|
|
AUG.
18 — New Challenges, Situations Face Leafs In '06-'07
Program
announces schedule on heels of graduating all-time winning
class |
Goshen, IN — The Goshen College athletic
department officially released the 2006-2007 men’s basketball schedule
Friday afternoon, causing sixth-year head coach Stan Daugherty to sit
back and reflect.
Five years removed from recruiting the most decorated class in
program history, Daugherty and his staff now look forward to the challenge
of maintaining a precedent set by 2006 graduates Jordan Buller, Tyler
Sheerer and Eric Walsh — the all-time winningest class in Goshen
College history.
“This year is going to be a lot about our returning guys stepping
into new roles and our new players being asked to find a way
to contribute,” Daugherty
said Friday while working a basketball clinic in St. Joe, Michigan. “We’ve
reached a place where we’re competitive in our conference on a gamely
basis, and we certainly want to continue to be that way.”
The trio of Buller, Walsh and Sheerer helped bridge a gap from
mediocrity to excellence during their four-year tenure, as the group helped
the program to 68 wins during their four years in uniform, being an integral
part of a pair of 21-win squads — the only 20-win seasons in program
history — and the program’s lone Mid-Central Conference Tournament
home game. Walsh, who finished as the program’s all-time leading
scorer and rebounder, is the only Goshen College NAIA All-American performer
to date, finishing runner up in MCC Player of the Year voting in his final
two seasons (click here for related article).
The trio’s final statistical relevance may have been greater had
it not been for a career-ending arm injury to Sheerer on Jan.
21 (click
here for article), as
Goshen dropped its final 10 games of the 2005-2006 season, with
six of those losses coming by an average of just 2.7 points per
game.
“As disappointing as the end of last year was, it showed how competitive
we could be even after we lost one of our most focal players
and leaders,” Daugherty
said. “I’m hoping that our upperclassmen can take some of
the lessons learned from last season and apply them to this year.”
Daugherty’s group of 2006-2007 seniors — Matt Crawford, Willie
Frazier and David Haire — sit on the precipice of claiming the most
career wins in program history, if the group can help the Leafs improve
on its total of 13 wins from 2005-2006. The newest senior trio has 55
career wins under its collective belt, though garnering an additional
13 or more will not be easy.
“This year’s schedule is challenging in the fact that we play
a lot of road games and have some tough trips to the south,” Daugherty
said. “As usual, the MCC is going to be one of the best, if not
the best, conferences from top to bottom in the nation at our
level. It’s
our hope that our returning guys can lead our new players to
a point where we can be really competitive as a collective unit.”
Goshen’s newcomers will benefit from a four-game home stretch to
open the season, highlighted by the always-exciting McDonald’s Maple
City Hoopfest on Nov. 10-11. The Leafs then become literal journeymen
for the better part of two months, as 12 of the team’s next 13 games
will be played away from the Roman Gingerich Center. Only the
University of St. Francis — Goshen’s home-opening MCC contest
on Dec. 5 — breaks up two six-game road swings, highlighted by trips
to NCAA Division II power Kentucky Wesleyan College (Nov. 17)
and a six-day venture to central Florida (Webber International
University, Dec. 16;
Warner Southern College, Dec. 17). The Leafs will return to NCAA
Division III power Hope College for the Dec. 8-9 Hope Holland
Sentinel Tournament,
while adding a late Thanksgiving weekend contest at rival Bluffton
College on Nov. 24.
Five of Goshen’s eight regular-season MCC home contests occur on
Saturdays during the season, with highlights coming against 2005-2006
second-ranked and NAIA National Championship runner-up Huntington University
on Feb. 13, eighth-ranked Taylor University on Jan. 9 and cross-town
rival Bethel
College on Feb. 3.
“Our conference is extremely tough every year,” Daugherty
said. “You’ve
got established programs that recycle great players year in and
year out. It’s our hope that we can figure out our niche to again
be competitive in the league, and be in a position to win games. As a
coach, that’s
all you can ask for.”
Goshen’s 2006-2007 complete season schedule can be viewed by clicking
the ‘schedule’ icon
to the above left, or simply by clicking here.
|
  Stan
Daugherty
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
