Sports Programs Rare At Two-Year Schools

BENTONVILLE -- Establishing a sports program has been "huge" for the marketing of Mid-South Community College, according to its athletic director.

"We have a lot more people in our region who know about Mid-South Community College than knew about it four years ago," said Chris Parker, who also is head coach of the school's men's basketball team.

At A Glance

Committee Members

NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s Sanctioned Sports Committee includes:

• Laurie Adkins, softball coach at University of the Ozarks

• Chip Durham, salesman and former college baseball coach

• Scott Grigsby, Board of Trustees

• Charles Huebner, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Lowell

• Diana Nagel, faculty senate president

• Dwight Power, community member

• Todd Schwartz , Board of Trustees

• Joe Spivey, Board of Trustees

• Jerry Vervack, dean of social/behavioral sciences department

Source: Staff Report

Mid-South, located in West Memphis, also has a women's basketball team. Both teams compete in the National Junior College Athletic Association.

There are 22 public two-year colleges in Arkansas. Mid-South and North Arkansas College are the only two that have sanctioned sports programs.

NorthWest Arkansas Community College is considering joining that club. The college's Sanctioned Sports Committee held its second meeting Thursday. That committee has decided to pursue organized athletics starting with a baseball and softball team for at least three years. Any proposal from the committee must be approved by the Board of Trustees in order to move forward.

North Arkansas College, in Harrison, offers men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball and cheerleading. About 100 of the college's 1,900 students participate in one of those sports. The budget for each team ranges from $32,000 to $53,000, said Stacie Klott, the college's athletic director. Scholarships are offered for basketball players.

Admission is $3 or $4 for basketball games. The college also makes money off concessions at the games. Attendance ranges from 100 on a slow night to 300 on a good night, Klott said. The school tried charging admission for baseball and softball, but discontinued that practice because so few people were coming.

"Because (games) are during the day, they're not highly attended a lot of times," she said.

North Arkansas College has baseball and softball fields and a gymnasium on campus. NorthWest Arkansas Community College has no such facilities.

Klott said she participated in a conference call recently with her college's president, Jackie Elliott, and NorthWest Arkansas Community College President Evelyn Jorgenson. Jorgenson wanted to learn more about how North Arkansas runs its sports programs, Klott said.

Jorgenson has not openly shared her opinion on sanctioned sports at her college, though she offered words of caution to the Board of Trustees when it discussed the matter in July.

The Bentonville college has club sports, but only 77 students participate in them. Arkansas does not allow its two-year schools to build dormitories, which hampers efforts to recruit athletes, Jorgenson said.

Todd Schwartz, a Board of Trustees member, initiated the discussion of sanctioned sports during a board retreat meeting in July. Schwartz leads the committee, which includes board members, staff and faculty members, and others from the community.

The committee agreed Thursday to set up a 501(c)3 foundation that can accept donations to pay for the committee's activities. The committee's main expense will be a survey of students, expected to cost between $2,000 and $3,000, Schwartz said.

The survey will seek students' feedback not only on school-sanctioned sports, but on club, intramural and recreational sports as well.

Creation of that foundation must also be approved by the Board of Trustees. Eventually the foundation's mission likely will shift from collecting donations for the committee's activities to collecting money for operating the baseball and softball teams.

In order for sanctioned sports to work at the college, the college must demonstrate a definite level of commitment to the concept, Klott said. Expenses range from uniforms to insurance to transportation.

"I'd say you have to make sure you have the financial commitment and the time commitment from those involved," Klott said. "You want to make sure you do it right. Just make sure you really investigate and check things out and make sure all the pieces are in place."

Schwartz and others have said they believe the athletic program could be paid for with donations alone. The committee has decided to pursue competition in the National Junior College Athletic Association's Division III, the lowest of the association's three divisions. Division III doesn't allow its members to offer students any kind of athletic scholarships.

Mid-South Community College originally opened as a vocational-technical school in 1979. It converted to a comprehensive community college in 1992.

Mid-South didn't have sanctioned sports until 2010. The basketball teams -- the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds -- started in the association's Division III, then moved up to Division II in 2012. Division II schools may offer student-athletes money for tuition and fees. Mid-South's scholarship budget for both teams is $17,500.

Mid-South led the association in attendance last year. An average of about 275 people showed up for men's games, Parker said.

Mid-South has never charged admission for its games, but has not decided its admission policy this year. The teams used to play off campus but moved into their own on-campus gymnasium last year. The gymnasium was paid for with private donations and money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, because it also serves as a storm shelter for the community.

Having a sports program is another way to cater to the students' interests, Parker said.

"Sports is vital in the educational process, just as music is, and just as debate is, and a lot of other things," Parker said. "Different students have different gifts in different areas, and the more interests a community college can touch and develop, the better that serves their community."

Mid-South's basketball teams have brought the West Memphis community and the college's students closer together, he said. He added they've also helped boost enrollment, though he couldn't provide exact numbers. Mid-South's enrollment is about 2,000. NorthWest Arkansas Community College has 8,164 students this semester.

Mid-South is considering adding baseball and softball teams to its athletic program, especially now that NorthWest Arkansas Community College is looking to do the same, Parker said.

Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock is the largest two-year college in Arkansas with about 10,000 students. It does not offer sanctioned sports teams.

Tracy Courage, Pulaski Technical's communications director, said there's been no talk of adding athletics to the school's menu. The college's board once discussed fielding a football team, but that was more than a decade ago, she said.

"Our budget is so tight and our emphasis is on academics," Courage said.

Arkansas Baptist College, a private school in Little Rock, also is part of the National Junior College Athletic Association. It has baseball, softball, football, basketball, wrestling, volleyball and track teams.

NW News on 09/28/2014

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