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It was an interesting year for the Millikin football team.
There was the plus of winning six games — the most since 2003. And that did create some enthusiasm which had been lacking.
Part of the success came through just getting more talent in the last couple of recruiting classes. Perhaps just as important was what seemed like much improved team chemistry.
Holding back a bit of that enthusiasm was the odd production at home. Millikin was 2-3 in home games against 4-1 on the road.
And then there were those three home games in which Millikin never did compete. They got down and just stayed down, not displaying a whole lot of toughness.
Not comes the really interesting part.
The reason Millikin fell behind the Illinois Wesleyan, North Central and other programs was because of what happens in the offseason.
Will the Big Blue football players use this time to get bigger and stronger? And do it with the determination to get better? Or will they take time off?
Will they use the time to get smarter and study the football schemes? An ingredient in those blowouts was too often people just being out of place. That can’t be an excuse.
And will they take the time to stick together as a unit? Team chemistry can make a difference if the Big Blue really want to take the next step and not be satisfied with an occassional 6-4 season.

The countdown to the basketball season at Millikin is dwindling.

Boys coach Marc Smith is more than ready. He’s coming off a big season in which his program took a major step forward. It was one of those times when you really hate to see March come along.

Now he’s got the majority of that team back and a month of practice has seemed to drag along until they can get back on the court.

They get their first chance on Friday at Griswold Center. And Smith hopes the combination of experience and increased athleticism can make this season even more exciting to be a Big Blue.

On the women’s side, coach Lori Kerans is always excited, but this season has to bring a little trepidation as well. Graduation decimated her lineup and she’s lost more this fall.

Alex Reynolds is the latest casualty. The freshman from St. Teresa has a knee injury which will sideline her. She can share her roommate’s crutches as Brittney Gallivan (freshman from Monticello) injured her knee earlier this season.

But Kerans is ready to see how her sophomore class fills the gaps and is especially ready to see how Amy Radford (freshman from Pana) fits in to Millikin’s rotation.

The Millikin fall programs were recognized this week and had numerous make the all-CCIW teams.

In volleyball, sophomore outside hitter Kelsey England made the first team. She had 478 kills and 487 digs this season. She also had 49 service aces.

Freshman libero Erin Reed was named to the second team. Reed had 910 digs on the season.

In men’s soccer, senior Matt Laude made the second team. Laude scored seven goals and had five assists on the season.

And in women’s soccer, juniors Allison Horne and Brittany Belrichard were honored.

Horne made the first team after she scored 10 goals and had six assists. She is Millikin’s all-time leader in goals, assists and points in a career.

Belrichard made the second team. She scored seven goals and had two assists.

The discussion on the facilities has been going on almost as long as I’ve been in Decatur — and that seems like forever.
But now is another good time to really kick it up as a new president will be chosen before long and could help a condition that is holding Millikin back.
Not that it will be easy with the economy as it is. But a farsighted individual with a little bit of vision could work wonders. If the person cares.
Coaches from most programs have talked about this again recently.
All but two of the CCIW schools have artificial turf on their football fields. Coach Doug Neibuhr has a long list of legitimate reasons turf would benefit his program along with the entire student body.
While they have made some adjustments to Griswold Center, it still lags behind some high school facilites.
The players and recruits talk about it. As wonderful as the DISC is for weights and training, it’s not the same as what most of the others have.
Even the locker rooms need an upgrade.
There’s no “wow” factor when recruits get to campus like athletic building at Augustana, the football stadium at Wheaton or even the basketball complex at Illinois Wesleyan.
Millikin has a lot to offer academically, but when student-athletes have so many choices, they can get enamored with the glitz of facilities if everything else is close.
Something as small as a turf field can make the difference in a handful of players each year. That could make the difference between being competitive or winning.
AD Joe Hakes made these moves at his previous stop. And he’s on record as saying he’d love to do it here.
But there aren’t going to be easy answers. And it may be that the new president won’t even see it as being a question of something needing done.

Several of the Millikin fall athletic programs could be saving its best for last.

