Butler freshman golfer Andrew Eiler picked up the sport of golf at a young age.

Based on his first semester of collegiate golf, the Bulldogs should consider themselves lucky he did.

“Andrew is the hardest worker in the world,” junior teammate Matt Vitale said. “He meshed well with this team.”

Photo by Rachel Anderson

Eiler walked on to the team prior to the start of the fall season.

At his first collegiate event, the Green Bay Invitational in mid-September, he had the second-best score on the team and tied for eighth place in the tournament.

He shot a 73 on the first day of the event and went on to finish a stroke behind Butler’s top finisher, junior Andrew Wegeng.

Eiler held his own through the rest of the fall season, participating as one of Butler’s five scoring individuals in the team’s other four events.

In two of those four matches, he was again one of Butler’s top three finishers.

Like many athletes, the Culver native got his start in his sport of choice through family ties.

When his older brother first started playing in tournaments, a four-year-old Eiler was alongside him, either watching his brother play or hitting the practice greens.

When practicing, he would chip and putt for an hour or two while his brother played.

Eiler said it was not until the sixth grade that he became serious about pursuing golf.

“[In sixth grade] I found my current swing coach and took lessons about once a week,” Eiler said. “The longest amount of time I went without a lesson was two weeks.”

Eiler said his time at Culver Academy helped to prepare him for both playing golf at a higher level and college life.

“Time management was a key skill I picked up at Culver,” Eiler said. “It made the transition to college life much easier.”

Eiler said motivation is not a worry for him either.

“Hitting a bad shot is enough motivation to keep working hard to improve as hitting a good shot is,” Eiler said.

Eiler described his time spent during most summers as “practically living at the golf course.” He said he goes to the course or driving range to clear his head.

Butler coaches and players have only heaped praise upon Eiler and his play so far this season.

One of Butler’s other freshman golfers, Logan Holt, echoed Vitale’s thoughts on Eiler’s work ethic, adding that the two share somewhat of a rivalry both on and off the course.

“Our matches get pretty intense, and we always have pretty epic battles on the links,” Holt said. “[I beat him] in NBA2K12 every weekend, and those games get almost as heated as the golf matches.”

Coach Bill Mattingly used the terms “resilient” and “competitor” to describe Eiler.

“On the course, he is very calm and able to bounce back from a bad hole,” Mattingly said.

The Bulldogs will likely need Eiler to put those qualities on display when the team heads to Florida during spring break.

Butler will compete in three separate events during the trip.

First the Bulldogs will take on Evansville and Cleveland State in a dual meet.

After that, Butler will compete in the Benbow and Butler Invitationals.

During the same trip last season, Butler was led by now-graduated Ryan Wegeng and finished second of two teams, ninth of 11 teams and fourth of four teams in the three events.

The Butler men’s tennis team fell just shy of earning its second victory of the season this weekend.

On Friday, the Bulldogs traveled to Dayton, where they suffered a close 4-3 loss.

Dropping the doubles point proved to be crucial for the Bulldogs (1-13).

Butler players that came away victorious in the singles play were senior Zach Ervin and freshmen Tommy Marx and Billy Weldon.

The match came down to No. 1 singles play, where Butler freshman Austin Woldmoe fell short.

On Saturday, the team went to Bloomington to face the No. 29 Indiana Hoosiers (9-3).

The Bulldogs fell 7-0 in their sixth match against a ranked opponent this season.

Butler will begin conference play on March 24, taking on Valparaiso and Illinois-Chicago the weekend after spring break.

It is that time of the year again.

No, not the wildly popular basketball spectacle that is March Madness. Rather, now is the return of a sport after a long hiatus—golf.

The golf season is split into two separate sections—one for the fall semester and one for the spring. But in between those seasons is a long break.

During that break—since the sport is technically not considered in-season—the athletes are limited to eight hours of organized practice per week. That includes activities such as working out and hitting the driving range.

It is officially time for the Butler men’s and women’s golf teams to start playing again, though.

The squads have a variety of goals and expectations as their spring season gets underway.

MEN’S TEAM

The Butler men’s golf team is looking to rebound in the upcoming spring season after a disappointing finish to the fall season.

Collegian file photo

While the team won its first tournament of the season at Green Bay and finished second in the Butler Fall Invitational, the Bulldogs placed ninth, 12th and 13th in their other three fall events.

