Athletic expansion includes new acrobatics & tumbling team and track and field expansion.

The growing number of student athletes on FMU’s campus is due mostly to the university’s new developmental teams (see story, page 12), but some of it is due to the addition of women’s acrobatics and tumbling to the varsity roster and the expansion of the track and field team.

Altogether, the additions have added more than 100 student athletes to FMU’s rosters. The number will likely surpass 400 total athletes in the next few years, or about a tenth of FMU’s total student body, says Murray Hartzler, FMU’s director of athletics. 

“It’s great to see all the athletes on campus,” says Hartzler. “We’ve had a good tradition in athletics for a long time. Part of that tradition is the academic abilities of our student athletes. They’re often some of the best students on campus. Because we’ve been careful (while expanding) to only take kids who can really do the work, that should continue to be the case.”

Flying Patriots

FMU hired a coach (Brittany Rueb) and began recruiting athletes for the acrobatics and tumbling team more than a year ago. There are now 21 athletes on the roster. They competed in their first varsity season this spring after beginning training and practice in the fall.

Victory on the mat was a little hard to come by early on — not surprising for a squad with 12 freshmen — but Hartzler is confident that will come. He says coach Rueb will build a solid program.

“The more we’re around her, the more fortunate we feel that we got her,” says Hartzler. “She’s done an exceptional job. Recruiting a team from scratch isn’t easy. There’s another team in our conference that started the same time we did and wasn’t able to pull a team together for this season. We had a goal of 20 this year and she surpassed that. Eventually, we’d like to have 30, and I think she’ll reach that number very soon. She’s already got 25 on the roster for next year. We may have one of the biggest squads in the region next year. We’re already one of the larger teams in the conference.”

Acrobatic tumblers compete in nine events during a meet. Some athletes compete in all nine, some in just a few. A minimum number of athletes is required, but depth matters for development and insurance against injury.

Hartzler says he’s also been impressed with how Rueb’s athletes carry themselves. 

The sport was a natural addition for FMU. Tumbling is a big sport in South Carolina. Most of the initial squad comes from the Palmetto State, although Rueb used her West Coast connections — she came to FMU from Arizona Christian University — to bring in a couple of athletes from far afield.

Find a bigger bus

FMU is growing its track and field team because Hartzler believed it could. He saw potential in the number of track and field athletes in the area and developed a plan to recruit some of them to compete at FMU.

The initial results are promising. The team grew from 12 women and 16 men a year ago to 15 women and 20 men. Hartzler says the goal is to get to about 30 for each team.

“I think we’ll get close,” he says. “If we can get there, it will allow us to attend more meets, and that will make us more attractive still.”

FMU has track facilities on campus, but will take advantage of the brand new track and field set up at the Florence Sports Complex. It opened in 2023.

“Everyone is excited about that, no question,” says Hartzler. “We’ll have a good team before too long.  We have not put an emphasis on track and field. Before, it was basically cross country and a few others. Now we’re adding some student athletes just for track. We do have some funds for that. We can go after some who are just sprinters, not cross country. We’ll still have some crossover kids, cross country and track, but we’re expanding into the sprints and even some field events as well.”

Mark Bluman, FMU’s long-time cross country and track and field coach, continues to direct both teams.