We will be featuring members of our LaGrange College athletic family during Division III Week from April 13-19.
By Trevor Wenners
Assistant Director of Sports Information
In Fred Wagenaar's mind, the word student certainly comes before athlete.
Wagenaar will enter his seventh year as the head coach of the LaGrange College women's soccer team this coming fall. He continues to provide the necessary lessons, which set up his student-athletes for success in every walk of life. As a firm believer in the NCAA Division III philosophy, he preaches the importance of a complete college experience, with academics coming first.
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| Fred Wagenaar embodies all the qualities of a great Division III coach. |
The competitive coach wants to win every game, but he never loses sight of his responsibilities as an educator. His focus is on ensuring that his players succeed academically and develop into community leaders. Wagenaar wants these young women to make the world a better place after walking across the stage at graduation.
"At the Division III level, academics come first," said Wagenaar. "I was drawn to the Division III model simply because it is the right one. One of my goals every year is to try to make all the players on my team better, so I want good practices with full participation. However, I believe that the training schedule should be worked out around the academic schedule, not vice versa. I want passionate and dedicated players, but far above that desire, I want every player to graduate with a degree."
One of the most rewarding components of Wagenaar's job is that he gets to watch his student-athletes develop into well-rounded individuals. His bigger-picture view has positively affected countless LaGrange women's soccer players from 2014-20.
If you showed up at Panther Field over the last couple years, you witnessed sophomore Sydney Dailey's immense skill set. She led the 2019 Panthers in points (19), assists (7) and game-winning goals (3). Sophomore Madison Demkowski probably caught your attention with her defensive instincts and the competitive drive of sophomore Riley Hammett is inspiring. These three individuals are all captains for the program. If you poked your head into their classroom or extracurricular activities, you would see that they are taking advantage of every opportunity on campus.
"Each one of these student-athletes play soccer because they love it and they play it unselfishly," said Wagenaar. "The team and every member of it are important to them, but they strike the right balance of sport and school. The academics are a priority, but they love LaGrange College itself. Two of them are resident advisers and the third is thinking that way. They want to give to the overall student body. They exemplify the ideal student-athlete."
Wagenaar has an outstanding track record from his nine-year stint as women's soccer head coach at Graceland University. During his time in Lamoni, Iowa, the Yellowjackets compiled a 139-27-19 record, appearing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national tournament seven times. Wagenaar's players were equally motivated in the classroom, as the 2012 squad had the most scholar-athletes in the nation among NAIA women's soccer teams.
Last year, LaGrange won eight games, which was the most since the 2013 season. Wagenaar spoke about the uniqueness of Division III and goals for the 2020 season.
Q: Could you talk about one women's soccer student-athlete that has gone above and beyond on the field and in the classroom during your time at LaGrange?
A: There are many athletes, who have done remarkably well on the field and off, but I will choose Taylor Vardeman '18. From the start of her freshman year to her senior year, Taylor kept getting better. She loved the game of soccer and became a student of it. She started watching the game at the professional level and brought the passion and dedication to her game. That constant push for excellence led to her being named a captain. Taylor was named to the USA South All-Sportsmanship Team twice, which was an accurate indicator of her character. Taylor was an excellent student and is finishing up her schooling to become a veterinarian.
Q: What do you think makes the Division III level of athletics attractive?
A: Division III athletics is unique in many ways, but there are a couple of differences that are important. There are no scholarships directly attributable to athletics. At first glance, this might seem like a shortcoming, but it is not. Many believe it means there is less money available, but the fact is that the total amount may be identical. It is just sourced from a different place. Division III generally has much larger academic scholarships. In addition, there are many different institutional grants.
Q: Does the absence of athletic scholarships improve the spirit of competition?
A: I do believe that the absence of athletic scholarships improves the spirit of the game. When the students at LaGrange decide to play sports, they do so for no other reason than the joy of playing. The motivation is intrinsic rather than extrinsic, and therefore the passion can be much stronger. The student-athletes do not have to worry that the coach will take away their scholarship if they do not produce enough goals or if they get hurt and must leave the team. It is a much better experience when they can simply play the game, without having to constantly look over their shoulder.
Q: What are your team goals in the classroom moving forward?
A: We always want to do well academically. Our team has received an award every year from United Soccer Coaches, recognizing our team average GPA of 3.0 or higher. We look to continue that run through this difficult spring and into the fall.
Q: What are the 2020 expectations on the field?
A: We have improved a fair amount over the last couple of years and were a little unlucky in losing a couple of key games in overtime. We lost five games in 2019 by one goal and another four by two. This year, our focus will be on generating more offense, in the hopes that we will score that next goal rather than the other team and finish 13-6 instead of 8-11. We are focused on a few more conference wins and making the playoffs. Once we are in, who knows how far we can go.
Trevor Wenners can be reached at twenners@lagrange.edu.