According to coach Bill Mattingly, it all starts with trying to improve as a team.

“The conference is wide open this year,” Mattingly said. “With the guys we have, there is a good chance we could win.”

Players said they feel they have what it takes to make the ascension to champions of the Horizon League.

Junior Matt Vitale said that unity has been important for Butler.

“I think the biggest thing that it comes down to is that we all like each other and everyone enjoys the game of golf,” Vitale said.

Vitale was a walk-on to the team last year. Initially, he said he felt like he had to prove himself to show he belonged, but he does not feel the same way now.

The feeling of togetherness within the team does not stop there, though.

“The juniors and seniors have been really welcoming,” freshman Andrew Eiler said. “They have been a lot of help in transitioning from high school to college golf.”

Mattingly said Eiler is the youngest major contributor to the team.

“He came in, won his spot on the team and never gave it away,” Mattingly said.

Players say they revel in the chance to have workouts with their teammates—even if they come at 6 a.m.—as it is another opportunity to be pushed to work that much harder.

Senior Alex Walker has been on the team long enough to know the ins and outs of not only the sport but the balance of college life as well.

Walker said the preparation involved to get physically and mentally ready for the spring season should constantly be stressed, and he hopes to help players learn how to get better in order to win the conference tournament.

The Bulldogs open their spring season in Florida against Evansville and Cleveland State on March 10.

After that, the team has seven events between March 10 and April 29. Six of these are multi-day contests, three of which will take place in Florida.

WOMEN’S TEAM

The women had a successful fall season, winning three out of five invitationals.

Mattingly said he knows the transition from one season to the next can be difficult at first.

“The first few tournaments will be rough,” Mattingly said.

Players said they know this as well.

The time off is one major disadvantage of playing golf in the northern half of the country.

Collegian file photo

Thanks to weather, teams in the North are not able to practice and play on courses during their own free time like the teams in the South are.

This creates a huge disadvantage for teams like Butler, but shaking off the rust is essential if the Bulldogs plan to build on their success in the fall season.

“It’s definitely going to be difficult since [the USA Women’s Invitational] is our first tournament in a few months,” senior Michele Nash said. “Mentally, you have to prepare yourself for the spring season and expect to shoot your best scores.”

Nash is coming off a fall season in which she recorded two first-place finishes, a runner-up showing and two fifth-place finishes.

In addition to the strong play from Nash, two freshmen also contributed to the success the team had in the fall.

Both Isabella Lambert and Jenna Peters had a top-three finish at one tournament in the fall.

Mattingly heaped praises upon them and said he expects them to be “stronger, smarter and a little more poised” after having one semester of experience under their belts.

According to Peters, the Bulldogs are not merely looking to improve, though.

“I would really like to go to the NCAA tournament,” Peters said.

Mattingly said he believes an NCAA tournament appearance is possible and has gotten the players to buy into it, too.

Butler was tabbed to win the Horizon League in a preseason poll by Golfweek magazine, and the Bulldogs said they fully plan to come out firing with a strong showing in Mobile, Ala.

That is where the USA Women’s Invitational was held yesterday and today.

Nash finished in a three-way tie for fifth place at the event, leading the Bulldogs to a runner-up showing.

Lambert had the second-best showing of all Butler players, finishing in eighth.

Butler finished two strokes behind host South Alabama in the 13-team event.

The women will now compete in the same seven events as their male counterparts between March 10 and April 29.

Some might call it doing chores. Others may refer to it as a job.

But for the individuals who take on the role of student manager, they call it family.

Little is known about the Butler women’s basketball team’s two managers. They try to operate as stealthily as CIA agents for the U.S. government.

“A good manager will be invisible,” Brian Weitz, a junior first-year manager, said.

While being a team manager is an on-campus job, it is not one that draws people with a large paycheck.

“We get paid what probably comes out to about 25 cents per hour,” Weitz said.

Weitz is a transfer student. His roommate, fellow junior Evan Eichhorn, is also a manager for the team.

Eichhorn is entering his second season as a manager and said he has no regrets so far.

In his first season with the team, Eichhorn worked with 11 athletes over the course of a 34-game season that lasted just over four months.

“It feels like I have four moms in the four coaches sometimes,” Eichhorn said. “It’s the personal interactions that make this worth it. We’ve grown real close to the team.”

Weitz echoed the same sentimental feelings as his managing mentor.

