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Club History1996-Spring 2005Coach: D. Conway Fall 2005-Fall 2006 Coach: Laith Shaaban When the seniors of the class of '05 found out Denis was stepping down as coach and advisor, they made finding new outside support their top priority before leaving. They were able to bring on board C. Kurt Zorn as faculty advisor and club referee. They also were able to persuade IU men's alumnus Laith Shaaban, who was still in town as a graduate student, to become head the coach for the following fall. Laith brought fellow Alumnus and friend Vaughn Mitchell as an assitant for the girls. The two added a new sense of competitiveness and discipline to the club. They challanged the girls to set the bar higher than ever. Laith and Vaughn wanted nothing less than to go to nationals. Led by seniors Elieen "Homie" Dermott, Jeanne Gemender, Kelley "Trip" Manchester and Megan "Murph" Murphy the ladies were able to beat both Ball State and Purdue to outright win the Indiana LAU. However, in the Midwest play offs the team lost in the first round to Grand Valley State. The spring season was then spent preparing for the following fall. The preparation began to pay off at Nash Bash, an annual tournament in Nashville, TN. There Redstorm came in 2nd place, beating Denison and Central Michigan, the number 1 and 2 DII in the midwest, respectively, and losing only to UCONN, a DI team. The second fall, the team again won their local area union and advanced as the number one seen from Indiana into the Midwest DII playoffs. This time, the girls were able to advance over Kentucky and Illinois State into the semi-finals where they beat Minnesota. In the championship, the team was blownout by Iowa State, who went on to win the DII colligiate national championship. Spring 2007-Present Coach: Vaughn Mitchell After a year and a half as assitant, Vaughn took over as head coach in the Spring of 2007. Laith stayed on as back's coach and Eddie Abel, another Mudshark alumni came to help out with the forwards. Again, without nationals in the spring, the girls worked on a game plan for the fall and proved successful at Nash Bash where they came in 1st place, beating UCONN in the final. In the fall of 2007 the team was DI for the first time. They started off the season strong with a repeat as Ruggerpalooza champions and never looked back. They three-peated as Indiana LAU champions and won their pool play by beating West Virginia and Ohio State. Another highlight of the regular season was a victory over Eastern Illinois, the only DI NCAA varsity team in the nation. In post season play, the team travelled to Iowa to play in the DI Midwest play-offs. They had a rematch against instate rivals, Purdue in the semi-finals and beat them 22-5. Redstorm then faced the returning Midwest champions, Northern Iowa in the final. IU beat UNI 15-12 in a nail biting game that went down to the final seconds. The team finally reached their goals of going to nationals and are doing so as the #8 seed in the country. Stay tuned to find out what happens next...
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