Buckley, Hayes discuss football, Winter III at ASSS meeting
Hailey Hawkins
Issue date: 10/15/09 Section: News
| |
|
Buckley recently returned from a recruiting tour, spending one week in Hawaii, two in California, and two in Oregon. According to Buckley, the athletic department will concentrate their focus on these three states as they attract new players to the football program.
"It's hard to recruit when there's no history," admitted Buckley. However, Buckley expects the recruiting effort will be helped by Pacific's Hawaii connections, Buckley's history in California, and the allure of being a part of a new program.
Buckley mentioned six "outlying states" that will also be viewed as recruiter's territory by the program: Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Alaska. Washington is also well inside of Pacific's targeted area.
"It will be two, three, four, five years down the road before we can really determine our success," said Buckley. "That's not just determined on the field, but through performance in the classroom and how our guys act in the campus community as well."
Buckley's long-term vision is to build the team up consistently over time to be a contender with the top teams on the NW Conference.
"Willamette and Linfield are at a different level than everyone else in the league," said Buckley. "They're the teams to beat.
"This is gonna take some time. Ultimately, we want to be conference champions. We've got a long way to go, but we'll get there."
Questions arose from various senators concerning things like international student involvement, overcrowding of the weight room, use of the turf field, and the possibility of female members, to which Buckley had no objection, as long as they could perform up-to-par on the field.
One concern that Buckley showed interest in was attendance.
"I've heard of Boxer Army, I've been to a few athletic events, and I haven't really seen a 'Boxer Army'," said Buckley. "I envision a sea of red in the end zones. There are certain rules regarding how close the stands can be to the field; I will have those stands right up on that line, as close as you guys can be."
Buckley even expressed doubt that all the attendees at football's first game next Fall, if it is indeed held at the Lincoln Park Stadium, may be able to fit due to the build-up surrounding the teams' unveiling.
Dean Hayes arrived to discuss the shift from a three to two credit system for the Winter III term about halfway through the ASSS meeting.
"The decision [to move from three to two credit classes] was reinforced by what happened this winter in Oregon," said Hayes. "People were snowed in for five days. That's the equivalent of five weeks of a regular semester being cut right out of the calendar. When you don't have any margin for error, that's a real problem."
A two-credit course would consist of two weeks of class, as opposed to the normal three-week Winter III term. The plan is for the term to take place during the first two weeks of January; with an entire week left over to act as a cushion, there will be room for classes to be rescheduled in the case of "weather-related phenomenon."
The school plans on having Winter III consisting mainly of two-credit courses by the winter of 2011. The transition to a two-credit system will begin this winter.
Be the first to comment on this story