Both the Whitman Men and Women’s Tennis Teams seek to turn a winning tradition into a dynasty as they head to the NCAA Division III tournament in Ohio later this month.

The lady Missionaries clinched their fourth consecutive Northwest Conference title in April, while the men earned top honors for the eighth straight year. The men and women, who held perfect 11-0 and 12-0 records in regular season conference play, know that now is not the time to falter. To first-year Hanna Greenberg, her team’s preparation for the national championship started many weeks ago.

“A very strong focus for our team has been having intense match mentality during practice so that we’re ready for those close matches,” she said. “We have been training and conditioning well in hopes to do well at nationals this year and potentially beat some teams that we haven’t in the past.”

One advantage that Whitman will bring to the national tournament is their experience. Senior and past All-American Courtney Lawless qualified for the singles round of 16 last spring, while the team advanced to the second round of regional play, where they were defeated by host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Lawless, who has held an integral role on the team during her Whitman career, notes that the pressure to maintain an elite level of play is present, but it not the sole focus of the season.

“Every year we have expected to win conference and make it to nationals,” she said. “The expectation of winning has increased of course, but the priority has always been creating a team that loves to work hard and wants to improve. Although we want to win at nationals, we are all very happy with how the team’s attitude and work ethic has grown over the past four years. I think all of the seniors would agree that we are leaving the team in good hands.”

On the men’s side of the court, senior and three-time NWC Player of the Year Colton Malesovas will lead the team as they try to top their 2014 finish in the third round. Malesovas also appeared in the national doubles championship, losing to a second-ranked Washington University. Although his former doubles partner and standout athlete Andrew LaCava graduated last spring, Malesovas is a strong contender yet again with fellow senior James Rivers. First-years Zach Hewlin and Chase Friedman also help round out a very strong squad that hopes to make its mark at nationals.

Five Whitties from the team were recently named to the NWC All-Conference team, which included two first-team honors for the men. Joining them on the women’s side are Lawless and junior Jenna Dobrin, and two more who were recognized with second-team honors. The tennis programs were also awarded with a pair of Coach of the Year titles for Head Men’s Tennis Coach Jeff Northam and Head Women’s Tennis Coach John Hein.

“John has really fostered an environment that encourages big energy and support for each other,” said Dobrin. “I think of him as always encouraging us to empower one another every time we step on the court sets him apart, and the team camaraderie that’s been created as a result will be a huge advantage at nationals.”

Going into the tournament, both teams carry high expectations with hopes to cement their legacies. The women and men currently boast number three and five ranking in the West Region, respectively, and are eager to face some of the country’s top programs.

“Our goals for nationals are to obviously win as many rounds as possible,” said Greenberg. “Additionally, a major goal is to beat some top-20 teams that have given us trouble in the past, especially if we end up going to regionals in the West.”

Echoing her sentiments is Malesovas.

“Our goal at nationals is first to make the Elite 8,” he added. “We believe that we are good enough to win a national championship, and the first step in doing so is to survive and advance through the first two rounds.  We think we are the team that will break through and achieve this.”

The NCAA Division-III National Championship will be held May 18–23 in Mason, Ohio.

For many on the Whitman Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Team, the regional tournament is familiar territory. This year, that’s not all that will be familiar. A total of eight teams representing the Big Sky and Cascadia Conferences will play in Walla Walla this weekend, each competing for one of five bids to the D-I College Championship May 22–25 in Milwaukee, Wis.

Although four of these teams, including Whitman, are ranked in the top-10 nationally, the Lady Sweets aren’t nervous so much as they are excited. For the first time in school history, Whitman will host both the men’s and women’s D-I regional tournaments. The Lady Sweets, who have qualified for nationals both of the past two years, see the home field advantage as a way to share high-level Frisbee with the Whitman community. Junior Brenna Bailey notes how this year will be different than past trips to regionals.

