Highlights

Campus News

Wildcat Weekly Minute for Nov. 17, 2011

A look at what's happening on campus this week.

Faith

Cleansed through the Cross

Dr. Quarles speaks on the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice at weekly chapel

Sports

LC hoops teams wrap up homestand with pair of wins

Off to Ozarks, UT-Dallas next

Organizations

LC media student give to Toys for Tots

More than 100 toys will help local charity

Campus Life

February is Heart Health Awareness Month

Stay healthy and 'God Red'

Culture

All the Shakespeare you could laugh at… and more!

tlc's adaptation of 'Shakespeare Abridged' pulls out all the stops

Special Coverage

LC brings another successful ‘Follow the Star’

'Christmas on the Hill' and 'Gala' add to festive weekend

LC Soccer set to kick off season in Mississippi

by Will Tubbs

Men and women to play at Millsaps, Belhaven

The Louisiana College men's and women's soccer teams are set to up the 2010 season with back-to-back games this week in Mississippi.

LC will first play at Millsaps College Wednesday in Jackson, with the men's game set to start at 4 p.m. and the women's game at 6 p.m. Then on Thursday, the Cats will stay in Jackson, this time to face Belhaven University, with the women starting at 5 p.m. and the men at 7p.m.

Here is a preview of both LC teams courtesy Will Tubbs, LC's sports information director:

LC Men's Soccer

If fans have trouble recognizing the Louisiana College men’s soccer team this season, they shouldn’t feel ashamed. The Wildcats are, with very few exceptions, a brand new team.

As of last Saturday’s Alumni Game, the annual kickoff to the soccer season, LC boasted a roster of 21 men, 18 of whom are new to the program and six of whom have transferred to the Pineville college from junior colleges or larger schools.

“I am extremely excited to see what we have in store this season,” LC men’s soccer coach Craig Harwell said. “From what I’ve seen in practice, we’ve got a good, cohesive unit that is building on the fact that pretty much everybody is new.”

So many new faces on a team might be construed as a negative at many schools, but for a program that posted just one win in 2009, new blood equals new hope and loftier goals for the coming campaign.

“There are two ways to look at it,” Harwell said. “One is that we are very young and inexperienced. The other is that we are a team that is drawing together around a common goal.”

That goal, said Nic Philpot (Pineville, La./Pineville HS) – who, along with Luke Brewer (Calhoun, La./Northeast Baptist HS) and Eric Post (Metarie, La./East Jefferson HS), accounts for all returning players – is to reach the American Southwest Conference tournament for the first time in school history.

“The ultimate goal is the conference tournament,” Philpot said. “That will certainly be a challenge, but I believe if we play to our potential we can accomplish that.”

“I think the most games we’ve ever won in a season in the history of soccer at LC is five games,” Brewer said. “I believe we will exceed that this year.”

But for late-game collapses in 2009, the latter goal might have already been accomplished. However, playing with a three-man bench for much of the year, last season’s Wildcats fell short of even the five-game mark.

“Looking back, we were in a lot of those games,” Brewer, a sophomore midfielder, recalled. “The second half was always our problem. We’d just run out of gas. I think having 21 players will allow us to compete for 90 minutes every game.”

“It’ll be nice to actually be able to sub players in,” Philpot, a sophomore defender, added. “Last year, we were a great first half team that got run to death.”

But the Wildcats haven’t just added numbers, they’ve also added quality players.

Harwell expects big things from a variety of newcomers.

Freshman Collin Yammarino (Scott, La./Acadiana HS) will anchor the Wildcats’ midfield along with transfer James Knight (Gautier, Miss./Gautier HS/Copiah-Lincoln CC).

Tyler Green (Gautier, Miss./Gautier HS/Copiah-Lincoln CC) and freshman Brennen Brasseaux (Monroe, La./River Oaks HS) have been added to the LC defense.

Anthony Lee (Mobile, Ala./Baker HS/South Alabama) and freshman Devin Metoyer (Natchitoches, La./Natchitoches Central HS) will figure heavily into the Wildcats’ offensive attack.

