Undefeated and the Winless 9/9

[bownlovingfreak]

Winless...

Alabama State
Alcorn St
Coppin St
Delaware St 0-12!!
Howard
Louisiana Monroe 0-12
Morgan State
North Carolina A & T
Sacred Heart
St Francis NY
Winston Salem St
Penn
Columbia

Undefeated
Central Arkansas 11-0
Dayton 10-0
Florida 6-0
Michigan 8-0
MTSU 10-0
Nebraska 7-0
Oregon 9-0
Stanford 6-0
Texas A & M 10-0
USC 8-0
Washington 8-0
Yale 3-0

Central Arkansas has to be a big favorite for the Southland Confernence. According to Rich Kerns site, Southland competition has started already? Central Arkansas has one win in the conference supposedly.

[OU-OhYeah!]

Having worked at Central Arkansas previously, their performance is nothing short of amazing! I arrived in Conway from a Big Ten school (Illinois) and was appalled. The first match I attended was played in a gym that would be embarrassing for any good high school program. There were about 35 fans and most were family/friends of players. UCA competed in DII and had a sub-.500 record. An undergraduate international student was the volunteer assistant coach (i.e., only one paid coach) and made most of the decisions. My second year there, this volunteer ended up in one of my classes. I continued to follow the program. At one match, the team was not playing well. The volunteer made the team run laps around the gym (in front of the spectators) during the break. It was horrible! I left the gym and went upstairs to the only restroom, where the assistant met me. He asked what I thought and I told him he was an absolute idiot. He humiliated his players in front of everyone. Needless to say, they went on to lose the match.

That's the bad. Now UCA is playing DI (second year) and competitive. Certainly, there is plenty of reason to think they can sustain this if the resources are there for the program. Conway High School has been very competitive in volleyball within the state. The school should be able to recruit Texas. While Arkansas has done well in volleyball, they haven't been able to generate enthusiasm for the sport across the state the way Terry Pettit did at Nebraska. It would be neat to see both UCA and Arkansas make the NCAA Tournament and be assigned to the same first-/ second-round location.

[bownlovingfreak]

Wow. Thats a nice story. Nice to see UCA improving. Surely, this must be there best start ever.

[Wolfgang]

Where's the undergrad volunteer assistant now?

[db]

RE: UCA

What I know of Todd Hay, the current UCA ass't is that he is very well respected in the Lubbock (and Texas for that matter) area for what he and his Lubbock Christian School teams accomplished.

Truly a coach that appears to do more with less year after year. Undersized, but tons of confidence and really knew the game- they were giant killers that marched across the state and never feared taking on the big public school programs. He's a hard working recruiter with his heart in the right place - I would imagine he will continue to recruit - and get - quality players. I'm thrilled for his success at UCA. Love to see the good guys win.

[OU-OhYeah!]

wolfgang said:

Where's the undergrad volunteer assistant now?

I believe he was from Indonesia. Probably went back home. He's not involved in coaching for sure.

[OU-OhYeah!]

db said:

RE: UCA

What I know of Todd Hay, the current UCA ass't is that he is very well respected in the Lubbock (and Texas for that matter) area for what he and his Lubbock Christian School teams accomplished. Truly a coach that appears to do more with less year after year.

I do not know the guy (haven't had any contact with UCA for 7+ years), but I'd have to say the description is accurate. I cannot imagine they have much more to work with than when I was there. This says a lot about the coaching staff and what they are doing (no matter what happens the rest of the season)!