When junior soccer player Shelby Schiraldi saw Baker University Director of Athletics Theresa Yetmar walk into her team meeting, she knew something serious was up. Davy Phillips

What she didn’t know, however, is that the head coach she played for the past three years wouldn’t be on the sidelines for her final season as a Wildcat.

Instead, former associate head coach Davy Phillips has been promoted to head coach of the BU women’s soccer team while Nate Houser will be focusing solely on the men’s team.

Houser has been the head coach for both BU soccer programs for 11 years, and he joked that he was starting to become “the grumpy grandpa,” and he thinks it’s time for a new vision.

“Someone said once, ‘you have 10 years in something or with a place before your message gets old,’ and I think that’s part of what it was born out of,” Houser said. “But more importantly than that, you have someone like Davy, who has energy and passion that the women need.”

Schiraldi admits she was upset by the news at first; however, she is eager to see how her senior season pans out.

“Davy is the man,” Schiraldi said. “His energy is infectious and we feed off it. I’m confident that he can put us on the right path to get to the next level. I can’t wait to see the impact he makes being able to put his everything into the Baker women’s soccer program. He’s a great coach and he really deserves this more than anyone.”

In response to those players who may feel let down, Houser said, “I’m sure the first thing is, ‘why the guys instead of (the girls)?’ and I don’t think it was a matter of that. It was, ‘what team will benefit more?’ I think the women will.”

Houser said the best thing for the program will be having a new burst of ideas, although it was a hard decision for him to make.

“I have a lot of pride in (the women’s team) and what we’ve accomplished, and I care for the girls more than they’ll ever know,” Houser said. “Doing what’s best for them was really hard for me.”

Baker soccer is also losing Sara Matthews, who was an assistant coach for the past four years, as she has accepted the women’s soccer head coach position at Heart of America Athletic Conference rival Avila University.

Phillips said it will be “just another game” when Baker faces off against Avila next season.

“I’m going to ask our team to be the best we can be at every single game, and the opponent is secondary to us being us,” Phillips said. “Like I said, every conference game has bite to it as it is. I don’t want to over-play Sara versus Davy. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about our women getting a win against every conference opponent and nothing changes that.”