“It adds a new dimension of stakes to the tournament,” she said. “It’s not just about how well we do and getting to nationals; it’s also about showing the school what we do and what we work for. There are so many opportunities for other sports teams to showcase their high-level play on this campus, and I don’t think people really know and no one’s ever really seen us.”

The team, seeded fourth, will play in a pool with the University of British Columbia, University of Victoria and Oregon State, hoping to advance out of the pool to play the winners of Pool A on Sunday. For many on the squad, this year will mark their third consecutive appearance at regionals. While there is certainly some pressure to continue this streak, captain junior Ari Lozano notes how the team stays focused.

“One of our goals for the team is to set our own goals and not be guided or influenced by ranking or seeding,” she said. “We are excited more than anything to host because it gives us a chance to show people on campus what we’re actually about.”

Both Bailey and junior Marlena Sloss recognize the momentum that the program has built in a relatively short time.

“It’s pretty crazy that our grade was the first grade to go to nationals, and here we are with the potential to go again this year and next year,” said Bailey. “I guess we have a lot of pride in the fact that we were the first class to do that.”

The Lady Sweets traveled to Boise over Admitted Students Weekend to play in the Big Sky Conference tournament, in which they won 6-0. Although only one other team from their conference will be at regionals, Whitman will face familiar foes from the highly competitive Cascadia conference, who have also appeared at spring tournaments such as the Stanford Invite and the Northwest Challenge Cup. Over the past two weeks the team sought to practice at the same elite level that their opponents had to play at during their conference tournaments.

“We just had a very different weekend than [Cascadia teams] did,” said Bailey. “We played some great Frisbee, but we need to come back and bounce back from what might have felt like an easier weekend.”

Without the typical travel staples of carpooling and crashing at parents’ houses, the team is trying to find a way to maintain their unique bond. Last weekend they performed a Miley Cyrus tribute at Choral Contest. They also plan to eat together as they would at any other tournament.

“We’re usually all together for the entire weekend, so it’s easy to get the team chemistry going,” said Sloss.

Whatever their methods, the Lady Sweets are proud of the recognition they are building around club Frisbee in the Pacific Northwest. This weekend they hope to share that passion with their peers and encourage anyone with a spare hour to come support their quest for a bid to nationals.

“It’s not easy but we have a good chance to make it there,” said Lozano.

The team’s first game will be played against Oregon State at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 2.

In the wake of former Men’s Soccer Head Coach Mike Washington’s retirement, the Whitman Athletic Department, with the help of student-athletes, has successfully completed a nationwide search to fill the empty post.

The hiring committee is excited to announce that Jose Cedeno will assume responsibilities as head coach of the program, which finished fifth in the NWC at 6-8 (10-10 overall) last season.

Jose Cedeno (pictured above) is Whitman’s new men’s soccer coach, slated to take over for the ’15-’16 season.

Cedeno, who was a top applicant in the eyes of the hiring committee chaired by Athletic Directors Dean Snider, brings seven years of experience as the head coach of the Hunter College Men’s Soccer Team in New York. Most recently, he served as the director for coach and player development for Belmont United SC, a premier club located in Northern California.

The Ecuadorian coach was one of approximately 80 candidates who applied to the job listing. From there, the pool was narrowed to just under a dozen prospective coaches, who completed Skype interviews with Snider and team representatives Gabe Jacobson, Park Harmon, Bridger Sellegren and Trayvon Foy.

“Under the direction of President Bridges — and these are his words — we put the same type of effort into the head coach search as you would put into a tenure-track search,” said Snider.

The final three were invited to visit Walla Walla in order to conduct a team training session and present on their qualifications and coaching philosophies. Of the three visitors, two coaches resonated with the team, and it was a close final vote at a team meeting.

“It went back and forth the entire time,” admitted Jacobson. “Everyone was pretty split. I think everyone would have been happy with either [candidate], but personally, I think [the hiring committee] made the right choice.”

The team’s split vote was hardly a problem for the hiring committee.