“It’s the people we throw the ball back to that make it all worth it,” Weitz said.

The managers take care of everything behind the scenes.

They get the basketballs out of the locker room.

They sit in on opposing teams’ shootarounds to offer assistance.

They get towels out and wipe up sweat off the floor.

Eichhorn also runs both the shot and game clocks as well as the scoreboard during each practice.

Water bottles are also on the to-do list, as each player has her personal water bottle filled with ice water before practices and games.

A container of Gatorade is also on the checklist.

During games, one of the managers is stuck in solitary confinement filming the game while the other is sitting on the bench with the team.

Eichhorn also has the added responsibility of uploading the game film to the Butler Athletics website for other teams’ usage.

The countless hours spent by the managers doing the behind-the-scenes work to make the team’s operations flow more smoothly do not go unnoticed, however.

“It’s been an exceptional year for our managers,” coach Beth Couture said. “What I like about the managers is the passion for our program. They want to win as much as we do.”

The pay may not be great, the hours may be pressing and the appreciation may, at times, be lacking.

For Eichhorn and Weitz, these factors are of no concern. They are in it together for the team.

The Butler men’s tennis team was in action this past weekend with road matches at Western Michigan and Toledo.

The Bulldogs (0-9) dropped a 7-0 decision to the Rockets (8-6) of Toledo on Saturday.

The tandem of senior Zach Ervin and freshman Tommy Marx pulled out an 8-3 victory at No. 2 doubles, but Butler was unable to win anything else.

Two freshmen, Pulok Bhattacharya and Sam O’Neill, each earned a set against their opponents but lost the tiebreaker.

Bhattacharya won the first set and dropped the next two while O’Neill rallied from a set down to force a tiebreaker.

Ervin was the only Bulldog to come away with a victory against the Broncos (7-4) of Western Michigan on Friday, winning in come-from-behind fashion 2-6, 6-2, 1-0, including a 19-17 tiebreaker, at No. 4 singles.

The remaining singles matches and all three doubles bouts went to Western Michigan.

The Bulldogs kept things close in doubles, falling 8-5 in the No. 1 match and 8-6 in the No. 3 match.

Butler hosts Xavier today and Bradley on Friday.

Baseball coach Steve Farley has been at Butler University for longer than many of his players have been alive.

Farley will kick off his 21st season with the Bulldogs when the team takes on Fresno State on Friday.

During Farley’s 21 years at Butler, he has amassed 484 wins and guided the team to five league championship games and a pair of NCAA tournament bids.

“If you would have said [that I would have been here for 21 years], I wouldn’t have guessed it,” he said.

Prior to becoming a coach , Farley played the typical trifecta of boys’ sports in high school: football, basketball and baseball.

Photo by Maria Porter

Farley’s devotion to baseball grew at the University of Minnesota. There, he was a left-handed pitcher for the Golden Gophers.

Farley then became a graduate assistant at the University of Arizona. He coached under the tutelage of Jerry Kindall, who had a 10-year career in the big leagues and led Arizona to three College World Series titles.

“I copied what had worked for the teams in Arizona,” Farley said. “It was such a blessing for me [to be there].”

Farley’s first full-time coaching opportunity was at West Point Academy as a pitching coach. That served as an eventual springboard to a head coaching position at Davis and Elkins College three years later.

Farley’s next stop would be Butler, where the baseball team’s head coaching position opened up in 1991.

Farley said he was “very fortunate” to land the job, especially considering that his wife now works at Butler as well.

Farley was taking the reins of a team that “wasn’t very good at the time,” but said he knew it was “something to go to work on.”

His work paid off quickly, as his first recruiting class went on to win the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Championship as seniors in 1996.

And while the team and its available resources have changed, Farley has remained a Bulldog.

“I remember shoveling snow off of Hinkle’s parking lot just to play catch,” Farley said. “I’m grateful to the guys back then for that.”

Junior outfielder Andrew Eckhardt said the key to Farley’s success is his ability to connect to players.

“Playing under [coach] Farley is very enjoyable,” Eckhardt said. “He cares about everyone on the team and would always be willing to help us with any problems we would have.”

Pitching coach DJ Throneburg, who is entering his second season with the team, said he has observed as much in his short time here.

“The fact that he can relate and joke around with the guys is huge,” Throneburg said. “Guys are comfortable, and that makes them want to keep playing for him.”

