Xavier announces additions of women’s indoor track and field, competitive cheer and pep band

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana announced Wednesday the return of women’s indoor track and field as a varsity sports program.

The sport will resume competition during the winter of the 2019-20 academic year. XULA most recently competed indoors in 2004.

XULA will offer 11 sports in 2019-20, including a new program in competitive cheer, a co-ed sport which also was announced Wednesday.

Yhann Plummer, in his first season as head coach of the men’s and women’s outdoor track and cross country programs, will lead the Gold Nuggets indoors, too. During 11 seasons (2006-17) as head coach at city rival SUNO, he led the men’s and women’s indoor teams to a combined four first-place individual or relay finishes at NAIA National Championships.

“I am very happy for the team,” Plummer said. “I’ve been coaching teams indoors since 2006, and I competed indoors (at SUNO) before that. So I am happy that our women will have this opportunity. Now that it’s been announced, we’re going to attack it like everything else we do, and that is to contend for championships.”

Said Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs/Athletics Director Jason Horn, “As we continue to grow our athletic offerings, indoor track along with competitive cjheer are the logical next steps as we look forward to providing additional opportunities for our students to compete.”

Xavier University of Louisiana also announced Wednesday that it has elevated cheerleading from club to varsity status, with competitive cheer added to its intercollegiate sports offerings.

XULA’s competitive cheer team will make its debut during the 2019-20 academic year. The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics will sponsor the program, which will be open to men and women.

XULA is a longtime member of the NAIA’s Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.