“We’ve got two candidates here that have been able to connect well and build relationships with the team in a short time, and that put us in a place to be able to make the best decision for the college, thinking who we want to select to lead the program for hopefully the next 20years,” said Snider, when he received the final vote and commentary from the team representatives.

“To get your top candidate in any search is a very significant thing, so we were very pleased to get Jose,” he also said.

In his conversations with the team, Cedeno mentioned some changes he would like to implement. The roster, which carried 35 players last fall, will be trimmed in an effort to play in a consistent formation and style. Cedeno was quite successful in his previous stint as a college coach, leading Hunter College to two postseason conference titles, a regular season conference title and two trips to the NCAA tournament. While the Whitman team hopes for similar achievements, for now they are eager to get to know their new coach.

“I think that the team is most excited by the opportunity to tackle a new challenge and become closer as a team through that experience,” said Sellegren.

Jacobson commented on the similarities between Cedeno and his former coach.

“One of the most important things we all saw in Jose was a genuineness and personableness,” said Jacobson. “This aspect was one of my favorite things about having Mike as a coach, and although he isn’t coaching us next year, there is a lot we’re going to miss about him.”

He went on, reflecting on Mike’s impact on the hiring process.

“We chose Jose with not just the issues we had with Mike as our coach in mind, but also the things we really liked about him, which are numerous. I think that shines through with our choice of Jose over the other candidates,” said Jacobson.

The team hopes to practice with Cedeno later this spring.

With low scorecards and high ambitions, the Whitman Women’s Golf program is rapidly approaching a shot at the Northwest Conference league championship. So far this spring, the team has secured four top-two finishes, a number-19 national ranking and a pair of NWC Student-Athlete of the Week awards.

This past weekend, the women competed in the Spring Classic, one of the two NWC-ranking tournaments of the year. The team shared top honors with Whitworth University, who also shot a collective 53-over par. Whitman’s success marks an improvement from the Fall Classic, at which the team placed second to league rival George Fox, the number-two ranked team nationally. However, as Head Coach Skip Molitor notes, the competition remains fierce.

“It’s clear that [George Fox] is very legitimately in the hunt for a national championship, and we’re very legitimately in the hunt for the league championship, even with them in our league,” he said.

Molitor’s confidence in his players might stem from their 1-2-3 finish atop the leaderboard at Whitman’s Easter Invitational. First-year Phoebe Nguyen finished one stroke ahead of teammate junior Alyssa Maine to secure her third-consecutive tournament win. Sophomore Lou Points, who holds the second-best stroke average on the team, finished third, while senior Kelly Sweeney took eighth as Whitman rolled to their second team victory of the spring.

“It’s remarkable that Phoebe won [the UPS Invite, the Cal Lutheran Regal Invite, the Easter Invitational and the Spring Classic],” said Molitor. “The Cal Lutheran tournament had the leading scorer in the country. For Phoebe to win a tournament where you’ve got the top player in the country was a tremendous confidence boost.”

Despite the recent success,  there is no guarantee of a team or individual bid to Florida for the NCAA D-III National Championship. The women are aware that they will be the team to beat at the upcoming NWC Championship, but they are determined to stay focused on the opportunity at hand.

“My mind will wander and start thinking of results, and there will be times when I have bad holes,” said Nguyen. “But I go to the next hole telling myself that I can always come back — if not for me, then for my team.”

Nguyen’s drive led her to yet another first place finish at the Spring Classic in Tacoma this past weekend, where she held a nine-stroke lead over the next competitor, Whitworth junior Chelsea Bayley. Sweeney added to the excitement with the program’s first-ever hole-in-one. All four of the team’s scoring players cut shots on the second day of play, finishing in a tie for first overall with Whitworth. Third-place finisher George Fox was not far behind, a mere two strokes away from the Spring Classic winners.

“It is great to have another top-20 ranked team in our conference because it pushes us to improve all aspects of our game,” said Nguyen of George Fox.

