Published: August 06, 2008 09:30 pm            

NCCC: College officials think adding more sports might increase enrollment

SANBORN — In an effort to better compete in attracting potential students, Niagara County Community College is looking to add more competition on its athletics fields.

The college’s Board of Trustees is considering an overall athletics program upgrade that could introduce facility renovations and the addition of as many as eight new sports teams for students over the next three years.

Up for consideration are lacrosse, cross country and swimming for both men and women — sports that college research suggests are popular in Niagara County high schools, according to Lee Wallace, athletics director for the college. Hockey and football also ranked as attracting wide interest, but were ruled out due to high costs of equipment and a lack of existing college facilities. Tennis, an inexpensive sport, and bowling, which the college has on-campus lanes to support, are also options the board may consider, Wallace added.

The cost for the new athletic teams — including coaches, equipment and facility upgrades — would cost about $377,000 total from 2009-10 through 2011-12.

Most of the funding would come from an increase in the athletic fee students pay with their tuition. A per-semester athletic fee increase from $34 for full-time students and $15 for part-time students to $46 full-time and $21 part-time would give the college a projected additional $101,000 each year.

The move to update its sports program will help the college create a new image more connected to its sports offerings and attract both athlete and non-athlete students, Wallace said.

“Students who don’t play sports will actually choose a school based on how the school’s athletics teams perform,” he said. “As goofy as that sounds, it’s an absolute truism that’s been researched and found to be a fact.”

Trustee Art Pappas agreed that the plan would help the college and said in talking to high school students, one common reason cited for not attending NCCC is a lack of sports offerings.

“We’re way behind, there’s no getting around it,” said trustee Bill Ross, who also serves on the Niagara County Legislature. “By buying into this ... we’re taking those steps forward to make this a stronger college and it is beautiful tool to bring new students in. This is awfully important.”

Research conducted by the college suggests NCCC is behind in its scholarship offers, too. NCCC provides $15,000 in sports scholarships to students on average, whereas other local communities college offer at least double that amount.

The proposal also calls for a makeover of the athletic department’s image, including a new logo and a change from NCCC’s current Trailblazers mascot — an image-change budgeted for about $15,000.

“I’ll be real honest with you. The students have a hard time associating with the college and trying to figure out what a Trailblazer is,” Wallace said. “We have some ideas in place and we’ve had some preliminary meetings about what we might do, so we’re really excited about those things.”

The plan calls for the addition of three full-time coaching positions instead of maintaining the college’s current part-time-only coaches for $135,000 total and adding full-time positions devoted to athletic marketing and recruitment, both for $70,000.

The board is expected to discuss the proposal at it next regular meeting in September before making a decision whether to adopt or amend the plan.

        

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