Time Is Chapman Football’s First Foe

Chapman, which is planning to resurrect its football program next fall after 62 years, is entering the final drive of its coaching search.

Anyone for a two-minute offense?

Athletic Director Dave Currey, who this fall set a Dec. 1 target date for hiring a coach, now says that might not be possible.

“Maybe I should have said in December instead of Dec. 1,” Currey joked. “That would have given us an extra four weeks.”

The search committee, which Currey leads, has been interviewing candidates since Nov. 12. Currey declined to identify them, citing confidentiality.

“We just want to try to get a coach aboard here in December and hopefully we can meet the time line,” Currey said. “It’ll be a nice Christmas present for Chapman.

“It’s probably one of Chapman’s biggest moves athletically in the history of the school. It takes time and some effort, but we’re getting closer.”

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Currey is also moving ahead with the task of securing equipment for the football program. The field, refurbished for $500,000, still lacks such basics as goal posts.

Bids are now being accepted for the posts and Currey is continuing a quest for other equipment.

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Chapman soccer Coach Greg Murphy is excited about the prospects for moving from NCAA Division II to Division III next season. His men’s team finished 13-4-3, the first winning season in Murphy’s four years as men’s coach and best since 1985, and the women’s team finished 11-7-2, its best season in school history. Each team will lose less than a handful of players to graduation.

Murphy said the men should immediately be a national Division III power. The Panthers were ranked eighth in the Western regional of Division II and played Division III national champion UC San Diego to a 2-2 tie and beat Colorado College, a finalist in the Western region, 3-1.

Murphy said a buzz has returned to the program.

“The guys know that their chances of doing something in Division III on the national level are very, very real,” he said.

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Hoop trap: Although Chapman is technically a Division II school until the switch is ratified at the NCAA convention, all the Panther programs are following Division III guidelines, including not offering any athletic-based financial aid. That apparently makes Chapman an attractive foe.

For instance, the women’s basketball team is opening its season Friday at a tournament at Cal State Stanislaus. The tournament is set up so that Division II Stanislaus and San Francisco State each get games against Chapman and Division III UC Santa Cruz.

“They are trying to get a couple of wins for the Division II teams,” Chapman Coach Mary Hegarty said. “We hope to get in the way of those plans.”

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Hoop trap II: Concordia is another local women’s team that has a tough task during the long weekend. The Eagles (0-1) play in the Golden State Athletic Conference preseason round-robin tournament at Fresno Pacific and will face three of the top teams in the league, Point Loma Nazarene, Fresno Pacific and Azusa Pacific, today, Friday and Saturday. Concordia and Azusa Pacific were picked to tie for second in the conference in the preseason coaches’ poll; Fresno Pacific, ranked No. 21 in the nation, was the consensus choice for first and Point Loma was fourth.

Host Fresno Pacific plays Southern California College, No. 5 in the coaches’ poll, and No. 6 Cal Baptist.