Coaches comment on Burlington’s addition to Southeast Conference

The fall sports season is almost underway and with that brings anticipation.

Every team is still undefeated and hopes for that successful season.

This fall season will be different for members of the Southeast Conference and the Mississippi Athletic Conference.

The addition of former MAC member Burlington makes the Southeast Conference a six-team league.

The Union solicited the opinion of various coaches from Burlington, Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant and Washington about how the Grayhounds addition to the SEC will affect their school and sport.

-Burlington volleyball coach Amber Taeger said, 'A huge benefit for us is going to be the traveling to away games. On any given Tuesday night, we were traveling at least two hours to get to the opposing school and that in itself is exhausting. Sometimes I think the kids felt like they were already beat before even stepping on the court. One advantage is that all of the schools in this conference are 4A, just like us. We are schools that have very similar athletic participation rates amongst our students as well as similar socioeconomic status with the families of our communities. The majority of the MAC schools are 5A and some of those schools are in communities which are just growing by the day. It's hard to compare where Burlington is at economically with districts like Pleasant Valley and Bettendorf.

'I think a disadvantage for us is just being new. The schools in this conference have been playing each other for years, so they know the ins and outs of each other‘s teams and they know the history of the programs. Some of these schools, we only see in tournaments, if we are lucky. We are going to have to do our homework to make sure we are prepared for each conference game this season.

'It's going to be awesome to be playing at other schools in the conference and have a much bigger following of fans in the stands. It was pretty difficult for fans to travel more than two hours to watch us play on a Tuesday night when we were in the MAC conference. That goes the other way also; we are excited to have a lot more fans from other schools in the stands at our home games. Everyone plays a little better for a big crowd!”

-Washington baseball coach Nathan Miller made a number of points. He said, '1. I was encouraged that the conference was able to add a sixth team for several reasons. The first being a balanced conference schedule and the second reason is it reduces the number of non-conference dates we need to find in order to fill our schedule, which can be a challenge for various reasons.

'2. I am glad the conference is adding Burlington to the league.

'3. The benefits to the conference would be adding a 4A school to the league. Burlington has athletic kids and historically have had good baseball. Anytime you can improve the level of play conference-wide, it is a positive thing.

'4. Historically, Burlington has had success in baseball. They always have a few pitchers who can pitch well. Adding Burlington in baseball will strengthen our conference and provide for additional opportunities to play against good competition. Burlington has some really good baseball players coming up through the program and will provide an opportunity for our team to face good pitching to prepare us for our postseason.”

-Fairfield baseball coach Josh Allison said, 'Burlington will be a good addition to the conference. Adding an extra team will make scheduling games more efficient. I believe they will improve the overall talent level in the conference.”

-Mt. Pleasant girls cross country coach Lyle Murray said, 'I was a little surprised at first hearing about it. I know that Burlington has to travel quite a bit for other 4A school meets, so it kind of made sense. I know they have 4A numbers but in cross country, it seems like the athlete numbers are down comparatively. I am fine with them and look forward to more competition. I think competition makes all of our athletes better. In cross country, I dont think there will be that big an impact, but down the road that might change. I think having them in the SEC could affect some standings but not on a large scale at this time.”

-Burlington athletic director Zach Shay said, 'Varsity sports is one thing with the travel and getting out of school sometimes at 2 p.m., you start to miss quite a bit of class time. Some of that will be eliminated. We'll be able to get these young kids back home much earlier at night.”

-Mt. Pleasant tennis coach Tyler Rodgers said, 'It doesn't change much for tennis other than it will make a five-team conference tournament instead of four. We will need to restructure the format and it was discussed quite a bit last year. I don't remember what was decided. We have not played them in duals so we will be adding them during the regular season.”

-Fairfield girls soccer and swimming coach Brittany Winslow said, 'With Burlington joining our conference, it will raise the bar for competition. Some sports already play Burlington in their regular season, so for them it makes sense for them to be apart of it anyway. We have to travel a lot for swimming so it will help, but we won't have a conference meet because thare are not enough teams. It will only effect me during the soccer season. As far as I know, Burlington usually has a pretty competitive girls soccer team. It will be interesting to see how the conference will play out in the seasons to come but as for me, I will use it as an incentive to remind our girls to continue to work hard since we will be seeing another team in our conference this year.”

