UNC 排球 Celebrates 50 Years

The University of Northern Colorado 排球 program has seen plenty of success over its first 49 years, winning over 900 matches, making 19 NCAA Tournaments, winning 12 conference titles and having 13 players named All-American. 对于一个程序来说还不错 started by a physical education professor.

Rosemary Fri arrived on campus in 1959 as a physical education professor. In 1967, she started the women’s volleyball program, five years before Title IX was implemented. For Fri, it was about giving women the opportunity to compete in 体育运动.

“I was fortunate when I went to high school in California we had competitions for girls and we traveled to nearby cities and had league play. 然后我去了加州大学洛杉矶分校 they didn’t approve of 体育运动 for women at that time,” Fri said. “所以，当我来的时候 to UNC I knew how important it was for women to get an opportunity to learn and compete, 所以我们开始了这个项目. I say ‘we’ because we had some outstanding physical education people that volunteered to coach different sports, and the program really did quite 在那个时候.”

That jump start for the program helped lay the groundwork for success. 从那时起， the program has gone on to flourish, winning .683 percent of its matches, and seeing just four coaches lead the program in that time.

“UNC’s volleyball program is very unique in the fact that when we started out we had physical education majors that were very talented and very skilled,” Fri said. “那 we get a coach that is very talented and skilled in developing local athletes in Linda 德尔克小姐. Then we had Ron Alexander for a while and then were very lucky to get Lyndsey 欧茨.”

While Fri started the program and laid the groundwork for it, it was Linda 德尔克小姐 who solidified the foundation and built the house that is University of Northern Colorado 排球. 德尔克小姐 became the head coach in 1976 and led the program all the way into 21世纪. In that time she won over 700 matches and led the program to 14 NCAA Tournaments, including four Elite Eights.

For 德尔克小姐, it wasn’t about being a volleyball coach that drew her to UNC, it was again 体育课程.

“I came to UNC in 1976 because I was going back to school to get my master’s degree. I applied to get a teaching assistantship, which turned into a graduate assistantship 作为球队的主教练.”

The foundation that 德尔克小姐 and Fri built for the program can still be felt today.

“UNC has had a lot of success and that goes back to the foundation of the program and its dominance as a physical education program and how forward thinking they were with women’s 体育运动 back in the day,” current Head Coach Lyndsey 欧茨 said. “那 kept it a step ahead of most schools and then was able to keep that edge.”

Part of that foundation and edge that was set back when the program first formed was the identity of a blue collar team. With that, the coaches found players that fit that model, such as Dana Cash, Teale Goble, Debbie Ponis, Erin Deffenbaugh and Stormie Wells, just to name a few of the UNC greats.

“UNC volleyball has had so much success, because we stick true to our mission. We know what type of athletes will work well,” former head coach Ron Alexander said. “那 type of athlete is blue collar, hardworking, that fits in well to Greeley. 你 know when they make their way across campus and say this is home, that the person is going to do really well here. 你 want a competitor, but you want somebody that 和我们一样热爱皇冠app官方版下载.”

That blue collar mentality not only fit the team, but the city of Greeley as well, bringing a strong bond between the two.

Between the strong foundation, consistent success and great connection with the community, University of Northern Colorado 排球 has seen success for the past 50 years, 未来还会有更多.