The North Central College men’s volleyball program is about to start its inaugural season and head coach Kyle Exline and his team are very ambitious and confident about what they want to accomplish.
Collectively, NCC sports teams have brought home 31 NCAA Division III team national championships, and Exline hopes to add to that number.
“My goal is to build another championship program in an already established atmosphere,” said Exline.
Freshman Andrew Bergstrand noted that his goal for the team this season is to “win a national championship.”
The road won’t be an easy one for the Cardinals, who will be playing for an at-large bid in the playoffs this season. Exline explained that the team would essentially need to “win every single game” to get the bid.
The team started practicing together on Oct.12. “We had 15 practices in the non-traditional fall season and started practicing on January 4 for the traditional season,” said Exline.
Along with the practices, the team also participated in some scrimmage matches in the fall, which helped to build confidence for the players. “We didn’t have our starting line-up, but we were able to compete with other teams (in the scrimmages),” said freshman Bozhidar Kolev.
The team’s confidence is high even though it has not been practicing together very long. However, Exline has seen major improvements between now and when the team first started practicing. He said the team made “a complete 180; a lot of (the players) came in with different mind-sets for different systems. The coolest part was getting them all on the same page for our system.”
Looking at the roster, all players, except for sophomore Sean Piet, are freshmen. The team is fairly young, but there are pros and cons to this. One advantage Exline lists is that he can “create a culture with all the first year guys.” However, he also talked about the “lack of experience at the collegiate level,” which is to be expected with a new program.
Since most of the players are the same age, they will likely play together for four years. “We’re all the same age, so we stick together more,” said Kolev.
With teams that have a lot of upperclassmen, it is common for freshman to expect to be back-ups, but that is not the case for this team. Kolev noted that a pro of being a young team is “everyone is competitive for starting spots.”
A downfall for all college freshman, is the major difference in both academics and athletics in college and high school. “We don’t have much time to adjust to college,” said Bergstrand.
This is a very young team, but their chemistry is building quickly. “A lot of our guys live on the same floor; they’re together all the time,” said Exline. “Building chemistry off the court translates to chemistry on the court.”
Most of all, there is a definite sense of pride among the men’s volleyball team as it gears up for its first season. “We get to be the foundation of a new program,” said Bergstrand.
