Jackson Community College went nearly 25 years without sports teams. Now, they’re not only back, they’re in full force.
In the two years since JCC reinstated athletics, the college has jumped to the top of the list for the number of sports teams at Michigan community colleges.
JCC is one of four Michigan community colleges to offer nine sanctioned sports. The majority of Michigan’s 18 community colleges with sanctioned sports offer five to seven sports.
This year, JCC’s nine sanctioned teams are softball, baseball and volleyball, and men’s and women’s basketball, cross country and soccer. All are sponsored by the National Junior College Athletic Association. JCC also has a club hockey team.
“This campus is alive,” Athletic Director Steve Bloomfield told JCC’s Board of Trustees this week.
Some now say the athletic program, which was disbanded in 1982 and restored in 2006, has met expectations by helping the college boost enrollment, reconnect with the community and keep local students close to home.
About 83 percent of the school’s 171 athletes are from within 50 miles of Jackson.
But the restoration of an athletics department has not been easy, Bloomfield said.
Although student-athletes are more likely to stay enrolled at JCC than the overall student body, their grade-point averages typically drop from fall to winter at a higher rate.
Scheduling conflicts tend to come up more often during the second semester because rainy spring weather results in frequently changing baseball and softball game and practice schedules, Bloomfield said.
After reviewing those figures, the department began requiring student-athletes to meet with Bloomfield to schedule their classes. JCC also promoted more communication about scheduling between student-athletes and their instructors.
Also, all freshman athletes and those with grade-point averages of 2.25 or lower have to log study hours and turn in progress reports.
Athletes are now required to attend an orientation session that covers the negatives of drug and alcohol use, the importance of being a role model and the use of social networking Web sites.
That addition was made in the aftermath of a March 27 sex-themed party at Alpine Lake Apartments off Fourth Street that brought some baseball players suspensions and criminal charges, Bloomfield said.
The party had been promoted on the social networking site Facebook.com.
“The individuals made horrible decisions but they’re not horrible people,” Bloomfield said.
“It was a wake-up call for a lot of people about how important their role is in our community.”
Tyler Wehner, a sophomore outfielder on JCC’s baseball team, said he was not at that party but it affected all student-athletes.
“It’s something that was just a learning experience,” Wehner said. “It’s one of those things where everyone thought it was all in good fun and didn’t realize the consequences.”
“We’re not a big group,” he said, “But we’re a group that a lot of people look at.”
Wehner, a 2007 Blissfield High School graduate, has a scholarship and says he probably would have gone elsewhere if JCC did not have baseball.
He will play for Grand Valley State University next school year and is among six JCC athletes who have already committed to play at a four-year school next school year.
The athletic department has a 2009 budget of $437,000. Funds come from a $2.50-per-credit-hour student fee and team fundraising, Bloomfield said.
“(Sports) has proven to be, in my judgment, one of the best ways to connect with this community,” JCC Board Chairman Dennis DaPra said. “And all within cost. I’m very pleased about that.”
source : http://www.mlive.com/citpat/news/index.ssf/2008/12/jcc_is_tops_in_state_in_athlet.html