By MONTE DUTTON
In advance of Friday night’s spring scrimmage, things are looking up for Presbyterian College football in Steve Englehart’s third season as head coach.
It’s a big sky.
The Blue Hose went 1-10 amid the wreckage left in the wake of Kevin Kelley’s only season as head coach. Last year PC finished 4-7, and the first veteran cast in quite a while is returning.
Anticipated improvement undoubtedly plays a role in Presbyterian’s longest regular season in five years.
A 12-game regular season is scheduled for the Blue Hose, as opposed to the traditional 11, this fall.
Presbyterian College has only played 12-game regular seasons in 2008 (4-8) and 2019 (2-10). Two others involved the NAIA and Division II playoffs. The Blue Hose played in the 1959 Tangerine Bowl, but that was an 11-game season (9-2).
Beginning on Thursday, Aug. 29, Englehart’s third season at PC consists of six home and six road games.
Presbyterian looks to build on the three-win improvement from 2022 to ’23 with a standard, eight-game Pioneer Football League starting on Sept. 28.
“Playing 12 games will be something new to this team, and we’re also excited to have half of those games at Bailey Memorial Stadium,” stated Englehart. ‘Similar to the last two years, we’ll begin the season with a big challenge as we travel to Georgia on a Thursday night to play Mercer. Another great opportunity for our program will come in our first conference game as we host Davidson.
“The PFL is a great conference that is filled with talented players and coaches, and we look forward to the challenge that lies ahead. We’re eager to take another step upward and work on improving with each passing season.”
PC had never officially won a PFL game – the Blue Hose were not full members when they won four under Tommy Spangler in the COVID spring season of 2021 – until they defeated Dayton and Morehead State last fall. The Blue Hose also stunned Wofford.
The Blue Hose open with Mercer (9-4) in Macon, Ga. The Bears earned an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs, where they defeated Gardner-Webb in the first round and fell to the soon-to-be national champion, South Dakota State.
The Blue Hose take on nearby Erskine in Due West on Sept. 7.
The first of three straight home games is Virginia University of Lynchburg on Sept. 14, followed by Gardner-Webb on Sept. 21 and PFl foe Davidson on Sept. 28.
PC visits San Diego on Oct. 5 and Morehead State on Oct. 12. Drake visits Bailey Memorial Stadium on Oct. 19, and plays Stetson in DeLand, Fla., on Oct. 26.
Dayton comes to PC on Nov. 2. PC goes to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on Nov. 16. Butler visits for the finale on Nov. 23.
Softball, at least on the home diamond, winds down this weekend as USC Upstate visits Presbyterian for three games.
Saying goodbye to four traditional seniors and another fifth-year performer, the Blue Hose will take on the Spartans at 6 p.m. on Friday and at 1 in a Saturday doubleheader.
Seniors Kaitlyn Tucker, Jillian Hewes, Bailey Watkins and Kara Starnes are to be honored before Saturday’s twinbill.
Jenna Greene, a graduate who was honored a year ago, closes out a record-setting pitching career.
Presbyterian (14-26, 4-5 Big South) takes on a team from Spartanburg that has won its last five conference games.
Outfielder Denver Lauer’s .318 batting average leads Upstate (9-15, 7-2, and Sierra Maness holds the conference’s second best earned-run average, 2.19.
High Point is the top seed, PC the bottom (ninth), when the Big South Women’s Golf Championship tees off at Ocean Creek in Fripp Island on Sunday.
Charleston Southern is seeded second, followed in order by USC Upstate, UNC Asheville, Radford, Longwood, Winthrop, Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian.
A three-day, 54-hole, stroke-play event is April 14-16, followed by individual stroke play by the top-four team finishers.
Evgenios Vasilakis is Big South Freshman of the Week honors for the third time in men’s tennis.
The Athens, Greece native went 2-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles last week.
Presbyterian finishes the regular season on the road at William & Mary this Saturday.
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