Connor Nuckols
The Communicator
Students attending Universities all over the country can expect to see marching bands, cheerlead- ers, and fans decked out in their school colors on the weekends during football season. Whether it’s a preseason game, rivalry game or bowl game, cheering for your alma mater is part of col- lege. But what about Junior col- leges?
As of last year there are only 17 states in the country that have a community college football program. While Washington is not one of those states, there are efforts being made to
bring the sport back to community colleges in Washington.
For the past five years the Northwest Junior College Football League, (NJCFL) has been bring- ing football to community col- leges in Washington. Teams have come and gone from the league but currently Columbia Basin, Bellevue, Everett, Kitsap Penin- sula, and Lewis-Clark Valley. Making the team is also fairly easy. Contact a coach, prove you can play football, and be regis- tered for at least five credits at a two year college.
“Its providing a 2nd chance for some athletes,” Kevin Bouwman, the head coach of the Eastside (Bellevue) Bulldogs said, “a lot of athletes who have been out of school for a year or two and by playing for us they don’t just get another chance to play football, it gets them back into school and possibly get a degree in the process.”
However, if one were to go to these schools websites and check out the athletics section they would not find anything about the football teams.
Teams in the league are all independent, non-profit foot- ball teams, that are not affiliated with the community colleges they represent.
“We have our players do a lot of fundraisers to keep the team going,” Bouwman said. “We also visit local companies and corpo- rations for sponsors, and some- times we pay out of pocket to help fund the teams.”
So whats keeping Washington community colleges from reboot- ing the football program? Bouwman believes schools budgets is one of the key issues.
“A football team isn’t cheap,” Bouwman said. “You’re talking about supplying equipment for 50 to 80 guys, plus their travel expenses, and also Title IX was a big reason schools shut them down.” Title IX is a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972 and it states that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or any activity receiving federal financial assistance.
Columbia Basin Head coach Jim Gonzales, also agreed that while there were several reasons com- munity colleges in Washington cut football, a big reason was Title IX.
“Basically it says that if you of- fer 125 (typical size) males an opportunity to play football you must offer 125 females an oppor- tunity to participate in a sport,” said Gonzales, “Title 9 would of have caused schools to have huge budgets for fall sports, and the football program alone is huge.” The league is slowly building and expanding to other colleges in Washington. Will the Community Colleges of Spokane get a team anytime soon? That answer is still a mystery but coach Bouwman has hopes of reviving old pro- grams like ours.
“Five years from now I would like to see more eastern (Washington) schools in the league,” Bouwman said. “I would also like to see Oregon to get involved.”