For the first time in John Pangan’s 19 years of coaching at College of DuPage, he has had to cancel the women’s volleyball team. Pangan simply didn’t have enough players who can make the commitment to play on the school’s volleyball team.

“I think it was the right call, since the season wasn’t looking good for us at all,” Pangan said.

At the beginning of this season, he started out with 13 athletes who were on the team. Only three athletes had played previously volleyball in high school. The other 10 women had no experience in the sport, but were interested in playing on the collegiate level here at COD. As time passed, many stopped playing due to various reasons.

This created a huge problem for Pangan, as he not only had a team that was gradually becoming smaller, but many had no experience. Meaning that the basics would have to taught to the new players, while trying to coach the more experienced players.

“A few girls on the team would’ve lost a year of eligibility for playing volleyball at at collegiate level, meaning that they would lose a whole year of being able to play volleyball at a collegiate level. It just wouldn’t be worth it for them to continue playing this year,” Pangan admitted.

Despite the disadvantages presented to Pangan, he tried to make the season work for his team. Unfortunately, out of the five games played by the Chaparrals’ women’s volleyball team, they had lost every match. Pangan then decided to pull the plug on the rest of the season.

Pangan hopes in the future that women’s volleyball at COD will draw more interest in athletes, and he will be able to recruit and maintain a full team.