35|35 #17: A Perfect Fit, A Perfect Exception
Illinois Springfield and Maryville Joined the GLVC as its 14th and 15th Member in Oct. 2008
Jeff Smith, Assistant Commissioner
35|35 Anniversary Website
This is the 17th installment of a series of 35 moments, milestones, and facts that will be featured throughout the 2013-14 academic year to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
In the summer of 2008, the GLVC had just seen its membership drop from 14 schools to 13 as SIU Edwardsville resigned to reclassify as an NCAA Division I institution. The conference was in need of replacing a “footprint” school as SIUE was in close proximity to current member schools around the St. Louis area. So when GLVC Commissioner Jim Naumovich set out to find a new 14th conference member, he found one directly in the heart of GLVC Country. The thing is… he found a 15th member as well.
In October of 2008, the University of Illinois Springfield and St. Louis-based Maryville University were admitted as the GLVC’s 14th and 15th members.
As it turned out, the GLVC had UIS on its radar for quite some time given its geographic location within the league’s footprint, the fact that is was also located in Springfield, the capital city of Illinois, as well as its affiliation with the state university system through the University of Illinois. Naumovich might also add that the addition of UIS afforded him the opportunity to occasionally come home to see Mom and Dad and dine on “horseshoes” and Vic’s Pizza. The Springfield native grew up not far from what was then known as Sangamon State University and actually spent his high school years working there part-time.
“UIS had built their reputation as a NAIA soccer power, but since their move to the NCAA, they have expanded the number of sports they sponsor and evolved from a two-year senior college to a four-year institution,” said Naumovich. “The geographic location in the heart of the conference was huge and their status as a state institution helped the league maintain a healthy public/private school mix.”
The addition of UIS as the 14th member was essentially a perfect fit. But soon came interest from Maryville as the Saints were looking to move from Division III to Division II. Knowing that scholarship athletics would be another way to build male enrollment and campus life for the traditional undergraduate population, Maryville’s president, Dr. Mark Lombardi, began inquiring about joining the GLVC.
With UIS, the conference was content with 14 members. But when the league is approached by a school that meets a lot of the standard membership criteria, exceptions can always be made.
Larry Sondhaus, the faculty athletics representative at the University of Indianapolis, accompanied Naumovich on a site visit to the St. Louis campus to learn more about Maryville and what it had to offer the GLVC.
“Maryville has been best-known in the St. Louis area for its adult education programs, which are heavily marketed in the region, even on St. Louis Cardinals baseball broadcasts. That’s what I knew about them initially,” said Sondhaus, a St. Louis native. “They were once a Catholic women's college that went nondenominational and co-ed, so adult education was part of their survival strategy.”
Suffice to say, both men left the campus thoroughly informed… and impressed.
“I think we both left as true believers,” said Sondhaus. “Aside from women's basketball, where they had been a Division III power, we did not expect them to be really competitive right out of the gate, but they seemed committed to doing what they needed to do to get to that point. The more I learned about them, the more I realized they were a better fit academically than I had initially thought they would be.”
In fact, Sondhaus compared his findings to that of UIndy in the early 1990s. The Greyhounds were about two-thirds the size they are now, had fewer graduate programs, and a smaller administration. The takeaway, however, was the first-class service they received from a wide range of Maryville personnel.
“Everyone from Dr. Lombardi down to the secretaries impressed us with their professionalism and answered our questions in a straightforward manner,” Sondhaus said. “Their AD at the time, Tony Duckworth, did a great job of selling Maryville to the GLVC.”
Naumovich agreed.
“We were impressed with the Presidential and AD leadership at the school, and now Dr. Lombardi is chairing the GLVC Council of Presidents, so it was a pretty good read by us looking back,” Naumovich said. “Tony was the key figure at Maryville though. His enthusiasm and passion for Maryville and the GLVC actually put the school on the fast track to membership within the GLVC.”
And while Maryville’s addition provided an attractive travel partner for the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Sondhaus says the Saints’ credentials were enough to stand on their own.
“I think we would have been impressed with them even if they had not been right in the middle of our footprint.”
On the car ride back to Indianapolis, both Sondhaus and Naumovich began playing the numbers game. Let’s face it, when dealing with conference schedules, an even number is always your friend. If Maryville was going to be admitted as the 15th school, basketball scheduling was going to be the top concern as league administrators had to decide whether to create unbalanced divisions of seven and eight teams, or move to a three-division, five-team format.
“The three divisions made the most sense but it was an outside-of-the-box concept for a college conference, which normally would have two divisions or no divisions at all,” Sondhaus said. “Of course the three divisions were just in basketball, but we knew that would be the most important scheduling consideration for the membership.”
While unorthodox, the three-division setup still allowed each team to play its four division opponents twice and the other 10 opponents once for a balanced 18-game conference schedule. So for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, the East and West divisions were joined by the North, which included Illinois Springfield, Lewis, Quincy, Saint Joseph’s and UW-Parkside.
During the application process for full membership to Division II, Illinois Springfield and Maryville were allowed to compete in the league during the regular season, but were ineligible for the GLVC Championship Tournament. That did not stop the schools from participating though.
“The basketball coaches felt strongly about playing the tournament at a neutral site so we were able to use the facilities at both Illinois Springfield (2010) and Maryville (2011) the year before they became active members,” Naumovich said. “The staffs at both institutions assisted the conference staff with the administration of both tourneys and were actively engaged with all facets of the event.”
