NorthWest Arkansas Community College Group Begins Sports Study

BENTONVILLE -- A committee exploring a sanctioned sports program at NorthWest Arkansas Community College wants to test the concept with a baseball and softball team for three years.

The committee was set up last month by college board chairman Ric Clifford and held its first meeting Wednesday. Any proposal from the committee must be approved by the Board of Trustees in order to move forward.

Committee members also agreed Wednesday the baseball and softball teams should compete in the National Junior College Athletic Association's Division III. That's the lowest of the association's three divisions.

North Arkansas College in Harrison is the only school in the state that's a Division III member. NorthWest Arkansas Community College could play teams in any of the divisions, said Chip Durham, a committee member and former baseball coach.

"Division III is the easiest way to start this," Durham said.

Division III doesn't allow its member schools to offer students any kind of athletic scholarship. Division II allows schools to pay their student-athletes' tuition and fees. Division I allows schools to cover tuition, fees, room and board, Durham said.

The teams would play between March and mid-May, Durham said. Todd Schwartz, a committee member, said both teams' expenses would be paid entirely with donations for the three-year trial period. The goal would be to raise enough to cover 150 percent of anticipated costs.

"I do not want this to be a burden on the college financially," Schwartz said.

After three years, the college would have sufficient data to compare the academic performances of student-athletes to those of non-athletes, he said. The college also would be able to measure the impacts sports had on its enrollment and finances.

The college has seven club sports teams -- including baseball and softball -- but no official sports program. About 77 of the college's 16,000 students participate in those teams, according to Evelyn Jorgenson, college president.

The committee needs to develop a budget for the teams, Schwartz said. It also needs to determine how much community and student interest there is in a sports program.

Charles Huebner, a committee member whose son plays for the college's club baseball team, said there are many young men and women who don't get athletic scholarships who still want to play college sports. Many parents will want to see their children play in college too, he said.

Committee members also discussed where the teams might play. The college doesn't have baseball or softball fields, so it would have to find a place where it could consistently hold practices and play games.

Attendance at most of the college's club sports games is made up mostly of people who have personal relationships with the players, such as parents, girlfriends and boyfriends, Schwartz said.

Gan Nunnally, who attended Wednesday's meeting, said a sanctioned sports program would "change the perspective" about those teams and attract more interest from the community.

If the teams have some success, "people will come out of the woodwork" to support them, Huebner said.

Jerry Vervack, a committee member, said if the college moves toward sanctioned athletics, he'd like to see soccer teams added eventually because of the college's growing population of international students.

The committee's next meeting will be Sept. 24. Schwartz said he expects the committee will take three or four months to complete its work.

Students would have to be full-time students to participate in one of the sanctioned sports teams, Schwartz said. That means they'd have to take at least 12 hours during a semester.

Clifford agreed to create the sanctioned sports committee after the board discussed the subject at a retreat meeting July 26. More than 40 people from the community appeared at that meeting specifically to hear that discussion.