The defining moment of Farley’s coaching career is easy for him to pinpoint.

“Making it to the NCAA tournament in 2000,” Farley said. “We had to win two games against an undefeated University of Illinois-Chicago team, and we did.

“The tournament was held at the University of Minnesota, and going back to the field where I played [college baseball] was pretty special.”

Butler is no different from any type of organization when it comes to hiring new employees.

The only difference is when the school has to hire new coaches.

The school has many spots to fill, ranging from president to adjunct faculty to janitorial staff. Also included are the coaching positions on Butler’s 19 athletic teams.

“A sport without a leader is not very good,” Athletic Director Barry Collier said. “This results in the search for a head coach being completed at a more rapid pace than other hirings at Butler.”

The process for hiring a coach begins with the vacancy itself.

Interested applicants submit their name to the school. The school will then do extensive background checks on each candidate  and  review their credentials to verify the candidates are capable of properly mentoring and teaching a group of collegiate athletes.

After that stage, the process really picks up.

Photo by Maria Porter

For higher profile sports such as basketball and football, a school will typically have a few preferences for possible hires before the vacancy becomes official.

“For some of the smaller sports like [tennis], athletic directors don’t know who they want until the interview pool comes in,” tennis coach Jason Suscha said.

Once the candidate pool swells to an acceptable level, the school begins the interview process, both over the phone and in person.

For second-year softball coach Scott Hall, this step could not arrive soon enough.

Photo by Steven Peek

“I was excited to get into the interview process,” Hall said. “It couldn’t get over fast enough for me.”

Along with interviews, there are multiple ways a school will attempt to lure coaches to its programs.

Collier said that academics, facilities, other staff members, the current team members, available scholarships and operating budget all come into play during the hiring process.

“None of these factors is more important than the others,” Collier said.

With these variables in mind, the athletics department then attempts to find the best candidate to fill the position—for both the student-athletes and the sport.

“There were certain standards, like the Butler Way, that they made sure I understood and was capable of upholding,” Hall said.

The task of finding a new coach is not a one-person job, however.

Collier said there is always a committee, usually ranging from three to six people, that is actively involved at some step in the hiring process.

In addition to the athletic director, a member from the human resources department participates, as do other coaches.

Even though Hall is just entering his second year coaching the Butler softball team, he participated on the committee to hire a new soccer coach last fall.

The final say in the hiring process always rests with the university president. Once the president approves the hire, a formal request will be sent to the candidate.

Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics

Butler’s 12 current head coaches have accepted that request, and there will certainly be more acceptances in the future.

“Butler either sends a formal request or [the request] is sent to the NCAA website, which happens  through Butler’s Human Resources Department,” Suscha said.

The Butler women’s tennis team was busy over the weekend, defeating Dayton on the road Saturday after falling to Eastern Kentucky at home the day before.

The Bulldogs (1-3) picked up their first victory of the season with a 6-1 win over the Flyers (0-4).

Five of Butler’s six singles competitors won their respective matches in straight sets. Leading the way was sophomore Caroline Hedrick, who defeated Dayton sophomore Claire McNulty 6-1, 6-0 in No. 1 singles action.

The Bulldogs also received victories from sophomore Stephanie McLoughlin (No. 2), senior Cam Thompson (No. 4), sophomore Laura Shull (No. 5) and sophomore Angelina Qin (No. 6) in singles play.

Photo by Rachel Anderson

Butler was also victorious in No. 1 and No. 2 doubles.

The squad’s match on Friday against Eastern Kentucky saw a different result, as the Bulldogs dropped a 7-0 decision to the Colonels (3-0).

The only Bulldog not to lose in straight sets was Thompson, who lost 6-4, 5-7 (1-0).

“[Thompson] has that ability when she is determined,” coach Jason Suscha said. “It was a really fun match to watch.”

Qin and senior Ashley Breitenbach were the only Bulldogs to pick up a win on the day, taking their No. 3 doubles match 8-6. It was the first time the two were paired together this season.

Against both Eastern Kentucky and Dayton, junior Brittany Farmer was forced out of action due to illness.

“That cost us a bit with Eastern Kentucky,” Suscha said. “They are a quality team with nice athletes.”

Butler will be back in action Saturday when the team travels to the University of Indianapolis at 5 p.m.

While some interesting stories came out of the sports world this past year, none were as tumultuous as the sex abuse scandal that rocked Penn State University in Happy Valley, Pa.

