Customer Service Place an Ad Become a Carrier Contact Us About Us Mobile Edition E-Mail Updates Report Cancellation Submit Milestone
| Subscribe Now Customer Service Place an Ad Become a Carrier Contact Us About Us Mobile Edition E-Mail Updates Report Cancellation Submit Milestone
|
 |
 |
|
Weather  Calendar Obituaries Classifieds Jobs Autos Homes Rentals Coupons Ad Center Gift Finder |
Bloomington-Normal, Illinois
|
Home News Sports
Free Time Life Money Nation/World Opinion Blogs/Columns Archives Site Map |
| SportsSunday, August 26, 2007 11:53 PM CDT |
 Comments (12) |  E-mail this page |  Print this page |  Enlarge type |  Reduce type |  Search archives |  RSS feeds |  Add to My Yahoo! |
Heartland’s start-up athletic program striving to ‘do it right’
NORMAL -- Nate Metzger has been on the job for a year as Heartland Community College athletic director. Still, as Heartland’s first-ever athletic event approached this week, he frantically attended to last-minute details. There are a lot of loose ends to getting an athletic program up and running, and Metzger has been free to focus on each one. Why? He hasn’t had to look over his shoulder. Heartland president Jon Astroth is a big supporter of adding athletics, supplying Metzger with the means — financial and otherwise — to set the school’s four-sport program in motion. “Jon has said, ‘If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right,’ ” said Metzger, also Heartland’s baseball coach. “It definitely makes it easier to get started that way and to try to compete right away.” Heartland coaches have been given the full complement of tuition waivers allowed by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) — 24 each in baseball and softball and 18 each in men’s and women’s soccer. Metzger said most junior colleges set limits below what is allowed under NJCAA rules. Heartland will have the maximum as it kicks off athletics at noon today with a women’s soccer game against Harper College at Bloomington’s Sale Barn Fields. “I know we’re the only school in our conference (the Mid-West Athletic Conference) that is allowed to use them all,” Metzger said. “That’s just Jon’s commitment to this.” Tuition is $2,100 per year for students from within Heartland’s 17-school District 540 and $4,200 for out-of-district students. Metzger said Heartland sees waivers as “not something we have to pay out.” “We’re not gaining anything by (athletes) not paying tuition, but we’re not losing anything,” he said. “If we were paying for their housing, we would have to write somebody a check. We could offer books, but we’d have to write the bookstore a check. That’s something we’re not going to mess with.” Thus, waivers serve as the backbone of recruiting, with coaches instructed to target in-district athletes first. Of the 80 athletes on Heartland rosters, 41 are from in-district schools. Seventeen of the 32 players on Metzger’s baseball roster are in-district recruits. Men’s soccer is the highest with 14 of 20. Women’s soccer has 7 of 16 and softball 3 of 12. “What Jon and I asked the coaches to do is provide a list each year of all the seniors in every sport in the district,” Metzger said. “We want to contact those athletes first. As long as our coaches document what they’ve done in terms of recruiting the local athletes first, that’s our main concern. “Jon and I decided we weren’t going to say, ‘Fifty percent of your athletes have to be from in-district’ or whatever. Our focus is trying to keep the local athletes at home. But you’re always going to have that kid who says, ‘I just want to get away.’ ” Zach Zwaga took that route initially, accepting a baseball scholarship at Illinois-Chicago. The 2006 Normal West High School graduate spent a semester in Chicago before transferring to Heartland last spring. “As soon as I came back, I heard about Heartland starting baseball and I gave Coach Metzger a call,” said Zwaga, a catcher. “He said he’d love to have me. There’s not been one day that I’ve regretted my decision to come home and play in town. It’s worked out great for me.” Former Bloomington High School baseball standout Ryan Juris visited Springfield College and received a scholarship offer. While he liked the facilities, he would have had to pay room and board. He chose Heartland instead, in part because he could live at home and pay only for books his first two years of college. “I’m saving my parents a lot of money,” Juris said. “I loved the fact I could stay in town and be close to a lot of my friends. I knew with Coach Metzger here, this was a great place for me.” Metzger said recruiting has gone well despite no on-campus facilities. The baseball team will play at the PONY Complex southeast of Bloomington. Softball’s home games will be at Mitsubishi Fields in west Normal, and men’s and women’s soccer will play at the Sale Barn Fields in south Bloomington. None of that is ideal, but a $60 million Phase II construction plan has been approved for Heartland and will include baseball, softball and soccer fields. For now, the teams will travel throughout the Twin Cities for practices and games, and ride Peoria Charter buses to away games. “That (Peoria Charter) is a nice amenity, but it really is more about liability and safety issues,” Metzger said. “For years and years a lot of junior colleges have used 15-passenger vans. That’s an accident waiting to happen.” Among Heartland’s start-up costs has been the purchase of equipment and uniforms. Metzger said that has been the largest expense, totaling $75,000 to $80,000. He said Astroth told him to “go get what you need,” giving Metzger “some piece of mind knowing you’re not going to be nickeled and dimed and limited.” Just down the hall from his office is a room filled with boxes of equipment, etc. Eventually, it will all find a home. Amber May already has. The former Normal Community pitcher is a freshman at Heartland, rehabbing her surgically repaired knee after leading NCHS to the Class AA state softball championship in June. May’s goal is to be healthy and pitching by the spring, hoping a good year or two at the junior college level will lead to an opportunity at a four-year school. She said she likely would have gone to Parkland College in Champaign had Heartland not became an option. “Mostly, it was in town and it’s the first year. It’s just more convenient,” May said. “A lot of it was I could stay close to my doctors. They could keep a close watch on me and I would get a chance to practice and play here.” District data Heartland Community College begins athletic competition at noon today with a women’s soccer game against Harper College at Bloomington’s Sale Barn Fields. Here are the 17 high schools located in Heartland’s District 540: -- Bloomington -- Calvary Baptist -- Central Catholic -- El Paso-Gridley -- Flanagan -- Hartsburg-Emden -- Heyworth -- Lexington -- Lincoln -- Normal Community -- Normal West -- Olympia -- Pontiac -- Prairie Central -- Ridgeview -- Tri-Valley -- University High Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
Top of Page | Home | News | Sports | Free Time | Life | Money | Nation/World | Opinion | Blogs/Columns | Archives | Site Map | RSS
Customer Service | 301 W. Washington St., PO Box 2907, Bloomington, IL 61701-2907 | Ph. 309-829-9000 | 800-747-7323
Copyright © 2009, Pantagraph Publishing Co. and Lee Enterprises. All rights reserved. | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
|
Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.
... wrote on Sep 5, 2007 9:58 PM:
athletics are great wrote on Aug 28, 2007 8:59 PM:
BlogHog wrote on Aug 26, 2007 9:06 PM:
to taxpayer wrote on Aug 26, 2007 8:47 PM:
Just A Guy wrote on Aug 26, 2007 4:43 PM:
to As a coach wrote on Aug 26, 2007 3:41 PM:
As a coach wrote on Aug 26, 2007 9:52 AM:
TO: football fan wrote on Aug 26, 2007 9:23 AM:
pool boy wrote on Aug 26, 2007 8:53 AM:
Taxpayer wrote on Aug 26, 2007 2:23 AM:
!!! wrote on Aug 25, 2007 10:50 PM:
football fan wrote on Aug 25, 2007 8:50 PM:
Please read the rules before posting comments.
You must be logged in to leave comments.
If you don't have a member ID, please register.