Written by Rebecca Oldham. Media by Thomas Hajny.
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The school year is already upon us and classes are in full force. Everywhere we look, our college is preparing for the fall season. Fall sports started their seasons with some inter-squad scrimmages and a few practice games, and last week marked the start of the new season.
I had the chance to sit down with our Athletic Director, Kent Krober, to see what he expects this year. He is really excited about our school’s athletic talent at this time, during our interview he commented, “I’ve been around Greenville since the sixties and I think that this is the most successful time in the period of athletics, overall.”
Krober continued, “When you look at our programs, I can’t think of any they really aren’t doing well. They are competing against some hard competition. Yet we are right in the conference runs, making conference tournaments, and finishing first and second. We’ve made some national tournaments in track and baseball and football has been one game away from making the playoffs. Volleyball has been right there. It’s just the best time in our history of intercollegiate athletics.”
Coach Krober has put several things into play that people may have seen around campus. He stated that he is trying to put in place some aesthetics. With his attempt to spruce things up a bit, we now have signs up around our facilities for our sports, our locker rooms have been improved, the tennis courts have been resurfaced, and coaches are focused on trying to improve our equipment. We have also gained a new strength-training program that the school spent three thousand dollars on which has really pushed our teams forward.
Source: Thomas Hajny
He is also very excited about the new full-time Cheerleading Coach, Sean Washington, who Coach Krober says was an amazing cheerleader that tumbled for twelve years. Coach Washington was a Division I University captain for three years. Coach Krober also mentioned that Coach Washington is looking to recruit a full team of thirty cheerleaders and plans to train the cheerleaders on a new level, practicing moves that we haven’t seen in years.
We also had time to discuss our new men’s volleyball team, which Coach Krober said will be entering a new conference called the MCVL. He explained that the MCVL will have 14 teams in it, some of which are nationally ranked. Coach Krober stated from what he has seen, “they may make an impact right off the bat in the conference.” During the interview, he also announced that next year will be the first year in fifteen years that we will see both men and women’s golf back at Greenville College. The college has already hired Danny Baker to be the golf coach next year.
Coach Krober has also initiated a program titled the “Proud Panther.” If you have seen an athlete around campus, you may notice a black bracelet with “Proud Panther” written across it with four C’s following it. When I asked him the meaning behind it, he mentioned that the four C’s were created by a football coach from Greenville College named Scotty Kessler. Coach Kessler really wanted to expound on the idea of biblical football. The four C’s stand for Christ, Character, Community, and Competition.
Coach Krober commented that now each program teaches biblical sports. He also stated, “I want my athletes to be leaders on campus, I don’t want them sitting in the back of Chapel. I don’t want us never showing up to a play or a jazz concert. I want us to support our community, love friends outside our sport, and be leaders.”
As the Athletic Director, Kent Krober has the weight of every team on his shoulders. He is a coach to every athlete. He has done a lot of work towards improving our program so that we may improve upon ourselves as athletes, leaders, and as responsible adults. The year is already upon us as athletes. It is time for us to take what chances we have to improve so we can be a part of the most successful time period of athletics at Greenville College.
