Buena Vista University (BVU) fall sport athletes including football, volleyball, and men and women’s soccer teams have begun their spring seasons with high expectations for their upcoming fall seasons.

First year Head Football Coach, Grant Mollring, is ready to start his new journey and begin competing as a Beaver. Coach Mollring, along with his other first year coaches at BVU, is excited to install new things and to evaluate the talent of the BVU football players by focusing on technique and scheme during the spring season. While implementing a new offense and defense can be difficult, Coach Mollring has confidence in his coaching staff and players to achieve this during their 15 practices of spring season.

“It is going to be mentally taxing for our guys, so it will be a good chance to see who cares about football and what their level of interest is in becoming a great team,” Coach Mollring said.

Returning senior linebacker and captain, Brady Illg, also speaks highly of what is to come for BVU football.

“Everyone is very optimistic and excited heading into spring ball. It’s our first chance to install new offensive and defensive schemes as well as continue to build a new culture,” Illg said.

The BVU women’s volleyball team is also excited to begin their spring season with a new NCAA rule that allows them to compete in live games. The Beavers are heading to Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas for their first ever spring season tournament on Saturday, April 22. The volleyball team also added a new assistant coach, Coach Tyler. Head Coach, Lori Slight, is extremely pleased with the transition the players have made with the new coach and claims “he fits right into the program seamlessly.” Coach Slight is also very heavily focused on becoming a defensively minded team and has goals for her team to be able to prolong rallies and manage errors on their side of the court.

“We’ve set lofty goals for this fall, and spring season is the first step in preparing us,” Coach Slight said.

Returning senior and pin hitter/defensive specialist, Jamie Navinskey, is excited to put their physical gains to the test during their spring season, as their past season fell short of their expectations.

“We want to get familiar with our new assistant, Coach Tyler, see what kind of progress we have made physically from working with Coach Ryder, and start raising our expectation for next fall,” Navinskey said. “We feel that last year we didn’t finish how we wanted or how we expected, so being able to come together in the gym, have a spring tournament, and get a taste of season is really exciting for us.”

The women’s soccer team is looking to continue building from last season with a special focus on specific changes that are needed to be made. Head Coach, Sheena Van Roekel, is excited to have a continued culture while also bringing back stronger and more experienced players. During their post-season, the lady Beavers have been working on their individual “homework,” playing pick-up as well as training with Coach Ryder.

“I’m really excited for the spring season to begin. It’s time to get the ladies back in their element and pursue the next level of play to go even further. These ladies are students of their game and a big part of that has shown in their growth since August,” Coach Van Roekel said.

Returning senior middle, Clair Arganbright, continues on Coach Van Roekel’s words.

“I hope to build team chemistry and overall a great team environment because that will lead to the future success of our team,” Arganbright said.

The men’s soccer team is also thrilled to get started with their spring season. Head Coach, Ben McArthur, is excited to have a large group of returning players allowing their team to focus their practice times on tactics and continuing to understand how they will defend and attack. The men’s soccer team will be playing in an Alumni Game Saturday, May 6th, with a 4 p.m. kickoff.

“Our goal as a team will be to have a focused competitive training session every time we train. It [the Alumni Game] is always a competitive game and the alumni take great pride in competing against the younger generation of Beavers,” Coach McArthur said.

Returning junior and defensive player, Jacob Heath, is expecting to see tremendous improvement from the entire team during spring season.

“I’m expecting to see great strides forward in the quality of play from our team and I feel spring season is important because it allows the team to demonstrate how much we have improved and developed over the off-season,” Heath said.

All of these Beaver teams expressed excitement and determination for their respective spring seasons, fall 2017 season can not come soon enough.

Photo by: Emily Kenny