Volleyball
Millikin played its best match of the season to close out the conference regular season in a 3-2 loss to No. 9 Carthage.
Facing a team that had won 44 straight regular-season CCIW matches, the Big Blue gave the Lady Reds all it could handle. In fact, Millikin was the only conference team to win a set this year against Carthage.
Carthage won the first set 25-21 with Millikin bouncing back to take the second set 25-21. Carthage won the third set 25-19. Millikin dominated the fourth set, winning 25-16. Carthage needed a comeback in the fifth set to win 15-11.
Kelsy England was Millikin’s kill leader with 22. Lauren West had 12. Erin Reed had 35 digs. Brittany Cardott had 52 assists. Ally Reis had three aces for the match.
Perhaps that play can aid the Big Blue when the CCIW Tournament begins at Illinois Wesleyan.

Women’s soccer
Millikin’s 2-0 victory over North Park earned the team fourth place in the CCIW standings and its first appearance in the CCIW Women’s Soccer Tournament.
The reward is a first-round matchup with conference champion Augustana.
Allison Horne continued her solid play with another goal in the win. She also scored in the team’s 1-0 win over Elmhurst last week.
Freshman goalkeeper Natalie Robertaccio earned the shutout in goal recording six saves.
Millikin is 12-7-1.

Men’s soccer
The Big Blue closed its season by playing some of its better games.
Millikin lost to second-place Wheaton 1-0 and then nearly got past fourth-place Augustana.
The Big Blue were beating Augustana until the Vikings scored in the 76th minute. The teams were scoreless through two overtime periods to end the game in a 1-1 tie.
Millikin finished 5-13-2.

The Millikin football team had a lot of things go right in its 35-7 victory over North Park.

The running game was reborn behind Dion Wilson. Luke Hockaday had a couple of touchdown passes. Hector Galvan led a defensive line that had been quiet in recent weeks.

Sure, it wasn’t against one of the top teams in the CCIW. And some of the same problems were present on Saturday. Two touchdowns were called back because of penalties. There was another personal foul on the defense. The play clock ran down on the offense too many times. And there were other botched moments that the really good teams don’t let happen.

But maybe the really encouraging moments were not so much what happened on the field.

Over the past few years, Millikin players would hang their heads when things went wrong. Some would point fingers. The work ethic wasn’t universal. There was just a sense that things weren’t going to get better. And sure enough, the season would finish in a downward spiral.

Those things weren’t as prevalent this past Saturday. Before the game, the offense perked up the defense. The defense patted the offense on the back.

During the game, there seemed to be more enthusiasm. And after the game, there was the right amount of smiles and understanding of what work still needs to be done.

Coach Doug Neibuhr said his team would be the underdog in their final three games, but if that attitude can continue to grow, it’s enough to think that the Big Blue really could finish 7-3.

And that would be miles away from the last two seasons.

Basketball season is getting closer. The Millikin women started practice this week and may have worn nametags.
One senior, Brooke Carlson, is on coach Lori Keran’s roster. There is one junior — starter Elise Wildman.
There are 14 freshmen.
And they’ve got until Nov. 17 to learn Keran’s system. Play starts then at Wisconsin-Platteville.

Volleyball
Millikin will head out for its longest road trip of the season when it goes to Colorado Springs for a tournament.
The Big Blue play Chapman and No. 14 Colorado College on Friday and then face Cal-Santa Cruz on Saturday.
When they get home, there’s just one more week of the season before the conference tournament.

Cross Country
The Millikin men’s cross country team had a nice showing when it placed second at its own H.W. Wright Classic Cross Country Meet at the Scovill Golf Course.
The Big Blue men had five runners finish in the top 20. Michael Gurney finished in ninth place running the 8K course in 29:10.90. Jeremy Blondin was 13th with a 30:16.95.

Soccer
The Millikin women’s soccer team ensured its third straight winning season when it beat Carthage.
The Big Blue (10-6-1) then hung with fourth-ranked and unbeaten Illinois Wesleyan before losing 2-0.
Millikin’s other conference loss was to No. 17 Augustana. And it has a Saturday date with No. 24 Wheaton.
Millikin is second in the CCIW is shots per game at more than 19. Allison Horne is second in the CCIW individually, with 3.88 per game. She leads the team with nine goals.

It should be an interesting week at Millikin where the football team showed that there is still plenty of work to be done to get back to the level it was not all that long ago.

