Last week, Grand Valley State University’s athletic website, GVSULakers.com, published an inflammatory preview of last Saturday’s game, in which the Lakers beat Hillsdale 42-21. ChargerBlue.com, a Hillsdale football fan site, already corrected a glaring record mistake, and many on Twitter expressed the Hillsdale community’s outrage about the article.
However, the main point of Johnson’s piece remains unaddressed. He questioned why little ol’ Hillsdale would ever schedule powerhouse GVSU as its homecoming game, when generations of alumni witness the outcome. GVSU assumes, like a Division I school, that homecoming games are chosen strategically to ensure an easy victory for the host. But they fail to realize that many other factors decide Hillsdale’s homecoming game.
“Especially in the GLIAC you can’t look at any team and know that’s a sure win,” Hillsdale Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations and Event Management Brad Monastiere said.
Football schedules form years in advance. Of the five or six home games in a season, homecoming and parents weekend compete for October’s prime weekends. According to Director of Alumni Relations Grigor Hasted, sufficient class progress compels the faculty’s preference for parents weekend to take priority over homecoming weekend.
GVSU forgets that there is more to our school’s operation than athletics. The West Michigan players the article listed chose Hillsdale for reasons beyond football.
Hillsdale kicker and redshirt sophomore Steve Mette, of Rockford, Michigan, was recruited by the Lakers, but fit better at Hillsdale. Junior offensive lineman Matt VanOpstall, from nearby Jenison, Michigan, is a GVSU double legacy.
“I liked the size of the school, where it was located within two hours of my home, its academics,” VanOpstall said. “The conservative aspect was a big thing, and definitely got bigger once I attended. I definitely enjoy my choice now since I’ve been here.”
In other words, there’s more to homecoming, and life, than football.
