The North Park Vikings football team finished with a record of 1-9 for the fourth season in a row, losing its last game of the year 0-49 to Illinois Wesleyan University.

Instead of fixating on the losses, Pethtel said continual recruiting and player retention were keys to overcome what he calls a tradition of bad football.

“I’ve only been here for four years,” Pethtel said. “Building a good football team has to be done from a foundational level; we have to get players who are right for our system, and we have to retain them.” As head coach, he believes his major responsibility is to recruit. He said that his predecessor did not attach much importance to this key aspect.

Like Pethtel, the Viking’s starting quarterback and senior Shelby Wood, 22, said it takes years to rebuild a team that doesn’t have a strong foundation or the right attitude. “The coaches before him [Pethtel] ran the program into the ground,” Wood said, citing lack of recruiting as the main problem.

Pethtel is not the only North Park coach faced with overcoming bad sports traditions. Men’s soccer coach John Born, who has coached 11 years at the University, is no stranger to the hard work it takes to rebuild a team. In 1998, the year before Born was hired, the soccer team went 1-14-1. Under Born’s guidance in the next few seasons, the team steadily improved, and from 2004 to 2006 the team made the playoffs and placed first in the CCIW. The soccer team consistently wins games and ended the year with a 1-0 win over North Central College and a record of 10-5-3. It has not had a losing season since 1999, according to the Men’s Soccer Media Guide.

Born attributes the soccer team’s success to two reasons: the hard work and dedication of the players, and the time he has put into recruiting. “Our guys really are committed and work hard,” he said, adding that the players are willing to train year-round and self-police the off-season program. “It’s not a job for them. It’s what they love,” he said.

According to Born, his first step in improving the soccer team was to work on recruiting. “The coach prior to me didn’t spend much time getting quality players,” he explained. As a coach, Born said it is his priority to spend time searching for talented athletes to join his team.

Recruiting is also key to Tim Grant, head coach of the women’s rowing team. Grant has been a coach since 1994. He has served as head rowing coach at NPU since the beginning of the program, which has been a varsity sport for seven years. The team has won multiple gold, silver, and bronze medals over the past few years. Grant was quick to say that the rowing team’s success is due to its talent, not necessarily his coaching acumen, and that he was fortunate to gain that talent through recruiting. “Rowing has been described as grace under pressure,” Grant said. “We’ve been blessed by having a lot of great athletes join our team this year.”

Grant said that the existence of novice class is a unique feature to crew that develops stronger athletes. Student athletes can join a rowing team with no previous experience and for one year will compete against other novices. During this year, athletes are able to develop their technique while racing against others who are at the same skill level. This enables them to gain the experience needed to join the varsity team.

The new junior varsity football team is similar to the novice class in that the younger members of a team play against other teams’ less experienced players. This is the first year of NPU’s junior varsity football program and they played only two games this season, according to Pethtel. “Having a bigger junior varsity team would help with development and retention,” he said. Freshmen, sophomores, and other team members who don’t get much playing time would still have a chance to compete and improve. Over the past three years, Pethtel said that the retention percentage for the football team is at around 65%.

Wood, the Viking’s primary quarterback, has been the starter since the second game of his freshman year. This may seem unusual as more experienced players generally get starting positions. Wood said that the previous season’s quarterback had graduated and the senior quarterback had not played often. After the first game of the season, the starting position went to Wood, who had proved his superior talent during the game. Coach Pethtel said that a larger junior varsity program at North Park would give players [such as second- and third-string quarterbacks] a way to practice and prepare for the next season, instead of just standing on the sidelines.

Starting talent over seniority is actually fairly common for the football team. According to defensive back Nicholas Pantaleo, 20, juniors and seniors are initially given playing priority because of their experience, but the roster shifts as talent becomes apparent. “We have younger guys starting over older ones in many different cases both offensively and defensively. It ends up becoming all about production, whoever is getting the job done,” Pantaleo said.

The soccer coach decides who starts games in a similar way. When Born became the soccer team’s head coach, he brought a new attitude that prioritized talent. “We’re going to win, and the best players will play,” he said. Although older players are usually more talented, Born isn’t opposed to playing freshmen and sophomores, if they’ve earned it. Four freshmen started the October 14th game against Elmhurst College, which ended in a double overtime tie.

Attendance is generally appreciated at sporting events and Born said the soccer team consistently draws fans. “The crowd is amazing here. It makes for a good atmosphere,” he said. There many not be as many enthusiastic football fans, though. For junior Stacey Vetsch, 20, the Saturday afternoon matchup was only the second football game she has attended in her two and a half years at North Park University. “The football team just doesn’t perform well, and I’m not a huge football fan anyway,” she said.

Coach Pethtel would not directly address the football team’s problems, but he did say that his focus as a coach is not just on winning games. “I try to instill three values into my football players,” he said. “Number one: build good character. Number two: earn a degree. Number three: play good football. In that order.”  This might be why Pethtel seemed unconcerned by the team’s losing record and its history of poor performance. Pethtel encourages his players to evaluate themselves on their effort and attitude, not the scoreboard. “If we get beat by a team, but we gave our best effort, that’s all I can ask for,” he said.

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