The reason it was voted the biggest sports story of 2011, according to Yahoo!, was not only because of its scandalous nature but also because of the unblemished legacy that the school had built.

This legacy was largely credited to the late Joe Paterno, who was the head football coach at Penn State for 46 years. Paterno passed away last week due to complications with lung cancer.

So what does this have to do with Butler?

The basketball program here is similar to the football program at Penn State in many ways.

Paterno inherited a program that was good—but not great—just like Brad Stevens inherited a program in the same condition.

Each coach has also stressed the importance of academics.

Paterno dubbed his academic enthusiasm the “Grand Experiment,” as it blended the monikers student and athlete into the true meaning of the word “student-athlete.”

He believed it was possible to fuse the two words and ideas together, an unheralded thought at the time he started coaching.

First and foremost, Paterno was a mentor to his players—not only in football but also in life. By putting student-athletes first, he was able to achieve success on and off the gridiron.

As of 2007, Penn State football players had a 74 percent graduation rate, which was 19 percent above the national average at the time.

By the same token, Brad Stevens demands academic success as well.

Stevens’ teams posted perfect academic progress rates—a statistic determined by academic eligibility and retention of a team’s athletes—in two of his first three years as head coach at Butler.

When Paterno was first hired, people often confused Penn State for Penn, the Ivy League school in Philadelphia, because Penn State was not a household name in the world of college sports.

Before Stevens was hired, Butler was just another small mid-major capable of producing an upset.

The Nittany Lions’ football program rose to the national spotlight and became a powerhouse during Paterno’s tenure. This included two national championships and five undefeated seasons.

Stevens is now entering his fifth season as head coach at Butler. He boasts a 118-26 record and back-to-back appearances in the national championship game.

What is happening at Butler is something special. Brad Stevens is a special coach, worth every penny of the $554,941 he earned last year. Only 35, he has plenty of years left on the sidelines if he so desires.

Yet Stevens will never take credit for the success of his team. He is too humble a person for that, just like Paterno was. Stevens will graciously praise his players for the team’s success, not the other way around.

In that, he exemplifies a tradition of the school: The Butler Way.

While Stevens is a fundamental aspect of the recent success Butler has grown accustomed to, the players, the alumni and the fans are the ones contributing to the legacy upon which Stevens is rapidly building.

Hopefully Brad will take a page from Paterno’s book and stay at Butler for many years to come.

For those  who are not sports savvy, glancing at a basketball recap and seeing a bunch of numbers and figures can be intimidating.

Luckily, this article can help those people to understand the meaning behind the numbers and to explain the game itself.

At the top of the box score, the team names are listed, usually along with their overall records and—in college basketball—conference records.

The second team listed is the home team.

At the top of every box score is the scoring breakdown. If the only thing someone wants to know is which team won the game, he or she should look no further than the top of the page.

The scoring is broken down into halves—first half, second half and then the total score.

Next the players are listed with their respective jersey numbers and game statistics. The first five players listed were that team’s starters.

Every subsequent player is a player who logged playing time by coming off the bench.

To the right of a player’s name are his or her playing position (Pos) and his or her individual statistics.

From left to right, the statistics that are recorded are:  minutes played (Min), field goals made versus field goals attempted (FG), 3-point baskets made versus 3-point baskets attempted (3PT), free throws made versus free throws attempted (FT), offensive rebounds (REB-O), defensive rebounds (REB-D), total rebounds (REB), assists (ASST), steals (STL), blocks (BLK), turnovers (TO), personal fouls (PF) and total points (PTS).

“Not every number matters a lot, but a big disparity or a large number for an individual are the ones that stick out,” David Woods, the Butler men’s basketball beat writer for the Indianapolis Star, said.

One thing to keep in mind is that a 3-point attempt counts as a field goal attempt, but a field goal attempt is not a 3-point attempt.

At the bottom of a box score is the team totals, where each player’s individual stats are added and displayed.

Here it is easy to view and determine a team’s shooting percentage. A squad shooting around 40 percent from the field is considered average, while the average marks for 3-point baskets and free throws are 35 percent and 75 percent, respectively.

At the very bottom of every box score are other facts about the game, including if any player or coach received a technical foul, the officials who refereed the game and the attendance.

For more practice on reading box scores,  check out some similar to the one below on the Butler athletics website, www.butlersports.com.