By Mckenzie Masters
Sports Editor
Julie Stauffer begins her inaugural season this fall as the new women’s assistant soccer coach at Union.
“I heard about Union a year ago from some missionaries I knew in the Philippines,” Stauffer said. “I was looking for a college environment to get plugged into for athletics and teaching. I applied at six or seven different places, and this is where God led me.”
Born in the Philippines, Stauffer’s parents were missionaries originally from Indiana. Stauffer lived there through high school and went on to Cedarville University in Ohio, where she played basketball.
The soccer coach at Cedarville hired Stauffer a few years later to be his assistant. Stauffer stayed at Cedarville for two seasons before coming to Union.
Stauffer started her job as assistant coach officially at the beginning of August when preseason started. Sarah Helton, junior nursing major and forward for the Lady Bulldogs, said she clicked with Stauffer from the start.
“After the first day Julie led warm-ups, we loved her,” Helton said. “Many of the girls on our team kept talking about how awesome the warm-ups and stretches were. The warm-ups soon led to hardcore fitness, but she still rocks because she knows how to work us hard and encourage us at the same time.”
Stauffer plans to build on the team’s past accomplishments.
“We expect to have a pretty good record as far as wins and losses are concerned,” Stauffer said. “It’s going to be challenging because we are playing in a new conference, so we are jumping up a level.
“Division II is a higher division, so the players we are playing against are bigger, faster and stronger than what we have seen. It’s nothing we can’t compete with, but it will be different.”
Stauffer said the biggest challenge for players is that they are still figuring each other out and trying to play together.
Christina Brimm, senior nursing major and defender for the Lady Bulldogs, enjoys having a female assistant coach and looks forward to building a relationship with Stauffer.
Brimm added it is nice to have someone to talk to and connect with.
“Julie is a great addition to our program,” Brimm said. “She brings something new and exciting to a program that has been the same for a long time. We have had a lot of changes throughout the four years I have been on the soccer team, and it is nice to finally say that we have a change that is going to benefit our team both on and off the field.”