It won’t be easy. The Big Blue has plenty of things to work on. After somehow making it through game tapes of the loss to North Central, coach Doug Neibuhr said the problems — for good or bad — were just simple, individual mental breakdowns. And not just from a couple of the players. Those are fixable, “if the kids don’t try to make plays outside of the structure.”

Neither will it be easy because of the schedule. No. 24 Illinois Wesleyan is next and No. 4 Wheaton is two weeks away. Neither of those teams will allow Millikin to catch its breath.

And it won’t be easy because of injuries are starting to catch up to Millikin. Pretty much unaffected up to this point, the injury list is notable. It includes Luke Hockaday (shoulder), Will Roth (neck), Sully Edwards (ankle), Carleston Acres (ankle), Keith Burczak (knee) and Latarius Ferguson (foot).

Hockaday’s status will be evaluated through the week. But a bruised shoulder suffered in the Albion game restricted him against North Central, Neibuhr said.

Starting the game was a late decision and Hockaday wore a “restrictive” harness.

“It obviously affected him,” Neibuhr said. “We had some people open in the first quarter he normally would have hit.”

If he can’t answer the bell this week, senior Andy Dicken or freshman Gavin Johnston will get behind center.

A good crowd braved some cold, wet weather to see if the Millikin football team could continue a strong early-season run.

And Millikin did give them something to cheer about.

Unfortunately for the Big Blue, it was when the score from women’s soccer game was announced. Millikin beat North Central 1-0.

The result from the football game was more along the lines of shocking.

Millikin made North Central look like a team capable of being ranked among the top 15 in Division I. Aaron Fanthorpe had five TD passes in the first half. But it was never much more than a game of catch as his receivers rarely had anyone within 5 yards of them.

Meanwhile, the Millikin offense may have had its most anemic outing in a while — and they’ve had too many recently.

Luke Hockaday did not have his “A” game when he wasn’t getting slammed to the ground. Before being pulled for Andy Dicken, Hockaday completed just four passes and could have had that many intercepted.

“I think when you are embarrassed as we are here with this, all of us together have to fix it,” coach Doug Neibuhr said.

The coaches have work to do this week and the team will be tested. Was this an aberration? Will this team prove to be different and show the character needed to make a nice run in CCIW play? Or will those hearty fans need to brace for another round of disappointment?

There’s nothing wrong with Mondays as far as the Millikin golf team is concerned.

J.B. Spillane, Wes Hillen and Cory Henry all improve at least three strokes from their first-round scores and the trio finished 1-2-3 in the Blackburn Invitational.

Actually the three tied at 149 for the two days but playoffs determined the final order.

It was more than enough to give Millikin the team title.

The other Big Blue crew to have a big weekend was the volleyball squad. Millikin had little difficulty in winning its Linda Slagell Classic.

The Big Blue won three of its four matches in three games.

Kayci Creviston of Shelbyville led Millikin in kills in the first two wins — over Robert Morris and Anderson Univeristy.

Lauren West and Kylee Brown also played well, making the all-tournament team for Millikin (13-5).

Don’t think that, because the Millikin football team has the week off or because they are 3-0, that coaches will take it easy.

The players will have a rare Saturday off, but they’ve been worked hard this week as they start thinking about conference play. Conditioning and working on some fine-tuning has been a couple points of emphasis.

Coaches don’t want a repeat of the last several years when the Big Blue start feeling good about themselves only to be socked in the jaw by CCIW teams.

And there are a bunch capable of delivering that blow again this year. North Central — Millikin’s first conference opponent — is ranked No. 12 by d3football.com. Wheaton is No. 4.

Also off to good starts are Illinois Wesleyan (3-0), Carthage (2-0), Elmhurst (2-0) and Augustana (2-1). As a whole, the CCIW is 16-4 so far in the preseason.

“We have a lot of tough games coming up,” Millikin coach Doug Neibuhr said. “Every one of these next seven will be a challenge. We’re going to have to do a good job of staying on an even keel and looking at each game as a conference-championship caliber game.”

So enjoy watching others on the screen this week, Millikin’s quest begins for real Saturday, Oct. 3.