From campus facilities to student enrollment numbers, the small Baptist school located in Cleveland has more than doubled in size over the past few years. And that expansion has spread to the school's athletic department, where the Bears will add two new programs for the coming school year: wrestling and volleyball.
"Everything is growing around here right now," Truett-McConnell athletic director Chris Eppling said. "Last year we saw an increase in roughly 40 percent over the year before. And at this point we're about 20 percent ahead of where we were last year.
"That growth has opened a lot of doors athletically."
Indeed, the school is set to expand its current offering of 10 athletic programs (baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer and softball) for the 2011-12 school year by adding one sport well familiar to state colleges and universities (volleyball) and another that is much more unique.
"In wrestling we saw a group of athletes in this state with not many places to go," said Eppling. "There are approximately 8,000 high school wrestlers just in Georgia, and there's only one scholarship, four-year wrestling program at this point, and that's at Shorter University (in Rome).
"We looked at that gap there, and talked with some people at the Atlanta Takedown Club and decided there was a wide-open door for us."
The Bears have since seized on the opportunity, establishing a wrestling program and hiring longtime Fayette County High coach Jim Bailey to take the reins. Bailey, who was recently inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., is a 33-year veteran of the sport and has already been recruiting the state.
"From Atlanta north there is a really strong wrestling base, especially in Cobb and Gwinnett Counties," Eppling said. "So we're just focusing on our own backyard right now, looking to get a lot of homegrown talent."
As a member of the Southern States Athletic Conference -- which is part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics -- the Bears will have a chance to get their feet wet before joining full varsity competition, as NAIA rules stipulate that first-year programs must undergo one year of non-competitive play.
"It's kind of a redshirt year for the program," Eppling said.
Regardless, both programs are forging ahead with determination
That's also true for the volleyball team, which will be led by Kevia Elkins.
"There are a lot of quality volleyball players in this state," Eppling said. "We can recruit locally and put together a great team."
Elkins was already on campus as an assistant softball coach -- something that helped in her hiring according to Eppling -- "she knows what we're about, and is familiar with our school," Eppling said. Yet Truett also showed in choosing Bailey that it is happy to look outside its current family.
"It was a complete surprise; I wasn't expecting to start something on the collegiate level, but God shook me out of my comfort zone," Bailey said.
While faith and religion may play a peripheral role within many schools and athletic departments, they play a central role at Truett-McConnell, which is proud of its focus on Biblically-based and Baptist teachings.
"About 71 percent of our students are Baptists," Eppling said. "So we have 29 percent of our student body that is not. We're not exclusionary. We're just not afraid to own who we are. We're comfortable in our own skin, and I think a lot of students -- and athletes -- are attracted to that."
In fact, school President Dr. Emir Caner believes that the school's focus on those teachings is a big reason for its growth.
"When I got here three years ago there was about 450 students, and we'll have close to 1,000 this fall," Dr. Caner said. "I believe a big reason for that is that we went back to our original charter vision as a distinctively Christian college."
Whatever the reason, the increased enrollment is leading Bears athletics toward even bigger goals, and Truett-McConnell is already considering expanding further.
"We'd love to have football in three to five years," Eppling said -- a view that Dr. Caner echoed. "We're also looking into men's and women's lacrosse, cross country, competitive cheerleading... all of it's a possibility."
For the time being, Truett will get on with preparing for the upcoming season.
"We've got nine buildings either being built or under renovation right now," Eppling said. "We'd love to have a new gym built, but we've already got a lot underway right now. We'll probably have to go off campus for our wrestling meets. But right now it's all very exciting."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/6/239747