March for Northland recruits continues

With strategic initiatives now underway to restore Northland College’s financial footing and set a new academic direction, a lens may reasonably be pointed towards Northland LumberJills and LumberJacks athletic programs — many of which have struggled in recent years to climb up from the bottom of UMAC standings.

The cost to offer sports at small colleges and universities appears clear and consistent, and it’s perhaps natural to view sports as an exceptional expense when an institution is struggling with finances. Overlooked, however, may be the contribution sports teams deliver not just to culture, campus, and community — but to actual school enrollment. While no panacea, a healthy number of athletic programs at the NCAA D3 level within which Northland College competes have found success attracting students able to pay full fare to claim the dual benefits of earning a baccalaureate degree while also playing collegiate sports.

Part of the rebound at Northland College is sure to include athletics, championed by Athletic Director Daniel Schumacher, whose experience increasing enrollment via athletics is extensive and well documented. Considerably more information may be available in the coming weeks, but until then The Ashland Daily Press sat down with Schumacher to discuss the broad strokes planned for a canvas that will become a different and potentially more robust and competitive Northland College athletics program.

Question: With sweeping changes taking place at Northland, how do sports programs fit in?

Answer: This past year we had a total enrollment of around 450 students, and we had 220 athletes. This year’s goal is a reduced enrollment of 385, with 200 athletes as a goal. It’s very exciting and it wasn’t without a lot of great people and this community coming together to find a way to stay open. Hard decisions were made and I know this has been a difficult time for many of the Northland family. But sports will be a part of the enrollment management plan and athletics will be a mechanism to draw students to Northland College. I believe the athletic department will play a large role in keeping enrollment numbers to support the school.

Q: How will the athletics department help Northland get to the enrollment number (about 400 students, according to recent reports) it is targeting?

A: The coaching staff and administration accepts the responsibility to take on the challenges ahead. Our coaches can recruit, no doubt about it, and each coach knows where we need to get to in enrollment numbers. I will be highly invested in a micromanagement way to work with each program to assist in setting our recruitment process apart from other NCAA D3 programs in our conference and region. Recruitment of local student-athletes is a must as well as in the region. The sports module we offer now will stay in place. When we achieve success in roster fulfillment with the current module, we’ll then be looking to expand to reinforce the enrollment goals.

Q: In what ways will Northland sports facilities and won-loss records be assets, and perhaps liabilities, to recruiting?

A: The focus right now is to solidify roster numbers for competition and meet UMAC guidelines on the number of athletes on each roster. Once we solidify that then it will allow for a strategy to upgrade the roster quality. It’s a process and doesn’t happen overnight. Some of the current programs are already showing promise such as men’s soccer, baseball and women’s volleyball. To reflect on the facilities, I feel we have some of the better NCAA D3 facilities in the region — Ponzio Stadium being one, as well as our baseball and softball stadiums. There is always room for improvement in facilities — ask any college AD — but that takes time and winning. No doubt winning helps with the conversation and philanthropic support. Northland has facilities that our coaches can recruit to. I truly believe that.

Q: Onward we go for Northland sports teams — and to where?

A: Northland athletics has historically been a large portion of total enrollment. We have work to do on rosters and headcount, but when we establish stability in the rosters then we could look at expansion. The enrollment numbers we had coming in (for fall), between admissions and athletics, were trending to a record freshman class. I believe we can get back on track now, and continue to serve the community and region.