Story Courtesy of West Chester Sports Information
West Chester, Pa. – West Chester University will move its field hockey program to Division II, beginning with the 2011 season, it was announced today by Director of Athletics, Dr. Edward Matejkovic. The move will bring all 24 intercollegiate athletic programs at the University to the Division II level maintaining WCU’s position as the largest DII program in the country.
West Chester University’s field hockey program, which has competed at the NCAA’s top level since its inception, will now compete in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) where it is presently a full member with 21 other sports already competing for PSAC championships. The plan will be to maintain existing levels of support to encourage a highly competitive program at the Division II level, consistent with the success of other athletic programs at WCU.
“West Chester University would like to maintain its commitment to a broad-based intercollegiate athletic program and remain the largest Division II program in the nation,” Matejkovic said. “Attempting to achieve greater success with field hockey at the Division I level would require the university to drop several sports in order to divert funding support to the field hockey program. This would be in direct contrast to our philosophy of athletics”
West Chester’s field hockey team has competed at the Division I level as an associate member of the Atlantic 10 Conference with mixed success over the past two decades. Competition in the PSAC will afford the program greater chances of success both regionally and nationally.
“West Chester’s other 23 sports play at the Division II level already,” WCU President Dr. Greg Weisenstein stated. “Philosophically, the university has adopted the ‘Life in the Balance’ platform introduced only at the Division II level by the NCAA in 2009. The goal of this platform is to provide student-athletes with a college experience that balances academics, athletics and social pursuits. This move affords our student-athletes the best opportunity in which to be successful on the field, in the classroom and in the community.”
West Chester University will play in the Atlantic 10 Conference this fall, where it has competed since the 1996 season. Full competition at the Division II level and in the PSAC would begin in the fall of 2011.
Field hockey follows the Golden Rams’ baseball program that moved from Division I to Division II in 1995. That program has enjoyed great success since the shift. West Chester’s baseball squad has reached the Division II national semifinals in two of the last four seasons, averaging 40 wins per campaign over that stretch. They have produced 10 winning season in a row and have qualified for multiple conference and national playoffs.