“And those are just a few of the guys we have who can contribute,” Harwell said. “I believe this is a new era for LC men’s soccer. This is a large team full of workhorses. They are out here every day trying to get better in every way. Technically, we’re very strong. We can build around everyone.”

LC Women's Soccer

Times have been tough, but a new day has dawned in the world of women’s soccer at Louisiana College. A new coach, an abundance of new players and overall new attitude has the Lady Wildcats and first year coach Bruce Deaton expecting big strides in the coming campaign.

The Louisiana College women have had their struggles in recent years and went 1-18-1 in 2009.

However, with the arrival of Deaton from Ouachita Christian School in Monroe, the Lady Wildcats, who until this year have always had to share a coach with the LC men, are already showing signs of improvement both in skill and overall cohesion.

Not bad for a team with just one senior with playing experience, only six returning players from 2009 and 9-of-16 players classified as sophomore or freshman.

“I think we’ve made huge strides from where we started,” Deaton, who’s worked with the players only two weeks, said. “It’s been fun to watch them put into practice some of the things we’ve been working on in training.”

Training has been nothing short of intense, with each of the 16 women on the team having to endure fitness tests.

“Fitness has been our primary focus,” Deaton said. “The goal has been to get each one of them fit enough to play all 90 minutes if they have to.”

Ironically, in the year in which everyone on the team is being worked into enough shape to play an entire game, there are, for the first time, enough women on the roster that few players will be called upon to do so.

With just 12 players last season, the Lady Wildcats often struggled to finish games. This year, with 16 players, a decent supply of reserves and an improved fitness level, players don’t expect finishing tough games to be as much of an issue.

“Last year, we lost a lot of games in the last 10 minutes,” sophomore midfielder and co-captain Martha Means (Pineville, La./Pineville HS) said. “I don’t think we’ll do that again.”

“He yells that to us in practice every day,” senior midfielder and co-captain Marione Coronel (DeRidder, LA/DeRidder HS) said. “When we are getting tired and starting to slow down, he yells, ‘Come on, you’re in the 80th minute! You’ve got to finish!’ That lifts us up and encourages us.”

Encouragement and commitment to improvement have been Deaton’s calling card since taking the job during the summer.

“He’s a great coach and he’s made us a better team already,” junior defender Stephanie Baer (Monroe, La./Homeschool), who also runs cross country at LC, said. “At the foundation of it is the fact that he’s taken a genuine and personal interest in every player. Before we ever met him, he was sending us emails and text messages just saying hello and telling us he was looking forward to working with us. Before our first (early-morning) practice, he sent us all a message letting us know that he’d said a prayer for us. He really seems to care about us as people first and soccer second.”

“We’re on a journey,” Deaton said. “Soccer is just one part of that journey that we’re all on together, in all aspects of our lives. What I believe will happen and what you’ll see is that as we become more unified and more supportive of one another on this journey, as we become more of a team and more of a family, more physically fit, success on the soccer field will be a by-product.”

Not that Deaton isn’t focused on the technical side of the game.

He’s already encouraging his players, who last year played soccer’s version of the prevent defense, focusing most of its attention on limiting the other team’s goals rather than creating scoring opportunities, to “Possess with Purpose.”

“The point I’m trying to make to them is that playing great defense is great,” Deaton said, “but once you defend and regain possession, what do you do? Do you just clear the ball as far down field as possible to get a little rest or do you use that possession to create an attack?

“Obviously, with the numbers and experience we need to control tempo. When you have the ball, you’re able to dictate pace, you’re not defending as much and, really, you’re just not forced to work as hard. My goal is to get to a point where every player knows what to do with the ball when she gets it and either attack or pass with a goal in mind.”

The Lady Wildcats, like Deaton, are also long on goals and hope to use 2010 as a springboard to a successful future, even they realize no one outside of their own locker room will likely expect it.

“We’ll be the underdogs, but we’ll use that to our advantage,” Means said. “I feel like we’ve really picked up our game and improved our intensity this year.”

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