Whitworth Picks Up The Pace New Emphasis On Track And Field Already Paying Off

Three months ago, when hammer thrower Betsy Slemp and sprinter Aaron Posey were training for the outdoor track and field season, their new coach, Toby Schwarz, wasn’t out looking for a linebacker.

Last month, when Slemp, Posey and the rest of the Whitworth College track team were winning a meet for the first time in years, their coach wasn’t thinking about which defensive scheme might work best when the Pirates take on Pacific Lutheran next football season.

The rules have changed at Whitworth, where the track coach has traditionally doubled as defensive coordinator for the football team - in addition to his duties in the classroom.

The arrangement was difficult for all involved, and it became even less practical in light of Whitworth’s ongoing move from the NAIA to NCAA Division III. Under Division III guidelines, coaches cannot offer special financial aid to prospective athletes, making recruiting more labor-intensive at private schools such as Whitworth.

Finding a more workable solution became an option last year after restructuring within the athletic department armed new athletic director Scott McQuilkin with one full-time position to use at his discretion.

Track and field took priority, McQuilkin said, because of the sheer number of athletes involved. Thus came the hiring in June of Schwarz, a 26-year-old Tacoma native with a doctorate in sports law from Washington State University.

“We have put the pieces together in staffing such that we are now in the position to be more competitive,” said McQuilkin, a former Whitworth baseball coach and athletic-department chair.

“We used to have this person who was head track and assistant football coach - they’d be gone much of the month of January recruiting for football, so we had these track athletes having to do their workouts on their own.”

That isn’t the case with Schwarz, who appreciates the new rules under which he gets to work, to say nothing of the synthetic track installed in the Pine Bowl two years ago.

“It’s nice they’re putting an emphasis on track and field,” he said.

The investment may be paying off already. In a recent five-team meet involving Northwest Conference rivals, the Whitworth men finished first and the women were second. < “It’s going extremely well,” said Schwarz, a former track coach at Pullman High School. “The guys hadn’t won in five years.”

The real challenge, Schwarz knows, figures to come in recruiting.

“It’s difficult - I’ve been realizing that in the last couple weeks,” he said. “This school has very high academic requirements and is also a very expensive school with no scholarships.

Notes

Eastern Washington’s Seville Broussard became the area’s 15th NCAA provisional qualifier when she won the 400-meter hurdles in 59.89 seconds Saturday at the Seattle Pacific Invitational. Broussard was subsequently named Big Sky Conference women’s athlete of the week for the second time in three weeks… . The WSU men, led by two-event provisional qualifier Ian Waltz, are ranked 25th nationally in the latest Trackwire National Poll… . WSU continues to compete without injured All-Americans Francesca Green (foot) and Leo Slack (shoulder). Both are out indefinitely… . Idaho sprint stars Tawanda Chiwira and Jason St. Hill return this weekend after missing two weeks with injuries. Chiwira will run the 400, for which he is already a provisional qualifier. St. Hill is expected to run the 100 and 200.

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