ODU 2004 Inaugural Football Schedule
J uly 23, 2003
Ohio Dominican University has announced the football schedule for its inaugural 2004 season. Ohio Dominican will play nine games in the Mid-States Football Association (MSFA), an affiliate of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
ODU recently launched an intercollegiate football program, under the direction of Coach Dale Carlson, who came from Tri-State University in Angola, Indiana, where he served for nine years as head coach. Carlson developed the football program at Tri-State. During his tenure, the program evolved into a leading program within the NAIA, finishing in the national rankings from 1998 through 2002. In 2001, Tri-State won the MSFA Mideast Conference championship and Carlson's peers elected him "Coach of the Year."
The MSFA is comprised of 17 teams and divided into two conferences, the Mideast and Midwest. Ohio Dominican will be part of the Mideast Conference. The champions of the Mideast and Midwest Conferences will receive automatic berths to the NAIA playoffs.
Within the Mideast Conference League, the ODU Panthers will be aligned with seven other teams -- Geneva College (Pa.), St. Francis (Ind.) Quincy University (Ill.), Taylor University (Ind.) and three other Ohio institutions, Malone College, Walsh University and Urbana University. In its first season of competition, Ohio Dominican will also play one team from the MSFA Midwest Conference League - McKendree College (Ill.) - in addition to Thiel College (Pa.) from the President's Athletic Association.
Ohio Dominican will play five home games and four away games in 2004. During its first season, the team will play its home games on a new field on ODU's main campus on Sunbury Road, to be ready for Fall 2004. Expansion of the University's athletic facilities, including a multipurpose playing field, locker rooms, and expanded weight and training rooms, is also expected to be ready for the 2004 season. "We're very excited to begin our first season of play. Since he joined our sports program in June, Coach Carlson has been busy recruiting student-athletes from throughout the state, as well as from outside Ohio. We'll be announcing those players in the coming weeks and months. You can't build a football program overnight, but under Coach Carlson's leadership, we're confident that we'll have a quality program. Most important, we will recruit student-athletes who will be a great fit for ODU and be successful in the classroom as well as on the football field," said Dr. Jack Calareso, president of Ohio Dominican University.
Ohio Dominican University 2004 Football Schedule
September 4 ODU at Walsh University
September 11 ODU at St. Francis
September 25 McKendree College at ODU
October 2 Urbana University at ODU* (homecoming)
October 16 Malone College at ODU
October 23 Quincy University at ODU
October 30 ODU at Thiel College
November 6 Geneva College at ODU
November 13 ODU at Taylor University
"Our initial schedule will be very challenging. The Panthers' first three games are against three of the best football programs in the MSFA and NAIA. But our goal is to build a program over time that will compete at the top of the conference. Our players will see first hand, the level we will have to play at, to become a top team in the Mid-States Football Association," Carlson said.
In addition to football, Ohio Dominican's 11 other intercollegiate sports teams compete in NAIA's American Mideast Conference. The University currently supports men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, softball and baseball, and men's and women's golf, the latter scheduled to debut this fall.
As part of the first phase of the University's Master Plan, the university plans to add several new varsity sports over the next few years including men's and women's cross country and men's and women's track and field.