Although Nguyen and her teammates are ecstatic about their recent success, they have just over one week to prepare for the biggest challenge of the season.

“After tying for first in the Spring Classic, our one-and-only goal for the remainder of the season is to win the NWC championship and get the automatic qualifier bid to the national tournament,” said Maine.

For the golfers and their coach, their improvements and the journey to the NWC Championship has made the team more of a family than a group of athletes.

“As we moved from fall to spring, we grew even closer and have been able to translate the cohesiveness to the course,” said Maine. “Even though we are out there by ourselves on the course, we all feed off of each other’s energy to compete at our best.”

The Whitman women’s golf program will make its way to Sunriver, Oregon on April 25 and 26 for the NWC Championship.

For over two decades, Whitman has hosted the annual Onionfest Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Last weekend the event drew 24 teams to Walla Walla to partake in onion eating, an alumni reunion and, of course, Ultimate games.

Fans joined the players to kick off the festivities on Friday night with a men’s showcase game, featuring the current Sweets versus a team of alumni. The scrimmage was played all the way to the point cap, as the male alumni topped the active players 17-15. Although O-fest is not a ranking tournament, senior Elliot Moskat notes that the men’s friendly match was fairly competitive due to the many alumni that continue to play at a professional level.

“The Friday game is pretty high-level Frisbee, and we treat it almost like we would treat any spring tournament game,” said Moskat.

The visiting teams had the opportunity to play in regular tournament games alongside Whitman for the remainder of the weekend. Saturday culminated with a coed Sweets showcase, in which the alumni beat the current players again.

For both the young and old teams, the weekend elicited fond memories of joining the Sweets. Senior Woody Jacobson was sidelined due to injury but recalled some previous Onionfests that contributed to his decision to play competitively this year.

“Onionfest is actually how I kind of got into joining the Frisbee team,” said Jacobson. “Freshman and sophomore year I didn’t really come out to fall practices, but I played O-fest those two years and had a great time.”

Many former and current Sweets acknowledged the more easygoing nature of the annual fundraising tournament, which contrasts the rest of the tough spring season. Recent alumnus Ben Cohen-Stead commented on taking the field with and against familiar faces.

“At tournaments it’s a lot more structured,” said Cohen-Stead. “When you’re not playing your friends, you are a lot more focused on winning. When you’re playing your friends, you’re more focused on having a good time and seeing them do cool things.”

While O-fest is certainly a good time for all participants, sophomore Margo Heffron began planning logistics many months ago in order to make the weekend a success. As the tournament approached, each member of the Sweets was assigned a task, whether it was setting up fields, placing a 300-burrito order with a local food truck, or bringing the team’s Jambox to the games. As a club sport, Ultimate requires a much more student-driven approach to the behind-the-scenes aspect of hosting a 400-player tournament.

“It definitely involves a lot of time and effort to plan an event this big,” said Moskat.

Heffron’s effort is much appreciated by her peers, and especially the alumni, who consistently return to their alma mater for the tournament. Although this year marked Cohen-Stead’s first O-fest as an alumnus, he plans on returning for many more in years the come and encourages others to do the same.

“There’s never a good time to bail on life for a few days and come hang out with your friends, but once you do it you feel better. That’s a good enough reason all on its own,” he said.

After many years of contemplation, Club Sports Director Skip Molitor and Athletics Director Dean Snider have decided to promote Ultimate Frisbee to a varsity sport, effective immediately.

The two gentlemen expressed many reasons for the promotion, including pressure from the administration’s higher-ups after an internal investigation revealed an illegal redistribution of Ultimate’s funding.

“Our first priority is always pre-existing varsity sports,” said Snider, who was found guilty of funneling Frisbee money to the baseball team, which was subsequently used to buy a large number of wins. “Ultimate was already nationally ranked, and baseball needed just a little bit of help to break .500. To use my favorite sports idiom, no harm, no foul, right?”

