There are new faces among the Illinois Valley Community College coaching staff for the fall season with three of the school’s six fall sports having first-year coaches.

IVCC alumnae Kaitlyn Edgcomb, a Putnam County graduate, will lead the Eagles volleyball program. She takes over for Erin Polte.

“Erin was a really educated coach,” IVCC athletic director Cory Tomasson said. “She did a great job for us here at IVCC. We’re sad to see her go. We had two applicants for the position, and we really felt Kaitlyn would come in with some new energy. Her knowledge of volleyball is strong. She was a good volleyball player here. She’s really excited about this whole process of recruiting and getting her feet wet at the college level. She’s helped out at younger levels, volunteering here and there, but we really think she’ll bring some new energy to the program. With the recruits we have coming in and the people we have back, we’re expecting a lot of good things.”

The Eagles, who went 4-29 last year, open the season Aug. 18-19 at the Opening Weekend Tournament in Rockford.

In women’s soccer, Gerald Stuart comes to Oglesby from Arizona to take over the Eagles program.

“Gerald Stuart is from Phoenix. He was an assistant coach out there at a community college,” Tomasson said. “He has great knowledge of the game and has recruiting experience at the community college level. He came in, and it was a little late for us, so he has currently 12-13 players on the roster. I think they’re all local players. He said he’s committed to the program and will be here to build a winning program. He will be here next year he said and will build it even stronger. He has hit the ground running here and we’re expecting that program to take off. It had a couple years there where we were searching for a coach that would stay for a while. We didn’t have to cancel [a season]. We thought we might because of low numbers, but we’ve been pretty successful about getting other players in there. We’re trying to build those number sup. He will be a real asset to the athletic department.”

The women’s soccer team, which went 1-10 last fall, opens at 2 p.m. Aug. 20 at home against Kaskaskia.

The IVCC cross country program begins this fall under the leadership of Matt Baker.

“Right now we have six male runners and three for the women, so it’s a little slower start, but it was to be expected because many of the runners in the area had already been recruited when we officially announced we were going to have that and we had a coach,” Tomasson said. “I’m really happy that coach Baker has filled a roster for the men’s team. They’ll be able to compete with their six runners. The females will compete individually. I can’t be more excited. I think now that we’ve established this, sort of like men’s and women’s soccer [a few years ago], the numbers will just start growing.”

Tomasson said IVCC is looking for a successful 2023-24 school year with athletic participation up with 150 athletes across the school’s 12 sports.

“We just did our numbers and even with women’s basketball being canceled, this year is the largest class of student-athletes we’ve had at the college since I’ve been here,” Tomasson said. “Everybody is out recruiting strongly. Our rosters are strong, and we’re looking for a really strong year out of our programs this year.”