Page 8
Friday, December 13,1996
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
FOUR YEAR PROGRAM
RUSTY STROUPE
Sports
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Coach Stroupe Accepts Position At Lander University
Press Release
BC News Bureau
Brevard College head baseball
coach Rusty Stroupe announced on
December 3, 1996, that he will be
leaving the Brevard College program to
head up the baseball squad at Lander
University in Greenwood, S.C. Stroupe
will make the jump from Brevard
College’s NJCAA (National Junior
College Athletic Association) ranks
(often referred to as the JUCO
conference) to head up Lander
University’s first four-year baseball
program in the NCAA Division II Peach
Belt Conference.
“Brevard College has provided me
with one of the greatest opportunities in
my life,” said Stroupe. “It is with
mixed emotions that I accept the head
baseball coaching position at Lander
University. The Brevard College
Experience is one that will have a lasting
impact on my life; the administration
has been tremendously supportive of me
personally and concerned with the
welfare of the baseball program. I will
greatly miss the people of Brevard
including my faculty colleagues, staff
workers, fellow coaches, and members
of the community who have provided so
much support to my family and my
baseball teams. My hope is that in some
small way I have been able to return the
favor to the Brevard community for all
of the warmth I have felt over the past
five years.”
“Rusty Stroupe established a strong
foundation for baseball at Brevard
College,” said Brevard College
President, J. Thomas Bertrand. “His
greatest legacy at the College will be the
extremely high standards he instilled in
the program and these young men as a
coach, teacher, and mentor. He will be
sorely missed, and we wish him and his
family great happiness at Lander
University.’
Coach Rusty Stroupe
During his tenure at Brevard
College, Stroupe ran up an impressive
list of credentials and statistics. His
four-year record includes 145 wins and
66 losses for a .687 wirming percentage.
In 1994 he led his team to the JUCO
First year squad successful
Claudia Argiro
Sports Writer
The Brevard College Women’s
Volleyball team advanced to the NJCAA
Nationals , which were held on Nov.25-
27. The NJCAA National Women’s
Volleyball Championship was held at
Miami-Dade Community College in
Miami, Florida.
The team faced serious competition
during their pool play. The first game of
the tournament was against the College
of Southern Idaho who entered
Nationals seeded at ^l.They were also
the reigning National Champions. The
second game was against Jefferson
College. This team had the winningest
coach in the NJCAA for women’s
volleyball. In the third game, the ladies
faced Galveston College who had the #1
hitting effiency player m the nation.
This competition was intimidating to this
first year team, but they went down to
Miami to make Brevard College
Volleyball program known nationwide.
This was the goal of the team. This goal
was easily attained even though the team
did not win. They did finish the season
ranked 16th in the nation. That in itself
is a major accomplishment for this first
year team.
The girls worked very hard to reach
nationals and made it to the “Big
Dance in this their first season ever.
Nationals had much more than just
volleyball. The team was put up in the
Miami Airport Marriot Hotel with the
other 15 teams. Many events were
sponsored for nationals, including a
Luau and a formal dinner banquet. The
experience gained at the NJCAA
Nationals was a great honor for this
inaugural team. Congratulations!
World Series and was named the North
Carolina College Baseball Coach of the
Year. This past season his Tornado
baseball squad posted an impressive 46-
10 record, the best record in the
College’s history, and was ranked
number 4 in the nation. While at
Brevard College, Stroupe has coached
3 All-Americans, 12 players who were
drafted by Major League teams, 19
players who went on to play at Division
I universities had 14 players who went
on to play at Division II or NAIA
colleges.
The Peach Belt Conference is
considered one of the most competitive
in NCAA Division II baseball. It
includes Kennesaw State College, last
year’s defending national champions, as
well as Georgia College, Augusta
College, Armstrong State College, the
University of South Carolina at Aiken,
the University of South Carolina at
Spartanburg, Francis Marion University,
Lander University, the University of
North Carolina at Pembroke and the
University of North Florida.
Lander University is a state-
supported, coeducational university with
an enrollment of approximately 2,800
located 60 miles south of Greenville,
S.C. Founded in 1872, the university is
fully accredited by the Commission on
Colleges of the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools and offers 40
majors and minors as well as several
master’s degree programs.
Congratulations
1996
NJCAA
Women's Soccer
All-American's
iiin^Brask
Holly^alombl
AUiSQtt5atterthwait
Mariaj^ia
congratulations
1996
NJCAA
cross country
All-American'S
Joe Gibson
Tommy Lancaster
BC Athletics to go 4
year in 1999
In a campus press conference on
November 13, President J. Thomas
Bertrand and Athletic Director Dave
Rinker established a time-table for
moving the College’s nationally
renowned junior college intercollegiate
athletic program into four-year
competition, starting in the fall of
1999. The timing will allow the
College to put into place additional
baccalaureate degree programs
attractive to scholar athletes and to
make a careful selection of future
national and conference affiliations
Planned baccalaureate programs
were announced that should directly
impact the four-year athletic program
including a new major in Exerciss
Science and another in Wilderness
Leadership & Education. The
College’s Long Range Campus Plan
class for an Exercise and Sports
Science Center addition to Boshamer
Gymnasium and a variety of additional
athletic fields.
At the four-year level, the College
will continue to compete in its current
sports (men’s & women’s cross
country, track & field, soccer, and
basketball, men’s baseball and golf,
women’s tennis and volleyball)-
Additional women’s sports are under
consideration. The College also plans
to initiate active club-based and, when
available, intercolligate competition in
areas of outdoor recreation such as
whitewater sports, mountain biking
and equestrian sports.
Student athletes currently being
recruited to enter Brevard College in
the fall of 1997 will be able to compete
at the junior college level for a full two
years through graduation and then will
have the option of continuing at
Brevard as juniors in the new four-year
athletic program or of transferring to
other universities and mllfffres.