The end of DU basketball in March used to mean nothing was left in sports to anticipate. That was before: Now DU has men’s and women’s track and softball.

This semester marks the first season of the men’s and women’s track and field teams, coached by Bobby Williams Jr. Their seasons will begin with the LSU Twilight Invitational on Feb. 19 and end with the Southern Miss Golden Eagle Classic on April 24.

Feb. 19 also marks the first game for the softball team, coached by Yolanda Brown, when the team will play a double header vs. Belhaven University. Belhaven finished the 2009 season with a 36-19 record. The softball team will finish their season against William Carey College, which finished last season with a record of 42-7.

Williams, who led the cross-country team last fall to a sixth-place finish out of seven teams in the 2009 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championships, call the new track teams inexperienced but hard-working.

 “We are currently working [on] finding more students with previous running experience in either high school or college” Williams said. “Recruiting is going pretty well thus far. We have about six high school students who have verbally committed to attending Dillard next year and, we are working on more daily. I would love to bring in 10 or more new recruits for next year,” Williams said.

Athletic Director Kiki Baker Barnes said she is excited and looking forward to seeing the clubs compete.

“It is the athletic department’s hope that the work put in on this season will set the foundation for many great seasons in the future,” she said.

(Ernest Robertson and Mario Martin contributed to this report.)