With a new conference and a relatively new coach, the men’s club volleyball team has plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

Led by second year coach Ryan Theis, also the women’s volleyball assistant coach, the 11 man team is entering this year into a new conference, the Midwest 10. The league consists of clubs from schools relatively the same size as Eastern.

Conference play doesn’t begin until next semester but the club will be playing in a few tournaments in the remaining few weeks of the year.

Like most clubs, Eastern’s squad have a system of leadership. Dan Hutton is the president, Peter Grazzini and vice president, and Jason Sabo is the treasurer.

The club has been practicing for a short time and is waiting for the tournament season to start.

“We’ve been practicing for three weeks to a month now and are looking to play in two to three tournaments before conference play starts,” Theis said.

As the club team coach for University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Theis already knew the conference was able to get Eastern into a competitive field of play.

“There is more competition and better teams,” Theis said. “There will be a lot more excitement and it will be more fun for us.”

Theis said the Midwest 10 is better than the club’s former league affiliation, the Midwestern Volleyball Conference. Eastern finished second in the MVC last year the and placed fifth in the league tournament.

“We used to play in high school gyms against high school caliber teams,” Theis said. “Now we will be playing in real college gyms.”

The addition to a coach in the mix has really turned the team’s outlook on winning around

“It is 100 times better with a coach we are more organized and he helps the team all of the time.” senior Mike LoPresti said. “(Theis) brings his collegiate experience and it makes us a lot better.”

Sabo, a senior, is returning from a two-year hiatus from the sport said he returned because the team had a coach.

Having a coach provides the team with much-needed organization to be competitive.

Third-year player and junior Jeff Sigler said he believes the team is going to have a great year.

“Even though we are a very young team we are real experienced team,” Sigler said. “This is going to be a great year for EIU volleyball.”

There was an discussion among the clubs veteran players to have a more focused demeanor this year than they had in the previous couple of years.

“We have all agreed to be more serious this year,” Sabo said, “it will be a real exciting year and hopefully we will be pretty successful.”