Coyote athletic teams off to an incredible start
We’re a month into the 2017-18 school year, and I’ve never seen USD’s sports teams at a greater high.
Sports currently in season include golf, volleyball, soccer, football and cross country. Each of these teams is already well accomplished this fall.
The football team has begun turning some heads the season with three wins. The team began the season with a 70-point lead over Drake and a win over Bowling Green. This is the first time South Dakota has won back-to-back road games to begin a season for the first time in 60 years, according to goyotes.com.
This past weekend, the football team won against defending Big Sky Champion North Dakota in an upset. The team’s 3-0 start upped the team to No. 14 in the FCS Coaches Poll, the highest ranking in the poll since 2011.
The golf team has also been turning out numbers far better than last year’s season.
At the women’s team’s first tournament at Arbor Links, the team shot an all-time low on the conference course of 305. On the men’s side, junior Tommy Vining placed second and lead the team to finish fourth at Washington State last week.
The women’s cross country team is no stranger to winning – they claimed their third team title at the Augustana Twilight in four years. At Woody Greeno, USD had an almost perfect score to win against Big 10 and Big 12 teams such as Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas State.
The men’s cross country team placed second at the Augustana Twilight and fourth at Woody Greeno.
The soccer team has posted two major wins against North Dakota and Colorado College.
The volleyball team competed against Air Force for the first time ever and came out with a 3-2 win.
With numbers like this so early in the season, we can only expect greatness from USD athletic teams the rest of the year. Aside from these accomplishments benefiting the individual players and teams, better play results in campus-wide endorsement.
With a higher success rate, USD athletic teams will gain more support from the public and possible sponsors, as they should. Nobody wants to attend a football game when the team has a losing streak, and they most definitely don’t want to attend a lesser-known sporting event (such as golf or cross country) when the team is known for poor performance.
With our sports teams doing so well, hopefully more students and locals will be inclined to attend games and meets. The more support a team has, the more likely its athletes are able to perform better, resulting in continued winning streaks.
Additionally, a university becomes much more attractive to sponsors and athletic recruits with winning teams. More sponsors and more money will raise the quality of student-athletes USD is able to bring in.
A team can’t be successful with the support from others, but it seems others are only inclined to attend sporting events if the team wins. Because the two go hand in hand, hopefully the accomplishments of fall sports will start a continues cycle of support and USD achievement.
