SLIAC

[erkle]

Best of luck to all 4 ladies teams in the conference tourney tonight....  Hope the Westmin campus will generate a big crowd and lots of noise!!!!

It was a packed house with exciting, stressful and hard fought games.

[hopefan]

Best of luck to all 4 ladies teams in the conference tourney tonight....  Hope the Westmin campus will generate a big crowd and lots of noise!!!!

It was a packed house with exciting, stressful and hard fought games.

AND  #23 throws away the crutches and PLAYS.... That is Courageous!!

[WUPHF]

Westminster is rewarded for the conference championship with DePauw in Greencastle.  Yikes.

[hopefan]

Westminster is rewarded for the conference championship with DePauw in Greencastle.  Yikes.

anyone want to take a shot at which pointspread will be widest?  Westmin men at Hope, or Westmin women at DePauw?

[erkle]

Best of luck to all 4 ladies teams in the conference tourney tonight....  Hope the Westmin campus will generate a big crowd and lots of noise!!!!

It was a packed house with exciting, stressful and hard fought games.

AND  #23 throws away the crutches and PLAYS.... That is Courageous!!

Thank you, she is fearless. I was looking for you at the games.

[erkle]

Westminster is rewarded for the conference championship with DePauw in Greencastle.  Yikes.

anyone want to take a shot at which pointspread will be widest?  Westmin men at Hope, or Westmin women at DePauw?

I think both Blue Jay teams will be facing the proverbial 800 pound gorilla.

[Coach Will]

Is anyone going to comment on the Blackburn Women going 0 - 26 this season? I guess they made the right move in forcing me out!

[Pat Coleman]

Ouch.

[hopefan]

Is anyone going to comment on the Blackburn Women going 0 - 26 this season? I guess they made the right move in forcing me out!

Clearly a program in disarray.... but sometimes those of us on the outside forget that there are two sides to every story.... Was the program in this state of disarray and therefore Coach was asked to leave, or did the program deteriorate to this state because Coach was asked to leave....  I do know we lost an enthusiastic guy who won games, but I'm not on the inside, so I can't answer that question... there CAN BE times when the W-L record isn't necessarily painting the whole picture...

[Coach Will]

Hopefan,

You know me. I was asked to leave because the administration was getting pressure from female staff members because there were no female coaches. Title 9 is the real reason. I was asked to move to the men's program as the head coach, I said no. I worked hard to build this women's program, and I had a great recruiting class coming in, so I said no. They did not like that. They also didnt like the fact that our registrar screwed up the eligibility of a player that barely played and it cost us to forfeit 6 games. I was livid, and I did send a message to the administration saying that someone should have come and talk to me and my players about this issue. No one showed any remorse. I was informed the friday before our last game of the season which was senior night.
Last but not least, they didnt want me to whole student accountable. If students missed class, did drugs and acted a fool on campus, I either kicked them off the team or suspended them. They in turn would go complain to provost, who was more worried about keeping kids in the college than holding them accountable.

Now you know the truth.

[hopefan]

Now you know the truth.

Great post coach, and I'm glad you got it out... I hope things are working out for you....  Also curious how your Daughter's seson went and if we'll see her playing at the next level?

[Coach Will]

Hope,

My daughter is doing great. She is playing at Plainfield East High School. This was the 4th year of this program/athletics. She had a great year:
Broke school record for points in a game 33, rebounds 18 (in same game), points in a season and most wins in a season 21. She was named team MVP and The Herald's all area team. She will be a senior in the fall, so she is working on her game. She will play for my Lady Ice AAU team again this summer. AS for college, she hopefully will get a full ride somewhere... Will keep you posted.

[hopefan]

aaah  Coach, i was thinking she was a senior this year... off a year..... If they play near St Louis next year, post in advance and I'll try to get over to see her!!!!

[hopefan]

From SLIAC .Org

"Fontbonne University senior William Boxdorfer and Westminster College senior Rachel Backes will be presented the 2011-12 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) Male & Female Scholar Athlete of the Year award.

Backes, who is graduating this weekend with honors with a degree in biology, is a Dean's List student and a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honor society. A four-year team captain on the Blue Jay women's basketball team, Backes is a four-time all-conference selection, was named SLIAC Player of the Year her junior season and became the first-ever All-American in program history, she earned academic all-conference her sophomore, junior and senior seasons and was named A CoSida All-District pick her final two years. She guided her team to back-to-back SLIAC tiles the past two season and the 2011-12 team won the conference tournament title to become the first Blue Jay women's team to qualify for the NCAA Division III national tournament.

During her four seasons, Backes was part of teams that compiled a school record 67 victories. She played and started in an individual career-record 101 games. She concludes her career fourth in career scoring with 1,203 points, 11th in career rebounding with 392 rebounds, and third in career assists with 295."

SLIAC fans will miss the intense play of this young Lady...thanks Rachel for playing like you have over the last 4 years....

[hopefan]

doubtful that anyone will see this to take advantage, but regional softball action from Illinois Wesleyan is on video on the net.... go to iwusports.com for the link....  SLIAC rep Fontbonne starts in about 5 minutes... (12:20 central) Thursday 5/10