>>2003-2004 RECAP
UTD Athletic Dept. Enjoys
Season Full of Success
Five of six team sports advance to postseason play

In the world of college athletics, most universities achieve their notoriety in one sport…sometimes two. Think of Duke University, and basketball comes to mind. Mention the University of Oklahoma, and you immediately start thinking about national football championships.

But rarely does a single university become such a dominant force athletically that almost every athletic team it fields is instantly considered a contender by the other universities in the conference – unless you happen to be speaking about The University of Texas at Dallas.
During the recently-completed 2003-04 school year, The University of Texas at Dallas Comets put the rest of the American Southwest Conference (ASC) on notice. Five of the Comets’ six team sports programs (men’s and women’s soccer, men’s basketball, baseball and softball) qualified for post-season championship tournaments in 2003-04 by either winning or finishing second in their division. Three of those five teams advanced all the way to the conference championship games. In addition, three UTD coaches were named ASC Coaches of the Year in voting by their ASC colleagues.

Even more amazing is the fact that all of this success was achieved by a program that is only a few years old, and has been a full-fledged member of the NCAA Division III ASC for less than three seasons.

“That is a remarkable level of success for any single sport, much less an entire athletic program,” UTD Athletics Director Chris Gage points out. “Winning may not be the most important criteria in judging a university’s athletic program, but it does teach our student-athletes some valuable life lessons about hard work leading to success. We figure if we’re going to play the games, we might as well be playing them to win.” And, win they did in 2003-04.

The success story began in the fall with the UTD men’s and women’s soccer programs, both perennial powers long before the school joined the ASC in 2002-03.

The UTD women, who were ranked #22 in the nation in 2002 and advanced all the way to the NCAA Division III “Sweet 16”, won their second consecutive ASC East Division title with an 11-1-2 record. Despite falling in the semifinals of the 2003 conference championship tournament, the Comets finished with a 13-4-3 overall record (11-1-2 in conference).

The UTD men’s soccer team (13-8) also showed great promise early in the season – playing both defending NCAA Division III national champion Trinity University and Division I Southern Methodist University tough in early games. The Comets advanced as the top seed out of the East Division for the second straight year before falling in the championship game.

Until the 2003-04 season, UTD basketball had never really enjoyed the success of its fellow team sports. The Comets changed all that, finishing with their best record ever (15-11 overall), tying for their first division title, then advancing to their first conference championship tournament in school history. To accomplish all this, UTD had to string together three straight wins, including a dramatic 70-67 road victory at the University of the Ozarks in the final regular season game.

Head coach Terry Butterfield became the first UTD head coach to win an ASC Coach of the Year award for the team’s remarkable turnaround.

The spring brought even more success to the UTD campus as both the Comets baseball and softball teams advanced to the post-season in only their third year of existence.

The UTD softball team was forced to pull out dramatic series splits with a pair of nationally-ranked teams – including #1-ranked East Texas Baptist University – to even qualify for the conference tournament. Meanwhile, the baseball team put up a remarkable 33-8 mark (best in school history), won the ASC East championship and was ranked as high as #11 in a national poll.

Unfortunately, both teams saw their dreams of advancing to the national playoffs dashed in the championship games of their respective ASC tournaments.

Baseball coach Shane Shewmake and softball coach Tricia Hoffmann were both honored with ASC Coach of the Year awards to cap off the year.

The five successful team sport programs had10 players honored with national all-region awards, and placed more than 30 players on ASC all-conference teams as well as an additional 20 or more on ASC academic all-conference teams.

2003-04 ATHLETICS
By The Numbers…

MEN’S SOCCER
• ASC Championship Finalist
• Top Seed – ASC East Division
• 13-8 Overall Record

WOMEN’S SOCCER
• ASC Championship Semi-Finalist
• ASC East Division Champions
• 13-4-3 Overall, 11-1-2 Conference

MEN’S BASKETBALL
• ASC Championship Semi-Finalist
• ASC East Division Co-Champions
• 15-11 Overall, 10-4 Conference

BASEBALL
• #11 National Ranking
• ASC Championship Finalist
• ASC East Division Champions
• 33-8 Overall Record (Best in School History)

SOFTBALL
• ASC Championship Finalist
• Defeated 2 Nationally-Ranked Teams
• 25-15 Overall, 17-7 Conference