Short trip ends a long journey
By Katrina Styx
for D3sports.com
| It's just four hours from Hardin-Simmons to San
Antonio, but it took the Cowgirls a few tries to get to the Final
Four. Hardin-Simmons athletics photo |
SAN ANTONIO -- When Marcus Wood started coaching women’s soccer at Hardin-Simmons, he knew he wasn’t getting a team that could compete nationally.
“We were a very good team in our conference, but not close on the national stage,” he said.
But the school had a niche, and Wood knew he could use that niche to recruit and develop top-notch players. His inspiration came from Wheaton (Ill.), a Division III traditional power where his brother coached, and Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, N.C., where he served as an assistant coach. Both schools are Christian colleges that attract top students, which is exactly what Wood liked about Hardin-Simmons.
In his 11 seasons as head coach, Wood has sent nine teams to the NCAA tournament. This year’s appearance is the eighth in a row for the Cowgirls.
How did he do it? At first, it was a matter of exposing the Cowgirls to nationally ranked teams. They would play, Wood said, but they would see pretty clearly why their opponents had the rankings they did. The games gave the Cowgirls a model, though. They got to see just what caliber players they needed to become in order to make it in the tournament.
“That was the goal from day one,” Wood said.
The real key to his success was recruitment. He was able to attract Division I and Division II athletes who wanted to attend a Christian college. That was the case with senior defender Kelsey Byars. The school’s physical therapy program also attracts quite a few athletes, and others come simply for a solid academic experience.
“There’s a lot of different niches that we hit,” Wood said.
Of course, you need more than raw talent to produce a top team year after year.
“We got a little bigger, stronger girls, and I think culture wise we’ve developed a culture where you have to want to work hard,” Wood said.
In the beginning, he found just a couple girls who already had the work-hard mentality. They set the example for the rest of the team, until now it’s become a group attitude.
“Every one of the girls is wanting that type of atmosphere, where we’re wanting to work hard year round.”
Competing in the NCAA tournament has been a challenge every year, thanks to competition from Trinity (Texas). The two teams have grown together, Wood explained, so even though the Cowgirls felt they would make it into the tournament, they couldn’t look beyond Trinity. Once they topped the Tigers this year, the games didn’t get any easier.
“There was never a point when we could look past anything because there was always a great team coming up,” Wood said.
So finding themselves in the semifinals was a bit of a surprise – not just to the team, but to the whole school. It’s usually parents and friends of the athletes who watch most of the games, but now the entire Hardin-Simmons campus is stepping out to support the Cowgirls.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Wood said.
