The Future of STLCC Sports, Part 1

Women's soccer coach Juergen Huettner is content.

The sports teams that existed on each of the three campuses of St. Louis Community College (STLCC) merged into one district team called the Archers, and for Huettner, the dynamics of the move are positive.

A recent merger diminished sports in the STLCC system from 15 to 7 after budget cuts forced the university to reduce overall costs by as much as 3.3 million.

After the merger, the STLCC Archer women's soccer team moved its home base to the Meramec campus. The team gets a soccer field. At the Forest Park campus the team had to share one with St. Louis University High School, Huetten said.

“This is ours,” Huetten said as he looked out at the Meramec soccer field. “We can dictate when we want to practice. We can dictate when we want to play games. We don't have to ask anyone's permission if this is OK. This is our field, and on top of it this is a beautiful setup,” he said.

Huettner said that the merger was hard for because it eliminated positions on the team as well as coaching positions.

“I think this was a blow for a lot of people,” Huettner said.

When asked if Huettner thought the allocation of financial cuts was fair for the sports team, he said that he didn't get too much involved in the politics of the situation.

“Well, I have a coaching job and I have a team, so maybe I think it is fair because I have my job,” Huettner said. “But obviously, I like to think that they did the best that they could do.”

STLCC assistant baseball coach Scott Goodrich said he doesn't think that the baseball team has felt the effects of the merger quite yet since last year Meramec was the only baseball team already.

Goodrich said that moving forward, the move will help the team in terms of recruiting, because STLCC is the only junior college baseball program in the area.

While both coaches forsee the merger as providing benefits for the programs, community support is also a plus, Huettner said.

“All the schools are unified having the Archers,” Huettner said. “So all the schools are unified now supporting this one baseball team or this one soccer team, so there are some benefits there, too.”