Page 3 - Spirit of Batesville

THREE RIVERS EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRATGAZETTE • SPIRIT OF BATESVILLE SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2015 3SS
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Left: Quarterback Brody McCrary talks with wide receivers coach Nick Palese during the 2015 Scots spring game. Right: Running back Michael Bowles, left, attempts to stiff arm linebacker Tristian Dickinson. The Scots will re-implement their football program this fall. It will be the first time Lyon has had a football program since 1951.
New traditions FOOTBALL AND BAND BRING EXPANSION AND DIVERSITY TO LYON COLLEGE
By Bruce Guthrie
SPECIAL SECTIONS WRITER
When walking on the campus at Lyon College this fall, there will be some new sights, as well as new sounds.
The traditions of football and a marching band will grace the campus of the Batesville college beginning this fall.
The 2015 season will mark the first season of football since 1951.
Scots Athletic Director Kevin Jenkins said the re-implementation of football is about expanding the school’s student base, as well as enhancing the college experience.
“We wanted to be a little bigger and grow our student body,” Jenkins said.“There are always different ways and different avenues.” After a feasibility study, football was installed as a program in summer 2013. Kirk Kelley, a former baseball coach at Lyon, was brought on board to begin preparation and recruiting for the foot-
ball program.
Kelley has built success at Lyon in the past. A member of the
2010 Lyon Athletics Hall of Fame class, Kelley made Lyon a consis- tent national baseball contender as the head baseball coach from
1992 until 2009. He was also the school’s athletic director during that period of time.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Kelley said of what it has been like building a football program from the ground up. “Getting players, ordering equipment, getting facilities ready — I haven’t been bored.”
“The pool [of potential recruits] with our academic standards shrinks pretty fast. It’s selling a vision.You’ve got to have kids with the courage to do this thing because it’s not going to be easy,” he said.
After an entire academic year spent recruiting, Kelley and the Scots brought in 73 football players.Though no games were played with those initial 73 athletes, practices continued. Following a pair of intrasquad games and a spring scrimmage, the Scots are in the home stretch with game No. 1 looming in fall 2015.
The games will be played at Pioneer Stadium on the campus of Batesville High School.
“Our relationship with them has been very, very good,” Jenkins said of BHS.“We are very appreciative of the opportunity to play there.”
A practice field does exist on campus, and a field house with indoor workout areas, including a weight room and a training
room, along with dressing rooms and offices, is in the works and should be complete by the time athletes arrive for the season on Aug. 1.
While construction of a football field on campus isn’t on the immediate to-do list, Jenkins and Kelley both stopped shor t of shut- ting the door on that possibility, and in fact, the current construction of the field house and workout areas are being built with future expansion in mind.
“That is a few years down the road unless some financial means come about that I’m not aware of at this point,” Jenkins said.
The effects of football on campus have been felt immediately, Jenkins said.
“The student athletes that we’ve brought in have brought in a different dynamic that we didn’t have before we implemented the program,” Jenkins said.“We are very pleased with what football has brought us, not only in the growth of our institution, but in diversity and just a different culture.”
And with football, a marching band just made sense.
See TRADITIONS page 4SS