Upon hearing the good news, the party captains immediately planned a celebratory kegger and consequently, the destruction of the Treehouse. The team notes that it will continue to practice while slightly buzzed Friday afternoons on Ankeny Field and gravely hungover on Saturday mornings. However, they will cut the gym regiment implemented earlier this season.

“The conditioning we did was all a ploy to get Skip to let us into Sherwood,” admitted one women’s team captain. “We figured that the student body would complain to him if 40 girls showed up at BFFC every afternoon and hogged all of the mirror space while lifting five-pound dumbbells.”

While most players showed unparalleled enthusiasm for the promotion, one concerned individual asked if he could continue to wear ridiculous costumes and sport his signature hairstyle, instead of the school-issued matching uniforms.

“While it’s great that we are finally being recognized on campus, we don’t want to lose the ‘Ur boi’ atmosphere that tricks talented first-year athletes to quit soccer or lacrosse and join our forces,” said Heed Rendrickson, a crossover athlete himself.

The girls squad was also excited for the promotion, but for slightly different reasons.

“Now that we’re a varsity sport, we don’t have to pretend like anyone can come and try out at fall semester throwing practices,” said one cutter. “This isn’t a [expletive] IM sport where you can just put on your brightest spandex and run around in circles barking for the disc like a [expletive] dog.”

“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but some of us — O.K., just one of us — plays on the Junior National team in the summer,” she added. “I just wanted to mention that again.”

The promotion to varsity status will certainly add to the pressure faced by both teams. The first order of business will be to hire a full-time coach, so Ultimate alumni can quit bumming around Portland while occasionally showing up at tournaments. The Athletic Department hopes that by implementing these changes, the women’s team will finally be able to accomplish one of its loftiest goals.

“We don’t give a rat’s ass about national titles,” said Molitor. “We just want to stick it to UW and prove that we aren’t some Eastern Washington nobodies.”

NOTE: After discovering that the men’s Ultimate program was far from a national ranking, President George Bridges passed an executive order that will demote the team back to club status.

Although the Whitman Baseball Team might still be trying to hit its stride, it’s certainly not all doom and gloom for the young squad. The program recently secured its first regular season win and glimpsed the star potential of one of its many first years.

Meet Whitman’s silver lining, Adrian Vela, a first-year from Bothell, Wash. The shortstop lit up Borleske Stadium last weekend with a solo home run during the first game of a doubleheader against Whitworth. The next day the Pirates intentionally walked Vela, who also batted leadoff, in the second inning to load the bases, setting up first-year Anthony Lim for a three-run double. With 10 games under his belt, he has posted a .390 batting average, good for 14th in the NWC entering spring break.

Vela’s offensive surge is a welcome change for the clubhouse, not to mention a surprising one, even for Vela.

“It took a while for me to realize that it was out because I didn’t get all of it,” said Vela about his home run. “I thought it was a pop up to left field.”

It might be hard to quiet his bat on the field, but for the most part, the first-year flies under the radar. Vela is noticeably more calm, cool and collected than some of his peers, but when asked about his walk-out music — the 2005 Nelly hit “Grillz” — he lets a quick smile escape.

Adrian Vela ’18. Photo contributed by Matt Banderas.

“It was more of a joke at first but everyone thinks it’s funny,” said Vela. “At times I can’t keep a straight face, but I like it and it’s worked out O.K.”

The thought passes, and then it’s back to business. For a kid that hit the first homer of his college career, he isn’t overly excited, knowing that to dwell on one at bat in a season full of them is shortsighted. Instead, the first-year is already seeking ways to improve, especially as a young but contributing member to the team.

“I think I could be playing better right now, honestly,” said Vela. “It goes to show that age shouldn’t really matter for us right now. It shouldn’t be a huge excuse because we’re all here and everybody has young players on their team. For us to be able to have younger guys step in, which we have to since we have so many, it’d be huge for us.”

The team hopes that Vela can continue to lead by example, in the same way that some of the recent baseball alumni did last season. Sophomore pitcher Nick Johnson draws a comparison between Vela and two former standout Missionaries.

