Jeremy Homan
Issue date: 1/29/07 Section: Sports
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Many students and faculty have no idea PUC used to have as many as five team sports - included men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball, soccer and golf.
Basketball, soccer and volleyball were the only sports to participate in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics or any conference play.
PUC currently has only one NAIA sport, men's and women's basketball. Softball and baseball are both club sports hoping to become NAIA eligible next year.
PUC sports date as far back as the 1950's, when Frank Carroll started soccer. The first sports were in a conference known as District 21 which included the entire state.
Carroll kept soccer going through the 1980's and was succeeded by a coach brought in from Portage who kept the team very competitive.
"Soccer was a highly rated sport around here," said Interim Athletic Director John Friend.
The team peaked with a 15-1 season.
Soccer was played on a field located where the University Village sits, with little or no financial aid. The team consisted of talented players from all over, including many foreign athletes.
The problem soccer ran into was athletes had trouble making their classes which led to problems with academic ineligibility. The last year of soccer was the 1998 season when the coach finally had enough and called it quits.
A club soccer team was eventually reformed but folded due to a decrease in interest.
Volleyball was one of the weaker sports at PUC, which dated back to the early 1980's and lasted until 1998.
"Volleyball was decent, but we were never really up to the top level," said Friend. "We never really made a big commitment to resources in terms of scholarships."
The group used some girls from the basketball program to put together a team and had a few successful seasons. Stacy Zurek was the coach and kept the girls very competitive, but it was tough for the team to succeed when they played schools like Notre Dame.
Volleyball eventually came to an end when a student group voted that the sport be done away with because they considered it a waste of money.
Basketball, soccer and volleyball were the only sports to participate in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics or any conference play.
PUC currently has only one NAIA sport, men's and women's basketball. Softball and baseball are both club sports hoping to become NAIA eligible next year.
PUC sports date as far back as the 1950's, when Frank Carroll started soccer. The first sports were in a conference known as District 21 which included the entire state.
Carroll kept soccer going through the 1980's and was succeeded by a coach brought in from Portage who kept the team very competitive.
"Soccer was a highly rated sport around here," said Interim Athletic Director John Friend.
The team peaked with a 15-1 season.
Soccer was played on a field located where the University Village sits, with little or no financial aid. The team consisted of talented players from all over, including many foreign athletes.
The problem soccer ran into was athletes had trouble making their classes which led to problems with academic ineligibility. The last year of soccer was the 1998 season when the coach finally had enough and called it quits.
A club soccer team was eventually reformed but folded due to a decrease in interest.
Volleyball was one of the weaker sports at PUC, which dated back to the early 1980's and lasted until 1998.
"Volleyball was decent, but we were never really up to the top level," said Friend. "We never really made a big commitment to resources in terms of scholarships."
The group used some girls from the basketball program to put together a team and had a few successful seasons. Stacy Zurek was the coach and kept the girls very competitive, but it was tough for the team to succeed when they played schools like Notre Dame.
Volleyball eventually came to an end when a student group voted that the sport be done away with because they considered it a waste of money.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
bradc
Brad
posted 1/29/07 @ 10:27 AM CST
There was a baseball team in the 70's. I would be very interested to see some research done on this team. From what I have seen so far, it looks like they were around from maybe 72-73 to 78??
Here is an article about one of the players that earned all conference awards in the CCAC and was honored by the school in 2005. (Continued…)
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