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Interview by Jeff Mayfield
LCC unleashes new sport:
women’s soccer

[SEPT. 21, 2000]  It’s not very often that local colleges offer a new sport, but that’s exactly what Lincoln Christian College has done this fall. They have unveiled women’s soccer. And with a team peppered with local talent and coached by a man with loads of soccer experience, this team will not be content with just showing up. They want to compete and to win…now. That is hard to do in the world of collegiate athletics, but this team is determined to improve every time out. I met with LCC Coach Dan DeVilder in his home recently, and he gave me his take on his kickers…

Q: Dan, tell us a little bit about how this program came about.

A: The athletic director, Randy Kirk, approached me during the summer and said, 'We want to add women’s soccer this fall.' He then asked me if I would like to be the coach. I agreed sometime at the end of July.

Q: How did you deal with that short time span before school started?

A: We sent a letter to every girl that attended school and to all the new enrollees as well to see if they were interested in playing soccer. I knew of about five girls from the Lincoln High School program that would be here — three new girls to go along with two already here on campus.

Q: How did the girls react to the news of getting a new sport?

A: They were totally excited about it. They just couldn’t contain themselves. Even girls who had never played before wanted to try it out.

Q: What were the logistics of putting a team on the field in that small amount of time?

A: We had to do some quick planning. Mark Howard, who is LC’s men’s soccer coach, told me of some good places to get soccer equipment. One of Coach Kirk’s friends was able to come down on some deals for us as well. The main thing we had to wait on was tape. We always had to borrow from the men’s program.

 

Q: What about scheduling at this late date?

A: Well, that makes it real difficult because most teams already had their schedules in place. Fortunately, Lincoln College was willing to work with us right away. Springfield College called us up for a scrimmage, and they then scheduled two games with us. We also scheduled two road games with teams in our NCCAA regional, and hopefully they will return those games next year.

 

Q: How many girls went out for the team and how many did you keep?

A: For our very first meeting we had about 22 girls out for the team. A couple of them decided that they could not participate because of their hours. Some students are carrying huge course loads of 19 hours or more, or they may be working 20 hours a week on top of a full load of classes. Those things reduced our roster to about 18 players. Of that number, eight or nine of them have had prior experience. The rest of our players, including three of our starters, have had no previous experience. Most of them are performing quite well…as if they were veterans!

Q: Tell us a little about each player.

A: Abbey Flaherty — goalie, tough, great leader

Juliet Grundhofer — no experience, cross country, very vocal leader

Heather Narmore — no experience in sports, good spiritual leader

Brittany Robbins — LCHS, offensive midfielder, strong player (freshman)

Lindsey Jones — LCHS, midfielder, speed, gritty, good crosser (freshman)

Lindsay Heston — defender, smart, tough, great anticipation, quick learner

Cassie Wertin — midfielder, no experience, energizer bunny, great athlete (freshman)

Steph Urton — LCHS, midfielder, very good left foot, runs well to space, tough (freshman)

Emily Best — forward, smart player, leading scorer (freshman)

Brandi Baggett — forward, good foot (freshman)

Kris Unander — defense, very smart, sure-footed (freshman)

Emilie Robb — works hard, great attitude

Abbie Wertin — no soccer experience, works very hard, motivates, great leader

Emily Storm — LCHS, defense, very vocal, organizes backfield, good leader

Ruth Spiering — no experience, defensive midfielder, plays like a veteran, tenacious

Stephanie Keim — no experience in sports, grew up in Mexico, keeps things on the light side

Keturah Potter — no sports experience, catching on well, great leader

Tonia Bruther — manager and player, no soccer experience, tough player, athletic, leader

Note that six of our starters are freshmen!

 

  [to top of second column in this section]

Doug Dowers, assistant coach — standout who played on traveling select teams in Danville; played in college until a torn ACL knocked him out; knowledgeable, perceptive, and he is very well liked by the team.

Dan DeVilder, head coach — started playing in Germany (played for 1860 Munich — top German professional club with undefeated youth side); played on club team for University of Northern Iowa; captained three years at LCC; assistant coach two years at LCC; JV head coach at Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Va.

This year’s LCC women’s team did not even start practicing until after school had started. They have steadily improved team play and stamina each and every day. I could not ask for a better group of young women to coach!

Q: Tell us about your first victory.

A: It was exciting. We shut out Kentucky Christian College 4-0. Here are the stats from that game:

Assists: Brittany Robbins, 2; Lindsey Jones, 1; Emily Best, 1

Goals: Stephanie Urton, 1; Brandi Baggett, 1; Emily Best, 2

Abbey Flaherty made six saves toward her shutout victory.

 

Q: It must be very hard as a first-year program to go up against established teams. Therefore, what are your goals for this, your inaugural season?

A: We knew right off the bat that we’d be facing teams like Lincoln College and Springfield College that are established programs with experienced teams. Likewise we knew that we would probably come out on the short end of the stick, although we did believe that we have some players that can play with them. Even though we may have lost to a couple of them, we have learned how to play against the tough teams, and that will help us down the road. We also knew that we would have to take care of business against other first-year teams like KCC and teams like Cincinnati Bible College, who are in their second year. We set our goals that we would beat those teams. So far, we have accomplished that one goal. The girls would naturally get down after losing big to one of those established schools. Part of that was the fault of the coach who didn’t prepare them well. But when we played against a team that was more on our competitive level, the girls just shined out there! And of course we have a goal of beating Cincinnati next week. They will be a tough test, as they will be at our level or slightly more experienced.

 

Q: Where does LCC ladies soccer go from here?

A: We want to expand our schedule. We want to include more teams on our level. We would like to keep our games with Lincoln College, because they have been great to work with. They’ve been a great help to us in getting us started. We hope to build a base…you know, have off-season indoor soccer programs and things like that to keep the girls in shape and thinking about soccer. So, when next year rolls around, we’ll have a larger base and more experience to draw from.

On behalf of the LDN, we wish Coach DeVilder and the LCC ladies the best on this, their inaugural campaign!

 

[Jeff Mayfield]

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