By Megan McKenna
The reason why PC only shoots a ball in a net and through a net is because of the cost of travel and uniforms. Budget and practice space are the reasons for two sports here, according to President Luke Robins and Athletic Director Rick Ross.
“Whatever we do we want to be the best in it. We want to be the best in two sports than do so-so in five sports.” President Robins said. The main concerns seem to be balancing out practice time and splitting the budget for all the sports.
Originally there was just men’s and women’s basketball, men’s soccer and women’s softball. The decision was made to add competitive women’s soccer. Basketball is a popular sport in this area, soccer is an emerging sport. The sports philosophy is, “we want great student athletes and champions,” President Robins said.
Athletic Director Rick Ross said the former President Paul Cornaby cancelled all sports. Ross was a part of the group that brought sports back to the college, starting with basketball. In 2000 men’s soccer and women’s softball came to college for students to play. Then in 2009 the college dropped women’s softball and brought women’s soccer to the college. Ross said that he and Robins have the same philosophy about sports here at the college- great student athletes and champions.
Head Soccer Coach Kanyon Anderson believes that other sports would add to campus life.
“One of the best things about PC is that we have high standards, so I appreciate that our administration isn’t willing to do a sub-par job just to have another team,” Anderson said in an email.
“If you look at the Northwest Athletic Conference there are schools that would add underwater basket weaving team if they could, but they don’t take good care of the programs they do have. Their coaches are under paid, the players wear outdated gear, teams don’t have on campus facilities and the student athletes may or may not have a great experience… PC has fewer sports, but does them right.” Athletes bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the college, so more sports would be better as long as the college could support them Anderson said in an email.
“As to why we only have two sports the answer would somewhere in between money and space,” according to Men’s Soccer Assistant Coach Tim Tucker. Programs take money to start and with the two programs we already have we are still working on having them funded at a level that will consistently provide for them to function at a high level, Tucker said in an email.
The other issue would be space and resources. If we were to choose another sport that was played indoors we would not have the space in the current space we have now, the same with outdoor sports. The men and women programs for both sports already struggle to manage space issue in regards to practice times and games along with making time for other college uses in those areas. “We would love to add another sport, but that does not sound like an immediate reality,” Tucker said.
