Fast forward to 2011-12.
The GCU wrestling team crowned two individual
champions at the Division II national tournament and
finished third as a team.
And the school, with a national championship from its
men’s indoor track and field team and top-10 finishes
from seven other teams, won the Learfield Cup as the
top Division II athletic program in the country.
“Five years seems like such a long time ago, but it really
wasn’t,” LaHaye said. “Looking back at where we were
and where we are now, it’s been an incredible journey.”
How exactly did GCU get that good in athletics, that
fast? Let’s count the ways.
Commitment from the top
You can’t talk about GCU’s rise in athletic prominence
without pointing toward President and CEO
Brian Mueller
.
Mueller, a former basketball coach, is passionate about
athletics. He understands what a successful sports
program can do to raise the profile of an institution.
When he arrived at Grand Canyon in 2008 and
inquired about the level of commitment for athletics, he
learned that most programs offered only two or three
scholarships, had only one coach and had little support
for things such as athletic training and facilities. In fact,
the emphasis for athletics was more about boosting
enrollment numbers and keeping the ground campus
viable during a difficult transition period than it was
about winning championships.
That changed quickly.
“Brian’s comment at the time was, ‘If we’re going to
do something, we’re going to do it well,’” said GCU’s
director of athletics,
Keith Baker
. “He said, ‘We’re
going to raise the expectations, but we’re also going
to provide the resources for you to succeed.’ … That’s
really what changed the face of what we do athletically.”
Today, all 21 NCAA programs at GCU operate with the
maximum number of scholarships available in Division
II, have paid assistant coaches, and are supported by a
full athletic training staff led by
Geordie Hackett
and a
strength and conditioning staff led by
Chuck Howard
.
“Brian has given us everything we need to be successful,
and we haven’t looked back,” said
Petar Draksin
, head
coach for men’s soccer.
For Mueller, it’s a commitment that goes beyond
athletics.
“We want excellence in academics, performance and
faith. Music, theatre, dance and athletics are in the
category of performance,” Mueller said. “They’re a way
to communicate to the public who we are, and a way to
build excitement about what we’re doing.”
First-rate facilities
GCU Arena, which opened in the fall of 2011, is the
crown jewel of the University’s $313 million facelift. The
Arena gives the Antelope basketball teams a state-of-
the-art facility, provides a powerful recruiting tool and
enables the University to host concerts, conventions and
graduation ceremonies.
But the addition of the Student Recreation Center – and
the Performance Athletic Center inside – also has had a
big impact.
Within the Rec Center are practice courts for basketball,
a wrestling room, locker rooms and a first-class
weight room.
“Adding a Performance Athletic Center, and having Chuck
Howard and his staff … there’s that mentality that we’re
going to invest this resource in making you, as an athlete,
better prepared from a physical standpoint,” Baker said.
“I think that was a huge piece – and a much-overlooked
piece – of how we got to where we are today.”
International athletes
Scholarship opportunities and first-rate facilities also
have opened more doors for GCU coaches to recruit
international athletes.
Soccer, an international sport, has long had a foreign
flavor at GCU. But swimming, tennis and golf teams in
particular have added Division-I caliber athletes from
abroad in recent years.
“We can bring in (international students) who are hoping
to use this as a vehicle to a better life, to escape poverty
or a bad home or sometimes civil strife,” said
Stevie Gill
,
head coach for women’s soccer, who is Canadian. “My
attitude is to go and get the best kids; I don’t care if we’re
Division 15. … As long as they’re a good kid, a good
player and they’re here for the right reasons, I don’t care
where they’re from.”
It helps that eligibility requirements for international
athletes are not as strict in Division II as they are in
Division I. And many of those athletes are not as
concerned about the distinction between the two.
“It’s always a challenge to get Division I kids to a D-II
school,” said
Steve Schaffer
, men’s and women’s
swimming coach. “But as we become more successful,
kids can see that they will get good coaching at this
level, will compete at a high level and they’ll get an
opportunity to compete in NCAA championships –
which they may never see at a D-I school.”
The next step for GCU is to show that the shiny new
Learfield Cup trophy – which had been won for eight
successive years by Grand Valley State University (Mich.)
– is not a one-year wonder. Beyond that, the University
hopes to make the jump to Division I athletics in the
near future.
“Athletics are part of building the brand of the institution,”
Mueller said. “Step 1 was to become very good at the
Division II level by giving scholarships, building facilities
and hiring the right coaches. That has put us in position
to take the next step, to compete at the Division I level. If
we can participate and win at that level, it will bring even
greater value to a (GCU) degree.”
