RBC | Happy new year! 2020 is upon us and Colorado Northwestern’s new spring semester will begin Jan. 13. We are looking forward to having the students back on campus along with the excitement and energy they bring.
The new semester we will also begin conference play for several of our athletic teams. With that in mind, I want to focus this month on our athletic programs and the great work being done there.
During the last couple of years, we have hired some excellent new coaches. Along with the great coaches we already have, they have combined to recruit and create some of the most exciting and talent athletic teams we have had in many years. CNCC’s athletic programs are led by Candra Robie who was hired as the new athletic director a year ago and who is a long-time employee at CNCC. Her leadership along with the talent of our coaches has positioned our athletic programs not only to compete but to win in one of the toughest conferences in the country.
This last fall our volleyball and soccer programs competed well throughout their seasons and set records including conference wins, overall wins, points and goals scored. Our rodeo team had their fall season and were competitive at every event they attended. Our softball and baseball teams had their preseason and proved that they will be teams to be reckoned with during conference play this spring. Our basketball teams both played several pre-conference games and are now ready to start competing in conference play. We are excited to see them play against other schools in our conference and show how tough they are this year.
Both basketball teams began their conference play on Jan. 4 in Salt Lake City. Our first home games will be on Jan. 11 and Jan. 16. All of these games are in the SWAC (Scenic West Athletic Conference). We have had great attendance at home games this fall, and many people have live-streamed road games on the conference website. We hope many of you will come to our first home games to support these athletes. They are exciting to watch and I promise you will not be disappointed.
Our softball team plays their first spring games on Feb. 6 and have their first home games on Feb. 28. Baseball starts a little earlier with their first games on Jan. 31 and first home games on Feb. 18. Both of these teams are ready to go and will test their mettle this spring. Our rodeo teams are starting to practice and will start competing again later this spring.
One of the biggest points of pride we have in our teams is how well they do in the classroom. Last year we had more individual athletes receive Academic All-American awards from the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and the SWAC than we have had ever before. We also had two teams — volleyball and softball — receive Team Academic Awards from the NJCAA. This shows that our athletes are not only here to play but also to learn.
We are excited that CNCC not only has great athletic programs but also has programs that show Spartan pride. We have some very talented student athletes both on and off the court in all of our sports and look forward to a very productive and successful spring.
CNCC’s athletic schedules are available at https://athletics.cncc.edu/calendar.aspx. For live streaming link information please visit https://www.scenicwestsports.com/index.aspx
By Ron Granger | Special to the Herald Times
