Shifting to KIAC

Starting in the 2012-2013 season, Point Park University athletics will be leaving the American Mideast Conference and become a part of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

After the AMC decreased from 16 schools in the 2008-2009 season to eight in the 2011-2012 season, the school felt the time had come to try to change alliances. The KIAC approved both Point Park's and AMC rival Carlow's applications in mid-January.

"The AMC is sort of leaving us," Point Park Director of Athletics Dan Swalga said during an interview Thursday afternoon.

Point Park has been left with a tough decision the past few seasons: stick with the AMC, try to change conferences or become independent. The past few years it chose to stay put, but as the likelihood of the AMC's death at the end of the year increased, the school felt that a change was necessary, so it left the only conference it has been a part of since 1998-1999. One of the largest factors in the decision was the proximity of the conference.

Despite the change, Swalga does not believe there will be any impact on recruiting.

 "The impact would have [occurred] if we weren't in a conference," Swalga said. "Every high school kid wants to play for something."

The addition of Point Park and Carlow now gives the KIAC 12 schools. The change in conference will also allow the addition of new sponsored sports such as women's golf. Furthermore, the addition of the two schools will improve the conference's national affiliation, now giving it an automatic bid to the NAIA national tournament in both baseball and men's soccer. As there will now be six teams for each sport and 12 schools playing volleyball, giving the conference two automatic bids for the sport.

All teams will be playoff eligible in any of the KIAC's 14 sponsored championship sports as soon as they enter next year.

There is a great deal of enthusiasm from both coaches and players as they look forward to taking on a new challenge.

"All of the coaches are excited," Tony Grenek, women's basketball head coach, said during a Thursday afternoon interview. "We look forward to the opportunity in front of us."

In Grenek's first year as their head coach, the women's basketball team has posted a 14-4 record overall and a mark of 5-0 in conference play. When asked if he was saddened about the news concerning leaving a conference they had dominated this year, he replied

"No … because the conference was falling apart."

Another coach that is excited about the change is baseball coach Loren Torres. Torres' views on the change were similar to Grenek's, as he was excited to have his team play against a challenging conference and did not foresee any changes to the quality of the program.

  One of the players who is looking forward to the change is men's soccer midfielder Alex Sala. The junior helped lead the Pioneers to the AMC championship game, but he feels a change is in order.

"I think it's a good move," Sala said during a Thursday morning interview. "There are more teams, but traveling will probably be a pain."

 Sala is a foreign exchange student originally from Austria. He said if he had known the change in conference was going to occur, it would have not affected his decision.

Overall, the change in conference should provide new opportunities for Point Park athletics. The improvement of conference will hopefully result in an improvement in the teams.