Franciscan University picked the perfect time to fully complete its joining with the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.
The process started in 2018 with lacrosse and women’s golf and men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track the following year. But the 2020-21 academic year saw the Barons reach full membership in the PAC.
FUS tipped off its basketball season recently and actually helped kick off the PAC season when both the Barons’ men’s and women’s teams faced off in the opening weekend. Franciscan’s former conference compatriots in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference weren’t as lucky.
The AMCC announced in December that is was foregoing intra-conference play in basketball and foregoing the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Teams were left to their own devices as far as scheduling and playing.
Obviously, that’s not the only reason for excitement at being in the PAC, but this season, it’s certainly a nice bonus.
“There are some good teams in the AMCC, but no one knew about them as most of the schools were in New York,” Franciscan men’s coach Joe Wallace admitted. “Obviously the PAC schools are more recognized locally, and the league itself from top to bottom is better.
“It’s a perfect fit, not only geographically, but with like-minded institutions. It’s a great move for us and, thank goodness it was this year.”
Wallace would know. Growing up in the Ohio Valley and graduating from Bishop Donahue High School and West Liberty University, he grew up in part of the PAC footprint with Bethany College. He knows its appeal.
Now, Franciscan becomes the largest member in the PAC, enrollment wise, with 2,716 undergraduate students. It’s one of only three with more than 2,000 students.
Greater Local Appeal?
Another key aspect of the move is playing in the PAC should be a boost to efforts to recruit local athletes at the university.
“That is the one thing I would like being in the PAC more than anything is that we can recruit in the Ohio Valley more, along with Cleveland, Columbus, and Pittsburgh,” women’s team head coach Sean Kirk said. “We do have a good class coming in. I told them; we don’t lose anybody, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch them mature and grow.”
Without mentioning names, Kirk noted that the Lady Barons’ recruiting effort is targeting three OVAC products in particular. It helps when all in-conference road games are within reasonable driving distance. In the AMCC, the closest road trips were to La Roche in McCandless, Pa., and the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.
The women’s team currently doesn’t have any Ohio Valley products on its roster. The men’s team, however, does. Steubenville Big Red product Josh Zimmerman has played his way into a starting roll this season after recovering from an injury suffered as a freshman.
Wallace noted the PAC membership should open up more interest from local athletes. But he also admitted that he’s looking for athletes who are the right fit, and not just athletically.
“We have recruited locally, and we try to target guys who we feel really fit the niche of the university,” Wallace said. “We’ve built the roster into a competitive team the last few years. We’ll definitely go after local players we feel can be a good fit, and I can see (the Ohio Valley), even the Pittsburgh area starting to get more attention.”
Passionately Catholic Institution
Being Catholic isn’t a requirement to be placed on the Barons’ roster, but it certainly helps. It’s a bit like the Notre Dame dilemma in Division I in that there are rigorous academic standards but there also are other requirements that recruits must consider.
“Getting in definitely has its challenges,” Wallace said. “But once you’re here, a lot is expected of you on campus, not only academically and athletically, but also the faith aspect too. It’s a different environment. This is a strong Catholic institution, and my No. 1 thing is finding guys who will fit that mold and want to be here.”
“Our slogan is ‘passionately Catholic.’”
The embracing of that faith even finds its way into the Barons’ practice schedule.
The university’s chapel is relatively small and, given COVID-19 distancing restrictions, isn’t the ideal place to hold Sunday mass. Finnegan Fieldhouse on the other hand works far better.
Sunday’s lesser attended mass times of 6:30 a.m., 8 and 10:30 a.m. can be held in the chapel. But the noon mass is held at the fieldhouse.
“They set up every day and tear down after for mass at noon,” Wallace said. “Then we have our practice afterward at 2 p.m. The event staff does a great job of getting it ready.
“The first semester, we really didn’t have a gym. We were going all over Steubenville and Weirton, even outside, because of the restrictions and the need to use the fieldhouse. We adapted, and it worked out.”
Down the line, that may not be an issue. Nothing is set in stone, but Wallace admitted there is talk about possibly building a new convention center, either on campus or down on the lower campus along University Boulevard.
“We have a nice facility but it’s shared by a lot of things,” Wallace said. “There are a lot of events on campus, even during the summer, and another building would help facilitate having those events. It would be huge, not only for us.”
Like the university itself, the athletics department plans to keep moving forward and growing. Wallace pointed out that the Barons only restarted their athletics program in late 2008.
“Now we’re competing against schools in the PAC, and some of them have been around since the early 1900s,” Wallace said. “This move is great though because everyone we are competing against is within an hour and a half.”
