Spring has arrived on campus, but that does not mean the school’s fall athletic teams are resting easy.

The Butler men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball teams are currently participating in spring seasons even though their regular seasons are still months away.

The men’s and women’s soccer teams are both in the middle of month-long exhibition seasons that run from late March to the end of April.

The men’s squad took on Oakland last Saturday and has four games remaining this spring. The women’s team has already faced three teams and will take on Indiana on April 21.

Men’s soccer coach Paul Snape said playing games against other schools in the offseason gives players a chance to face off against different competitors.

“The problem is when you play against each other, you can get stale,” Snape said, “so playing other teams is a great opportunity to stay fresh.”

Junior forward Katie Griswold, a member of the women’s soccer team, said spring games help the team plan strategy for the fall season.

“[Spring games] let our coaches see what we need to work on, what will best suit the team and which formations will fit our team best,” Griswold said.

The volleyball team has matches scheduled on each of the first three Saturdays in April.

Junior outside hitter Rachel Barber said that the younger members of the team take advantage of the spring season.

“(The spring season) benefits the younger players the most,” Barber said. “It’s about getting comfortable with each other and allowing the coaches to develop players.”

The football team may not have games scheduled for the offseason, but coach Jeff Voris has 14 practices planned between March 23 and April 20.

The practices will culminate in the annual Blue-White Spring Game on April 21.

Sophomore running back Trae Heeter said that the squad focuses on re-implementing the team’s formations.

It also gives younger players time to impress the coaching staff.

“In the spring, we re-install either our offensive schemes or our defensive schemes,” Heeter said. “It’s basically a time for the guys that have been here to continue to work on their skills and for the freshmen and sophomores to go out there and show the coaches what they can do.”

Butler athletic team members with spring seasons are familiar with hitting the road for long trips to warmer locales.

The number of miles racked up by some squads may be surprising though.

Graph by Rachel Anderson

Seven of Butler’s athletic teams have made or will make at least two trips more than 600 miles from Butler during the 2011-12 school year.

Men’s and women’s golf coach Bill Mattingly said the Midwestern climate of Indianapolis makes scheduling far-off events necessary.

“In the spring, we go down south, and we try to do more [long trips] because of the better weather,” Mattingly said.

Both golf teams will head to Jacksonville, Fla., over spring break, where the Bulldogs will face non-conference opponents.

Mattingly said this helps the teams prepare for Horizon League play.

“We like to play against different teams in other conferences to help us get ready for our conference,” Mattingly said. “Playing better teams on tougher courses can get us ready for that.”

The Butler softball team is also accustomed to starting off the first month of the season in the South or on the West Coast.

The team is making a trip to Fresno, Calif., for this weekend’s 2012 Bayer CropScience Classic.

The Bulldogs will then travel from Fresno State to Pacific University in Oregon for two contests on March 14.

Senior outfielder Lauren McNulty said that while the trips may sometimes involve driving long distances, it is worth it to be able to leave the cold weather behind.

“I think I speak for all of my teammates when I say that we would take a 10-hour bus ride every weekend to play in nice weather,” McNulty said.

While the Butler football team plays its games in the fall, it is a member of the far-reaching Pioneer Football League.

While the longest trip made from Butler to another Horizon League member’s location is 349 miles for Youngstown State, annual cross-country flights are required in the PFL.

Teams from North Carolina, California, Florida and New York are currently part of the league.

Senior quarterback Andrew Huck said that while the trips offer some players a chance to see a new part of the country, they have to focus on the competition ahead.

“We had a lot of players who hadn’t been to California or on a plane before,” Huck said. “We have to keep in mind that we’re going on a business trip rather than a spring break vacation.”

Huck said the time change between Indiana and California can be difficult to cope with.

“We’ve had games start at 7 or 8 [p.m.] their time, which is 11 here, and we only have one day to overcome jet lag,” Huck said.

McNulty said that flying to games does not affect her play.

“I’ve never experienced jet lag or exhaustion after flying to a tournament,” McNulty said. “The most tiring trip is usually the trip home because we are physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted after a weekend of games.”

According to Huck, the long road trips that teams embark on are useful for improving the chemistry and camaraderie of a team’s members.

“I would say it brings you closer,” Huck said. “You’re removed from campus, and you’re really bonding with each other.”

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.