“Vela is in the middle between Ozzy [Braff] and Cam [Young]. He’s a young version of both of them,” said Johnson. “He has a ways to go in terms of getting to where they were with a team role and a captain role, but he has potential.”

Head Men’s Baseball Coach Sean Kinney realized Vela’s potential long ago and has been set on cultivating his star power since the shortstop’s junior year of high school. Vela played for Cedar Park Christian, a private high school playing in the Emerald City 1A League, and later the Nisqually League. The limited exposure didn’t stop Kinney from noticing his solid defense and excellent bat speed.

“We were really high on Adrian the whole way,” said Kinney. “He was a guy that we targeted early since we thought he was a game-changer.”

Aside from Vela’s bat, both Kinney and Johnson took note of Vela’s drive and determination. Johnson hosted Vela on his recruiting visit last year, a low-key Tuesday night of homework and studying.

“I just had no idea what this kid was like,” said Johnson on his first encounter with Vela. “And then I step out on the field with him for the first time, see him field some grounders and line drives and think, ‘Wow, this kid can play.’ And then he comes out in one of the first weekends and just explodes and does really well.”

Although it might seem like Vela’s success was spontaneously triggered, the hot-hitting first year has been hard at work since fall ball began last semester. Vela also played summer league baseball with many other college-bound players on the RIPS Brewers. His commitment and attention to detail don’t go unnoticed.

Vela (center) dives for a ball in center field. Photo by John Lee.

“Adrian has a really good process,” said Kinney. “He’s at early work every single practice. He’s putting in the time. It’s the work you’re willing to put in when no one else is watching.”

The main focus for Vela now is winning games. If it were not for a pair of extra innings losses to Willamette earlier this season, Whitman might be 3-3. He is hopeful that his success inspires guys around him in the lineup to get on base and drive in runs. Over spring break Vela and the team will have the opportunity to do just that, with series against many division foes including Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound, both of whom sit atop the NWC.

Barring another injury to his arm, for which he underwent corrective surgery in high school, Vela is poised to move into a leading role in his career with the Whitman baseball team.

If good things come in small packages, then the Whitman women’s golf program is not just good, but it’s great. The team is comprised of one senior, one junior, one sophomore and two first-years, all of whom will resume play this month after placing in the top two in four consecutive fall tournaments.

In the coming weeks, the squad hope to ride the momentum of their fall semester into the spring, despite a prolonged break since finishing second at the Northwest Conference Fall Classic. Senior captain Kelly Sweeney commented on the unique structure of the golf season and how the team stays motivated to improve.

“It’s definitely hard to have that break in between [the two seasons], but since we all go home for such a long period of time, we usually take advantage of it and practice the things that were hard for us in the fall,” said Sweeney.

Sometimes preparation over winter break means braving courses in unfavorable weather conditions. However, all five players grew up in the Pacific Northwest and are thus accustomed to the soggy grounds.

“I love playing in the rain,” said first-year phenom Phoebe Nguyen, who tied for third overall at the NWC Fall Classic. “Sometimes my dad takes me out to play when it’s freezing and pouring, so in tournaments it’s fine.”

The team’s optimism concerning rain probably won’t apply when they travel to California over spring break in order to play in the Cal Lutheran Invitational, a high-caliber tournament that boasts teams that are ranked in the top 20 nationally. Due to the small size of Whitman’s program, all five women will have the opportunity to play, with the four best scores counting towards Whitman’s team total.

“All of us play in every tournament, so we all matter because there is always the potential of your score counting,” said Alyssa Maine, the lone junior on the team.

Despite the individualistic nature of golf, the team has meshed well together, a feat that they credit much to Head Coach and Assistant Athletics Director Skip Molitor. Although Whitman graduated three seniors in May, the  two newcomers have transitioned effectively into large roles on the team.

“We are filling the holes. Everyone steps up, as they always have,” said Maine. “[Coach] Skip is kind of the glue that keeps our close-knit group together.”