Naumovich also recalls Maryville head women’s basketball coach Chris Ellis going the extra mile and laundering the uniforms for all the women’s teams when the Saints hosted the postseason event.
For both UIS and Maryville, there were certainly growing pains in the early years. Several key administrators that were responsible for application for GLVC membership had left each campus, but those departures also made way for two aspiring athletic directors to set the path for their respective schools in both the GLVC and Division II.
After spending nearly four years transitioning her alma mater from NAIA to Division II, Kim Pate left Brevard College to take the helm of UIS prior to the 2011-12 academic year.
Pate’s first year at UIS was one of milestone achievements on the playing field and in the classroom. The UIS softball program became the first Prairie Star program to reach the NCAA postseason as it advanced to the regional final after winning the GLVC’s West Division and making it to the GLVC Championship Tournament final. The UIS men’s basketball team also experienced unprecedented success as it reached the conference’s postseason tournament for the first time and came within a game of winning the league’s West Division crown.
Jessica Yocum was one of the talented seniors on the Prairie Stars’ softball team that made its historic run during the 2012 spring season. A Springfield native, Yocum signed on to play both volleyball and softball at UIS when it was under the NAIA umbrella. Little did she know the impact her team would have on the school’s brief tenure in Division II competition.
“The opportunity to have my family nearby and able to watch me compete was reason enough to not consider playing anywhere else,” Yocum said. “However, having played one year at the NAIA level in both sports, including a softball season that ended with four wins and without a coach, moving to the GLVC seemed like a huge leap from any success I ever dreamed of having at the collegiate level.”
Yocum, who recently completed an internship with the Conference office, alluded to the culture shift that occurred when UIS joined the GLVC.
“I think across all programs at UIS, the attitude and culture changed when we joined the GLVC because it was vital to step up and be prepared for the strong competition," she said. "The conference expansion to include UIS was a significant blessing for our school and the softball program, and I was fortunate enough to have been a part of some of our early Division II success."
In 2012, GLVC postseason basketball returned to Springfield but the annual tournament was contested across town at the Prairie Capital Convention Center. It was there that in its first year of eligibility, the Maryville women’s basketball team captured the GLVC Championship and the league’s automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Tournament. For Ellis, perhaps it was a dose of good karma after all the laundry work he had done for the other league squads a few years back.
The title run was the exclamation point for Marcus Manning, who was months away from concluding his first year as director of athletics at Maryville.
It was an eventful first year for Manning. When he arrived in July 2011, the school had a new wrestling program, a new head volleyball coach, and had just earned NCAA Division II active membership status. Two days later, however, the school’s sports information director resigned, sending Manning immediately looking for his first hire.
“The biggest challenge during the first year was prioritizing the needs of our organization while learning the landscape of the University,” Manning said. “During the first year, we discussed basic expectations ranging from recruiting results to fiscal responsibility to overall commitment to the organization and University. We also evaluated the current state of the organization, and put together a three-year strategic plan that focused on growth, development of the Saints brand, and academic and competitive success, while operating within the fabric of the University.”
Coincidentally, Manning’s path to Maryville had already included several GLVC ties, including one relationship with a pretty significant conference figure.
“As a Quincy University graduate (
where he also starred as quarterback of the football team), I experienced the GLVC for four years and another two years as a graduate student at SIU Edwardsville,” Manning said. “I have many GLVC memories as an undergraduate and graduate student. But the main reason I aspired to be an AD was because of the relationship I had with Jim (Naumovich), who was Quincy’s AD when I was there. As a mentor, he laid the foundation for me with regards to a career path. Now, it's humbling to work in the GLVC and at an institution in my hometown.”
Since arriving on campus, Manning has been quarterbacking the Saints through a great deal of success both on and off the court. In addition to the conference championship in women’s basketball, the Saints’ star player, Abby Duethman, was named the 2013 GLVC Player of the Year as well as the GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She concluded her career as one of three conference nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Maryville also earned its first Division II national championship in school history when wrestler Matt Baker captured the 2012 crown at 197 pounds. Even today proved to be another milestone for Maryville as Olivia Shannon was named the school’s first-ever GLVC Swimming Athlete of the Week. The Saints are in their inaugural season of women’s swimming – a sport Manning established on campus with hopes of adding curb appeal to potential student-athletes.
“In general, intercollegiate athletics serves as the 'front porch' of an institution,” he said. “When individuals and programs within intercollegiate athletics can experience success at a very high level and ultimately produce championship moments, that creates value to the University as well as opportunities to promote and celebrate the Maryville brand.”
Just this past fall, Maryville once again donned GLVC Championship hosting responsibilities when the Saints welcomed the league’s men’s and women’s cross country teams to nearby Forest Park in St. Louis. They were rewarded with high marks as members of the GLVC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee voted Maryville as the school to have displayed the best sportsmanship in both men’s and women’s cross country. The Saints were also given the GLVC SAAC Sportsmanship Award in volleyball as well.
In addition, Illinois Springfield was honored with the same award in the sport of women’s soccer. It was the Prairie Stars’ third consecutive award and fourth overall.
Over the past five years, both UIS and Maryville have been able to settle into their new respective eras as Division II institutions, garnering both athletic and academic success in the GLVC along the way.
What started out as a search for one school to replace SIU Edwardsville, ended with a perfect pair.
Illinois Springfield proved to be the perfect fit; Maryville, the perfect exception.