EMU made history last week when it announced the addition of a women’s triathlon team, becoming only the 10th D-III school in the nation to do so. The effort was headed by Director of Athletics Dave King and Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach Bob Hepler, who will now coach the triathlon team.

Eight students have committed to the new program: juniors Mim Beck, Lydia Chappell Deckert, Emma Hoover, Leah Lapp, and Abigail Shelly; sophomore Taylor Simmons; and firstyears Michaela Chowning and Sydney Davis.

Assistant Cross Country and Track & Field Coach Joanna Friesen and EMU professor Chad Gusler will serve as assistant coaches.

A year ago, Bob Hepler was wrapping up a 14- year coaching tenure at the University of Texas at Tyler. He began coaching UT-Tyler’s cross country team in 2004, and in 2008 created and coached the Indoor & Outdoor Track and Field programs at the university. After 14 years at this increasingly “huge,” “overwhelming” position, Hepler knew he was ready to move on to something new.

“Every year, I would be doing less and less coaching and more and more administrative work,” Hepler said. “I made a conscious decision last year that I was going to spend the rest of my life doing something I love that didn’t seem so much like a job. And so now I’m coaching here, and I’m loving every second of it.”

Upon his arrival at EMU in July of last year, USA Triathlon had already contacted EMU about the possibility of adding a women’s triathlon program. Presented with the idea of taking up this new program, Hepler, a champion of more than 40 triathlons, was initially hesitant. He preferred to focus on getting to know his student-athletes and building up EMU’s Cross Country and Track & Field programs.

“I didn’t want anything distracting [Coach Camodeca and me] from establishing what we wanted to build for the future,” he said. But after settling in at EMU and reevaluating, Hepler informed King in January that he would be willing to coach a women’s triathlon team, and the process for requesting a grant got underway.

NCAA approved triathlon as an Emerging Sport for Women in 2014, and USA Triathlon has since presented 27 schools with grants to help begin women’s triathlon programs. “This grant is distributed to selected NCAA membership institutions to develop, implement, grow, and sustain varsity women’s triathlon programs at the NCAA level,” says USA Triathlon.

EMU officially received a grant while students were away on spring break. This grant will pay for the first three years of the program. After three years, the program will sustain itself, according to Hepler.

“We’ve done the math, and basically, if we have five or six women, it’s a sustaining program that’s going to help the school financially as long as I’m coaching,” he said. Hepler is already on EMU’s payroll as head coach of the Cross Country and Track & Field programs. “I never want to not be the full-time triathlon coach,” he added. “It’s almost too good to be true.”

The brand-new team has met together once, and Hepler will meet individually with the athletes next week. Due to NCAA regulations, Hepler is unable to supervise training until practice officially begins in August. In April, he will give the triathletes summer workouts to do on their own.

Junior Abigail Shelly will become a triathlete in addition to running for the cross country and track and field teams. Though she has never done a triathlon, she has long considered it. “I’ve always thought about doing triathlons. Sometimes I get bored with just running,” Shelly said. This summer, she plans to stay in Harrisonburg, where better climate and more available resources will enable her to train to a greater extent than in her home state of Mississippi. Three hours a day, six days per week is her objective.

“Looking at the amount of training and the time that has to go into this, it is a risky commitment to a certain extent,” Shelly said. “Right now I have some pretty lofty goals as far as the training that I want to put into it, and I want to stay committed to those goals. I have no idea what regionals looks like, but I’d love to be at a level to compete there.”

Shelly pointed to her relationship with Coach Hepler as another reason to be excited about joining the program. “He’s incredible,” she said. “He’s one of the best coaches that I’ve had … I’ve always felt very valued as an athlete with him, which hasn’t always happened in the past … I very much trust him and he’s very knowledgeable about the triathlon sport in general.”

Junior Lydia Chappell Deckert is especially motivated to improve at swimming and is already cross-training five to six days of the week. Over the summer, she will balance triathlon training with her job at a summer camp in Michigan.

“I’ll probably be swimming across the lake a lot,” she said.

As for her goals in joining a new sports program in her last year at EMU, Chappell Deckert said, “I have zero goals other than finish right now. I’ve never been part of a triathlon team and I have zero expectations. I just want to finish my races and have fun.”

Official practices for the triathletes will begin on Aug. 18. Though there is no set schedule yet, the team looks forward to competing in at least four triathlons this fall.