Pacific Boxers shooting for 2010 Return

Goboxers.com has posted an official announcement that the university board of trustees has provided the green light for the University to reinstate the boxer football program that has been dormant since 1992. The release states that Pacific will try to field a program by the 2010 season contingent on the necessary start-up expenses.

Catdomealumni.com has been following this story since last year with our Red and Purple interview with Pacific Athletic Director Ken Schumann and has been monitoring the push for football at the Forest Grove campus since.

This is a huge development not only for Pacific but for all of the membership of the Northwest Conference as this will drive up the football NWC membership to 8 teams and will provide more scheduling flexibility for the NWC members. Athletic Directors in the NWC have to be excited of the possibility of one less long flight for non-conference games and the reduced pressure in playing a NAIA or Division II team to fill a schedule.

Look for Pacific to start their search for a head coach this summer as they continue to try to secure the funds for a 2010 start. There are still questions about where they will play their initial home games as I’m not sure if their Lincoln Park athletic complex could be ready in time. Hillsboro Stadium is a good and likely solution but it’s a 15-20 minute drive from the campus and I’m sure the Boxers would rather play on-campus.

For Linfield, this is good news. Before the 2007 season the ‘Cats were “this close” to only having 6 Division III games on their schedule but now Linfield could be looking at a pure D3 schedule starting in 2010 (starting 2-Year deals with Cal Lutheran and LaVerne). I guess the question is if Linfield keeps their 2010 schedule in place and adds Pacific as their 10^th game or the ‘Cats could alter their current agreements and remove one of the California trips to save costs and stay at 9 games. Either way, it looks like the athletic department at Linfield has options when it comes to their football schedule where in the past there were none.