Drury to play in Great Lakes Valley Conference

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aThe Drury University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics announced in June that it will join the Great Lakes Valley Conference beginning in the 2005-06 school year. The university made the announcement in conjunction with an official news release from the conference.|ret||ret||tab|

For the upcoming 2004-05 season the Drury athletic teams will compete in the Heartland Conference. Drury has been a member of the Heartland Conference since the 1999-2000 campaign. Drury joins Rockhurst University and the University of Missouri-Rolla, in the 2005-06 GLVC expansion. |ret||ret||tab|

"This is a major step forward for Drury University athletics," said Edsel Matthews, Drury director of athletics, in a Drury news release. "The Great Lakes Valley Confer-ence is a power Division II conference, which places an emphasis on the core sports of men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer and volleyball. In addition to these sports, our men's and women's teams in tennis, golf and cross country will also be competing with some of the top programs in the NCAA-II with this move. The GLVC is currently composed of almost an equal number of public and private institutions, all with outstanding academic and athletic reputations. |ret||ret||tab|

"The Heartland Conference has been a great home for our athletic programs the past five years and has provided great opportunities for our student-athletes to compete for conference titles, honors as well as providing a multitude of post-season opportunities. We hope to continue, in whatever way possible, the relationships that we have developed over the years with the members of the Heartland Conference," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

The Great Lakes Valley is currently an 11-member NCAA-II conference. With the addition of Drury, Rockhurst and Missouri-Rolla, the 2005-06 GLVC will have 14 member institutions, seven private schools and seven state institutions. |ret||ret||tab|

The Great Lakes Valley Conference headquarters is based in Indianapolis, Ind., with Jim Naumovich serving as conference commissioner. "Our institutional representatives have been discussing conference expansion for the past two years, and we are delighted to welcome Drury, Rockhurst and Missouri-Rolla to the GLVC," said Naumovich in the official announcement released from the conference headquarters. |ret||ret||tab|

The Great Lakes Valley sponsors 17 sports, all with conference championships. They are baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's indoor track and field, men's and women's outdoor track and field and women's volleyball. |ret||ret||tab|

Nine of Drury's 13 intercollegiate varsity sports programs will be immediately eligible for GLVC conference titles, and any NCAA-II national championship opportunities, in 2005-06. The Drury swimming/diving program, a national power in its own right, will continue to compete as it has since Drury joined the NCAA-II in 1994-95. |ret||ret||tab|

Meanwhile, the Drury men's and women's soccer teams begin a two-year reclassification period this fall and will not be eligible for post-season competition in 2004-05 or 2005-06. Beginning this fall, the Drury soccer teams begin making the move to return to the NCAA-II level after a five-year run as a NCAA-I program. The Great Lakes Valley Conference does not allow an institution to be multi-classified, that is, to be a NCAA-II member with a selected sport playing at the NCAA-I level. |ret||ret||tab|

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