With goals of post-season play on their mind, the women hope to secure an at-large or automatic qualifier bid to nationals. In order to do so, they will need to repeat their strong performances at the NWC Spring Classic and at the NWC Championship, both of which will take place in April. They also hope to play well in front of friends and family at their only home tournament of the year, the Whitman Easter Invite. Each athlete is aware that in order to accomplish such a feat with such a small squad, it will truly take a team effort.

The Whitman women’s team will play in their first spring tournament March 7–8 in Bremerton, Wash. as part of the UPS Invitational.

The end of February is typically a busy time for the Whitman College Athletic Department. This year, the transition from winter to spring sports will be even more hectic due to the absence of former Assistant Sports Communication Director and Event Manager Jordan Paden, who stepped down in January.

While athletes and fans may not have known Paden personally, they could probably recognize her on the sidelines facilitating many of Whitman’s sporting events over the past two years. As an event manager, her primary responsibilities included organizing the group of students hired to run the clock, hand out programs, keep statistics and set up or tear down athletic events. Aside from delegating tasks to the game management team, she worked closely with Athletics Director Dean Snider and Sports Communications Director Gregg Petcoff, aiding them with social media and other tasks. Now, amidst the turnover from winter to spring sports, the two administrators are tasked with finding a replacement while picking up the slack themselves in the meantime.

So far the Athletic Department has received over 80 applications in its national search. Some applicants have been contacted for phone or Skype interviews, and a handful have been invited to tour the campus. Although the candidates are united by their love of sports, the pool is varied in experience and skill sets. Petcoff mentioned what intrigued some applicants from larger athletic departments.

“The allure of a Division III program is that it is about the student-athlete,” he said. “It’s about the institution and the student-athlete, it’s about caring for the student-athlete, covering the student-athlete, while at a Division I school it’s usually about marketing.”

Both Petcoff and Snider are careful during interviews to emphasize the importance for the new Event Manager to work closely with students. Varsity soccer player and event staffer sophomore Trayvon Foy was asked to consult the hiring committee on potential candidates that visited campus for interviews.

“One of the best things about being on the [hiring] board as both a worker and an athlete is that we actually get to talk to them and get to tell them exactly what we want, like seniority in which events you get to work,” he said. “It’s neat for the potential candidates to be able to ask us, ‘If I were to get hired, what would you want from me?’”

Like many of the student-athletes for which they are responsible, the Athletic Department is seeking someone highly motivated and able to transition into the position quickly.

“There’s a high degree of learning that will take place. It will be on the job learning with training from various voices that engage in that process. There will be a fairly steep learning curve,” said Snider.

With applications still rolling, the hiring committee is sure that they will be able to secure someone who goes beyond the basic job description of the Assistant Sports Communication Director. While some candidates have strong backgrounds in writing or event management, their ability to succeed at Whitman hinges on the connections they will make with students, athletes and the coaching staff.

“It’s not just important. It’s vital,” said Petcoff. “In fact, [connecting with the department] is some of what we talk to each candidate about. You have got to be able to work with the coaches, and you’ve got to be able to engage the student workers.”

The hiring committee hopes to make a decision regarding the opening in the coming weeks. Until then, the Athletic Department will continue to run a tight ship.

Whitman’s liberal arts curriculum may require students to complete three quantitative analysis credits, but for varsity athletes, practice with numbers doesn’t necessarily stop at calculus homework.

Whitman College is joining a long list of schools whose athletic departments are developing an interest in sports analytics. From basketball to baseball and even volleyball, sports teams are increasing wins by collecting and analyzing data on their own players as well as their opponents.

The surge of statistical analysis at the collegiate level is largely a trickle-down from professional sports leagues such as the MLB, NBA and NFL, which are able to hire full-time statisticians to help develop their players and win games. Nowadays, even small Division III schools like Whitman are testing the waters of sports analytics.

