Life U Athletics Soaring

Intercollegiate athletics is a natural adjunct to the educational opportunities offered by Life University. Can you think of a better or more visible example of health and optimum performance than a finely tuned athlete? Life U competes in a variety of sports, and we compete well. When you combine the aspects of Exercise Science, Nutrition, Positive Psychology, Functional Neurology and, of course, Chiropractic, it’s no wonder our student-athletes perform well. Athletics is also an amazing marketing tool — not just for enrollment purposes, but also for exposure to the Life U brand and the larger mission of the University.

Life U competes at the NAIA level, which is much different than the NCAA. The business model of the NAIA is committed to three principles:

• Character-driven dedication to enhancing the academic and athletic experience of students
• Offering high-caliber athletics at a reasonable cost
• Helping universities advance enrollment initiatives through athletics

Under this business model, Life U is able to grow enrollment and create revenue-positive programs in as little as one season. And many of our student-athletes, once exposed to the mission and culture of Life U, will remain on campus after their eligibility has expired to matriculate into our graduate programs and the Doctor of Chiropractic program.

Successes in 2014-15

As we complete another fiscal year, we take time to reflect on the successes of the past 12 months. The list is long, but here are some of the highlights:

• Our student-athletes’ combined cumulative GPA is higher than that of the average Life U student
• Nine student-athletes earned Academic All-Conference honors
• Seven student-athletes were nominated as NAIA Champions of Character
• Student-athletes logged twice as many community service hours (2,500) compared to the previous year

And those are just some of the successes outside the arena. Inside the arena, Life U competed in the prestigious Mid-South Conference. We had multiple student-athletes earn All-Conference and All-American honors. Four of our current rugby players competed for the U.S. National team, with many more invited to elite training camps. One of our student-athletes was named Freshman of the Year in the Mid-South Conference. And we competed on national network television for the fourth year in a row.

What’s Next?

In addition to the two sports we added this past year, Women’s Swimming and Women’s Rugby, LIFE will be adding four more this coming year — Men’s and Women’s Bowling, Men’s Swimming and Women’s Volleyball — and plan to add three more in 2016-17. By the fall of 2016, the stable of sports offerings will include:

Men's Sports	Women's Sports
Basketball	Basketball
Bowling	Bowling
Rugby	Cross Country
Soccer	Rugby
Swimming	Soccer
Wresting	Swimming
	Track
	Volleyball
	Wrestling

If you know a student-athlete in any of our sponsored sports, and you think they would be interested in finding out more about our great institution, send them to LifeRunningEagles.com.“It’s an exciting time to be part of Life U Athletics,” says LIFE Athletic Director Dan Payne. “Every student-athlete who comes to Life U gets exposed to the vitalistic mission of the University and spreads that message. We are experiencing phenomenal growth, and we would love to have our alumni help fuel that growth.”

Why We Go to the Collegiate Rugby Championship

The Life U men and women may capture CRC titles in the future, but the weekend in Philadelphia is much more than wins and losses. It’s about competition, the experience of playing in the big event and exposure on national television, and it’s a nice way to end the athletic calendar year for the 2014-15 season.

From a competition standpoint, the men competed in their fourth CRC and made it to the semifinals. There is no third-place match anymore for men, so one could say we finished joint third out of 20 teams that competed. The Life U men have made it to the semifinals every time they have been at the event and made it to the finals in 2013.

The women competed in their first CRC and finished as winners of the Challenge Cup, which is a consolation bracket for the teams that don’t make the championship semifinals. So, the women finished in fifth place out of 12 teams that competed, but the way they were peaking that Sunday of competition, they could have made a great run at the title — not bad for a group who only started playing rugby 7s three weeks prior.

Rugby 7s is a completely different style of rugby than the one you see played on campus. The games are shorter, the pace is frantic and the momentum can change in seconds and completely alter the outcome of the game. There is a saying, “Anything can happen in 7s,” and with teams playing five or six games over two days, fitness and injuries play a major role in who emerges as the champion. It’s an exciting brand of rugby, which is why it will be an Olympic sport in 2016.

From an experience standpoint, the men fielded a team of seven freshmen, three sophomores and only two seniors, many of whom had very limited experience, if any, in playing rugby 7s. For the women, being a first-year program, they are all freshmen, in a sense, despite their year of eligibility. And many of them had limited or no experience in 7s competition as well. As the CRC is the pinnacle of college 7s, it was an incredible opportunity for these young men and women to compete at this level and gain valuable experience that will serve them well in the coming years at this event.

With regards to exposure, if you look at the list of schools competing at the CRC, it is a virtual who’s who of prominent universities. Can you think of another collegiate sport where Life University would play against the University of Alabama on national television and win 36-0? The Life U men were seen live on NBC and NBC Sports Network on both Saturday and Sunday of the competition. Millions of people saw our awesome uniforms and logo, our sea of matching fan shirts and even saw our 30-second commercial about the University that aired multiple times. Each year at this time, the LIFE.edu website sees a major spike in visits from people all over the country who want to know more about the University.

And finally, the CRC comes at the time of year when hundreds of Life U fans, parents and students can find time in their busy schedules to make the trip to Philadelphia and be part of the event. We are known at the event as having the largest and loudest fanbase. Kids from all different parts of the country have heard about Life U rugby and want to purchase our jerseys, sit with our fans during matches and maybe even attend Life U — as a rugby player or not.

Yes, Life U may win a CRC championship next year or the year after that; but what we gain from participating in this great event is LIFE being a big winner every year. We hope you’ll join us in 2016!