Beginning in September, DePauw's fall sports teams will take to the field and the court against their new conference rivals. The switch to the North Coast Athletic Conference is meaningful to each coach in different ways. Some are concerned about practice schedule changes, others devoting more time to watching video tape of new teams, while a select few are nervous about where to find the gyms on the campuses of the new competition.
One of the most important factors behind the decision to leave the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference was the closer proximity of the institutions in the NCAC to DePauw, cutting back on travel time and expenses. Another reason was continuing the high level of competition, encouraging excellence from every team.
Whatever their concerns, there is one thing each coach can agree on – the Tigers are playing to win this season.
Volleyball
"It's a change on how we go about everything in our training," said Coach Deb Zellers, when asked about what the new schedule will mean for her team.
Last season, in the SCAC, the team would leave on a Thursday after class, play four games over the weekend at a tournament and return to campus late Sunday night or early Monday morning. With less travel time, the training schedule will be adjusted and most likely give the team an extra day to practice or rest for their games.
For Zellers and her team, the road to the NCAA Div. III playoffs was often made more difficult by the amount of depth within the SCAC. In any given tournament, according to Zellers, the No. 2 seed could be defeated by the No. 7 seed.
"We were in one of the strongest conferences in the nation because the amount of depth was incredible," Zellers said. "In the North Coast, they don't have that kind of depth yet, but I see that building over the coming years also with the addition of DePauw."
With new competition, Zellers said she will approach each team the same way she did in the SCAC: scout them, find out about them and prepare.
"It's not going to take long to develop new rivalries," Zellers said.
Men's soccer
For coach Brad Hauter and his team, the area most affected by the switch is scouting players and teams of which they have no prior knowledge.
"Our scouting reports and the information we give to our players, we won't have a wealth of knowledge on these teams like we did with the SCAC," Hauter said. "So there will be a lot more phone calls to different coaches to figure out how these teams play."
This is especially true in soccer. Opposing coaches may favor a certain style of play for years, allowing another team to plan against it.
"If you look at teams we've played, the coaches have stayed the same. So, their rhythm system has stayed the same," Hauter said. "Also, you can understand the players better. You can understand their strengths and weaknesses and prepare for that."
As Hauter enters his fourth year of coaching at DePauw, he will have to learn the styles of opposing coaches all over again.
Field hockey
With a solid mix of experienced veterans and youthful exuberance, the field hockey team has high prospects for an NCAC championship this year. The entire roster returns this year, minus a midfielder and four-year starting goalkeeper. The team has their eyes set on a conference title to secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Div.III playoffs, an opportunity unavailable to them in the SCAC.
"There's going to be four or five teams really competing for the conference championship," said head coach Gina Preston. "It's going to be a challenge, and that's why I feel better about the team coming back, because of what we learned last year about being more consistent throughout the season."
Establishing consistency will be key to coaching a team loaded with talent and experience.
The field hockey coaching staff has new face as well. Molly McCue, a 2010 graduate of NCAC rival, Denison University, should be able to provide insider information on the team for Preston.
"We will be watching more video this year," Preston said. "We tend to watch a fair amount. It's always interesting to face a new coach and see their tendencies and what they tend to do. We try to recognize what they do well and highlight what we do well."
Women's soccer
Head coach John Carter's biggest concern is scheduling. With eight midweek games this season, he, like Zellers, is trying to decide how to organize his practice days.
"We got to a point in our soccer schedule [last season], it worked really well," Carter said. "We didn't play in any midweek games. Now in the NCAC, we play midweek games, and that's tough academically."
Not only will students be out of the classroom more, the time in between games will shorten in some instances as well. In some weeks, the Tigers play on a Saturday or Sunday with another match on Tuesday or Wednesday. That translates into less time for recovery.
"We have to go through the first season and figure out how it affects our training rhythm and leading up to the game based on the new type of schedule," Carter said. "It's a trial-and-error season right now to figure out how to do things right."
Regardless of the schedule, Carter will be aiming to improve upon last year's 10-7 record that included five shutout losses.
"Focus on yourselves and what you can do better," Carter said. "You can know the coaches and how they can play."
Football
With two-straight NCAA playoff appearances, the only two in school history, DePauw enters this season excited to continue that success despite their peculiar situation.
As other athletic teams smoothly transitioned into the NCAC, the football team remained in conference limbo.
The 2011 season will serve as a transition, and a short one at that. The team had problems finding opponents to fill their schedule and will only compete in eight regular season games. Only two of those games will be at DePauw. The Monon Bell Classic is also scheduled to take place at DePauw this year.
"We're less worried about the other guys and more worried about ourselves," said head coach Robby Long. "In game week, we start narrowing our focus on the opponent. But we need to become a better team and a better coaching staff."
The team won't begin NCAC play until next year. In the meantime, with no conference to call home, the Tigers hope to claim an open bid to the playoffs with their nine-game schedule.