Over the past three years, nothing has personified the growth of William Woods more than the expansion of its athletic department. Since 2022, The Woods has added seven new intercollegiate sports, headlined by the addition of tackle football, while announcing the historic move from the American Midwest Conference to the Heart of America Conference, beginning this year.
Autumn 2024 was highlighted by the first Owls football team in school history kicking off its inaugural season, playing its home games on the newly renovated North Campus Athletic Complex (NCAC). During this Spring semester of 2025, two more new William Woods sports who also call the NCAC home are about the debut, continuing the recent trend of The Woods making school athletic history.
Men’s Lacrosse
It’s rare to find an expansion team in professional sports, or in this case a first year for a completely new college sports program, with high expectations. But that is exactly the case for the first-ever William Woods University Men’s Lacrosse team, under Head Coach Seth Matlock.
Matlock came to The Woods from Ottawa (Kan.) University, bringing nine transfer students with him to play for the new Owls program, and knows what he has on his roster.
“We came here from a program that won championships at Ottawa, and so we have been around these guys before,” Matlock said, as the Owls went through practice at the NCAC on a recent raw, windy, gray afternoon. “We’ve added a few talented freshmen to the club and they are really standing out for us, and feel we now have good chemistry. We’re just excited to get the season going.”
And that season will include jumping right into the frying pan of high expectations. Not only do the Owls open the season on February 15th hosting the NAIA pre-season 6th ranked team in the nation in Indiana Tech, but William Woods was selected to finish 5th in the first preseason Heart of America Men’s Lacrosse poll, out of 10 teams. His team also had a strong showing in an exhibition game versus the club team at the University of Arkansas, losing just 10-9 to the Razorbacks on January 26.
Pretty good start for an “expansion team,” to which Matlock and his coaches had to recruit from scratch.
“Our biggest road block in recruiting was not having something tangible to sell these guys yet,” Matlock said, whose inaugural roster has 19 players. “So we are really excited to get this first season under our belt, to see what we can do as a program so that bringing in new guys will be easier down the road.”
One of those transfers from Ottawa, Midfielder Ethan Newmyer ’26 from Omaha, couldn’t be happier in his choice to follow Coach Matlock to The Woods.
“All the guys who played for Coach Matlock at Ottawa, we had a great bond together,” said Newmyer, majoring in Business Administration at WWU. “It was that bond that brought me here, and when he explained his vision for the program. But we want to leave what happened at Ottawa in the past and start something new here, but what we build this first year here will really set it up for the years to come.”
With nine transfers from Ottawa, it looks like March 26 is a date to circle on the calendar, when the Braves come to the NCAC to face the Owls and their former coach. But there is more to this first year team than the upperclassmen who traded in Ottawa for William Woods, including new players like freshman Goalie Drew Stubblefield ’28.
“When you’re on the first-ever team, you’re setting a precedent for the program in the future,” said Stubblefield, a Eureka, Mo. native. “Every kid who comes in to play for William Woods will look back at us and say ‘Hey, that was the team that started it all.’” We have a lot to prove against these schools that have had programs for awhile, and we are ready to do that.”
The Owls schedule includes 12 games plus the Heart of America Conference Tournament in late April, with the season opener at home on Saturday, February 15th versus 6th-ranked Indiana Tech at 1 p.m.
Women’s Flag Football
A few days later, the sun shined brightly on a brisk late afternoon across the NCAC as Head Coach Joe Schlager put the William Woods Flag Football squad through another practice getting ready for the Owls’ inaugural season opener.
“There’s a lot of excitement among these young women, as we prepare for our first season,” Schlager said. “We’ve been fighting the weather over the past few weeks, so it’s good to be out here on our home field and work toward that first test.”
And test it will be. Like the Men’s Lacrosse team, this historic first season of Women’s Flag Football at The Woods will begin with something of a baptism of fire, which Schlager welcomes for his new program.
“We open the season by facing the 3 seed, the 2 seed and the top seed of the Kansas City Athletic Conference (KCAC) back to back to back, all on the road, so we’ll find out pretty quickly what adjustments we need to make and what we have to do to become better,” said Schlager, who joined WWU from Midland University (Fremont, Neb.), where he served as as assistant for the school’s Flag Football team. “That can be a benefit for a new program like ours, as we’ll find out where we are really quickly.”
Schlager’s inaugural roster at William Woods includes 14 players, with only two coming from the state of Missouri, and one from the other side of the world.
“I fell in love with the game a few years ago, and even after a very serious injury, Coach Schlager stuck with me, so I decided to come here to pursue my dream of playing Flag Football,” said Natalia Hernandez ’28, a Psychology major from Panama City, Panama. “It is quite the change of scenery from Panama, but to be honest, I feel honored. This whole experience, being on the first team ever, is something most people never get the chance to do. And having players from all different places has helped us actually grow as a team and learn from each other.”
A point echoed by Evonne Bruestle ’28, one of two Owls on the roster from Las Vegas.
“It’s exciting to come together with my teammates from all over, and knowing that we, as the inaugural team at William Woods, are setting the tone for the future success of the program,” Bruestle said. “We play as a unit here, as a family, and we’ll be ready for whatever challenges we have ahead, especially in the conference we are in and the experienced teams we’ll face.”
The Flag Football team at William Woods will also be one of the few intercollegiate Flag teams in the state of Missouri when the season begins, breaking ground in another way. The Owls’ stay in the KCAC will last until enough institutions in the Heart of America Conference, the home conference for William Woods Athletics teams beginning with the Fall 2025 season, begin adding the sport to make it a conference sport. So even then, William Woods Flag Football will be ahead of the curve.
The first-ever Flag Football game in WWU history will be on February 26, when the Owls travel to Baldwin City, Kansas to face Baker University. The Owls’ home opener will be on Wednesday, March 12 when they host Graceland University of Iowa at 6 p.m. at the NCAC.