-Mt. Pleasant girls golf coach Kirby Booten said, 'I think it will be good for girls golf because it gives us five teams and helps in competition. It will upgrade our competition with a bigger conference.

-Washington girls basketball coach Shannon Rugg said, 'I'm excited for Burlington to join our conference. We have a small conference so to get another team in is nice. I think it will help on scheduling problems so we are not trying to find so many other teams to play. They will bring another tough team to our already very tough conference.”

-Mt. Pleasant track coach Scott Lamm said, 'Burlington will be a great addition in terms of competition, travel and familiarity. It will be a great challenge for our programs. Moving from a five- to six-team conference will make conference championships tougher to come by. In most sports, we already compete against Burlington and have since middle school. It is just their larger enrollment is an added challenge.”

-Burlington track coach Jordan Webb said, 'I believe some benefits of joining the Southeast Conference will be more community support and creating a more competitive environment for all schools. As a former Grayhound, we grew up playing all the local kids but as soon as we got to high school, we never played them again. A big concern I get from the community is having home meets to attend. Burlington hasn't had a home track meet in a few years! Parents and community members have stated their concerns about traveling so far for every meet/game, so joining this new conference will keep our meets/games closer and more accessible to all. Going back to the competitiveness aspect, I believe that being in a conference that is all from Southeast Iowa, it may create some new rivalries and a sense of championship by being able to say you are the best team in Southeast Iowa. I don't personally believe there is a disadvantage of joining the Southeast Conference. The only thing I've heard over the couple years talking about joining the conference is kids thinking they aren't good enough to play in the MAC so we had to drop down, but that is not the case.

Joining the Southeast Conference will help our track program by again creating a more competitive environment and allowing our community to come support us at our meets. I am always trying to push community support for our program which will only allow us to get better!”

-Washington track coach Steve Roth said, 'It's nice to get a new school into the conference. That should help get a little more attention to our conference. In my sport, Burlington will be a great asset to track and field as they should have speed, speed, speed.”

-Burlington boys basketball coach Reginald Shipp said, 'The move will help boys basketball tremendously. We will play local teams, which will have bigger crowds with hope to create friendly rivalries. It reduces our travel time, which allows my players to not miss classroom time and not arrive home late at night after games. It allows us to be competitive every year, rather than once in a while. It also gives our fans a shorter drive to commute to the games to cheer on the Grayhounds. With the addition of Burlington to the SEC, all teams will be playing league games on a Friday night, when in the past, if you had the bye week, you were lucky if you could find another team that is close to your area to have an open date to play. And, if you weren't lucky, you would have an open night.”

-Mt. Pleasant boys basketball Caleb Akey said, 'I think it is great to be getting an addition to the conference. I feel it benefits both Burlington, and our current member schools. The close proximity helps everybody both academically and financially with less school time missed and lower transportation costs. Proximity also assists with the rivalry aspect as well. Easier travel for the teams means easier travel for the fans. When more fans are involved it creates more of an interest and excitement in both the schools and communities.

'The conference overall benefits from the addition of Burlington. Our programs and student-athletes will receive more media exposure as there is a more vested local interest from all outlets.

'Coach Shipp has done a great job re-energizing the Burlington boys basketball program. They have a lot of young talent that is focused on the sport. I expect them to compete for the top spot in the conference right away.”

-Fairfield boys basketball coach Mick Flattery said, 'Regarding boys basketball, Burlington is going to be a very good, quick, transition team that can only make our teams better when it comes postseason time. I think the advantage for Burlington would be playing teams that are closer and playing teams that our athletes have competed against in middle school. Some might say it's a disadvantage for Burlington playing 3A schools, but we only have ten conference games, so they can go out and pick up many 4A schools to round out their schedule. I know Fairfield looks forward to having Burlington join the SEC.”