The HCAC Release

Official Earlham Release

RICHMOND, Ind. — Earlham College's change in athletic conferences became official on Thursday after a lengthy application process and many discussions on campus.

The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference announced that Earlham would become the 10th member of the league that was founded in 1987 as the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference. The named was changed in 1998 when schools from Ohio joined the group.

Earlham will be leaving the North Coast Athletic Conference at the end of the 2009-10 academic year and begin play in the HCAC in the fall of 2010. “Earlham's relationship with the NCAC is more than 20 years old,” said Frank Carr, athletic director, “so this change was not one that was entered into nonchalantly.”

“However, we are ecstatic that we have been invited to join the Heartland Conference,” Carr said. “This change is one that I believe will be exceptionally good for Earlham athletics.”

The nine current schools in the conference are Anderson University, Bluffton University, Defiance College, Franklin College, Hanover College, Manchester College, the College of Mount St. Joseph, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Transylvania University.

Earlham Head Football Coach Gerry Keesling is pleased to be competing against schools from his days on the field for the Quakers. “We were in the old Hoosier-Buckeye Conference when I was a player,” he said. “My father played in the old Hoosier Conference when he was at Earlham in the 50's.”

“Through much of our time in the NCAC, we have continued non-conference play with Manchester, Anderson and Rose Hulman,” Keesling added. “I look forward in renewing conference rivalries with many of the teams from our history.”

Earlham Head Volleyball Coach Natalie Alred is also looking forward to the new conference. “I am very excited to enter the HCAC,” she said. “This is an exciting time for Earlham Athletics.”

“I know our student-athletes will enjoy the shorter trips,” Alred added. “The HCAC is a very competitive league and I look forward to getting to know the teams and coaches next year.”

One change that will occur as a result of joining the HCAC is that women's tennis will become a fall sport instead of competing in the spring. “I will be able to focus on each team during their season rather than both squads needing my attention at the same time,” said Adam Van Zee, who is in charge of Earlham's entire tennis program.

Another change will be in field hockey. Earlham and Transylvania are the only schools in the HCAC that offer the sport.

“We are committed to field hockey at Earlham,” Carr said. “We will continue to pursue every opportunity to provide our student-athletes with the kind of experience they have always had at Earlham.”

Earlham's Conference History

The first written records of Earlham in a league was during the 1950s when the Quakers competed in the Hoosier Collegiate Conference (HCC). That group would eventually expand into the Hoosier-Buckeye Collegiate Conference (HBCC) during the 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1984, Earlham joined the College Athletic Conference, which was affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. At the same time, Earlham remained a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) with the women's programs competing in the Hoosier Conference for Women.

The Earlham men's soccer program was also a member of the Illinois-Indiana Collegiate Soccer Conference from the late 1970s into the mid-1980s.

Earlham began its association with the NCAC in 1989. The move allowed all of Earlham's teams to compete in the same conference for the first time.

Contact: Don Tincher, sports information director — 765/983-1795