INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) will host its 10th annual GLVC Football Kickoff event on Friday, July 29, setting the scene for the league’s 11th season on the gridiron.
The annual celebration will be held at The Hettenhausen Center for the Arts on the campus of McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois, for the eighth time. This season’s event, which will serve both the league’s media members and passionate fans through several social media outlets, will take place from 11:30 AM to 2 PM Central Time.
Located just outside the gates of McKendree’s Leemon Field, “The Hett,” as it is commonly referred to on campus, has been a perfect setting for the GLVC Football Kickoff the past seven seasons, excluding 2020 when the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first two events in 2012 and 2013 were held at the Millennium Student Center on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
All seven Conference teams will be represented by a coach and two players again for the 2022 version.
Eight-time GLVC Champion University of Indianapolis will be represented at this year’s GLVC Football Kickoff by head coach Chris Keevers in his fourth season at the helm. UIndy has compiled a 62-7 record in GLVC play since the league began sponsoring the sport in 2012, including a 5-2 mark to finish runner-up this past fall season. The Greyhounds have also garnered NCAA Division II playoff bids in six of the last eight seasons, most recently in 2019.
Truman State University’s Gregg Nesbitt will be at the event and on the sidelines for his 13th season in Kirksville, Missouri, after leading the Bulldogs to a 4-3 GLVC record in the 2021 fall season, including 9-3 overall. Truman, once again, represented the GLVC in the second annual America’s Crossroads Bowl against Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) foe Hillsdale, winning for the second time in as many bowl games.
Mike Babcock returns for his 10th season at the helm for McKendree after a 4-7 record (3-4 GLVC) last fall and has participated in every Kickoff event that has been hosted at The Hett.
Missouri S&T completed the 2021 fall season with a 4-3 league record while going 6-5 overall. The Miners enter the 2022 season under the direction of first-year head coach Andy Ball, who previously served two stints on the S&T sideline, first as offensive line coach and special teams coordinator from 2007-10 before he returned to the Miner program prior to the 2018 season to be the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, adding the title of associate head coach a year later.
In his fifth year as mentor for Quincy University, Gary Bass led the Hawks to a 4-7 record overall and a 2-5 mark in GLVC action in 2021.
Head coach Robert Clardy is back for his eighth season at Southwest Baptist University, which went 4-7 overall and 3-4 in league play this past fall.
Mike McGlinchey was hired in January 2020 but only just guided William Jewell College in his first full fall season in 2021 since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the country shortly after his hiring. This will be McGlinchey’s second appearance at the Kickoff event and looks to improve his Cardinals’ showing in 2022 after an 0-11 overall and 0-7 GLVC record last fall.
In the coming weeks, the GLVC will release its list of player attendees and launch the official GLVC Football Kickoff website, as well as the fan-interactive schedule.
Media members interested in attending the 2022 GLVC Football Kickoff can apply for credentials by contacting GLVC Assistant Commissioner Lindsey Williams at
lindsey@glvc-sports.org by Tuesday, July 26 at 5 PM ET.