Coastal Carolina makes its debut

By

Posted 10:37AM on Monday, August 11, 2003

CONWAY, SOUTH CAROLINA - Maurice Simpkins couldn't believe at times he came to Coastal Carolina to play college football. Simpkins was a linebacker at Catawba in 2001, helping the Indians to a South Atlantic Conference title in NCAA Division II. But when his coach, David Bennett, left that December for the Chanticleers startup program, Simpkins chose to follow him south. What had Simpkins done? There was no stadium, a few scraps of equipment and only a couple of teammates; the players practiced on a driving range, for goodness sake. And then last fall when everyone else he knew was playing football, Simpkins and the others worked out and went home. ``It was hard at times,'' Simpkins said. ``There were a lot of sacrifices to be made. But it gave us a year to get bigger, a year to bond with each other, a year to grow.'' Now, it's time for Simpkins and the Chants to play football. The program comes to life Sept. 6 at CCU Stadium against Newberry, one of Bennett's SAC rivals from Catawba days. The $11 million, 6,400-seat field is nearing completion. The school has sold nearly 1,800 season tickets 300 more than projected. And a two-year wait from creation to the Big South Conference is nearly complete. The Chants are mostly first- and second-year players Bennett was able to lure with the promise of playing time and a good location about 10 miles outside of Myrtle Beach. ``I get to play football and then go relax on the beach,'' said tailback Aundres Perkins. It has been an interesting two years for Bennett, a son of South Carolina. He won a state title at Cheraw High School in 1979, helped coach running backs for Clemson's national championship coach Danny Ford and won 33 games his final three seasons at Catawba. When Bennett read that Coastal was starting a Division I-AA program, he said, ``Good, we'll play 'em.'' Instead, Warren ``Moose'' Koegel convinced Bennett during Christmas break 2001 that his future was at Coastal. Bennett has always gotten personally involved with players ``You've got to treat them like family,'' he says and still says if his team was on campus, ``it would have been tough to ever leave them.'' The deciding factor? ``It's probably the ultimate challenge to start something from scratch,'' he said. What Bennett and Koegel saw was a region in a football crazy state without an outlet for people. ``A lot of our fans have been taking those trips to Clemson and South Carolina,'' said Koegel, a co-captain for Penn State and coach Joe Paterno in 1970. ``Now, they have an option.'' Koegel, who played five NFL seasons as a center, says it's taken about $1.5 million in one-time startup costs to get Coastal on the field. Besides the stadium, administrators had to build locker rooms, office facilities and come up with everything from uniforms and helmets to media guides and a marching band. And Bennett had to find ways to keep his team's interest during the long stretch of no games. Simpkins, the former Catawba linebacker, said it was strange sometimes walking through campus early on. ``It was like I was the only football player here,'' he said. Perkins says the players amused themselves with backyard football games and long talks about what it will be like when Coastal begins play. ``We got kind of creative,'' Perkins said. ``You've got to make do with what you have.'' Koegel and Bennett say Coastal is in Division I-AA for the long haul. Stadium plans call for expansion for about 16,000-to-17,000 seats. Koegel expects the program to fully fund the Division I-AA limit of 63 scholarships within four years. The school has about 25 billboards promoting its first season spread throughout the region. Bennett, accustomed to winning, is talking playoffs and Big South titles. ``That's what we're here for,'' he said. But things could be dicey at first. While Bennett's team may have fire, they've got very few upper classmen. Even Bennett's 7-year-old son Jeb keeps asking what everyone wants to know, ``How many games are we going to win, daddy?'' ``I don't know the answer to that,'' Bennett says to all. ``If you want to know, come to the games.'' Koegel cautions people that success can take time. ``So I want everybody to know it's going to take a couple of years to get to where we want to get,'' he said. Simpkins now knows he made the right decision to follow the coach he considers a father figure. Students, professors and others on campus are thrilled football's coming. He sees a locker room filled with eager, anxious players. And he sees the stadium rising where an old soccer field used to stand. ``It gives me chillbumps every time I think about it,'' he said.