Baseball | 9/3/2013 2:21:00 PM

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Barry University athletic program celebrates its 30^th anniversary in 2013-14, and what a memorable three decades it has been.

From its roots when the school was officially known as Barry College where only females initially attended, the small, private institution of higher learning has succeeded on internal and national levels on the playing surface.

After the school began admitting male students in 1975 and officially changed its name to Barry University on Nov. 13, 1981, one of the next big projects was the institution of an athletic program.

"We wanted to round out the student experience at Barry by providing an athletic outlet," said Sr. Jeanne O'Laughlin, the school's fifth president. "We had three goals when we started: to increase enrollment, to expand the diversity of the campus by recruiting more males and to improve student morale and spirit. We also wanted this to happen in the framework of a program that balanced academics with athletic competition. I wanted them to be student-athletes, not athlete-students."

On Feb. 25, 1983, the University broke ground on a 15-acre sports complex situated between 111th St. and 115th St. on North Miami Ave.

"My goal, when we started, was to move us into the NCAA," O'Laughlin said. "It seemed to me at the time that it was better to be a part of the NCAA if we were going to move ahead with this."

In the fall of 1984, athletics at Barry University was in motion with programs in men's and women's cross country, women's soccer, baseball, men's and women's tennis and men's basketball. Three years laster, Barry broke ground on the Health & Sports Center, a $4 million project. By 1991, the project was complete.

"When I first came to Barry and started thinking about athletics, I started to dream about a gym," O'Laughlin said. "I could envision it in the empty field across the street."

From the early stages of the athletic program's heritage, the Buccaneers proved they could compete on an elite level. In 1985, the men's soccer team became the school's first team to earn an NCAA Tournament bid. In 1988, Barry became a member of the Sunshine State Conference, considered one of the elite NCAA Division II leagues in the country.

In 1989, the women's soccer team under coach Mike Covone, captured the school's first NCAA Championship. Barry beat Keene State, 4-0, in the title game. Kyllene Carter Weis, who later became the Bucs' head coach, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Offensive Player after scoring four goals in two games.

"That first championship was so special to us," O'Laughlin said. "Coming so early in our history, it gave us hope that we could have the type of athletic success we had dreamed of when we started."

Two important developments in the growth of the athletic department came in 1991. Dr. G. Jean Cerra was hired as Director of Athletics and Dean of the Division of Sports & Leisure Sciences (now the School of Human Performance and Leisure Sciences), resulting in the relocation of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics to the Academic Affairs Division. Covone now serves as the Director of Athletics.

"In the earliest days of the program, there wasn't as much structure in the academic side," O'Laughlin said. "We started thinking about having a dean, and that was when the name of Dr. Jean Cerra came to us. She came in as the dean and athletics director, and moved the varsity sports programs into an academic framework."

It's astonishing how much Barry athletics has grown since. Recognized as one of the top Division II programs in the nation, five of the Buccaneers' 12 sports have combined to win 11 NCAA National Championships. Women's soccer won two more titles in 1992 and 1993. Volleyball reached national prominence in 1995 when the Bucs won the first of three national crowns, duplicating the feat again in 2001 and 2004.

In 2007, the Buccaneers men's golf team won the national championship under coach Jimmy Stobs. In 2010, under coach George Samuel, the men's tennis team won Barry's eighth national championship. Women's tennis followed with the ninth a year later under coach Avi Kigel. Barbi Pocza was named the NCAA Division II National Player of the Year in 2011.

In 2013, men's tennis and men's golf each won NCAA Championships, marking the first time in school history the Buccaneers captured multiple national titles in the same season. Men's tennis became the first team in the athletic program's history to go unbeaten, putting together a 29-0 season. Marco Mokrzycki and Fabian Groetsch finished the season as the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the country.

Barry finished 13^th in the Learfield Sports Director's Cup in 2013 after generating the most spring sports points for any school in the country. The award, formerly known as the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Director's Cup, is an all-sports competition for Division II schools. The Buccaneers finished 11^th in 2001-02.

Barry teams have produced 259 All-Americans and 299 Scholar All-Americans. The Bucs have won eight SSC Mayor's Cup titles, the most recent in 2010-11. The Buccaneers have made 79 national finals appearances, while advancing to 139 national tournaments.  Barry's teams have won 52 SSC titles.

In addition, Barry has produced eight NCAA Woman of the Year finalists: Marya Moruseiwicz, Volleyball, 1996; Janina Moruseiwicz, Volleyball, 1998; Anna Hallbergson, Tennis, 2000; Victoria Courmes, Tennis, 2003; Melissa Lehman, Volleyball, 2005; Greta Trotman, Tennis, 2006; Barbi Pocza, Tennis, 2011 and Grace Collins, Softball, 2012. Barry was the first the only school any division in the country to produce two NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship winners as Moruseiwicz received the honor in 1996 and Hallbergson in 2000. Men's golfer Daniel Stapff is a two-time recipient of the NCAA Elite 89 Award after collecting the honor in 2010 and 2012.

Barry's student-athletes reached record highs in the classroom in 2012-13, continuing a recent trend. In the fall, 74.3 percent of the student-athletes posted grade point averages of 3.0 or better. In both semesters during the 2012-13 academic year, all 12 sports recorded cumulative GPAs over 3.0. It marked the first time in school history all of the Bucs teams achieved that accomplishment.