For example, junior Karen Vezie performed an integral role on the volleyball team last season despite never having played a single match. When Head Women’s Volleyball Coach Matt Helm discovered that she was a mathematics major, he offered Vezie a unique internship throughout which she would attend practices and games and record statistics such as kills, digs and blocks. She also spent time outside the gym analyzing these numbers and comparing them to their opponents in the Northwest Conference, looking for ways to improve.

“I was looking at what the top three schools [Pacific Lutheran, Whitworth and University of Puget Sound] were doing and comparing [the data] to us in order to see where we needed to do better,” she said.

During the latter part of the season, Vezie shared her findings with the team.

“Some of the results I found were that blocking didn’t matter in whether you won or not, and blocking was one of [Whitman’s] strong suits so that was interesting to see,” she said. “Then [Coach Helm] started focusing [on kills] a lot and told the team that kills is where it’s at, and from there our kill percentage went way up. It was kind of a psychological thing.”

For Whitman coaches, bringing numbers into a liberal arts locker room full of dedicated students is a no-brainer. Head Women’s Basketball Coach Michelle Ferenz notes the value of communicating with her team in terms of statistics.

“Numbers are just another way to talk to people about what improvements need to be made, and they’re very cut-and-dry. It also helps us analyze what we can do better every day,” said Ferenz.

Both the men and women’s basketball programs use a rating scale to assess their players’ strengths and specific contributions to the team. Senior Clay Callahan, a point guard on the men’s basketball team, described the matrix of statistics that decide who starts and gets playing time during games.

“The metric [that the men’s team] has for the first half of the year is activeness points, winner’s point, player rankings and carryover from last week,” he said. “Basically it’s a weighted contribution to the stats sheet, how well you do in competitions in practice, where your teammates rank you and how you did last week.”

However, no matter how complex the rating scale may be, sports are still united by many uncharted intangibles. Ferenz commented on the limitations that all programs, not just Division III teams, face when trying to find meaning in numbers.

“The things that are hard [to categorize] are things like hustle plays and defensive intensity, because every player’s role is a little different,” she said. “Some people’s roles are a lot harder to quantify. Sometimes it’s looking at matchups and trying to put a number or a value to it, in terms of her contributions to the team.”

Additionally, when programs are relatively small, like those at Whitman, the resources to conduct deeper statistical analyses are difficult to come by.

“[Our rating scale] is not perfect,” said Ferenz. “If we had someone to chart things like deflections we could probably get a more realistic number, but we just don’t have that staff here, whereas larger colleges and Division Ones have grad assistants that can really break it down.”

Despite the want and willingness of the Whitman Athletics Department to incorporate numbers into their game strategies, they are limited by small staff and sample sizes. On the other end of the spectrum, some larger Division I schools can afford to implement video-tracking software that translates the motions of the ball and the players into millions of data points ripe for statistical analysis.

Even without the extra hands or technology, Whitman is still seeking to use analytics in order to establish itself as a major force in the Northwest Conference. They are especially open-minded because such changes have resulted in success at a larger scale. This season, Head Men’s Baseball Coach Sean Kinney is testing a system piloted by a Pac-12 powerhouse.

“One thing that UCLA does is called the 90-foot battles,” he said. “They tally up [things like stolen bases, walks and giving up an out], and their goal is to get to 10 because they did the math and when they get to 10, they win something like 95 percent of their games. We’ve really started charting our 90 feet and it’s amazing to see the results so far.”

While Coach Kinney is aware that baseball, more than any other sport, lends itself to statistical analysis, he still tries to find the balance between numbers and other components of the game that other Whitman programs seek.

“I don’t want all our guys to be so result-oriented, but [statistics such as quality at-bats] gives them a look of effective things that are going to help us win a baseball game, and if we put enough of these together, then we are going to be in pretty good shape,” he said.

While the Whitman Athletics Department may not have access to the same resources as larger schools, their hybrid student-athletes and forward-thinking coaches are more than capable of using numbers to help win games.+