Schulte Addresses Media Monday
October 17, 2005 | Softball
University of Wisconsin head softball coach Chandelle Schulte was introduced to the media at Monday's news conference. Her team begins its 11th season in February.
A complete transcription of the news conference follows below. A video archive of the news conference can be found by clicking on the red "Multimedia" link above.
CHANDELLE SCHULTE: Hopefully we'll provide some excitement for you guys on the diamond this year. I can promise you one thing won 't happen. We will not block a touchdown in the last few minutes of play and come out with a victory. I do know that won't happen or we've got the wrong ball in our hands.
But I'm very excited to be here. I've been in the South for a long time now and my roots are in Michigan and I'm excited to be back and eventually into warmer clothes. And I bought a snow shovel yesterday, so that was very exciting for me. But so far it's been a wonderful experience and I'm looking forward to the season.
QUESTION #1: What intrigued you about the Wisconsin job ' Why did you decide to take the Badger job or at least pursue it initially '
SCHULTE: I believe that Coach Alvarez a few years ago, or actually many years ago now, before he came to Wisconsin, said Wisconsin was the sleeping giant of the Big Ten, and I believe that's true in softball as well, certainly a national championship team (like) the University of Michigan.
So for me it's a test to see what my coaching abilities can do and a chance to really apply my coaching philosophies to this team that has always been fairly competitive, but we've never won a Big Ten championship. So that and the academic support here, the financial support, and, quite frankly, the family atmosphere that Coach Alvarez and the staff have provided really, really intrigued me.
QUESTION #2: What do you hope to gain now from now until the spring season starts, what, in February when you go to Arizona State'
SCHULTE: That's right. We open up I believe in Arizona State. I won't tell you that I believe it's an extremely adventurous schedule. It's not insurmountable, but it certainly is challenging. And so from today until the end of our individual season, we'll be working on fundamentals. Defense is something that we can improve from the past years.
The cohesion, (the) leadership ' we're looking for some younger girls to step up. We graduated a significant senior class. So we're just going to go back to the basics and really try to make the plays, be where we need to be when we're supposed to be there, and have our young ladies prepared for every play.
QUESTION #3: From what you know about softball in Wisconsin, high school softball, is it pretty good here' Can you build a team with players out of the state'
SCHULTE: I think you can. I think it can't be solely based on Wisconsin talent. But we have Samantha Polito, we have Leah Vanevenhoven, both from the Wisconsin area who are exceptional softball players. So that will be our first line of defense, so to speak, is to recruit in the Wisconsin area, secondly to the Midwest, and then after that beyond that.
