Tanner Hoops | Staff Writer

Drained from a long opening weekend and with their back against the wall in a 2-0 hole against Carleton College in their fourth match in two days, the Buena Vista University volleyball team must have been thrilled to look up and see the Carleton bleachers filling with blue and gold filing in from the lobby outside. The Beaver men’s soccer team decided to spend the off day on their Minnesota trip to support the volleyball team at a nearby tournament.

“Coach (Lori) Slight and I decided in the spring we wanted to a team-bonding activity with both our teams present,” explained Men’s Soccer Head Coach Ben McArthur, “During preseason we took the teams to Camp Dodge in Johnston, Iowa, and did the leadership course. The athletes had to mingle and use communication to be successful. From that point on, we wanted to lead by example and support each other as much as possible.”

And support they have, with both coaches making their players available to attend each other’s contests and emphasizing how important being a part of a supportive athletic community is.

“We were able to go watch the volleyball team play in Minnesota when we were up there kicking off our season on an off day,” McArthur said. “The guys were loud and made an impression in the gym supporting the volleyball ladies. The volleyball team has been to a couple of our home games and their presence is felt during the games.”

Slight said her team has appreciated the support as well.

“I cannot say thank you enough to the men’s soccer team and Coach Ben,” Slight said. “This spring he and I sat down and brainstormed about how we could get more connection between men’s and women’s sports and just try to think of some ideas to foster a great relationship between sports teams.”

Plenty of thought and effort has gone into not only building but maintaining a relationship between the programs that goes deeper than the coaching staffs.

“We came up with preseason team-building together. We also have the opportunity to be in the same facility playing at different sports venues that the men’s soccer team came to and then finally even with the women’s soccer team we’ve done a T-shirt exchange where we wear women’s soccer T-shirts to practice and they wear our BV volleyball shirts,” Slight said. “All of these things have came about not only with men’s soccer and women’s soccer, but Coach Ryder (Wieschedel) has really preached about us becoming a family in the athletic department with all the sports.”

Both Slight and McArthur are fairly new to the coaching ranks at BVU. Slight is in her fifth season at the helm of the volleyball program, and McArthur has begun his third season leading Beaver men’s soccer. As both try to continue to build strong programs, they know how much it means to have their peer’s support behind them.

“Athletes at BVU should be each other’s biggest fans,” McArthur said. “We as the men’s soccer team want to lead by example in supporting other sports.”