Perhaps ISU is serious after all

There may be hope on the Olympic sports horizon after all.

ISU made what appears to be a solid hire in Stacy Gemeinhardt, who comes from DII Emporia State.

Unlike her predecessor, Gemeinhardt brings a nice winning percentage to Ames, .688 in four seasons. Her team won conference titles and an NCAA berth. The team's record books were rewritten during her tenure. She won a B12 title as a player at Mizzou. On paper, she knows what she is doing.

Some may view DII success with scorn, that it's not "Big Time". It may have a smidge of merit when it comes to adjusting to recruiting DI talent vs. the DII skills she has been working with. But the staff at CSJ has always believed that winning coaches can win at any level: winning is winning. The strategies may shift a bit, but the skills are the same: developing talent, teaching X's and O's, motivating maximum performance every game.

Best of all, by hiring a quality coach for an Olympic sport, ISU confirms that it wants to compete in not just the revenue sports, but across the board. Hurrah!

Here's hoping the new staff can recreate the success it had at Emporia, and remove softball from it's "token Olympic and Title IX sport" status at ISU.


Peterclone