To Increase Enrollment, Community Colleges Add More Sports

Institutions in at least 4 states are trying to attract students who want a more traditional college experience

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By ELYSE ASHBURN

It's been more than 40 years since Donald W. Cameron hung up his catcher's mitt. But now the former junior-college baseball player is building a team of his own at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C.

Mr. Cameron is among a growing number of presidents of two-year colleges who have decided to start sports programs or expand their current athletics offerings. The National Junior College Athletic Association topped 1,000 members this year — or about 500 colleges (the association requires separate memberships for men's and women's programs).

Since 2003, more than 40 athletics programs have joined the NJCAA ranks. And Wayne Baker, the group's executive director, expects to keep adding colleges.

"I think we'll have one of the largest growths in membership in the next few years that we've seen in years," he says.

Membership in the association began declining slightly in the early 1990s, as private two-year colleges, many of which were struggling financially, cut their athletics programs or closed altogether. The association's numbers had flattened out, until the recent increase.

That growth is being fueled mostly by public colleges, some hoping to attract more students and others trying to satisfy a growing number of 18- to 24-year-olds who are demanding a traditional college experience, complete with athletics. Interest in sports programs is particularly strong at community colleges in the Midwest, which are trying to increase their enrollment, and in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

"Many young people are looking for experiences," Mr. Cameron says. "Athletics is just one more way of offering extracurricular opportunities that make a whole student."

Lifting Morale

In North Carolina, the push to increase the number of athletics programs is so strong that the state's community-college system formed a task force in January to examine the issue and develop guidelines for sports teams. A dozen colleges in the state already have athletics programs, several of recent vintage, and a half dozen other institutions are seriously considering adding them.

Guilford Tech's program is just a year old. College officials began exploring ways to expand student activities several years ago and decided varsity sports were a good option. The college started women's volleyball and men's basketball teams this year because both could take advantage of existing facilities.

A joint college and YMCA facility on campus has two regulation basketball courts that the men use, and the volleyball team plays games at Ragsdale High School right across the street. The baseball team, which will debut next year, also will play its games at Ragsdale High.

The college plans to add a fourth team, for a yet-to-be-determined women's sport, in 2008.

The sports teams "have really turned our student morale around," Mr. Cameron says. "Our bookstore manager will tell you that he cannot keep our sports paraphernalia in stock."

The athletics program cost the college about $165,000 this year, and Mr. Cameron estimates the tab will increase by about $20,000 when the baseball team comes on board. North Carolina law forbids community colleges from using state money for athletics, so Guilford Tech pays for its program with student fees, revenue from the college's bookstore, and donations.

In recent months, Mr. Cameron has gotten calls from other college leaders in North Carolina asking for advice about adding varsity sports. So has Robert C. Keys, president of Rockingham Community College, in Wentworth, N.C.

"One of the questions I got recently was, Doesn't athletics cause you a lot of headaches?" he says. "I said, Well, yes, but so do nursing and chemistry. If that was the only criteria, we wouldn't have many programs."

Mr. Keys started varsity sports at Rockingham in 1998 to meet the demand of local high-school athletes who wanted to play in college. Many were leaving the county, which borders Virginia, to play at other two-year or small four-year colleges. Adding athletics also helped legitimize the college.

"We live in an athletics-minded world," he says. "A lot of people think that if you don't have an athletics program, you're not a real college."

Still, a college president has a lot to consider before adding varsity sports, Mr. Keys says. As the chairman of the system committee on athletics, it is his job to help presidents figure out the key issues.

He sees the three big questions as: How do you pay for the programs, should you offer scholarships to athletes, and how aggressively do you want to compete?

"If it's your goal to build a powerhouse and have a national championship, then you're going to have to recruit all over the country," he says. "But that exceeds what is typically the community-college mission, which is that local kids have an opportunity to attend and play sports in their own backyard."

Enrollment Boon

Officials at Iowa Central Community College see it a little differently. They're using sports to attract local students, but are also interested in recruiting from out of state. "It's about enrollment," says Dee A. Brown, head coach of the men's and women's cross-country and track teams.

Iowa Central already fielded 11 teams when it added rodeo, cross-country, and track in 2004.

The cross-country and track teams attract about 60 men and women each year who probably would not attend Iowa Central otherwise, Mr. Brown says. That is not an insignificant number given that the 6,700-student college is growing slowly, adding only 100 to 150 students a year.

Mr. Brown's athletes have come from all over the state and from nearby Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. He has also landed a couple students from Kenya and one each from Texas and Florida.

Mr. Brown doesn't have much time to travel for recruiting, but he checks out runners at the Luther College Distance Running Camp in northeast Iowa each summer. And when he visits family in Wisconsin at Christmas and Easter, he will sometimes drop in on a potential recruit.

A winning program has helped recruiting. In the NJCAA outdoor track championships this spring, the women's team finished 10th and the men's program came in 11th. Five of Iowa Central's track athletes finished the year in the top five in the country in their events, and the cross-country teams have done equally well.

That's important, Mr. Brown says, because he isn't just looking for bodies. "I'm trying to improve the quality of the programs," he says. "We're getting better kids. They're successful. They're working hard and doing well in school."

'Where They Belong'

Legislation passed by the NCAA's Division I Board of Directors in April may send even more top-notch athletes to community colleges in coming years. The rule, which was designed to crack down on fraudulent preparatory schools, says students can count only one core course they take after graduating from high school toward the academic requirements they need to play college sports.

Some college-sports officials think the change, which takes effect August 1, could lead more high-school athletes with poor academic records to attend two-year colleges instead of preparatory schools.

"I'm not sure it will send more athletes in terms of numbers, but I think the quality will improve," says the NJCAA's Mr. Baker. "I can't speak to that athletically, but academically, that's where they belong."

If those athletes choose community colleges, they will certainly find no shortage of institutions vying for their attention.