In September, Beach Volleyball was added as the 16th varsity sport at Bushnell.
 
The beach volleyball program will join the highly successful indoor volleyball program, which this year qualified for the NAIA National Championship for the first time in school history. While a number of athletes are initially expected to compete on both squads, specific recruiting for the beach volleyball roster has been progressing well with a goal to build out a stand-alone roster for the program over the next three to four years.  
 
Over 25 NAIA institutions were expected to sponsor Beach Volleyball in the 2020-2021 school year before CoVID hit, allowing it to advance from "Emerging Sport" status to "Invitational" status. Once the NAIA achieves a threshold of 40 schools, it will be eligible to become the 28th NAIA National Championship sport.
 
"We are excited to announce the addition of beach volleyball as the newest competitive athletic participation opportunity at Bushnell University," said Athletic Director Corey Anderson. "Beach volleyball is a natural progression sport to grow from our current Beacon volleyball program. I would like to thank Coach Corwin for his leadership and progressive thinking with this expansion."
 
Current head coach Jason Corwin will take on additional duties to oversee both programs while Kim Elgarico has been named the Head Coach for the beach program. Elgarico also serves as an assistant with the indoor team.
 
Elgarico comes to Bushnell with over 20 years coaching experience at all levels including four years as a head coach at the NAIA level. Her career has taken her from South Carolina to Louisiana with stops in Los Angeles and Texas along the way before settling in Eugene. She is currently a private beach volleyball coach and works with Webfoot, a prominent local volleyball club. From 2006-2009 she was the head coach at La Sierra University, an NAIA program in Riverside, California that, at the time, was transitioning to the NCAA.
 
Coach Elgarico said, "Beach volleyball is an up and coming sport and life style for so many as it can be played for a lifetime. It brings out competition, character, and work ethic in its athletes and creates unbreakable bonds between teammates. I am so excited to be part of the team of coaches in bringing this sport to Bushnell University."
 
In January, Bushnell announced the relaunch of a baseball team for the first time in over 50 years as it became the 17th sport.
 
The athletic department anticipates recruiting 35 new student-athletes for the 2022 baseball team, which will play home games at the recently announced and soon-to-be renovated Hamlin Sports Park in Springfield.
 
"We are thrilled to bring good news to our conference and community," said Anderson. "Baseball provides more opportunities for high school baseball players and transfers to receive a liberal arts education while continuing to play baseball at the collegiate level."
 
Tommy Richards will be the inaugural coach for the program. Richards spent four seasons at NCAA DIII Whitman College. During Richard's tenure at Whitman, win totals improved every year, culminating in a 29-win season in 2019.   

In addition, Richards was a four-year letterman at Washington State University from 2009-2012. He was drafted in the 24th round of the professional baseball draft by the Baltimore Orioles in 2012. After three seasons in professional baseball, including a season in the Australian Baseball League, he began his coaching career at Lindenwood – Belleville, an NAIA school in Illinois.
 
"Bushnell is a great fit for me and I believe in the Bushnell tri-athlete model," said Richards.  "My faith is a big part of my identity and the chance to recruit and coach individuals at this University is the opportunity of a lifetime. Alignment is such a big deal in this industry and the vision being cast from the top down is borderline surreal."

Bushnell will begin play in Spring 2022, joining six other Cascade Collegiate Conference schools that play baseball, including: Lewis-Clark State College, College of Idaho, Oregon Tech, Corban University, University of British Columbia, and Eastern Oregon University.

Beach volleyball and baseball are the first new programs since Esports joined the fold in 2018. Bushnell is the second Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) school to add Beach Volleyball and the fourth institution in the state of Oregon to officially offer the sport, joining The University of Oregon, University of Portland, and Corban. The baseball team will join six schools in the Cascade Collegiate Conference including Lewis-Clark State College, College of Idaho, Oregon Tech, Corban University, University of British Columbia, and Eastern Oregon University.

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