Sports
April 17, 2025
Phillips steps down from men’s volleyball
Last week, Jeff Phillips, director of volleyball, announced to the men’s team that he would be stepping down as their head coach. Phillips will stay on as head women’s volleyball coach. Phillips said that when he first interviewed for the head women’s volleyball coach position, “it was pitched to me to do both,” he was adamant that he did not want to because it would be “very difficult to give 100% to both programs.” He decided to become an assistant coach for the men and take the head coach position for the women’s team. However, Goshen struggled with recruitment for...
March 27, 2025
History of GC women’s sports
Running at GC began 70 years ago. 1894: “Ladies” and “gentlemen” are required to take classes on “physical culture” when they attend the Elkhart Institute — the establishment that would soon become Goshen College. 1921: The Mennonite Board of Education sends out a recommendation that “intercollegiate athletics be forbidden by institutions under the board,” as they “may foster certain false ideals.” The GC board accepted the recommendation. 1922: The ban on athletics falls through. The first gym is built at GC for coed athletic activities through a combined force of student laborers and local Goshenites. Its location stood on the...
February 13, 2025
GC’s Kenyan connection
Goshen College’s cross-country and track and field teams have had the presence of Kenyan athletes for the past three decades, since the team was unter the tutelage of Rick Clark. Now, under the current leadership of Rustin Nyce, the director of track and field and cross country, this tradition remains. Currently, there are five Kenyan student-athletes between the men’s and the women’s teams. Nyce mentions how communication plays a crucial role in order for this legacy to endure. “It’s all about their word of mouth. When you come to another country you want to come to a place that you...
January 18, 2024
Turning kayaking into a bonding event
In the community of kayakers in Goshen, there are a few people that like to trace their conversion to one very persuasive proselytizer who has an office on the second floor of the Administration Building, happens to teach social work — and once even had an experience so terrifying that she gave up water sports for 20 years. Jeanette Harder, the director of the master’s program in social work at Goshen College and a professor of social work, has started to recruit faculty and staff from across campus to join her in her joy of kayaking. Growing up surrounded by...
November 30, 2023
Fall athletes on the end of a career
As the semester comes to an end, so too does a collegiate athletic career for many Maple Leafs. Being an athlete at Goshen College means different things to different people, so I talked to seniors who finished their final season to hear their thoughts. Mathurin Allawai began playing soccer when he was growing up in Chad. He said, “I didn’t want to play soccer at first; I was more of a student … [but when] I was 4 years old my friends would tell me ‘Come, let’s play soccer’ since I was always in my room studying. They brought me...
March 16, 2023
Miller makes it count: life as a statistician
At Goshen College volleyball and basketball games, there is a man who sits at the scorers’ table, typing at light-speed and often muttering something along the lines of “assist 3, block 14, kill 7.” At baseball and softball games, he’s in the press box. And at soccer games, he’s at the pitch-side table. His name is Tony Miller, GC’s athletic department statistician, and it is part of his job to keep track of games’ stats. “I had a fifteen minute conversation several years ago with the mom of our catcher at the time,” Miller said. “She said, ‘wait, there’s somebody...
February 16, 2023
Students jump in the Leaf Pile
Most of the time, the Ruth Gunden gymnasium is full of sports teams practicing, students playing pickup basketball and community members walking on the track. But, for a few hours every week, after the glossy wooden bleachers have been pulled out, the tranquil environment of the gym is transformed into a place of roaring school spirit and competition. The Leaf Pile is the nickname of Goshen College’s student section and it is an opportunity for students to join in song and chant, wear themed outfits and dig into the opposing sports teams. Recently, however, it has gained the reputation of...
October 7, 2022
Cougars roar, but fall to Leafs
Capping off a strong week for Maple Leaf athletics, both the men’s and women’s soccer teams snatched their first conference win of the year against the University of Saint Francis through last-second heroics — and a touch of drama. In the women’s away fixture, both teams were scoreless through 85 minutes. Goshen was keeping the pressure on against the St. Francis defense all game but couldn’t find a breakthrough. Then the ball fell to Anita Tavares. With just over two minutes left in the game, Tavares sprinted down the left side with the ball. As a Cougar defender tapped it...