The Nevada Sagebrush

Excuses, lucky plays and mistakes aside; no team in Nevada athletics has a winning record.

The volleyball team is 2-10 — the worst start the team has had since 1990 when it started 2-10 and finished 2-32 in the Big Sky Conference.

The soccer team is 2-9 on the season, and that’s the worst start since 2008, when it took 12 games to achieve its first victory.

The cross country team hasn’t finished first-place overall in any events yet, and didn’t achieve any last season either.

The football team is 1-2 on the season, and Nevada football head coach Chris Ault doesn’t believe in moral victories. Losing has always been unacceptable in his mind, and coming off a 13-1 season including a victory in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, the feeling of victory is present for most everyone on the team.

“There comes a point when you have to start winning,” Nevada Athletics Director Cary Groth said. “Winning is so important because it’s directly tied to donations, it’s directly tied to attendance and ticket sales.”

Ruth Lawanson is entering her first year as head coach of Wolf Pack volleyball, and although she was an assistant coach with the team last season, the transition has been anything but smooth.

“Volleyball was on a downward spiral,” Groth said.  “When you have a transition like that in volleyball with a new coach in there, we don’t expect her to win very many matches this year as a team, but you do expect them to get better, and better and better.”

When Lawanson was asked how much responsibility she takes for the team’s losses, she responded:

“I don’t play,” Lawanson said. “I only prepare them to play, they have to go out and play and that’s the bottom line. If the team doesn’t execute, I can’t play for them.”

Every coach’s philosophy is different regarding how much responsibility they take for a team’s loss. For instance, the Texas Tech defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow said after Saturday’s game with the Wolf Pack:

“You know, players go to win football games and coaches go to lose it,” Glasgow said. “And it’s our responsibility to get them the right spots.”

Football is a lot different from volleyball, but the point remains.

“In football, there is no sense of disarray, and we want to win the conference,” Groth said. “In some of our other sports, it’s going to be a little bit more difficult with some of the changes in coaches.”

Volleyball and soccer haven’t been teams to draw in mass amounts of profit throughout the years, according to Groth. Teams just have to keep moving forward and strive for success.

“You just have to watch how you’re progressing in your programs,” Groth said. “Soccer has been a program in much disarray for a few years so (head coach) Missy (Price) is trying to get that stabilized.”

Price has tried a few different strategies in pursuing success on the soccer pitch, including putting the girls in more in-game situations and trying different practice schedules to get the most out of her team.

But winning at all costs is not the message that Groth wanted to pass down in the interview because the athletes are, of course, students first.  The most important thing for any program is progress.

“But there comes a point in every program when you have to start winning or changes will need to be made,” Groth said. “It’s real important because we’re about 80 percent self funded so if we don’t generate that type of competition then it’s much more difficult for us.”

Eric Lee Castillo can be reached at ecastillo@nevadasagebrush.com.

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